Deliberately Misled By The Right

[Dr Ron]

From Light Up The Darkness

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=795

Our friends over at Democracy Cell Project are upset because in reports of Bush's lies on WMD stories are using an euphemism such as "deliberately misled" such as in "Half of all Americans, exactly 50%, now say the Bush administration deliberately misled Americans about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the Gallup Organization reported this morning."

That's ok--continue to say Bush deliberately misled the public. Everyone knows what it means. Let them use this euphemism and then extend this to everything else Bush has deliberately misled us about.

One mistake I think Kerry made in the 2004 election was to not stress the fact that Bush's whole campaign was based upon lying about his positions and record during the campaign, Kerry needed to point out how Bush was lying on campaign issues and then extend that to Bush lying about policy matters. There were just too many lies to try to fight each individually--it was necessary to get out the message that the entire campaign was based upon lies.

Responding to all the lies was necessary. In the past, the conventional wisdom was to avoid responding because it just gave more publicity to the lies. When dishonest attacks are responded to, it often leads to people being more likely to remember the attack rather than the response. With the ability of the right to spread lies quickly with blogs, talk radio, and right wing propaganda sources disguised as news organizations, such as Fox News, the conventional wisdom doesn't hold. A lie left unanswered quickly is considered truth.

I suspect that Kerry was too much a gentleman to call Bush a liar. The news media is reluctant to call someone a liar.. Maybe having euphemisms such as "deliberately misled" in common use will make it easier for Democrats to speak up every time we are deliberately misled by Republicans, and maybe even for reporters to include this in their reports.

During the Vietnam war, it helped strengthen the case for opponents of the war when there was common talk about the "credibility gap" from those supporting the war. It helped bring down Richard Nixon for it to be generally considered that yes, despite his earlier protests, he certainly was a crook. If we are to stop the subversion of democracy by the current GOP (that's Grand Orwellian Party) leadership, it is necessary for the public to realize how often we are being deliberately misled by the right.

[mermaid]

1. Nominated!

n/t

[Wright Patman]

2. Kerry's a fellow Bonesman

He didn't want it badly enough. He might even have been a stooge set up to take the fall.

What am I saying? Nothing else matters but the rigged voting machines really. All of the rest of what we are saying in terms of our "analysis" would only have applied to a real election with 100 percent paper ballots. We don't have those anymore.

[Dr Ron]

3. Kerry wanted it

You're confusing the media reports of Kerry rather than the real Kerry.

I saw Kerry both at a public rally and at a closed campaign event. He wanted to win.

[Rambis]

4. I saw Kerry multiple times in person

He was flabbergasted as to how anybody could support *. He said many times in speeches if you think * is doing a good job vote to for him. Then he would precede to tear apart the * record for as long as he had. Kerry never had enough time to cover everything * has fucked up. You name it * has screwed it. He never got good press and they only gave sound bites that said nothing or portrayed half of what he said. It was a systematic campaign to muddle his message and his message wasn't very good to begin with. He said over and over in personal appearences.... "I voted for the 87 billion when it was going to come out of the Bush tax cut and when I found out he would budge on that I voted against it" That statement was never clarified by any news agency anywhere!

[Dr Ron]

6. Kerry handled most issues well

He did a poor job of explaining the $87 billion dollar vote, but he did an excellent job on most issues.

[calimary]

10. But did he ever use the "L" word - as in "LIE"?

Did any of 'em?

I remember screaming til I was apoplectic about it. They LIED! They're LIARS! They LIED about the war. They LIED about the WMDs. They LIED about what Joseph Wilson said. They LIED about what everybody else said. They LIED about the reaction they just KNEW would come from the Iraqi people. They LIED about the "Coalition of the Wilting." They LIED TO the "Coalition of the Wilting" - AND to the UN. They made a LIAR out of Colin Powell, and trashed his reputation forever. They LIED about Kerry's record, in Vietnam and in the Senate. They LIED about his wife. They LIED about being "compassionate conservatives." They LIED about the economy. They LIED about bush's qualifications to be anything but a drunken nose-picker. They LIED about the virtues of his wife, daughters, and his extended family. They LIED about his running mate - and HIS extended family (Mary Cheney). They LIED about their stupid fucking tax cuts. They LIED about 9/11 - every which way from Sunday. They LIED about Clinton and his record. They LIED about...

well...

you get the idea.

What DIDN'T they lie about?

May they all burn in hell. May they all experience hell even BEFORE they die.

[Rambis]

12. He said the president needs to tell the truth

over and over but he did not directly call him the lying sack of shit that he is. I agree on that point.

[Dr Ron]

8. Also let down by surrogates

Another problem is that Democrats were'nt as skilled as being on message anywhere near as well as Republicans. It is even worse as Republicans had no problem with lying to back Bush.

