October has come and gone, and we haven’t seen any true surprises on the campaign trail to knock Barack Obama off his lead in the polls. But that’s not for a lack of trying.
On Wednesday, the McCain campaign called on the Los Angeles Times to release video footage of Barack Obama attending a 2003 party for Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University, who was a spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1970s. The Times obtained the video from a source while reporting an article published in April about Obama’s relationship with Palestinians in Chicago. The paper had an agreement with its source not to publish the video, but McCain and his staff cried foul, even though the details of what is on the video have been written about extensively.
At a rally in Ohio, Sarah Palin said, “In this case, we have a newspaper willing to throw aside even the public’s right to know in order to protect a candidate that its own editorial board has endorsed. And if there’s a Pulitzer Prize category for excelling in kowtowing, then the L.A. Times, you’re winning.” But the Times hasn’t released the video and the story never gained traction.
On Thursday, the Times of London reported Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango was living in public housing in South Boston. The Associated Press reported on Friday she was in the country illegally, and by Sunday, Obama was answering Katie Couric’s questions about the dust-up. “If she is violating laws, those laws have to be obeyed,” Obama said. “We’re a nation of laws. Obviously that doesn’t lessen my concern for her, I haven’t been able to be in touch with her. But I’m a strong believer you have to obey the law.”
Obama appears to have stopped this surprise with his comment, but voters are receiving robocalls (not endorsed by McCain) mentioning Aunt Zeituni.
Bill Ayers was the surprise de jour in early October, after the New York Times ran a story reporting on Obama’s tenuous connections to the 1960s-era domestic terrorist. Of course, we all know way too much about the founder of the Weathermen now. And during the third debate, Obama effectively silenced the Ayers talk. “Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign,” Obama said. “He has never been involved in this campaign. And he will not advise me in the White House. So that’s Mr. Ayers.”
And then there’s dear old Jeremiah Wright. Obama’s long-time preacher was easily his biggest surprise during the primary campaign, when videos surfaced of his anti-American sermons. Obama responded to Wright with a broad-ranging speech on race in March, and the Wright issue has largely been on the sidelines during the general election campaign. Republican operatives are wondering now how voters would have responded to more consistent mention of Wright during the fall. And over the weekend, the Pennsylvania GOP started running an advertisement hitting Obama hard over his ties to Wright.
But this spring-turned-November surprise seems to be too little, too late. In most of these surprises, Obama has gone on the record quickly to reframe the debate on his terms, unlike John Kerry, who could never completely avoid the swift-boat allegations that dogged him during the final months of his campaign. Polls open in less than 24 hours, and millions have already voted early. But Christopher Buckley has some ideas of what November surprises might help steer voters back to John McCain. As the Associated Press astutely points out, however, the biggest surprise of the 2008 campaign struck a month early, and it benefited Obama, not McCain. Could McCain really be expected to escape September’s financial meltdown unscathed? His own comments and behaviors certainly didn’t help matters.
No surprise there.
Tags: ayers, obama's aunt, october surprise, plo