Okay, sure, I’ll fall for it and link to An October Surprise website
A reader writes:
Good morning! Any guesses as to what this referencing????
The tweets for the website (private to protect their sources) say the campaign knows about it and is scared. “It has the potential to change the election into a landslide.” This will come out right before the last debate on Monday and I would guess if it is truly something, it will shake the guilty one to the core (fingers crossed it is Obama).
I can’t see anti-Obama voters suddenly voting for him en masse after we have documented his illegal moves for the last 4 yrs (they would stay home if anything) but I could see some Obama voters seeing the light. Some, alas, will NEVER see the light even if he killed Hillary on the White House lawn in broad daylight by chewing off her head high on bath salts, as long as they get their freebies.
The link is to An October Suprise, which promises a game changing document release on October 22, just before the final debate:
One of your presidential candidates isn’t being honest with you. Stay tuned to find out which one it is.
The webite even has a countdown clock:
The game changer is being teased on Twitter with tweets like these:
‘This has the propensity to turn this election from a nail-biter into the biggest electoral landslide since 1984′ – our source
— October Surprise (@OctSurprise) October 15, 2012
At the debate tonight, one candidate might look exceptionally nervous. They already know what the #octsurprise is.
— October Surprise (@OctSurprise) October 16, 2012
Update 10-19-2012: In the An October Surprise hoax there was a truth.
Comments
I have gazed into my crystal ball and see that the Intel community has had their fill of being called inept, stupid, lying, bumblers and are going to release some very damning info on Libya attack etc.
At this point, I’m thinking it’s related to Bain. If that’s the case, all it takes is *one* disgruntled employee and Axelrod’s Chicago strategy to collude in nasty subterfuge.
The latest “hint” states it relates to something mentioned at both the VP and second debate. I am concerned it will be something negative pertaining to Mitt’s wealth/financial background, too. One of the Twitter followers was a co-worker, ardent Obama supporter; can’t imagine anything from Chicago being positive for Romney.
If it has anything to do with Romney not paying taxes in one year or another, it won’t alter the race one bit. That is baked into the cake. The people that care about that are already against him. 6 pages of documents wouldn’t be enough to even cover the scope of Mitt’s returns, they probably run into the 100′s of pages every year.
Not to mention they would have to be obtained through illegal means and the 2 guys who we already know are involved would be subjecting themselves to some serious legal problems. I don’t think they have the balls for that.
I am leaning toward it being a hoax at this point given they did one before. If they do work for Discovery, at some point their employer is going to frown on this sort of thing. Finally, I just don’t believe that anyone who had a major smoking gun that would truly alter the election outcome would come to these dorks to put it out. There are so many other outlets that would could be used that would have a far greater impact. They are trying to generate attention to themselves and are having a good laugh at the same time.
I had sent a video as a joke back in 2007 about Obama, and was put on an email list from moveon.org. as a result. I received this email recently, read about the printer. Wonder if this has anything to do with this. (I’m in the chgo area)
Subject: Joe-mentum
With the presidential race neck-and-neck, we need a stellar voter turnout boost to get progressives to the polls. Well, guess what! We’ve got a method so effective we can’t even give all the details away—and we’ve got an unexpected, one-day opportunity to ramp it up. Can you chip in?
Chip in $5
Dear MoveOn member,
Phew! Last night, Joe Biden kicked butt and may have put the brakes on Mitt Romney’s rise. That would be very good, because Romney is ahead right now in most national polls,1 even as President Obama has kept a narrowing lead in swing states.2
With the race so close, a huge progressive get-out-the-vote effort is the best way to make sure it goes our way.
With that in mind, yesterday we figured out a way to target 3 million more potential voters with the secret weapon we told you about 2 weeks ago—our new technique that tested 3.7 times more powerful, dollar-for-dollar, than conventional voter turnout methods.
This is big news! I thought we were limited to targeting 8 million people. But yesterday, after looking at the polling numbers, we called the printer (yep, there’s a printer involved) and begged. He found more paper and press time—enough to target millions more potential progressive voters in Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio! That’s crucial because if President Obama can hold two of these states, Romney’s path to victory is basically impossible.
It’ll cost $475,000, and we can commit if we raise a good chunk of that today.
And here’s more good news—when we figured out we could go bigger, we called a close ally, who agreed to match the first $125,000 donated with their own efforts. So your money could go twice as far.
Can you chip in $5 to help us double down on this powerful new way to get out the progressive vote?