Often Democratic surrogates would be interviewed on TV and not be up on the facts. For example, after the Swift Boat lies came out, there were plenty of articles refuting them, but people going on tv were often unprepared to present this informaton.

[Texas_Kat]

14. Speak for your own surrogate!

Wes Clark defended Kerry at every turn, but Kerry's people were just too weak (or incompetent) to see how much the attacks would hurt him:

Clark defends Kerry’s record, slams Bush

<Snip>
Offering a preemptive strike against expected GOP criticism of Kerry, his military record, and his decisiveness, Clark used his stature as a retired Army general and former allied supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe to vouch not only for Kerry during the Vietnam War, but also to argue that he is the most competent leader on domestic and foreign policies. ...

<snip>
Yesterday's speech by Clark, who departed the stage and left the rally immediately after his remarks, guaranteed more coverage as the Republicans convened for their quadrennial convention in New York and Kerry left for a working vacation on Nantucket.

Kerry was then introduced by Jim Rassmann, the former Army Green Beret he rescued during one of the battles now questioned by the anti-Kerry veterans.

Afterward, Kerry spokesman David Wade said of Clark: ''Obviously, he's very angry about these attacks. He does not speak for us, though."

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/08/29/clark_defends_kerry146s_record_slams_bush/

http://tinyurl.com/dz5ue

Just how lame was this kind of response from the Kerry camp?

Not only didn't they fight back, they pretty much insulted Clark when he did.

Wes Clark KNEW the impact of these kinds of attacks. Kerry's people did not AND Kerry made a huge mistake in not trusting his own instincts to fight back.

Clark is the kind of politican I intend to vote for in the future. A fighter!

[Dr Ron]

17. OK, maybe add advisors to the list

If this account is accurate, it does sound like a mistake on Wade's part. Kerry has admitted that he made a mistake listening to advisors in not responding more quickly to the Swift Boat Liars.

In saying there were problmes with surrogates I'm certainly not saying that there was a problem with every statement by every surrogate.

[Texas_Kat]

18. Thanks for your clarification.

Accurate about what Clark said.... Yes, according to eyewitnesses.

Accurate about what Wade said? It is completely in line with their 'strategy'.

Kerry's advisors acted as though they'd never been out of Massachusetts (or DC). What passes for a hard-fought campaign there is a gentle, polite discussion in Texas and other parts of the South.

Maybe THAT's why NE Dems have such a hard time in the South.

BTW, I wouldn't pass off Wade's comments as a 'mistake'. It was insulting and worse yet, a completely wrong strategy.

[Taverner]

5. I disagree

Kerry wanted to win - but with the Swift Boat liars and an owned media, he had to fight 210% harder than Bushrove to win. Problem was he only faught 209% harder...

[Dr Ron]

7. Damn--that 1% deficit was enough to kill us n/t

[xchrom]

9. one thing i hope we learn -- re: kerry and the election.

the public wanted to believe the lies bushco, the swifties and the media told.

there was enough information available to people that should have made them doubt what bush and the rest were saying -- they did not want to believe it.

we need to stop looking at our fellow citizens as misguided innocents.
they're not.

[Dr Ron]

11. Fear trumped reason

Saying they wanted to believe the lies might be a little strong. They didn't realize they were being lied to.

To the degree they were willingly gullible, it probably came down to fear of terrorism. Once they bought the false claims that Bush would keep us safer against terrorism, Kerry had little chance. People who agreed with Kerry on every other issue still voted against him out of fear.

Sure there was a lot of information available, but much was not seen. If someone listened to talk radio and watched Fox News they got t distorted picture. In many parts of the country, local news was also highlty biased.

[carnie_sf]

13. Don't forget

the able assist from Osama

[Dr Ron]

16. Twice

Osama saved Bush twice. Remember how badly he was looking as of September 10, 2001. He sure looked like a one term Preaident. 9/11 made Bush (even though he didn't deserve it) and Osama coming on again before the election also helped.

Around New Years I posted a list of Bush's New Year's Resolutions on the Unofficial Kerry Blog. I included thanking Osama on his list.

The full list is at:
http://kerryblog.blogspot.com/2004/12/george-bushs-new-years-resolutions.html

[0007]

15. I feel as you do about Kerry's mistake in not calling junior

out on all his lies and the issues on religion & patriotism.

The basic fundamentalist did help beat up Kerry with the moral majority BS in a sneaky way. I still believe that Kerry did win the presidency.

[MichiganVote]

19. I'll call a Bush a liar because there is nothing that has proven truthful

about the so called war on terrorism, Afghanistan or Iraq. It's all been a lie and the whole damn bunch of them are liars.

[MichiganVote]

20. Don't mislead your president, call him the liar he is