Hate to say he told you so...

Photo Courtesy of CNN

At approximately 1:36 GMT today, North Korea allegedly performed an underground test of a nuclear weapon. The blast registered a 3.6 on the Richter scale according to South Korea, and China was apparently given a 20 minute warning on the test. This will most likely signify the end of the six-party talks that had been off and on for the past years, and will actually probably be an October surprise in favor of the Republicans.

Why? Because: a) It gets the Mark Foley / Dennis Hastert / WTF is wrong with Republicans scandal entirely out of the news and public discourse, b) It gets talk of Homeland Security and fear mongering back at the forefront of everything as had been planned by the Republicans just before the Scandal came out. Naturally, the Democrats will not have any coherent response to this whatsoever. Look for Pelosi to make another quip rather than an intelligent statement.

Anyone remember the first debate between Kerry and Bush? North Korea came up as a topic. Kerry advocated one-on-one talks between the U.S. and North Korea, and stated that the six-party talks the Bush administration was half-heartedly engaged in would actually weaken our position with North Korea which would lead to an ultimate failure to prevent North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The response from Bush was, and this is just barely paraphrasing, "but see, if we do two-party talks, then that will screw up our six-party talks."

What we see now is something that had been exactly predicted by Kerry, and something Bush has seemed wholly oblivious about. CNN has now opened a poll on their front page asking if the voters support these bilateral talks. Nearly 30,000 votes (65%) support them. This is, of course, more reason to detest the American public when it comes to voting since issues like Nuclear Proliferation took a back seat in November 2004 to such flashpoint issues as whether or not gays should get married.

This should be yet another defeat for the Republicans as it further demonstrates their utter inability to lead on the world stage both with soft as well as hard power. The Republican plan specifically lead to a constant breakdown in negotiations until a nuclear test happened in a country that is also testing missile technology capable of striking the West Coast. That, in and of itself, should mean the Republicans don't dare talk about Homeland Security or protecting the nation; however, the average voter will most likely see this as a reason to vote Republican. Fantastic.