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June 20, 2009 at 23:34:09

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Promoted to Headline (H3) on 6/20/09:

Obama won by MILLIONS MORE than we've been told

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By Mark Crispin Miller (about the author)     Page 2 of 2 page(s)

opednews.com     Permalink

The reason why Beam's logic is so tortured, and why he and his editors don't see the need for any evidence to back up his fantastic claims, is that the only rational explanation for "the gap" in question is that millions of Americans were variously disenfranchised on Election Day; and that's a fact (i.e., not mere speculation) that neither Beam nor his superiors --nor most US reporters, left and right--can let themselves perceive.

For all of them, the copious and specific evidence of vote suppression and election fraud last year does not exist. Period. Their blinders keep them happily unmindful of--and, therefore, indifferent to--the millions who'd been  "legally" purged from the voter rolls by BushCo's DoJ, or purged illegally by partisan administrators and/or party operatives, or kept from voting by too few machines (there having been--again--long, long, long lines in Democratic precincts only), or had their votes flipped electronically (with or without their seeing it happen), or disinformed, or misdirected, or intimidated; and so on.

Although such moves have long since been well-documented by election monitors, both individual and institutional, our press remains convinced that all of that is only so much "theory" ("conspiracy theory"). Thus they can't report what's right in front of them-- any more than they can see, or say, what also really happened in this decade's prior elections:

Chances are, Obama's landslide won't last forever. Retroactive vote reporting tends to be a proxy for popularity. Just ask George W. Bush. In a 2006 NYT poll, more people said they voted for John Kerry in 2004 than voted for Bush.


For Beam, it's just not possible--a flood of studies notwithstanding--that all those people who, in 2006, "said they voted for John Kerry" actually did vote for him. No, those people were all simply wrong--just "lying," or "forgetful," or somehow embarrassed that they hadn't voted for Bush/Cheney, and so "would rather not admit it to a pollster."

And so, as far as Slate's concerned (and Slate, remember, is a liberal site), what people say about their votes  is just as unimportant as those votes themselves.

The "liberal media," in short, does not much care about, or for, democracy; and neither do the Democrats (or Pres. Obama). And so it's up to all the rest of us to face the facts about what really happened in the last election (and the ones before), or we will never, ever, get the change we voted for, and must keep fighting for.

MCM


Lies, Damn Lies, and Votes for Obama
Why do so many people say they voted for the president when they didn't?
By Christopher Beam

http://www.slate.com/id/2220803/?from=rss
Even as Americans grow skeptical of various Democratic policies, President Obama's approval rating hovers at a robust 63 percent. People like him so much, in fact, that many say they voted for him-even when they didn't.
In the 2008 election, Obama won 53 percent of the votes; John McCain got 46 percent. But two new polls, conducted by the Wall Street Journal/NBC and the New York Times/CBS, show Obama winning by a much wider margin.
When respondents were asked by the WSJ whom they voted for in the 2008 presidential elections, 41 percent said they voted for Obama, compared with 32 percent for McCain. Factor out the 18 percent who said they didn't vote, and you've got Obama beating McCain by 11 points, 50 percent to 39 percent.
The gap in the New York Times poll is even wider. In it, 48 percent of respondents said they voted for Obama, compared with 25 percent for McCain. Again, subtract the 19 percent who say they didn't vote, and you've got Obama winning by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, with 60 percent to McCain's 32 percent.
What gives? Are people really lying about having voted for Obama?
Yes, they are.

The takeaway lesson, though, is that asking someone whom they voted for may not be the best predictor of future behavior. Polls tend to ask for voting history in order to provide cross-tabs: How many McCain voters support Obama's health plan? How many Obama voters think he's doing a bad job? But if the numbers of Obama and McCain voters are themselves hazy, then maybe they're a poor barometer for other opinions. A better metric could be party affiliation or whether someone currently supports or opposes Obama. At least that's easier to remember.
Christopher Beam is a Slate political reporter.
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2220803/

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC

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Ignorant Speculation as Natural Law by John Sanchez Jr. on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 at 6:55:51 AM
OMG!! That was AWESOME!!! by steve scheetz on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 at 9:58:58 AM
Actually, I agree with the author. by John Sanchez Jr. on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 at 12:21:11 PM
sadly by Rob Kall on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 at 9:35:31 AM
Well, by Jack Harrington on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 at 2:23:43 PM
Secret Vote Counting Results in Election Fraud and It's Also by Mark Adams on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 at 1:41:00 PM
Alas, our memories are not infallible, by mhenriday on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 at 2:40:07 PM
elections?? I have a website for you all to check out by trail the dogs on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 at 6:44:14 PM
First you want to... by Joe Reeser on Sunday, Jun 21, 2009 at 9:16:39 PM
Consequences by PrMaine on Tuesday, Jun 23, 2009 at 7:38:03 AM
Count the votes. by Herbert Hoffman on Thursday, Jun 25, 2009 at 10:44:55 AM

 
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