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Wait, how in the world is that illegal? Would door-to-door canvassers who claimed to have voted for Bush but now supporting Obama be illegal?
I guess you didn't read what she had to say.
Here is one quote.
"The operation is massive, the goal is to paint a picture that is that of a winner, regardless of the results.
There is no true inauguration draft or true grant park construction going on. There will be a party, but we are boasting beyond the truth to make it seem like the election is wrapped up. Our goal is to continue to make you lose your moral. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm."
I highlighted one of the important lines. They are not trying to change votes by discussing policies. They are trying to make it seem as if the election is all but lost and that your vote doesn't matter. That would be voter suppression.
Lets assume it is true for a moment that there are a large number of paid Obama supporters here plugging for his campaign. So then why didn't the McCain campaign do the same? Why has his campaign been so 20th century using tactics and methods from the 60's instead?
That would be my question too. For a money-strapped campaign like McCain's, you'd think they would be all over paying for internet posts because it is dirt cheap...
And in fact, if you actually look at the typical comments on this forum each day -- and looked very regularly, because a LOT of threads are removed by moderators -- you'd have to come to the conclusion that the RNC is paying for posts. Why? They always use the same talking points. They post thread after thread of identical content, usually fear-provoking (very much like those robocalls and right-wing hate flyers). They don't try the pyschological tactic of "I used to be for McCain, but now..." as the democrats are usually accused of (in past elections, supposedly doing this on radio shows). Instead, it's very much the "Obama is a muslim" or "Obama was born in Kenya" style stuff that you'd see on those right-wing flyers... very much an RNC/527 style.
"The operation is massive, the goal is to paint a picture that is that of a winner, regardless of the results.
There is no true inauguration draft or true grant park construction going on. There will be a party, but we are boasting beyond the truth to make it seem like the election is wrapped up.
Our goal is to continue to make you lose your moral. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.
There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm."
Some people are so gullible.
1. If this were true, why would they post this on a fringe nut PUMA site?
2. How do you know McCain isn't paying people to write posts like this one, pretending to be Obama supporters with nefarious intentions?
Here are a few snippets from one Obama worker. You can read the whole thing at the link above. Scroll down to comment #25.
"We pay people and organize people to go to all the online sites and “play the part of a clinton or mccain supporter who just switched our support for obamaâ€
"Next, we infiltrate all the blogs and all the youtube videos and overwhelm the voting, the comments, etc. All to continue this appearance of overwhelming world support."
"The operation is massive, the goal is to paint a picture that is that of a winner, regardless of the results.
There is no true inauguration draft or true grant park construction going on. There will be a party, but we are boasting beyond the truth to make it seem like the election is wrapped up.
Our goal is to continue to make you lose your moral. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.
There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm."
What nonsense. I cannot believe how low McCain/Palin supporters will go. Where does all your hate come from? Are you just following the lead of your hateful candidates? The ones with no substantive platform? The ones who have built their entire campaign on racist fear-mongering? The two worst Americans in the world?
Again, lets assume that there are paid Obama supporters plugging for their candidate. One, how on God's green earth is that suppressing anyone's vote? Two, what is to say that McCain campaign isn't doing the same thing?
The problem with speculation, prediction, and what if scenarios is that they are much like mythology that is born in a kernel of truth but quickly go off into the realm of fantasy and conjecture as there is little if not no means of proving them one way or the other.
At best all you have is belief lacking in any empirical evidence.
There is absolutely no problem plugging for your own candidate or getting paid to plug for a candidate but if what she said was true it goes well beyond that.
Here is another quote from her.
"We do this to stifle your motivation and to destroy your confidence.
We did this the whole primary and it worked.
Sprinkle in mass vote confusion and it becomes bewildering. Most people lose patience and just give up on their support of a candidate and decide to just block out tv, news, websites, etc.
This surprisingly has had a huge suppressing movement and vote turnout issues."
And from the previously supplied explanation of voter suppression.
...aimed at suppressing (i.e. reducing) the total vote of opposition candidacies instead of attempting to change likely voting behavior by changing the opinions of potential voters
1. If this were true, why would they post this on a fringe nut PUMA site?
2. How do you know McCain isn't paying people to write posts like this one, pretending to be Obama supporters with nefarious intentions?
1. If you read her whole post she explains why she was writing it.
"The operation is massive, the goal is to paint a picture that is that of a winner, regardless of the results.
There is no true inauguration draft or true grant park construction going on. There will be a party, but we are boasting beyond the truth to make it seem like the election is wrapped up. Our goal is to continue to make you lose your moral. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm."
I highlighted one of the important lines. They are not trying to change votes by discussing policies. They are trying to make it seem as if the election is all but lost and that your vote doesn't matter. That would be voter suppression.
Here's what I can see happening. Campaign staffers (volunteers mainly AFAIK) on both sides are encouraged to get the word out about their candidate, anywhere they can. That means door-to-door, email campaigns, starting their own blogs about the issues, posting on message boards, phone calls, you name it.
But I don't see how you'd turn that into voter suppression. And no court is going to rule on your behalf because in essence they'd be restricting free speech rights. You'd also have the burden to show that they were actually suppressing votes en masse, and/or that the arguments were so effective it was causing people to not vote for the opposition on a MASSIVE scale. I'm not an attorney, but you'd have to show something pretty solid to meet the definition of MASSIVE scale. You'd have to show that not only were massive numbers of Obama campaigners getting paid to post on message boards, but that they were also able to have complete control over the discussion.
There are a lot of claims of voter suppression in every election, but I believe the great majority of the cases are thrown out. The ones that are the most successful court cases probably involve actually suppressing the voting process (illegal precinct closures, obstructionist measures for registrations, etc.). To say that people's "morale" is being tainted is way too subjective to a court of law.
One example of voter suppression that I've heard of is mailers to particular neighborhoods (that vote highly one way or the other) telling people the wrong place to vote, or the wrong day, purposely.
Knowing that you actually have to PAY to get an Obama/Biden yard sign leads me to believe that there is no way they'd pay people to post on the internet.
Before I jump to any conclusions as so many did when the McCain supporter claimed to be attacked by a big black man and "mutilated her face", I am going to place this blog posting in the category as I do most others, half hanging off my desk above the trash can.
I've been at this stuff far too long to get excited by an unsubstantiated claim from the depths of the internet blogosphere.
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