New warnings of al-Qaeda attacks on US cities are supposedly based on old intelligence .

Surprise, surprise - a red herring to take attention away from the Democratic Convention....

"Federal authorities said on Monday that they had uncovered no evidence that any of the surveillance activities described in the documents was currently under way. They said officials in New Jersey had been mistaken in saying on Sunday that some suspects had been found with blueprints and may have recently practiced "test runs'' aimed at the Prudential building in Newark."

This manipulation is getting ridiculous..

which has been over for 3 days. i don't get it.

the line you responded to should have read attention from the impact of the DNC. Kerry went up in the horserace in almost all the polls, increased his standing with key groups in the electorate, and dramatically improved opinion of himself compared to Bush on multiple issues and characteristics. Moreover, the weekend following the convention is traditionally the time when the 'bounce' is at its highest - when the convention really sinks in for people - this was timed precisely.

however, having the GOP talk about how Kerry should get/have gotten a 15-ppoint bounce from this(which was never possible, due to the reason mentioned above) doesn't help things.

(I heard that on NPR prior to the convention...)

that makes more sense, thanks. although i think you may be overestimating how much attention is actually being paid to the presidential race. in my unscientific observations it seems the only people who are paying attention right now are those who have already made up their minds.

same goes for terror warnings, no one cares if they aren't directly involved. if the sears tower or bank one plaza had been named chicago would be in a full blown panic, as it is hardly anyone gives it more than a passing thought.

it's weird and it's sad.

whatWHAT? WHO? WHERE? Don't blow up the nice buildings, you bad people!

*goes back to sleep*

more on the bounce here

having the GOP talk about how Kerry should get/have gotten a 15-ppoint bounce from this(which was never possible, due to the reason mentioned above) doesn't help things

right - Matthew Dowd (Bush's pollster) predicted that Kerry would have a lead from which no sitting President has recovered, i.e. he managed expecations by predicting that Kerry would win three months early

Campaign Desk talked about Newsweeks' poll and it's little bounce:

...The only thing the political press loves more than a scandal is a poll. And Newsweek this past weekend did no one any favors by releasing a poll immediately after the convention that many have interpreted as a measure of Kerry's post-convention bounce in popularity -- even though half of the poll was conducted before Kerry's speech accepting the nomination on Thursday night.

The Newsweek web exclusive published on Saturday, July 31, revealed what it termed a "baby bump," with Kerry's support growing by 4 percent over his pre-convention number. Fair enough, except that Newsweek, as others have already pointed out, conducted part of the poll on Thursday -- before Kerry's speech. While Newsweek did not classify its poll as "post-convention," it asserted the "bounce" to be the smallest in the history of the Newsweek poll. Most readers (and journalists), however, associate the term "bounce" with a post-convention boost. The misnomer was so obvious that even Republican commentator Joe Scarborough told Don Imus that he "wish[ed] Newsweek would run their poll throughout the weekend..."

notice the precision of the oft-repeated phrase. think that could be because terrorists aren't killing 2900 Americans today?

-- Tracer Hand (tracerhan...) (webmail), August 3rd, 2004 12:31 PM. (tracerhand) (later) (link)

point taken.

(Excellent Secret of My Success, btw)

probably because that's the kind of obscure reference he would dig up.

it's incredible how dutifully BushCo are martialling the exact responses one would imagine the "freedom haters" would want to see.

Gosh, with all these recent captures of Qaeda members, they should be able to catch bin Laden within, I dunno, 2½ months?