Dirty Tricks

"A vote for John Kerry is a vote for gay marriage," the recorded message on the other end of the autodialer spouted. Robocalls supposedly from the Kerry campaign were made to key battleground states during the 2004 presidential election, intended to paint Kerry as candidate who supports gay marriage. The Republican National Committee mailed out literature to socially conservative black Democrats in West Virgina and Arkansas, stating that if elected, John Kerry would ban the Bible! Both of those examples were not the policies of John Kerry, but none the less influenced people's voting habits. So why am I talking about things that happened during the 2004 Presidential election, because the same sly tactics seem to be happening again.

Is the Republican National Committee up to their old tricks? I believe so. Yesterday AP reporter Kelli Kennedy reported on Jewish voters in Florida and Michigan being called and asked if they would be less likely to vote for Senator Barack Obama if he was linked to the PLO and a member of his staff to Palestine. Mik Moore, co-executive director of the Jewish Council for Education & Research is not surprised by this and stated, "We see this as a disturbing but not unexpected ratcheting up of the kind of misinformation and outright lies about Obama's record that we've literally seen since he declared his candidacy." I'm sure that these types of smears will continue and attempt to sway voters with the election less than two months away.

Dirty tricks are the norm in politics, I get this-- but do people have to be so gullible? "Well Sean Hannity said Obama is a Muslim, so it must be true," or "this poller on the phone said Obama is in bed with Hamas, I better vote for McCain, we can't forget about 9/11 dag nabit!" We know that isn't true, but some people are, how can I put it, too stupid to know any better, and will believe it. Let's just hope these people do the research, or at best we try to inform them of what is true and what is false. If that doesn't happen, the Republican's next bag of gimmicks will open up and potentially cost us another election. With Karl Rove now acting as an adviser for the McCain campaign there is no telling what kind of mud slinging and tricks Obama and the Dems are in store for.




sources
Brune, Adrian. "Kerry backs Mass. amendment ". Washington Blade. 9/17/08
Daniel, Douglass. "RNC Says It Sent Mail Warning Bible Ban". Associated Press. 9/17/08.
Kennedy, Kelli. "Jewish voters report calls disparaging Obama". Associated Press. 9/17/08 .