In the politics of the United States, an October Surprise is an unexpected event, contrived or unplanned, with the potential to influence the outcome of a November election. October Surprises date back to the 19th Century, but the term entered common parlance in 1980, when President Ronald Reagan, fearing that a last-minute deal to release American hostages held in Iran might earn incumbent Jimmy Carter enough votes to win re-election, allegedly made a secret deal with Iranian leaders to delay the release of the hostages until election day. Reagan won, and on the day of his inauguration—minutes after he concluded his 20-minute inaugural address—the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the release of the hostages. The alleged goal of the deal was stopping Carter from pulling an October Surprise. In short, Reagan beat Carter to the punch. Reagan’s frontman, William Casey, had mentioned the term “October Surprise” to the press more than once.
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We've been getting surprises about every half hour lately.
LOL. Sadly that's very true. And because info comes out so fast and so often now, time feels like it's sped up now.
Yesterday, today and tomorrow are all blurred together. Very little delineation, divergence or distinction between the days or really, ANYTHING anymore.
The surprise may be in September this time, by putting Trump in jail...
As someone said before, I think Merchan will sentence Trump to jail but stay the sentence till after the election. Do Dems want an election or not? What happens if there is Martial Law and no election? Total chaos and rioting. The question is, what do Dems really want? Merchan is all about optics. What will happen is anyone's guess at this point.
my october surprise already happened August 2nd when i saw halloween merchandise already for sale in my local stores.
That is the same from North Dakota as well. Every store I have been to this month has halloween candy out.
What? No Christmas trees?
not yet, i'm sure they'll be out October 31
This is a good theory, but I don't think future President Reagan had any ability to influence any foreign nation on anything. Recall that President Carter worked until the very last hour to free the hostages.
All political theater. I think the almost 100-year-old Jimmy Carter's year-long hospice-health is all theater too. In fact, I don't believe ANYTHING anymore. There are more lies than truths being reported these days. The media has been weaponized for too long now and it all needs to come to an end.
Reagan's VP was the former head of the CIA. The Reagan Bush team had plenty of power to negotiate with Iran behind Carter's back. Rosalyn Carter always thought the Reagan team had subverted her husband extra-legally.
It is hard to say. I think Jimmy's refusal to debate Reagan and then debating him at the last minute and then losing had more of an impact. There is also the contested Democratic Primary that hurt Jimmy in 1980 just like it hurt Bush Sr. in 1992. If there was at least a framework for a hostage release deal, but it was scuttled right before the election, it is quite possible Jimmy has his second term. That is because the media would have ran with the charge of election interference from the Reagan/Bush team.