When an October Surprise Doesn’t Surprise

John Heilemann: “One result of this utterly unimaginable, genuinely bonkers chain of events is that both the Harris and Trump campaigns, the press, and voters are already hyper-attuned to the outlandish craziness of this election year and have been conditioned, in a way, to consider stunning, unprecedented turns of events par for the course in 2024. Against the backdrop of what’s already happened in the presidential race, an October without an October surprise—or several October surprises—would be the only real surprise.”

“Thus both campaigns are buckled down, carefully planning rallies, media interviews, grinding it out with their ground games, each seemingly of the belief that they’re in the lead, not wanting to rock the boat. But, at the same time, everyone is on high alert, eyes peeled for the appearance of black swans, flash hurricanes, or other signs of ominous glitches in the matrix.”