Democrat October Surprises - an archive thread

Freeper resourcefulness | 10/02/03 | I. Will Vanquishcarville

[Diddle E. Squat]

The Democrats have a long and sordid history of launching last-minute cheap shot 'October Surprises' right before elections. I'm hoping that we can use this thread to develop a comprehensive list of all of their 'October Surprises', so that we can not only confront them with it each time they try this garbage, but more importantly remind and educate the general public about how this is an unscrupulous cornerstone of Democrat election strategy. Most people have no idea how much of a pattern there is of this.

Of course we have Arnold, and we remember the Bush DWI. Wasn't that also on a Wed. night before the Tuesday election? I know there were others in CA races, and 'The seriousness of the charges' against the elder Bush, but I forget the exact issues and timelines. So here's hoping some freeper memories and ingenuity(corraborating links for reviewing the details would be excellent) will turn this thread into a valuable resource, from which we can then distill a succinct 'reminder' list.

[Diddle E. Squat]

'Know anyone who could assist in this compilation?' ping

[Brad’s Gramma]

BTTT and good hunting!

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[Diddle E. Squat]

Remember the Haitian boat incident in Miami last year before the Jeb election?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/779210/posts

Probably too tinfoilish to directly tie it to the DNC, but food for thought, and more reason to get ticked off and fight the Dems. The 2004 campaign has started, whether we like it or not.

[Howlin]

We'll try these people.

[swilhelm73]

For Bush 41, the Special Prosecutor (Iran Contra) released his 'findings' right before the election. He had literally nothing on Bush, but smeared him anyway, and released his report to maximize the political damage.

Quite a contrast with Starr and the non-political manner he conducted himself in...

[Luke21]

Lawrence Walsh tiptoed out with an indictment of Casper Weinberger that stopped Bush Sr's momentum in 1992. The press was all over it like flies on feces. They are absolute scum.

[Diddle E. Squat]

One from Missouri 2000

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39f83ca44694.htm

[Diddle E. Squat]

How about the Thomas Jefferson 'Whose ya daddy' historical speculation in 1998?

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a363ef1dc4179.htm

[Alamo-Girl]

Great idea! I'm too tired to work on this tonight, but I'll see what I can find tomorrow.

[WOSG]

1992 Cali Senate race Boxer v ??? forget his name.
alleged strip joint attendee...

well-timed bomb.

2000 Bush DUI story.
broke 5 days prior by a Dem with links to Gore campaign.

[Ingtar]

Rush Limbaugh and pain killers tonight.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Yep, 1992 Boxer versus Bruce Herschensohn, came out the FRIDAY before the election that he had visited strip clubs(his campaign emphasized family values.)

Am still looking for a good summary source of that, google often floods the top of the search with leftist analysis links...

[mrustow]

In 2000, there were TWO October Surprises: one involving GWB's DUI arrest 20+ years earlier, and the other involving a fake Rand Corp. education "study" of the Texas Miracle, which was nothing more than an opinion paper by a politically compromised researcher. The researcher had used the media to spin his "conclusions" early the previous spring, when he was supposedly just beginning his research. I'll try and find some articles on the subject.

[LiteKeeper]

INTSUM

[joyce11111]

I will try to find some old stories tommorrow...in the meantime..HOW CAN WE HELP TO STOP THIS????????

[kayak]

I don't recall the details but there was something about Simon in the 2000 (?) CA governor's race. The company his family had founded was accused of something and by the time Simon's name was cleared there had been too much mud slung to salvage his campaign.

I'm sure CA FReepers would be much more aware of this story than I am ..... hope I don't have it completely wrong.

[kayak]

Can you add to the list?

[Consort]

Clinton was an all-around dirt bag but he got elected and reelected. Bush 41 was a war hero and a good man and he was thrown out of office by the Left and the Right.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Sister of Texas dragging death victim attacks Bush - She says GOP nominee ignored pleas of family - October 23, 2000 BY MARY OWEN FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER ***The sister of James Byrd Jr., a black man who was dragged to death by three white supremacists in Texas, was in Highland Park on Sunday urging blacks to vote against Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush because of his reluctance to support hate-crime legislation.

