Is Helene the "October Surprise" for this election ?

[New Haven]

The location of the storm damage and the size of it sure make it a candidate.

[Ocelot II]

1. No. An October surprise is a sort of black swan event that wasn't expected and is likely

to have a significant political effect. Hurricanes are expected this time of year; only the level of destruction caused by this particular hurricane so far inland was unexpected. Trump is trying to make a thing of it but it's not working. Shit happens in October just like in every other month, and not every major event in October is an October surprise (anyhow, the hurricane was in September). If there is one so far, I'd say it was the release of new evidence in the J/6 case today.

[Metaphorical]

2. Definitely Jack Smith

However, Helene is very much likely to suppress a lot of voting in more rural areas of the deep South from the Florida panhandle all the way to North Carolina. The cities will recover fairly quickly, the rural areas, not so much. None of that is good news for Trump.

My suspicion is that the events last July caught the GOP VERY flatfooted, and any dirty tricks that they were up to were completely disrupted. They didn't have much psyOps on Kamala Harris, and none on Walz, which is why so many of their attacks appear amateurish at best.

[usonian]

3. Joe Biden pulled a surprise not for October, but for the ages.

Like they did with Hillary, the hate machine was smearing Joe for years. By launching Kamala's candidacy, he caught the GOP flat footed, with all their political ammo spent, and since their cult members are real slow on the uptake, unable to mount a years-long smear camaign. They are still fighting Joe, claiming it's the Harris Administration at fault for everything.

Do I blame the Pence Administration for 4 years of hell? Hardly!

That said, Jack Smith is the anti-Comey, even though the timing is Trump's fault!!!

Comey must be rolling around in his grave.

WAIT, HE'S NOT DEAD?