{"id":8136,"date":"2012-10-02T15:35:47","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T22:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8136"},"modified":"2012-10-02T15:35:47","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T22:35:47","slug":"mitt-romneys-october-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8136","title":{"rendered":"Mitt Romney&#8217;s October Surprise?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Credit goes to Craig Unger at Salon who posted a column yesterday that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2012\/10\/01\/gops_october_surprise\/\" target=\"_blank\">disclosed plans<\/a> by Mitt Romney&#8217;s campaign to ambush President Obama with a late-breaking attack commonly known as an <em>&#8220;October Surprise.&#8221;<\/em> Unger cited a Republican source with firsthand knowledge who said that&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;[T]op Republican operatives are primed to unleash a new two-pronged offensive that will attack Obama as weak on national security. [&#8230;] they planned to release what they hoped would be <strong>\u201ca bombshell\u201d<\/strong> that would make Libya and Obama\u2019s foreign policy a major issue in the campaign.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So the next day that <em>&#8220;bombshell&#8221;<\/em> went off on the Fox News community web site, Fox Nation:<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Pix\/Campaign2012\/foxnation-bombshell.jpg\" alt=\"Fox Nation October Surprise\" \/><\/center><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Unger called that one with pinpoint accuracy, right down to the language used by the campaign. And it was nice of Fox to cooperate with the Romney campaign&#8217;s strategists in getting their propaganda out. The article on Fox News reported this highly speculative story by saying that&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;U.S. diplomats in Libya repeatedly asked the Obama administration for more security in Benghazi in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate but were &#8220;denied these resources,&#8221; two congressional lawmakers said.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fox apparently made no effort to confirm the allegations made by hyper-partisan GOP congressmen Darrell Issa and Jason Chaffetz. There is no presentation of evidence that any diplomats ever asked for, or were denied, additional security. The diplomats in question were not identified, nor were the sources who alleged that any security requests were made.<\/p>\n<p>This story couldn&#8217;t be any thinner if it were run over by a steamroller. However, its purpose, to steamroll the Obama campaign, is pretty obvious. And the conspiracy between Romney operatives, congressional representatives, and Fox News to launch this surprise attack reveals just how deeply the political\/media machine is integrated into the right&#8217;s political infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Expect this issue to show up in tomorrow&#8217;s debate. It is not a coincidence that the bombshell was let loose just prior to that event. And the right has been attempting to manufacture a story around this that they think is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8117\" target=\"_blank\">on a par with Watergate<\/a>. They could not be more mistaken. This is just another wild swing and a miss that demonstrates how out-of-touch the GOP is with what is on the minds of the electorate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit goes to Craig Unger at Salon who posted a column yesterday that disclosed plans by Mitt Romney&#8217;s campaign to ambush President Obama with a late-breaking attack commonly known as an &#8220;October Surprise.&#8221; Unger cited a Republican source with firsthand knowledge who said that&#8230; &#8220;[T]op Republican operatives are primed to unleash a new two-pronged offensive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[152,1],"tags":[183,33,260],"class_list":["post-8136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general","tag-barack-obama","tag-fox-news","tag-mitt-romney"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-27e","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8080,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8080","url_meta":{"origin":8136,"position":0},"title":"Fox News Desperation Grows: As Romney&#8217;s Prospects Decay, Anti-Obama Attacks Accelerate","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/25\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It must be frustrating to be a Fox News producer or editor these days knowing that your professional mission is to advance the campaign of Mitt Romney for president, while Romney himself seems to be working as hard as he can to sabotage any possibility of victory. Last week was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8125,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8125","url_meta":{"origin":8136,"position":1},"title":"Mitt Romney&#8217;s Opponent In Wednesday&#8217;s Debate Is Not Pres. Obama","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/1\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"When Mitt Romney takes the stage on Wednesday he will be facing President Obama for the first debate of the 2012 presidential election. However, Obama will only be a subordinate target in the encounter. The real audience Romney will be addressing is the club of wealthy donors who have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8121,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8121","url_meta":{"origin":8136,"position":2},"title":"Fox News Appoints Itself As Mitt Romney&#8217;s Debate Coach","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/30\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a few days before the first presidential debate of 2012, and Fox News is playing out its role as Mitt Romney's debate coach. With broadcasts that openly display their preference for Romney, Fox News has dispatched their anchors, correspondents and contributors on a mission of shoring up Romney's fading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7692,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7692","url_meta":{"origin":8136,"position":3},"title":"The Hilariously Incompetent Campaign Of Mitt Romney And Friends","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/31\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"All the signs of utter collapse are starting to show. Mitt Romney's campaign is stumbling its way through the election season with embarrassing gaffes and blatant obfuscation. The American people know quite well that Romney is desperately trying to hide his record and run on attacks on President Obama. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7093,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7093","url_meta":{"origin":8136,"position":4},"title":"Fox Nation&#8217;s Impotent Attacks On Obama&#8217;s Campaign Ad","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/14\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Obama campaign released a new ad today that points out Mitt Romney's failed record on job creation as the CEO of Bain Capital. It tells the story of former employees of a company that Bain drove into bankruptcy, destroying the jobs and dreams of the people who worked there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7010,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7010","url_meta":{"origin":8136,"position":5},"title":"Fox News Hypocritically Attacks Obama&#8217;s Fundraisers While Ignoring Romney&#8217;s","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/2\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"On Monday fox News published a report that purported to unveil \"a veritable army\" of fundraisers working on behalf of President Obama's reelection. The focus of the article was a practice known as bundling where supporters solicit their family, friends, and colleagues, to make a contribution to a candidate's campaign.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8138,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8136\/revisions\/8138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}