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A Forged Letter Almost Becomes Garfield’s ‘Death Warrant’
James Garfield was a Republican candidate. A fake letter emerged that was really bad for Garfield's vote. People didn't know it was fake but he had already lost California -
FDR Almost Loses the Black Vote
Stephen Early, press aide to FDR, kneed a Black Cop in the crotch. This action made FDR almost lose the black vote for good, but he still won. -
Kissinger Prematurely Announces ‘Peace’ in Vietnam
In the days coming up to the 1968 election, Hubert Humphrey created actions to show peace starting in Vietnam, but got quickly backtracked as fighting ramped up before the election. In 1972, Nixon's aide, Henry Kissinger, claimed that 'peace was at hand This statement was premature, as fighting continued for another 3 years, but Nixon won in a landslide. -
Reagan Campaign Coins the Term ‘October Surprise’
One of Reagan's big campaign points was that Jimmy Carter wasn't able to free the hostages held in Iran at the time, and that he would be able to. Reagan's campaign manager feared that Carter already had a deal worked out, and that he would announce it days before the election in an effort to sway voters. This ended up coining the term "October Surprise". This never ended up happening, and as a result Reagan won the election. -
Iran-Contra Indictment Is Bad News for George H.W. Bush
Ronald Reagan was still in a scandal years after his presidency, where he was accused of allowing weapons sales to Iran in order to funnel money to the Contras, an anti-socialist army in Nicaragua. Caspar Weinberger, who was the secretary of defense under both Reagan and Bush, was later indicted in the case, meaning that he played a role or at the very least knew. The issue came when the opposite party started making connections to Bush, claiming that since he was also VP, he also knew. He lost. -
A DUI Almost Derails George W. Bush
In a tight race between Al Gore and George H. Bush, a last minute story was pushed out against Bush from 24 years earlier when he got a DUl in Maine. while that didn't decide the race, it made it a whole lot closer. Gore lost Florida by about 1,000 votes. A recount was asked for in 5 counties, when after the lead was only around 500 votes, their was evidence of fraud brought up at that point, so a request to recount the whole state was put to the supreme court. the vote was 5-4 against recount. -
FBI Reopens Probe into Clinton’s Emails
There were many surprises during the 2016 election. It just so happened that the 1 asset to the election was the FBI reopening the case involving Clinton's Private email server. Clinton reportedly deleted over 30,000 emails and republicans were pressing that fact the entire election cycle. She still won the popular vote, but lost the overall election.