"He treated my brother's daughter cold and heartlessly when she asked him to pass laws against hate crimes," Louvon Harris said to a small group of NAACP members at the New Grace Baptist Church.***

[XHogPilot]

1994 California US Senate race against Diane Fienstein: Republican Michael Huffington (divorced spouse of Ariana H.) was defeated by 2% when a last minute "illegal-alien nanny" scandal erupted.

references: http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:L3IV-vbT2wgJ:www.lcrga.com/archive/98120902.shtml+%22Michael+Huffington%22+scandal&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[XHogPilot]

Republican Matt Fong upset loss running in the Calif 1998 Senate race against Barbara Boxer:

over a $50,000 donation he gave to the Traditional Values Coalition, an ultra-conservative religious group opposed to abortion, gay rights, sex education and the teaching of evolution in public schools. The contribution, which came from money left over from Fong's 1994 treasurer's race, was used only for a poll in an initiative drive that would have banned same-sex marriages in California, Fong said. The controversy over the religious right group dented his carefully sculpted image as a moderate alternative to Boxer.

source: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/election98/wildermuth_10-28.html

[Timesink]

This is the Plame Name Blame Game ping list.
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[EternalVigilance]

BUMP!

[backhoe]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/993482/posts
Shoe-Drop Day Tomorrow? (Mickey Kaus predicts LA Times Smear Hours Before story posted)
Kaus Files ^ | 10-1-03 | Mickey Kaus


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/993337/posts
Media Assassination: The Mark? Rush Limbaugh
Drudge Report ^ | 01 OCT 03 | dcbryan1
...somehow, I think this and the ongoing "Arnold groped me" smear aren't going to get any traction... Americans are just jaded, innured to all this, after Clinton and Moanica.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/993509/posts
U.S. Communists to support Dems. -- 'united front' in No. 1 priority of beating Bush
WND ^ | Oct. 2, 2003 | JOSEPH FARAH

[RippleFire]

bump

[lafroste]

There's the famous "Bush Sr. flies an SR-71 to Paris to make sure that the Iranian hostages aren't released until after the (1980 Presidential) election", that surfaced, I believe a week or two before the 1988 Pres. election. If memory serves me right, that was the one that coined the phrase "October Surprise".

[nicollo]

Great thread.

**bump**

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Re: the orignin of "October surprise" and more

Limbaugh was perhaps the first to point out that "the appearance of impropriety" has become all the left claims is needed to support their mainstream's frenzy of accusations of wrong doing and demands for investigations -- plus supporting polls once the apolitical public has been conditioned.

Wild claims were made that Reagan and Bush had made a deal with Iran that delayed the release of the hostages until after the 1980 election, "the October surprise." There was the usual supporting mainstream press frenzy as the stories recycled in 1991. Evidence? None.

Then Speaker of the House Tom Foley said that Congress needed to investigate precisely because there wasn't any evidence to substantiate the allegation.

There was however "the appearance of impropriety." So how do you discourse with these Stalinist-like campaigns of lies? Answer, you cannot.

There is no peaceful solution. It is the left's decision to have it settled by violence. They will not change and we cannot continue as a Nation divided in this manner.

They destroyed one wartime administration a generation ago. They are out to destroy another wartime administration and this war is for all the marbles. Their war against America is just as important for us to win as the bigger war defending against radical Islam.

[T. Jefferson]

Remember the Haitian boat incident in Miami last year before the Jeb election? Probably too tinfoilish to directly tie it to the DNC, but food for thought, and more reason to get ticked off and fight the Dems.

They had lines of cars waiting for them to be picked up when they left the water. It was blatantly organized.

[jmstein7]

No. The DWI was the FRIDAY before the election.

[Right Wing Professor]

HOW CAN WE HELP TO STOP THIS????????

