I just re-read my article “How Gore Can Win” from the Aug. 14, 2000 issue of NR. It’s amazing how writers can forget some of the things they’ve written. Check out this, in a paragraph listing a number of intangibles that I thought favored the Democrats four years ago: “There’s also the White House’s ability to manufacture an October Surprise–or several of them. It could produce a Mideast peace deal, apprehend terrorist Osama bin Laden, [etc.]” Strange how now it’s the Democrats who sometimes whisper their fear that bin Laden will be caught a couple of weeks before Election Day–an event that of course would help Bush much more this year than it would have helped Gore in 2000. (I’ve even heard the claim that the CIA already knows where he is and is waiting for orders to pounce–timed for maximum political advantage.) Here’s another line from my piece about last-minute surprises favoring Gore: “If Madeleine Albright starts complaining about Saddam Hussein in September, cancel your vacation plans in Baghdad.”