Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Vigilance

by BooMan
Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 07:35:18 PM EST

How do you steal an election in which the polls show an overwhelming advantage for your opponent? First, you must create a narrative that explains the theft. In the close elections of 2002, 2004, and 2006 small explanations, or in 2004, NO explanations were all that were required. But the polls are currently showing wide leads for many Democrats. Therefore, it's time to start seeding the public for possibly mind-numbing differences between the polls and the count. Mike Allen and James Carney of Time and GOP strategist Ken Mehlman get to work. Emphasis added.

The polls keep suggesting that Republicans could be in for a historic drubbing. And their usual advantage--competence on national security--is constantly being challenged by new revelations about bungling in Iraq. But top Republican officials maintain an eerie, Zen-like calm. They insist that the prospects for their congressional candidates in November's midterms have never been as bad as advertised and are getting better by the day. Those are party operatives and political savants whose job it is to anticipate trouble. But much of the time they seem so placid, you wonder whether they know something.
They do. What they know is that just six days after George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, his political machine launched a sophisticated, expensive and largely unnoticed campaign aimed at maintaining G.O.P. majorities in the House and Senate. If that campaign succeeds, it would defy history and political gravity, both of which ordain that midterm elections are bad news for a lame-duck President's party, especially when the lame duck has low approval ratings. As always, a key part of the campaign involves money--the national Republican Party is dumping at least three times as much into key states as its Democratic counterpart is--but money is only the start. "Panic results when you're surprised," says Republican National Committee (R.N.C.) chairman Ken Mehlman. "We've been preparing for the toughest election in at least a decade."

Vigilance.

Vigilance | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Vigiliance (none / 0)

We start by spelling vigilance correctly in the title!

by Arminius on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 07:53:50 PM EST

Re: Vigilance (none / 1)

Don't you get that same, eerie feeling of calm as you realize that you've descended into madness, that the end is near, that there is now nothing you can do and the 80 foot wave is about to come crashing down on you | the oncoming truck is about to put your lights out for good | the men in the white coats have arrived? (Take your pick)

Well, here's hopin' anyway.

I for one welcome our new Twitter overlords. @Omir55

by Omir the Storyteller (omir.the.storyteller -CAT- gmail -DOG- com) on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 08:12:42 PM EST

War on VIGILANCE (none / 0)

The title of this story has pushed me over the edge. I was thinking the other day about the extreme OVERUSE of the word VIGILANCE since the era of Bush and terrorism, and yet what does VIGILANCE really stand for and/or mean. Is it the cover-up word for decent into fascism, or is it a meaningless word one uses when one has no other meaningful term to use to describe a tough issue??

Can't figure out how to prevent nuclear war, well the answer must be to ask for more public VIGILANCE!

Can figure out how to cure cancer, well the answer must be to ask for more public VIGILANCE!

Can't figure out how to stop gun violence in Lancaster's Amish country, well the answer must be to ask for more public VIGILANCE!

And finally, can't figure out how to stop terrorism, well the answer must be to ask for more public VIGILANCE!

Whenever the Dems take over power again, I hope they make the banning of the use of the word VIGILANCE a major campaign promise!

by NG on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 08:50:59 PM EST

Actually it's a quote from Barry Goldwater (none / 0)

"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom."

And I'm honestly not sure how that plays today, given the fact that Goldwater -- who's still the patron saint of modern conservatism -- has been resurrected as an odd sort of liberal hero in the last few months...

Become a Card-Carrying Green!

by GreenSooner (greensooner@NOSPAMintergate.com) on Tue Oct 3rd, 2006 at 03:20:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Did I understand this right? (none / 0)

The ease, the inevitability, of election fraud is now on Fox News?

So just what are you proposing is the GOP plan?

The only plan I can think of looks like post-Watergate:

The Dems get their turn, but somehow are eerily ineffective to carry on the mantle of the New Deal (but then, they won't be being PAID to carry on the mantle of the New Deal), the media rejoices--now that those nasty Bush years are BEHIND us!--and everybody somehow just forgets to repeal the torture legislation and the PATRIOT Acts or rebuild New Orleans, or repeal the bankruptcy laws . . .

Oh yes: And the worst of the worst will find Jesus, and everybody will just be so happy that those poor criminals' souls are now saved that no one will remember to ask about the murders and tortures that they personally signed off on; we certainly won't remember the victims, who certainly should shut up and join the joy that their abusers are now going to heaven, and that goes for the Jersey girls too; we just don't want to hear all that old, negative stuff about why is there no investigation of how their loved ones died; it's a bright new day and the past is over . . .

Is THAT the plan? Or something else?

Or is the key in the phrase 5%--that they will merely claim the other e-machines were NOT hacked, and move on from there?

Of course there is that new proof of citizenship legislation: I am vague on the details, but it sounds as if 90% of the electorate can be refused at the polls for inadequate documentation, and this one is a real piece of work:

"You can't vote. Where is your ID?"

"What about my drivers license?"

"Not good enough: It doesn't prove your citizenship. No, you don't have an ID that we recognize as valid."

"You won't issue me one."

"That's your problem, not ours. NEXT!"

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 09:59:22 PM EST

Re: Did I understand this right? (none / 0)

i reckon the post-watergate option it is.

Never doubt that one random crackpot going apeshit over nothing can change the world. Indeed, nothing else ever does.

by Simon Malthus on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 11:21:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Vigilance (none / 0)

great catch. thanks.

Never doubt that one random crackpot going apeshit over nothing can change the world. Indeed, nothing else ever does.

by Simon Malthus on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 11:22:27 PM EST

Vigilance | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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