october surprise time again ...
" The October Surprise conspiracy was an alleged plot that claimed representatives of the 1980 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign had conspired with Islamic Republic of Iran to delay the release of 52 Americans held hostage in Tehran until after the 1980 U.S. Presidential election. In exchange for their cooperation, the United States would supply weapons to Iran as well as unfreeze Iran's monetary assets being held by the US government.
Jimmy Carter had been attempting to deal with the Iran hostage crisis and the hostile regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini for nearly a year. Those who assert that a deal had been made allege that certain Republicans with CIA connections, including George H. W. Bush, arranged to have the hostages held through October until Reagan could defeat Carter in early November and then be released, thereby preventing an “October surprise” from the Carter administration. The hostages were released the day of Reagan's inauguration, twenty minutes after his inaugural address.
After twelve years of news reports looking into the alleged conspiracy, both houses of the US Congress held separate inquiries into the issue, and journalists from sources such as Newsweek and The New Republic looked into the charges. Both Congressional inquires, as well as the majority of investigative reports, found that the charges were groundless. Nevertheless, several individuals — most notably former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr and former Reagan-Bush campaign and White House staffer Barbara Honegger — continue to claim otherwise."
reportedly a photo of vera baker
the tv news talking heads were busy at work this morning analyzing the presidential campaign. Karl "turd-blossom" Rove, that great political genius --at dirty underhanded tricks -- was on fox doing exactly what i thought the republicans would do . but still to see it in action, it was eerie, even for one as jaded by Us politics as i.
when the polls reported that obama began to clearly pull farther ahead, after the third debate and the economic meltdown, and the sarah palin alaskan ice follies all took their toll on john mcCain's campaign, i figured the republican strategy would be to to publicly repudiate the polls .
all morning long beginning with turd-blossom rove on fox and repeated from program to program and channel to channel, the republicans and neo-con pundits, almost like a collective mantra, began discounting and scoffing at the accuracy of the polls.
the republicans and neo-cons couldn't deny that mcCain was dragging along in the polls --they couldn't deny the obama lead with only 9 days left in the campaign .
they couldn't deny that according to all of those tv newshow maps that obama was leading in enough states so that if the election were held today, obama would have over 300 electoral votes --needing only 270 to win.
according to those tv news show maps, even if mcCain were to somehow grab up all the electoral votes from the states that were still too close to call a leader in , their combined total would still leave mcCain falling noticibly short of the 270 mark.
"if you can't beat 'em , cheat 'em" has been the neo-con game plan inherited from the days of nixon and the watergate plumbers . from south carolina and florida in 2000, to the swiftboat campaign and ohio in 2004--it's been one dirty trick after another by the repugnantcans. that it has worked for them in a so-called democracy made up of an educated and literate population, is the most surprising thing.
my immediate feeling was that it's the political version of football's 2 minute drill. here's what it looks like :
1. spread the lie on tv news shows that the widening gap between obama and mcCain in the polls is an exaggeration. obama's not up by 13 points. he's not up 10 points. he's not up by 8 or even 5 points--according to karl rove , those polls, even though there are more than one third more of them being used now than in 2004-- "the polls are all wrong."
2. after attempting to create and keep the public perception that mcCain is still within striking distance of obama, bring on more of the "let freedom ring" type ads- the "swiftboat" ads of 2008-- that accuse obama of helping to cause the economic meltdown and then linking the fannie mae and freddie mac management to obama's campaign and claim he benefitted politically from them and the economic collapse.
3. spread to the "overseas press" the unsubstantiated rumors that even the Us media won't touch, that obama had an affair with a young and beautiful campaign worker in his 2004 senate race --enter the afore-mentioned vera baker -- then also spread the rumor that michelle obama had the woman "exiled to the carribean" to keep her away from barack--then add the rumor that hustler and penthouse magazines are vying to pay millions for her story and to do a "photo-spread" of her in their publications.
4.rely on the circulating scandals and negative "swiftboat" ads and labels like "liberal", "leftlane" , and "socialist" to creat enough doubt among voters so that the "latest" polls the neo-cons commission can claim the gap between the candidates has narrowed to where it is only 1 to 3 points-- within the margin of error for polls
5. then at this point, using the election rigging software the repugnantcans commissioned back in 2000, described by clint curtis, and used in previous elections ,will guarantee a 51% to 49% come back victory for mcCain and his ditzy palin. the polls the evening of election day in 2004 indicated bush would lose by a landslide --when told this by some of his own staff, bush laughed it off --he knew the fix was in. the next day the headlines read bush 51 kerry 49.
on election day 2008 i hope we don't end up this time reminded of the immortal words of yogi berra "it looks like deja vu all over again"
Jimmy Carter had been attempting to deal with the Iran hostage crisis and the hostile regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini for nearly a year. Those who assert that a deal had been made allege that certain Republicans with CIA connections, including George H. W. Bush, arranged to have the hostages held through October until Reagan could defeat Carter in early November and then be released, thereby preventing an “October surprise” from the Carter administration. The hostages were released the day of Reagan's inauguration, twenty minutes after his inaugural address.