Write a letter to your local newspaper make the point it's 'same old same old'. It will stop happening when people start to wise up about how they're being manipulated.

[PLOM...NOT!]

My thoughts exactly. But I would come up with some outrageous claims that MAY be made and end with...see I told you so.

[TennTuxedo]

The Democrats "October Surprise" would make Michael Corleone envious. The Rats have put a hit on Preisdent bush and his White House with the bogus "leak" charges. The Rats have aimed at Schwarzenegger with the bogus "child groping charges". The Rats have taken an opportunity to grand stand with taking opposition to comments made by Rush Limbaugh on ESPN.The finale is the Rats breaking news that Rush is being investigated for a drug addiction. This seesm straight out of the "Godfather". This series of bogus outings is in effect, the Democrats "hits" on high profile conservative icons right before an election and right at the beginning of a presidential campaign.

Is this series of "hits" on power the "kick start" to a certain president-wannabe's presidential campaign? She needed Bush's numbers to be down and she needed the GOP's voice of reason muzzled before she could enter the race so to minimize vocal opposition.

[justa-hairyape]

She needed Bush's numbers to be down and she needed the GOP's voice of reason muzzled before she could enter the race so to minimize vocal opposition.

Its either that or Al Queda has taken over our media.

[Lazamataz]

Not a bad idea!

I find it works on FR, to assemble a list of usual responses used by disruptors and trolls. Perhaps it could work IRL.

[capitan_refugio]

That was dumbocrap Bob Mulholland's smear of Republican Bruce Herschensohn.

[Shaka]

I think Ma Richards pulled some bullschitt before Dubya's first Guber run... Democrats are making a habit out of it.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I am far less sanguine that we need only expose what the left is doing and the public will make them see the errors of their way.

They are trying to destroy President Bush. It's that important to them to substitute their policy for his -- or, in far too many cases to simply destroy George W. Bush and America's sovereignty. They want a coalition of international progressive governments to 'fight" the war on terror and rule.

Even "moderate" Democrats say 20th century liberalism and all forms of conservatism are finished. It's time for a "new social compact" between the world's progressive governments and the masses, they say.

This is not traditional politics. Some Democrats truly feeeeeeeeeeeeeeel that it is best for America. Others simply want an end to our military power and sovereignty.

This has been on-going since post W.W.II. The left said it was too dangerous for the world to have only one super power. They said that we must share our weapons and economic strength with Uncle Joe Stalin. Vietnam era leftists worked hard to destroy our wartime administration and aid the enemy.

Challenge the left by Congressional investigations of their treason. Force them into the streets with protests. There they will commit blatant acts of violence and treason. Then end it. It's the war within a war and it's equally important that we win it.

[visualops]

google often floods the top of the search with leftist analysis links

You've noticed that too huh

[GSWarrior]

Didn't 'B-1 Bob' get slimed by the Loretta Sanchez? people Or did was he just too complacent?

[KC_Conspirator]

The false charges agaisnt Bush the Elder is that he and the CIA cut a secret deal with Ayotollah Khoemeini to not let the Iran hostages go free until after the election. Of course, not a single thing was true...

[Saundra Duffy]

The democraps are experts at this.

[visualops]

When George W. Bush's DUI was revealed, California Republicans recalled the 1992 U.S. Senate race of Bruce Herschensohn. That's when Mulholland dominated newspaper headlines for five days just before the election by planting questions about Herschensohn's personal conduct. That vintage Mulholland maneuver made it all but impossible for Herschensohn to stay on-message during the campaign's crucial closing days. Instead, the Republican was reduced to replying to unsubstantiated rumors and untrue charges circulated by Mulholland, a master at manipulating the press. The damage among undecided voters was devastating.

