Finally

The last day that anyone can talk about "The October Surprise," which has to be the most overused cliché online this year. Maybe some think it's this:

North Korea agreed Tuesday to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks in a surprise diplomatic breakthrough three weeks after the communist regime conducted its first known atomic test. A U.S. envoy said the talks could resume as early as November.

Chinese, U.S. and North Korean envoys to the negotiations held a day of unpublicized talks in Beijing during which North Korea agreed to return to the larger six-nation talks on its nuclear programs, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

"The three parties agreed to resume the six-party talks at the earliest convenient time," the Chinese statement said.

President Bush welcomed the agreement. "I am pleased and I want to thank the Chinese," the president told reporters in the Oval Office.

This is good news, but at the same time it's a return to a bargaining table that has produced pretty much nothing over the breadth of the Bush Presidency. So I don't know how much of a breakthrough this is. No country has willingly given up the bomb once they've tested it. To do so the regional powers would pretty much have to give up the farm.

And I think the fact that 103 of our sons and daughters are dead is more newsworthy. Not a surprise so much as a tragedy. Without a plan for success or a strategy to exit.