Over at the Nation, the ever-prolific Tom Engelhardt speculates about what he thinks could be the GOP’s November Surprise: the November 5 sentencing of Saddam Hussein. Assuming that Saddam is guaranteed to get the death penalty, the White House could get itself a nice last-minute blip of “progress” to sell to voters. Clearly, the timing will work well for Bush & Co. Whether that’s a happy coincdence is subject to debate. But as law prof and blogger Scott Horton tells Engelhardt,
“When you look at polling figures,” Horton said,” there have been three significant spike points. One was the date on which Saddam was captured. The second was the purple fingers election. The third was Zarqawi being killed. Based on those three, it’s easy to project that they will get a mild bump out of this….This is not coincidence…. Nothing in Iraq that’s set up this far in advance is coincidental.”
But would this “mild bump” be enough to revive Republicans’ fortunes at the polls? It’s not like the Democrats won’t cheer Saddam’s descent to death row, so the Republicans would have to work fast to turn this into a partisan issue (not that they won’t try their darndest). And in the eyes of many Americans, Saddam’s hardly the WMD-toting bogeyman he was three years ago; he’s no Osama, no matter how much the “Saddam was behind 9/11” crowd wishes he was. With support for the war at an all-time low, it’s hard for me to see how this verdict will change many war-weary minds, much less energize a disheartened GOP base.
