Ever notice how Republicans always accuse their opponent of doing exactly what they're doing?
Thus, when independent fact-checkers have exorciated John McCain for running one of the dirtiest and most dishonest Presidential campaigns in the modern era, McCain started running ads accusing Barack Obama and Joe Biden of being liars.
And when decades of advocating deregulation as some kind of perverse cure-all finally became undeniably catastrophic... the Republicans were suddenly accusing their opponents of being de-regulators.
Whenever I see these types of tactics, I always think of this video.
The tactic, of course, is transparent: The other guy has caught you lying. So you accuse him of lying and hope the low-information voters will just tune out the details.
And this is part of the larger strategy of creating an environment in which people honestly believe that "all politicians are the same". When they believe that, it becomes easier for the Republicans to employ their favorite tactics of social wedge issues and virulent personal attacks.
(It isn't true, of course.)
Which brings us to the recent mainstream media narratives regarding the Bradley effect and Democratic "voter fraud".
This diary is not about pointing out that these narratives are almost complete nonsense. Others have already done that. Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com, for example, has been debunking the Persistent Myth of a Bradley Effect for months now. And TPM has been doing a solid job of debunking the bogus "voter fraud" nonsense with stories like CNN Leads Media Failure on ACORN.
What this diary is about is my growing concern about what it means when the Republicans start pushing these narratives.
(1) First, they push a narrative (in the form of the Bradley effect) that Obama's poll numbers are artificially high and that we should expect to see those results collapse at the actual voting booth.
(2) Second, they push a baseless narrative of "that guy" engaging in voter fraud... when they have a modus operandi of accusing others of what they're doing themselves. (Heck, they've even got the disgraced Ken Blackwell pushing that narrative... which, all by itself, is a case of the pot calling the salt-shaker black.)
See my point?
They're laying the groundwork for stealing the election.
"Obama was up 6 points in the poll, how could he lose?"
"Bradley effect."
"I dunno... I think there might have been--"
"DEMOCRATIC VOTER FRAUD! ACORN DID VOTER FRAUD!"
"What? I was just about to say that the Republicans must have--"
"DEMOCRATIC VOTER FRAUD! DEMOCRATIC VOTER FRAUD! DEMOCRATIC FRAUD!"
Be vigilant. Warn your friends.
And remember that it's all about crushing them at this point. Like 2006, we have to crush them so thoroughly that stealing the election becomes impossible for them.
And then, for the love of all that's holy, could the Democrats in Congress please pass a comprehensive reform bill for eliminating the all-electronic, no-independent-confirmation insanity that has infected our elections system? I remain utterly baffled that this all-important issue was not addressed during the past two years.