Episode 354 GEORGE H. W. BUSH 1992 The Changing of the Guard (Part 36) The October Surprise (Guest Starring Ronald Reagan)

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In this episode I really want to give you the feeling that George H. W. Bush had finally turned the corner because that was what was really happening at the end of the 1992 campaign. After a tough primary challenge from a surprisingly strong Pat Buchanan, an upstart billionaire in Ross Perot jumping in who had a personal ax to grind with Bush going back many years, and then a formidable, charismatic, Southern Governor in Bill Clinton to face at the head of a resurgent Democratic Party, all combined with a struggling economy, George Bush finally had some momentum heading into the final week of the campaign. 

The economy had seen some improvement with a 2.8% growth rate in the the third quarter of 1992, and Bush was seeing many of his initiative's bearing fruit out in the electorate. Plus, Bush was seen by everyone as having been a very effective foreign policy President, it seemed that the doubts about the other two leading candidates had finally started to settle in, and people were coming home to the President.  The polls by the Wednesday prior to the election had the race in a statistical dead heat. Bush was energized by all the good news and he had one strong card that he was about to play in the final weekend. 

That card was former President Ronald Reagan, the most popular public figure in a generation, and he was out on the trail for the final time in order to help his former Vice President. All the news for Bush seemed good, Clinton and his team were worried. 

And then, the sinister hand of the most evil office ever created by our country would strike again. The Iran Contra Special Prosecutor would indict former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and several others, and they would document dump a number of records into the debate including notes , that everyone had already known existed, that contradicted Bush's earlier statements about his knowledge of the Iran Contra Affair and the sale of weapons to Iran for the release of hostages. 

The results of that October Surprise engineered by the Special Prosecutor was the stopping of all of that momentum, the Clinton Campaign pounced on the news, and the momentum of the entire election swung totally back to the Governor in those final four days. It would lead to hard and bitter feelings amongst Republicans that to this day have never faded away and cemented in the mind of one Republican, our Host Randal Wallace, that their has never been a more evil office than the Special Prosecutor's Office in our system of government, and that the use of lawfare so flagrantly is the root source of much of the bitter divisiveness that has finally  ground our system to halt 32 years later. 

Questions or comments at , [e-mail] , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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