My wife and I were watching CNN today and they mentioned that Obama currently has a slight lead in the polls. She wondered aloud if the Bush administration would start issuing terror alerts as the election neared. I had kind of forgot about our rainbow of terror in 2004.
What do y’al think. Will they dare do it this time around?
On the one hand, I’d say it’s way too late in the race and too long since the last alert (have there even been any since the last election?) to appear to be anything other than a pathetically transparent attempt to manipulate voters through scare tactics.
On the other hand, it would work.
There is an orange chance of a red alert.
If they issue a terror alert and don’t catch any actual terrorists, I would wager that would not look so good for them. The Boy who Cried Wolf is a story well-known to most Americans.
If they issue a terror alert and do catch some terrorists, I would wager the Obama camp could spin that into “Hey, look, Bush’s government has had eight years to get this locked down… time to try a new approach.”
It’s been awhile since I last paid any attention to the terror level, but as I remember it, their M.O. before was to raise it for a time and then lower it again whilst insinuating that there were threats they couldn’t talk about that had somehow been defeated in the meantime.
You forget that there would be a vague mention of a locale. And maybe a police presence at a locale. I would think the mention of a “Suburban shopping mall” this time around would be vague enough to get a rube’s tits in a ringer.
Normally their modus operandi would be to have one around now. But given the financial crisis, I don’t think they’d risk it.
I drive past the airport every day on my way to work. There’s a big LED sign with the current terror level listed on it. It hasn’t changed in three years. For all I know, it has no other settings.
If it did change, I wouldn’t know what to do to change my habits appropriately; if they lower it, is it okay for me to bring weapons to the airport with me? If they raise it, do I need to lock myself in my house and hide in the closet? Also, it might take me a few days to notice that it’s changed; it’d probably make the news, but not right away.
Here’s the history:
I’m inclined to agree with this. But then, I’m also tin-foil-hatty enough to be watching to see if the price of gas drops 50 cents or so before the elections as I predicted it would last summer. It’s on it’s way down a little, but there’s still time for me to win the bet.
If we look at the list 5-HT has posted, it would appear that the threat level has not been raised to orange on intangible threats, and never during an election cycle in order to scare people. Hmm…
So, my vote is with “No, they won’t dare do it this time around [as they have also not dared before]”. 
This is a bit of a tangent, but while perusing the National Counterterrorism Center’s 2008 calendarone day, I saw that even the government freely admits that they’ve killed or captured al-Qaeda’s number three guy five times already! (Unfortunately, I can’t find the exact page anymore)
It’s not just a funny Uncyclopedia page.
Exactly. The idea they it is raised to get votes is just something people believe with no evidence.
And I’m not a Republican or George W. Bush supporter.
Sigh.
Tom Ridge the former Homeland Security head disagrees with you. He felt that the administration often wanted to raise the alerts with little justification. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-10-ridge-alerts_x.htm and the alerts during the 2004 election often coincided with campaign events http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1211369,00.html