Please chip in whatever you can right now—we have to commit today. Together with the thousands of MoveOn members who will be out knocking on doors and hitting the phones over the next four weeks, I believe this strategy will be enough to tip the balance.
This race is too close to leave to chance! Please chip in now.
Yes, I can contribute $5.
Thanks for all you do.
–Anna, Ilya, Laura, Wes, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “Romney ahead in four new national polls,” The Hill, October 11, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=282438&id=54600-14707137-QPiRgTx&t=5
2. “Swing state polls echo national trend: Mitt Romney on the rise,” The Christian Science Monitor, October 11, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=282439&id=54600-14707137-QPiRgTx&t=6
Here’s the original email where we described this amazing breakthrough:
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We’ve invented a breakthrough new technique for turning out HUGE numbers of progressive voters. It’s been tested with 170,000 voters—and we got the most exciting results in MoveOn’s history! We want to roll it out nationwide to save the Senate, win back the House, and hold on to the White House.
WOW! At 5 PM on Friday, a major partner offered to match every dollar donated, up to $500,000. So you’ll now get twice the bang for your buck! Can you chip in?
Chip in $5
Dear MoveOn member,
I think we may have just discovered the silver bullet that could help us win the whole election.
Two weeks ago, we ran a secret test of a new voter turnout method in a state primary election. There were 170,000 voters in the study. We just got back the results, and our new method was 3.7 times more effective, dollar for dollar, than the best techniques used by campaigns today. Take a look at this simple chart:
Making phone calls |==
Sending mail |=====
Going door-to-door |=======
OUR NEW METHOD |=========================
Let me put that in perspective: Normally, we’re delighted if we figure out something that gives us a 10% improvement. This test showed a 370% improvement.
This alone could be enough to tip the balance in the Senate, help Democrats win the House—and maybe even flip two or three swing states.
The challenge: We had no idea we’d get such great results, and to have everything ready in time, we need to commit by Monday!! Which means we have to raise a good portion of the entire $3 million budget by then. Arrgh!
But things are suddenly looking up, because at 5 PM on Friday, I got a call from a major partner who’s as excited about this project as we are. They’re offering to match every dollar donated, up to $500,000, with their own efforts! That means you’ll get twice the bang for your buck.
So, whatever you’re doing right now, can you take three minutes to make a contribution so that we can use this incredibly powerful new voter turnout method across the country? This is the moment to open up your wallet for this election. Seriously. CODE RED. Please help!
Yes, I will contribute $5 to help us deploy our new voter turnout method in every close race this year!
I don’t want to look back on Nov. 7—the day after the election—and think, “If only we had a bit more money in late September, we could’ve won those two crucial Senate races! Or (God forbid) we could’ve run up the margin enough to keep Republicans from stealing the election!” And I KNOW you don’t want to be thinking, “If only I and a few other people had chipped in the price of a pizza, we’d be celebrating right now!”
So I’m trying to make this as clear as I can. This is the most promising set of test results we’ve EVER seen at MoveOn.
I can’t give all the details of what we figured out, because we don’t want the other side to know. So this has to be somewhat vague. But basically, we took groundbreaking research from social psychology, and for the first time, applied it to voting. And, wow, it really worked!
The question is whether we can raise enough money in the next few days to roll it out nationally. If just 30,000 of us chip in, we can change the outcome of this election. Can you chip in?
Yes, I want to make a donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Anna, Ilya, Laura, Wes, and the rest of the team
Want to support our work? MoveOn Civic Action is entirely funded by our 7 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.
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by the way, I’m from chgo and very pro Romney, along with everyone I know
The Daily Caller has a piece on this today, suggesting that users of Fark have uncovered the owners of the site and that it was planned as a giant “Rickroll”.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/18/octsuprise-com-is-just-one-big-rick-roll-say-farkers/
#1. If they had some information that would turn the election and are using moveon.org lists, why would moveon.org or soros not pay for the whole shebang? This sounds like a con. I wonder if these guys were kicked out of Nigeria? Maybe for not ponying up enough bribes or their fair share to officials? BTW, didn’t we read a week or so ago that these scams would crop up supposedly supporting both sides.
Having been outed by internet sleuths at FARK, the pranksters detonated the RickRoll last night: http://www.octsurprise.com . [Safe.]
Their comments: “Sorry folks. Did NOT expect this level of interest. Apologies! Jokes! Vote! Sorry for the most predictable rick roll ever.”