By the time Herschensohn had lost against the unimpressive Barbara Boxer, it turned out that the Republican was indeed guilty of — what? Along with his girlfriend and another couple, the four had attended a show at a Hollywood strip club. It was quite a coup for Mulholland.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment111700g.shtml

And some more "October Surprises":

California Republicans have experienced late hits three times in the last 11 years. In 1992, Bruce Herschensohn narrowly lost a Senate race against Barbara Boxer when it was revealed on the Friday before the election that he and his girlfriend and another couple had visited a strip club. In 1994, Michael Huffington narrowly lost a Senate race against Feinstein when, a few days before the election, it was revealed that he had hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny. In 1998, Darrell Issa -- now a congressmen whose $1.6 million funding of the recall petition drive produced this recall election -- lost a Senate primary when it was revealed that he had embellished his military record.

http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/0/071085-4920-021.html

[Dialup Llama]

Were're lucky we have an extra, critical election this Oct in CA, a year before the Presidential election. I think Bush has gotten a good idea of what to expect for next Oct from the Dems.

[Feiny]

From WSJ Opinion Journal

October Surprise
Predict what Clinton will do to influence the November election.

Monday, September 5, 2000 12:01 a.m. EDT

What will be Bill Clinton's "October Surprise"?

That is, just how will Mr. Clinton use his powers as President to shape events advancing the electoral
cause of his vice president as his successor and his wife as senator from New York? OpinionJournal
readers are invited to guess what that surprise might be; the 10 best entries, selected by the editorial
board of The Wall Street Journal, will win one-year subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal Online.

The phrase "October Surprise" seems to have been invented by George Bush père. On Oct. 2, 1980,
at a campaign appearance in Eugene, Ore., Mr. Bush warned that President Carter, then struggling in
an ultimately unsuccessful re-election campaign, might spring such a surprise. "When you are a
president, you have an ability to shape things to some degree," said Ronald Reagan's running mate.

In 1991 Gary Sick, a Carter administration official in the National Security Council, published a New
York Times op-ed piece, and later a book titled "October Surprise," in which he claimed that
"individuals associated with the Reagan-Bush campaign of 1980 met secretly with Iranian officials to
delay the release of the American hostages until after the Presidential election." Bipartisan
congressional investigations found no credible evidence to support Mr. Sick's allegations--but the
results weren't made public until after the 1992 election, thus avoiding an October Surprise that might
have helped Mr. Bush in his re-election bid.

The term "October Surprise" has become an American political cliché, applied, among other things, to
Iran-contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh's indictment of Caspar Weinberger in October 1992,
Ross Perot's re-entry into the campaign the same month, and Lyndon Johnson's last-minute Vietnam
peace efforts in 1968, which columnist William Safire retroactively dubbed an "October Surprise" in
1991. Just this Sept. 3, onetime independent counsel Michael Zeldin, in a Washington Post op-ed
criticizing current independent counsel Robert Ray for appointing a new grand jury to hear evidence
against President Clinton, declared: "I would hope we are not in for an October Surprise." In the
strictest sense, though, the phrase applies to how a President can use his powers to make things
happen, but with electoral impact in mind.

For the OpinionJournal October Surprise contest, we'll start things following with three predictions
from among our own ranks. We'll post new entries from readers every night at midnight, with the
contest closing Sept. 30. We'll judge entries on the basis of their overall insight and persuasiveness,
though of course it doesn't hurt if your prediction comes true. We'll announce the result, and reprint
the winning entries, shortly after the election.

As always, we reserve the right not to post all entries, and also to edit entries for length, clarity and
taste. Entries must include a real name and e-mail address. And now--let the games begin!

[hoosiermama]

Good idea bump! Do the scare tactics they use on senior (Social Security) count? How about the rumor that republicans were planning on cancelling Head Start that went through Human Resource employees?

They seem to love to spread rumors that are as impossible to unspread as soft butter on warm toast.

[staytrue]

Huffington's husband was running for senate in 1994 and a few days before the election, it was disclosed he/wife had an illegal alien working for them as a maid.

Bruce Hirshinson was found to have gone to a peep show a few days before election day.