When Your Policies Don’t Persuade, Steal the Election
by matt at 6:30 am on October 27th, 2004 in Bush Man DateEver wonder how the President can be so smug about his chances for reelection even though his record should ensure him a spot in the one-term hall of shame next to his father? Remember the footage of the Bush family on election night 2000 when it looked as if Al Gore would carry Florida and thus the election? Some call it confidence, I call it a fix.
Think 2000 won’t happen again? Think again, because it’s already happening:
The election was over the night of the first Presidential debate, the last debate if you really want to be charitable to the President. The American people saw their choices, and realized that they only had one choice. But for some suspect polling methods, general laziness by the media (who pay to produce the polls), and fear tactics by the administration, it would be obvious that John Kerry is clearly ahead where this race counts: the swing states.
From Tuesday’s American Morning on CNN:
CNN anchor Bill Hemmer: I don’t know if you saw the front page of The Washington Post this morning, but a big front line story about the problems that are anticipated in Ohio. Based on what you have seen to this point, Governor, is there anything that would raise a red flag for you come November 3?
Ohio Governor Bob Taft: Well, we’ve had a lot of fraudulent voter registrations already, mostly by those 527 groups. There will be unprecedented scrutiny of this election on both sides. There’ll be more election monitors and judges than we have ever seen before. We have four counties where you have more voters registered than you have 18 and over population.
For a Republican party outcast, Taft sure knows the talking points. Blame the 527s who are doing their best to make sure that as many people as possible have a chance to vote, mislead the voters by mentioning that there are more registered voters than 18+ population when you know full well that the census numbers are four years old and people die and move away without removing themselves from the rolls. But more insidious is the talk about lawyers and judges at the polling places. What better way to depress minority turnout than to make them think there is a chance that they will get into unrelated legal trouble just because they showed up at the polls.
This going on in every swing state in which Republicans have control.
I’ll add on to one of Bill Clinton’s laws of politics from a Kerry rally earlier this week. The Cohen Corollary: If one party is doing everything they can to get you to vote and the other party is doing everything they can to stop people from voting, you better vote for the one who wants you to vote.