From the always good Sam Stein over at Huffpost:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
In hopes of organizing a robust demonstration for the vice presidential debate this Thursday in St. Louis, the pro-Iraq War (and ostensibly pro-McCain) organization, Vets for Freedom, is resorting to offering local college fraternities hundreds of dollars if their members come and hold signs.
In an email obtained by the Huffington Post, Vets for Freedom field staffer Laura Meyer offered a fraternity at St. Louis University a "sizable donation" - plus free lunch - if it could use their pledges to demonstrate outside the VP debate.
"I was emailing you today," wrote Meyer, "because I am trying to find people who would be willing to hold up signs for a few hours in the afternoon this Thursday outside the VP debate site. It's only for a few hours and you can gain a lot from it.... first off, lunch for any guys who agree to volunteer will be on me. Secondly, they will get lots of media attention! My organization did a similar thing in Mississippi last week and a ton of them were on TV. Meaning, the guys could wear their [REDACTED] gear while holding up our signs and get attention for their frat. Also, they will get to hang out with a bunch of really cool Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.
"Lastly, and here's the kicker.... if you guys can get us at least 20 volunteers for those few hours, my organization will make a sizable donation to your fraternity. If you use pledges you could look at it as 'free money and free publicity'. If this sounds like something you may be willing to help us out with, please let me know ASAP!"
Yep, they may lose the debate, but they'll have plenty of coverage of people paid to insist Palin won and is right. In all fairness, I don't see any evidence any frats took up this offer, and somebody had to leak the e-mail, so, score one for the greeks.
But still, I remember when Six Million in the streets warning against Invading Iraq was dimissed as a focus group by President Bush. But a little bit of astroturf by one single group goes a long way.
It's like the Fox Correspondent calling the results in the diner "mixed" when all but one patron said they were voting for Obama.