Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Anchoress

Home
Catholic
Astroturfing Palin & Race-baiting, etc UPDATED

Astroturfing Palin & Race-baiting, etc UPDATED

Last updated on: March 16, 2017 at 5:12 pm by Elizabeth Scalia

Astroturfing Palin & Race-baiting, etc UPDATED 2017-03-16T17:12:47+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

:::UPDATE:::SCROLL DOWN FOR ORIGINAL POST::: Looks like the press is mildly interested Amazing! :::END UPDATE:::

As Tom Hanks said in A League of Their Own, “it’s gettin’ interestin’ out there…”

Rusty Shackleford at The Jawa Report has traced a lying smear campaign, using a supposedly “grassroots video gone viral – and meant to destroy Gov. Sarah Palin – and he’s found that all roads lead appear to lead – note, they appear to lead – to the Axelrod side of the Obama campaign. It’s an amazing piece of work done by Jawa, and within an hour of the piece posting, various and sundry entities named began (in the middle of the night, by jove) feverishly trying to delete and dismantle. Now, now…we all know that a coverup is always worse that the actual scandal. If these folks have something to say, they should come on out and say it, don’t you think…I mean, if what they have to say is true?

This is part of Axelrod’s “astroturfing strategy” – put out something fake that “looks” real – and do it through alternative media; let the DU people and so forth throw it around so it looks like it arrived “organically.”

Sarah Palin is still in their heads – big time. As I wrote the other day, she seriously rocked the Obama campaign and the press. The proof of it is that the press is trying desperately not to cover her if they can help it. Perfunctory coverage of her email being hacked, a distortion of her dis-invitation to today’s UN protest with no media coverage of the Obama campaign’s thug-like threats to the Jewish group who invited her (“Nice little tax-exempt organization you have there…shame if something happened to it”). (By the way, here is the speech Palin would have given, and Hewitt culls the cream from it.

It is a shame that today – thanks to the apparent strong-arming of Jews by the Obama camp (and it chills me to even write that phrase) – no prominent American was at that rally, saying these strong words, voicing unequivocal support for Israel, or reassuring Jews here and abroad that someone cares about whether they’re wiped off the map.

I didn’t see ANY major coverage of Palin speaking to 60,000 people yesterday, did you? Nope. She draws a crowd like that – without a band to bring people out for the free concert, and it goes mostly unnoted. The power of the press – since their credibility is destroyed – now rests in their ability to NOT cover something, and therefore effectively omit it from the national dialogue, which it still cues.

Which means – you know it – the chances of the Obama-loving media actually reporting the story of an underhanded smear campaign, or this related story about slime-emails…well, those chances are very, very slim. So, if you care about fairness in this election, maybe make some noise? Why not? Call a local tv station and ask them to cover this. Write to the press. Be polite, be sane, but ask them why this is not news? Ask them why it is not news that the “in your face” Obama campaign ties up radio lines to thwart free speech and the open-exchange of ideas?, and how offensive they’d find that, if a Republican campaign was encouraging it! And check out the deafening silence.

Also, has the press been caught manufacturing “white racist” quotes? Nothing would surprise me anymore, and as you know, the Obama camp began playing the “unending racism card” last week, as well. Suddenly the man who could win Iowa so substantially is finding racism everywhere and that is what will cause his eventual defeat. Not his inexperience, not his gaffes. Just his race. Or that is the groundwork being laid, anyway. Check this out:

The Associated Press reported this evening and an Obama spokeswoman confirmed that the Chicago-based campaign is pulling its 50-some staffers out of the heavily Republican state full of embittered small towns and shipping the workers east to Minnesota and Wisconsin, where the Democrat’s prospects seem brighter and closer.
[…]
The abandonment of at least one Midwestern state by Obama comes as a new AP poll indicates that race could play a significant role in deciding a close national election. Some experts estimate the first African American candidate of a major party might be as much as 6 percentage points more ahead if he wasn’t black.

That AP poll was convenient, wasn’t it? I think Ed Morrissey has the sanest analysis I’ve seen on it:

I’m not going to discount this out of hand. Most conventional wisdom would have it as a wash — that the number of people not voting for Obama because of his race would be roughly offset by those voting for him expressly or primarily for that reason. Both voters exist, and examples of the latter can be found in the media.
[…]
…First, the methodology seems rather suspect. They ask several questions about attitudes that hardly seems predictive of voting patterns, and their own numbers show why. The attitudes don’t change on an age-demographic basis, while Obama’s support clearly is strongest among younger voters. If that depended on less racism, then his support demographics would make no sense (or this poll does a bad job in identifying racism). Two-thirds of Democrats who note two or more negative attitudes towards blacks plan to vote for Obama, making supposed racism a non-factor.

Fortunately, we have more solid evidence at hand. First, Obama beat Hillary Clinton, especially in caucuses, where enthusiasm counts much more than in normal primaries. Given the AP/Yahoo findings in their polling, Obama never should have beaten the better-organized and more well-known Hillary. Second, Obama has almost no resumé for this job. When was the last time a major party nominated a first-term Senator with no executive or military experience as its presidential nominee? Obama’s ethnicity may not have been the reason why Democrats nominated him with these real questions about experience, but it certainly didn’t appear to handicap him, either.

They still could be correct about their conclusions, but they need much better evidence than what they show here.

The press never stops to think that for a candidate who is the most liberal Dem since the 1960’s, to be running the same numbers as Kerry and Gore is pretty damned remarkable and evidence against the “racist” charge. But that won’t do. The narrative currently being constructed is this: It is not possible that anyone would consider Obama lacking experience in economics, finance, security issues, executive leadership, bi-partisan coalition-building or foreign affairs. Nah. As Bill Maher said, anyone who doesn’t vote for Obama can only be a moron or a racist. So, just put your brains back into your pockets and pull the damn lever for Obama, to prove you’re not either!

This goes along with my previous point. What the press does not want you to see, you will not see. What it does want you to see, you’ll see everywhere. The press wants you to see Sarah Palin and John McCain in the worst possible way, and Obama in the best. Which would be fine, if they’d just admit it and stop pretending they’re the gatekeepers and mediating intelligences who are somehow “keeping things balanced.”

In any case, here are the updates to the Shackleford expose. As I said, there has been immediate reaction, and lots of dismantling.

Instapundit links to a 2004 warning about “Blog Black-Ops”. And if you think it’s about racism, you might be a racist! :-)

Socialism doesn't work

The Fourth Estate

The Perpetual Adolescents

Previous Post

September 21, 2008

Compline for Sunday

Next Post

September 22, 2008 Election '08 re-defines everything

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the longest verse in the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Romans 8:28 John 3:16 Esther 8:9 Psalm 119:105