Note to 'Joe Six-Pack' do not let McCain pull an October surprise

With many of the polls shifting towards Barack Obama, me thinks that the McCain campaign out of their own fear will use the fear factor in order to shift those polls back to them.  I for one am so tired of this fear-card.  But, one has to wonder how ‘Joe-Six-Pack’ will feel.  I use that term because Sarah Palin said, "It's time that normal Joe Six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency,"

Now that the economy has gotten many people’s attention: Will an airing of any tape showing Osama bin Laden work as it did back in 2004.  I really do not know.  But, I do think that people fear how their 401K and other investments are performing gets their attention more than any tape showing bin Laden.  At least that is my hope.  Will the bailout aka rescue bill voted on in the senate last night help the markets and those beginning to feel the credit crunch?

According to an AP article, 8 in 10 are fearing this financial crisis and rightfully so.  Can any tape showing bin Laden equate with American’s fear for their financial futures?

According to this AP poll: "The consequences of the financial meltdown now are sinking in with ordinary Americans, who worry whether their jobs, home values, children's futures and retirement plans are at risk, according to a poll out Wednesday." Now that is real fear and not perceived fear using any images flashed on their screens concerning bin Laden.  Will Americans tolerate the use of fear at this point to persuade them how to vote or will the McCain campaign feel any backlash should they even try it.

I have often cited Gavin DeBecker when it pertains to fear.  His book the ‘Gift of Fear’ became popular when Andrew Cunanan went on a shooting-spree back in 1998 killing Gianni Versace.  This is what DeBecker said of fear in his book: “We all know there are plenty of reasons to fear people from time to time. The question is what are those times? Far too many people are walking around in a constant state of vigilance, their intuition misinformed about what really poses a danger. It needn’t be so. When you honor accurate intuitive signals and evaluate them without denial (believing that either the favorable or the unfavorable outcome is possible), you need not be wary, for you will come to trust that you’ll be notified if there is something worthy of your attention. Fear will gain credibility because it won’t be applied wastefully.”

I find the last sentence to be the home-run when it comes to the use of fear.  I do opine that during this Bush administration they have played the fear card far too often.  The late President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “The only thing to fear is fear itself”

I do think that this time Americans must push back should the fear-card rear its ugly head.  Could the use of fear put out by the McCain campaign backfire especially if it plays to people’s emotions.  Only time will tell.

With just a little over a month till Election Day the AP came out with an article dealing with this October Surprise. Their article reported: "Kerry believes bin Laden cost him the presidency by issuing a videotape that criticized Bush and warned U.S. voters that "your security is in your own hands" in the election." Kerry directed that towards both the McCain and Obama campaigns.  I would respectfully say to Senator Kerry that the Rove machine still looms out there and it was he that went after you.  Who was Rove tied to?  The Republicans of course.

This time the economy has trumped the war on terror as the main concern of most Americans as polls have suggested leading up to this election.

If I were the Obama campaign, I would pay special attention to this warning by Senator John Kerry, "Whenever you're close to an election, things have more impact, you don't have time to respond, you don't have time to change the dynamics backwards."

While this article does report, "U.S. intelligence sources, meanwhile, have warned about the potential for another attack by bin Laden and al-Qaida terrorists, seen by some as a potential boost for McCain." The Obama campaign should fire back that in both Obama's speech as well as Biden's acceptance speeches they made specific references to bin Laden and their willingness to go after him.  There was no mention of bin Laden in McCain's acceptance speech or Palin’s.

The perfect come back to any bin Laden tape is exactly what Barack Obama stated in his acceptance speech, "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell — but he won't even go to the cave where he lives." 

Now let me address security when this article points out concerning McCain that he "has stronger national security credentials" Our southern border is still vulnerable and where our ports are as well. The Republicans have failed on those fronts and where they can be breached by terrorists.  Because of the porous border to our south, narco-terrorism has escalated where the violence from it is being felt within our own country.  Americans are being killed by these narco-terrorists; not Islamic Jihadists.

I do suspect though that through a majority of these eight years where Republicans have spent our tax dollars like drunken sailors, little is left over to secure these ports and borders.  With the economy being a strong suit for Obama, he can take us back to the fiscally responsible policies that were felt by many during the Clinton administration.

Obama then can relay to the American people with smart fiscal policies is where he can address our national security especially when he said, "An Obama administration will provide the nation's first responders with the equipment, training, and support they need; invest in the resources necessary to improve our emergency preparedness and planning; allocate our homeland security dollars according to risk; increase the security of our transit systems, rail lines, and ports; and secure our chemical and nuclear plants, and other critical infrastructure."