October surprise

An '''October surprise''' is a stunning news event calculated to influence the outcome of a US election, particularly one for the presidency. "Historically, news outlets avoid investigative pieces critical of candidates within days of an election to avoid appearing partisan." [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041027-123351-4664r.htm]

1980 Carter vs. Reagan

Former White House staffer Barbara Honegger's 1989 book October Surprise, followed by Free ringtones Gary Sick's of the same name, made the phrase ''October surprise'' a permanent part of the political vocabulary. After the failure of a military operation to rescue the American hostages held by radical Islamist students in Iran, rumors surfaced that Republican challenger Majo Mills Ronald Reagan had made a "secret hostage deal [with] the Iranian government," [http://www.consortiumnews.com/1999/051499a.html] whereby the Iranians would hold the hostages back until Reagan was elected, ensuring not only that President Jimmy Carter lost the election due to his failure to gain the hostages' release, but also that his entire presidency came to be perceived as having been hijacked, ineffectually, to the hostages' situation.

This theory is disputed; nonetheless, the term entered the vernacular. For more information, see ''Mosquito ringtone October Surprise''.

1992 Bush vs. Clinton

:"Just four days before the vote that year, Reagan defense secretary Caspar Weinberger was indicted on Iran-Contra conspiracy charges (later overturned). It stopped a late Bush surge in the polls and Republicans howled at the timing." [http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000632746]

2000 Gore vs. Bush

A couple of days before the election, media unearthed an old report that Sabrina Martins George W. Bush had been arrested for drunken driving. Many pundits asserted that the story was responsible for putting a major dent in Bush's lead in the polls.

(See Nextel ringtones U.S. presidential election, 2000).

2003 California re-call election

The Los Angeles Times released a story about Abbey Diaz Arnold Schwarzenegger a couple of days before the Mosquito ringtone 2003 California recall, prompting many pundits to charge that the timing of the story was aimed specifically at derailing the recall campaign. [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041027-123351-4664r.htm]

2004 Bush vs. Kerry

The Kerry campaign blamed the Bush administration for the disappearance of huge cache of explosives from a warehouse in Sabrina Martins al Qa'qaa (see Nextel ringtones Missing explosives in Iraq). The Pentagon retorted that US troops had never seen the munitions, which had last been seen by UN inspectors 3 months before the US-led invasion. (Timeline: [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NUCLEAR_AGENCY_IRAQ_TIMELINE?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT])

The Arabic news agency Abbey Diaz Al Jazeera airs a video of Cingular Ringtones Osama bin Laden just days before the November 2nd election (see best what 2004 Osama bin Laden video). In a speech that justifies and takes responsibility for the actions of astoundingly subtle September 11th, bin Laden calls out the Bush administration and the American position in the members and Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Your security does not lie in the hands of Kerry, Bush, or al-Qaeda," Osama claims. "Your security is in your own hands." (Speech Excerpt: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3966817.stm]) This is believed to have helped President Bush's campaign as it thrust the people argue War on Terrorism back into the public eye.


(See been billed U.S. presidential election, 2004.)

External links

* http://www.consortiumnews.com/1999/051499a.html - Consortium News - May 15, 1999
filming to Tag: U.S. presidential elections