Donald Trump’s October surprise
Because the notion gets so overly hyped each presidential election cycle, it’s easy to come away with the impression that there’s always an October surprise. But in reality, when we actually had an October surprise in 2016 in the form of Comey’s last minute letter, it was a rarity. Even more importantly, it came from an outsider buffoon like Comey who was in over his head, and not as part of some secret evil genius plot by the candidate.
That brings us to Donald Trump’s big announcement today that convalescent plasma is some big new breakthrough in coronavirus treatment. In reality it’s been in use almost from the start of the coronavirus crisis, and it’s still not clear if it works or not. Trump is merely trying to take credit for plasma, as if it were some new miracle that he pulled out of his backside.
If Trump’s clumsy announcement today was an attempt at an August surprise, then it fell completely flat. It’s not difficult to figure out that his plasma stunt will gain him zero additional votes, which means that it was a total failure. It’s a reminder that, for all his scheming and psychopathy, Trump has very little up his sleeve. If this was his August surprise, then whatever he tries as an October surprise will fall just as flat.
In fact the only real danger here is if we make the mistake of sitting paralyzed for the next couple months, waiting for Donald Trump to drop an October surprise on us that magically tilts the election his favor. No much magic trick is coming. The best thing we can do is invest our time on things like voter registration, turnout, phone banking, and (if you’re young and healthy enough) volunteering at polling places. That’s how we run up the score and send Trump packing for prison.
