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The idea of the autumn game-changer dates at least to President Lyndon Johnson, who announced a halt to bombing in Vietnam on Oct. 31, 1968, giving a boost to the campaign of Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Richard Nixon won that race anyway. Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign benefited greatly from an October announcement by his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, that "peace is at hand" in Vietnam, which proved premature. Other autumn surprises that rocked presidential campaigns: Oct. 29, 2004: Osama bin Laden releases a video threatening more attacks unless the U.S. changes its ways. Oct. 12, 2000: Al-Qaida in Yemen terrorists blow a hole in the USS Cole as it sits in port, killing 17 sailors. Oct. 1, 1992: Billionaire Ross Perot, who had impulsively quit his third-party presidential bid in July, jumps back in. "Sometimes it seems that we're at the mercy of events, instead of shaping events," Romney told supporters Wednesday. He was referring to the United States and its role in the world. The same could be said, however, of presidential campaigns.
It was widely reviled as a terrorist calling for Americans to vote against their president, George W. Bush, and instead strengthened the president's campaign. John Kerry would later contend that the video cost him the race. "It changed the entire dynamic of the last five days," Kerry said.
The gut-wrenching shock to the nation didn't have a clear impact on the race between Gore and Bush. Later, a minor November surprise
-- the revelation that Bush had been arrested on a misdemeanor drunken driving charge back in 1976
-- stirred Republican indignation because it came just five days before the election. Voters shrugged it off.
Perot got a spot in the presidential debates alongside President George H.W. Bush and Clinton, leaving them scrambling to respond, and ended up sucking votes from both sides.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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