Coincidence ~ real life and fiction

I've always been fascinated by coincidences.  I wrote about coincidences in January 2020, in the last paragraph of an August 2020 post, in January 2019, in February 2015, and many other times.  I'm back to do it all over again.

I watched part of the vice-presidential debate last night (see photo above, where Kamala Harris tried to stop an interruption by Vice President Mike Pence by saying "I'm speaking").  Then I went to sleep, and this morning picked up my book to read another short story from the very thick book on time travel I wrote about in my last post.  The next story was "The Final Days" by David Langford, first published in 1981.  It's VERY short — only four pages (pp. 257-260).  Here are some words I highlighted:

• "a nation of watchers" (p. 257).
• "What would be your first act as President, Mr. Ferris?" (p. 257).
• "a mugger came up to me. One of those scum who will be swept from the streets when our program of police reform goes through" (p. 258).
• "a Presidential campaign" (p. 258).
• "newspaper predictions of opinion polls ... we politicians ... today's voters" (p. 259).
• "In four days you will be President" (p. 259).
• "He refused to draw the car's shades, of course, preferring to remain visible to the public behind his bullet-proof glass" (p. 259).
• "Soviets ... China ..." (p. 260).
• "ready to risk even his reputation for the good of Democracy" (p. 260).
• "The Good Of The Nation" (p. 260).
• "The eyes of time were upon him.  He knew he would not fail them" (p. 260).

The quotes are like sound bites from today's news.  The story is about "watchers" from the future who would come back to watch events like presidential debates of those who would one day be very famous. That's an amazing coincidence, to be reading that immediately after watching a vice-presidential debate that was trying to repair the ridiculously childish recent presidential debate.  About that earlier debate, John Pavlovitz posted today,  this president "has fallen to the occasion."