Halloween Week: Now’s the time for the October Surprise
4 comments October 26th, 2008
We’re in the final phase of this election; Obama has a lead in the polls and a huge advantage in organization and money. The political talking heads on Sunday morning TV say the election is in the bag for O.
However, as I’ve said many times before, I don’t believe it. The last week — Halloween Week — is historically the time of the October Surprise, a last-minute, game-changing political bomb that cannot be easily rebutted in the time remaining.
It happened to George W. Bush in 2000, and very nearly changed the outcome of that election. As I recall, it was the final Thursday before the election. I had just finished covering Bush speaking at a huge and enthusiastic GOP  rally at the College of DuPage.
(Hilarous Side Note: The rally MC was former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka. However, when then-Gov. George Ryan introduced him, he inexplicably called the man “Dick Butka.” If looks could kill, George wouldn’t have lived long enough to be indicted, convicted and sent to prison. Let’s just say Da Coach was not amused.)
 After the rally, I made my way to my car and waited in a long line of traffic to get back on the road to home. I turned on trusty old WGN to learn that the October Surprise had been dropped by Democratic candidate Al Gore’s campaign.  When Bush was a young man he’d gotten a DUI in Kennebunkport — and never fessed up to it.
 The news sent the high flying  Bush campaign reeling and the polls began to drop. He squeaked by, just barely, with the help of the U.S. Supreme Court and Al Gore’s blunder — he should have demanded a recount of all Florida counties, not just a few.
Anyway, if the McCain camp has something really, really dirty on Obama, and the polls still show the Chicagoan in the lead, the maverick will unload the information on Wednesday or Thursday — and no later than Friday morning.
There’s also the possibility that an external event will occur that makes voters more likely to prefer McCain. That would probably be a Middle East event, such as Israel launching an air assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
I’m not predicting any of this will happen, just giving you some possible scenarios to watch out for as we wrap up the fight I’m calling the Thrilla From Wasilla.
