# What's the betting on the election - can Bush win? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 13, 2003, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-betting-on-the-election-can-bush-win/218769 "2003-12-13T12:01:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-betting-on-the-election-can-bush-win/218769/361 "2004-04-21T14:49:56Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > I have to wonder what kind of a person would vote to re-elect a President who gets a series of PDBs documenting suspected terrorist attacks inside the United States with hijacked airplanes and opts to do _nothing._ You must have read a different PDB because I’m sure you wouldn’t try to mis-quote. The PDB I read said nothing about hijacked airplanes being used in terrorist attacks. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-betting-on-the-election-can-bush-win/218769/362 "2004-04-21T15:38:19Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Experience says it can happen anyway and that pretty damn serious precautions should be taken. I’d feel a lot better personally if the same people who screwed the job up so totally before weren’t the same people we’re depending on now, wouldn’t you? But Clinton and his gang are gone now. Oh, wait! You mean the LATEST bunch of screw ups. I feel as comfortable with them at the helm as I felt with Clinton at the helm…which is to say I’m fairly nervous, but not overtly so. But then I felt the same when Bush’s daddy was at the helm as well…and Regan, and Carter, and… As far as an attack goes, I’d be surprised if AQ managed to pull anything spectacular off between now and the election…and I doubt that the would opt for anything less than spectacular like a mere car bombing. Its one thing to pull something like 9/11 off when the country was essentially asleep about terrorists. Its another thing to do it now that we are focused on it. After all, they certainly haven’t pulled anything off here since then, and I’m sure its not because they felt what they did was enough. Maybe they are setting us up for something elaborate and huge…I just don’t think so. I think they chose Spain because frankly Spain was easy. That said, I’ll second what Shodan and BobLibDem said, and hope that this is all just an academic excersize. -XT ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-betting-on-the-election-can-bush-win/218769/363 "2004-04-21T18:28:45Z")
> [@Linear Crack](#): > > He was probabaly thinking the same thing when he refused to act upon the WMD threat information from Iraq. You mean those WMDs we still haven’t found any evidence of, right? > [@flickster](#): > > You must have read a different PDB because I’m sure you wouldn’t try to mis-quote. The PDB I read said nothing about hijacked airplanes being used in terrorist attacks. "Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country **consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks,** including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York. “The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full-field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that **a group or bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks** with explosives.” Seems rather clear to me. But then, I’m not an Iraq-obsessed President whose neoconservative Administration belives the nation needed a “Pearl Harbor”-type event to justify a shift in US/Middle East policy. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-betting-on-the-election-can-bush-win/218769/364 "2004-04-21T19:35:19Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > But Clinton and his gang are gone now. I’ll go to my grave before the partisan right stops trying to blame Clinton for everything. Anyway, with your credibility gone, let’s continue: > [@](#): > > As far as an attack goes, I’d be surprised if AQ managed to pull anything spectacular off between now and the election… (I) hope that this is all just an academic excersize. 1. Hope is not a plan. Neither is prayer, for that matter. 2. Use spell-check. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-betting-on-the-election-can-bush-win/218769/365 "2004-04-21T19:52:50Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > I’ll go to my grave before the partisan right stops trying to blame Clinton for everything. Anyway, with your credibility gone, let’s continue: Unlike a partisan hack such as yourself, I’m an equal oppurtunity basher. I blame them all, and always have. Nice try though, Mr, Bush is to blame for everything. I’m sure in your own mind though my credibility is now gone. _snort_ BTW, you couldn’t hurry that grave thing along a bit, could you? 😃 > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > 1. Hope is not a plan. Neither is prayer, for that matter. > 2. Use spell-check. 1. Sorry, do you have direct access to the decision making process in the US? If so I have a number of things to talk to you about. If not…wtf else do you suppose any of us can do at this point, guru? Please don’t break a leg falling off your high horse. 2. You want good spelling, learn to speak spanish and I’ll post all my stuff in that, english boy. If not, blow it out your ass. 😃 -XT [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-betting-on-the-election-can-bush-win/218769.md?page=18)