The October surprise is the stunning event that upends an election. The surprise of all time was the financial implosion of 2008, which turned a squeaker between John McCain and Barack Obama into a bout for the ages, making the fatherless waif from the Hawaiian islands our very first nonwhite head of state.

This year, as it went, we had three such surprises. Sept. 18 brought about the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an event stunning but not unexpected. It turned grief into rage on the part of the Democrats when President Trump (not a surprise for any president) replaced her with someone who shared his own views on jurisprudence and not Ginsburg’s.