After twelve years of news reports looking into the alleged conspiracy, both houses of the US Congress held separate inquiries into the issue, and journalists from sources such as Newsweek and The New Republic looked into the charges. Both Congressional inquires, as well as the majority of investigative reports, found that the charges were groundless. Nevertheless, several individuals — most notably former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr and former Reagan-Bush campaign and White House staffer Barbara Honegger — continue to claim otherwise."
reportedly a photo of vera baker the tv news talking heads were busy at work this morning analyzing the presidential campaign. Karl "turd-blossom" Rove, that great political genius --at dirty underhanded tricks -- was on fox doing exactly what i thought the republicans would do . but still to see it in action, it was eerie, even for one as jaded by Us politics as i.
when the polls reported that obama began to clearly pull farther ahead, after the third debate and the economic meltdown, and the sarah palin alaskan ice follies all took their toll on john mcCain's campaign, i figured the republican strategy would be to to publicly repudiate the polls .
all morning long beginning with turd-blossom rove on fox and repeated from program to program and channel to channel, the republicans and neo-con pundits, almost like a collective mantra, began discounting and scoffing at the accuracy of the polls.
the republicans and neo-cons couldn't deny that mcCain was dragging along in the polls --they couldn't deny the obama lead with only 9 days left in the campaign .
they couldn't deny that according to all of those tv newshow maps that obama was leading in enough states so that if the election were held today, obama would have over 300 electoral votes --needing only 270 to win.
according to those tv news show maps, even if mcCain were to somehow grab up all the electoral votes from the states that were still too close to call a leader in , their combined total would still leave mcCain falling noticibly short of the 270 mark.
"if you can't beat 'em , cheat 'em" has been the neo-con game plan inherited from the days of nixon and the watergate plumbers . from south carolina and florida in 2000, to the swiftboat campaign and ohio in 2004--it's been one dirty trick after another by the repugnantcans. that it has worked for them in a so-called democracy made up of an educated and literate population, is the most surprising thing.
my immediate feeling was that it's the political version of football's 2 minute drill. here's what it looks like :
1. spread the lie on tv news shows that the widening gap between obama and mcCain in the polls is an exaggeration. obama's not up by 13 points. he's not up 10 points. he's not up by 8 or even 5 points--according to karl rove , those polls, even though there are more than one third more of them being used now than in 2004-- "the polls are all wrong."
2. after attempting to create and keep the public perception that mcCain is still within striking distance of obama, bring on more of the "let freedom ring" type ads- the "swiftboat" ads of 2008-- that accuse obama of helping to cause the economic meltdown and then linking the fannie mae and freddie mac management to obama's campaign and claim he benefitted politically from them and the economic collapse.
3. spread to the "overseas press" the unsubstantiated rumors that even the Us media won't touch, that obama had an affair with a young and beautiful campaign worker in his 2004 senate race --enter the afore-mentioned vera baker -- then also spread the rumor that michelle obama had the woman "exiled to the carribean" to keep her away from barack--then add the rumor that hustler and penthouse magazines are vying to pay millions for her story and to do a "photo-spread" of her in their publications.
4.rely on the circulating scandals and negative "swiftboat" ads and labels like "liberal", "leftlane" , and "socialist" to creat enough doubt among voters so that the "latest" polls the neo-cons commission can claim the gap between the candidates has narrowed to where it is only 1 to 3 points-- within the margin of error for polls
5. then at this point, using the election rigging software the repugnantcans commissioned back in 2000, described by clint curtis, and used in previous elections ,will guarantee a 51% to 49% come back victory for mcCain and his ditzy palin. the polls the evening of election day in 2004 indicated bush would lose by a landslide --when told this by some of his own staff, bush laughed it off --he knew the fix was in. the next day the headlines read bush 51 kerry 49.
on election day 2008 i hope we don't end up this time reminded of the immortal words of yogi berra "it looks like deja vu all over again"
posted by dsekou at 8:38 AM
1 comments
