Ya know, I have really never seen a suprise birthday party go off without a hitch.
I wonder which would be harder to keep secret, this or that.
There just ain't no figuring with some people.
Ironic you should point that out. 23 years ago my wife threw a surprise 40th for me. She was hostess at a restaurant frequented by our corporate people and invited many of them, including the president, VP's, etc. She asked our Industrial Relations manager to get me there. Well, he invited me, and I showed up. Except, he wasn't there yet (in the bar, the party, unknown to me, was in a banquet room). I waited 5 minutes and left. Instead of going home, I went into town and wandered the streets for a couple hours because it was 'sidewalk sale' days in our town.
No one could find me. The IR guy was out scouring other bars thinking I'd stopped for a drink. Wrong! Our VP of mfg. told my wife "Nice party Julie, too bad Jim couldn't be here".
I finally went home and our son immediately called his mom. My boss and the IR man (all the worse for hitting those bars) came over, hauled me out of the house, and brought me to the restaurant. By then only half the people were still around. To this day she swears she'll never do anything like that again.
You're right. There's always something to go wrong. It's doubtful, IMHO, that anyone who rises to the level of POTUS, or serves directly under him, would be so stupid as to plan and execute such a thing.
It boggles my mind that the DU'ers can't figure out this basic thing.