Shan Wu is a former federal prosecutor who served as counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno
With one 165-page filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith may have put the “surprise” back into the over-used political term “October Surprise.” The modern political use of the term—the first 20th century use was about Fall sales in department stores—arose with former President Reagan’s campaign staff fearing that President Jimmy Carter might arrange a Iranian hostage release deal that might have turned the 1980 election into a Carter victory.
The Reagan team began to talk about such a potential October Surprise to undermine such a success by suggesting it would be merely a political trick to help Carter’s re-election. That surprise never happened and we never got a second Carter term. In today’s frenzied political climate, the term pops up multiple times a day referring to events as varied as hurricanes, assassination attempts, the Middle East conflict, potential leaked audio or videos and even the Longshoreman’s strike.
