The October Surprise did show up but not what was expected.
Why is it some people are so adept in meaning what they don’t say?
Nice heptameter, but what are you trying to say?
This , I believe.
Oh. Well, sheesh. That’s no October surprise.
What Kerry meant is being gone over in great detail in this GD thread. My own opinion is that Kerry has never been hard to understand, and the media just pretend he is (oooh, long sentences! paragraphs!). Same with Al Gore. A pity, really.