Hurricane Sandy - The October Surprise

Move over, Donald Trump. Take a hike, Gloria Allred! These two publicity hounds have tried, and failed, to unleash the dreaded October Surprise that comes with every Presidential race. But Hurricane Sandy is doing one helluva' job of throwing a gigantic monkey wrench into an already tight race. If President Obama does a reasonably good job of handling this crisis, he'll win. If he fails, or if there is some major screw-up by some fed, he loses.

Is it fair to keep on playing politics during a natural disaster? Of course not. In baseball, games are called when it begins to rain. The tarps come out and everyone goes home. But this is Presidential Baseball, and like it or not, Barack Obama is the dude on the mound. True, he's mostly throwing screwballs, but look who he's playing against.

He's bearing down right now, in the closing innings. He's canceled political events and is instead sending email blasts every five minutes so everyone knows he's on top of this thing. He might be out there right now, helping someone with sandbags.

But if Hurricane Sandy sends one right into the glove of one his FEMA dudes, who then proceeds to drop the ball, Obama will be blamed and the game will be over.

In regular baseball, no pitcher is held responsible for a fielding error. If the runner scores, it's considered unearned. But this is Presidential Baseball, baby.

Now Romney is in the bullpen, warming up. He's got a screwball, too. It might be better than Obama's. It might be worse. With a name like Mitt, he should make no errors. But if Obama gets us out of the inning, we'll never know. If Obama fails, the American people will send in the reliever.