According to Time, McCain campaign staffers in Virginia are teaching volunteers to see Barack Obama as having terrorist 'friends,' and then providing these volunteers with arguments for persuading voters that Sen. Obama, like Osama Bin Laden, shares responsibility for bombings of the Pentagon.
The report from inside the McCain campaign brings to light an alarming fact: while McCain tells his supporters publicly to refrain from violent rhetoric, he continues to teach his volunteers rhetoric designed to elicit violent responses.
In the article, Time's Karen Tumulty recounts her visit to a campaign training session in Gainesville, VA, a strategic center for the McCain ground game in Prince William County. What Tumulty describes is a training session hosted by by Virginia's state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick in which volunteers were being trained to see Barack Obama as a terrorist. Tumulty writes:
The McCain campaign invited me to visit Frederick and the Gainesville operation on Saturday morning, to get a first-hand glimpse of its ground game in Prince William County, Virginia, a fast-growing area about 30 miles from Washington, D.C.
With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points -- for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true -- though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii. (link)
The report from inside the McCain campaign is disturbing on several levels. While McCain has begun chiding his supporters at public rallies for using violent rhetoric, his campaign has taken the opposite tack behind closed doors. Despite the public image of a campaign not responsible for the violent outbursts of a few followers, the Time report reveals a ground operation actually training its volunteers to elicit violent responses in voters--specifically by making false claims about Barack Obama's connection to terrorist attacks on U.S. military buildings.
The report confirms that the McCain campaign has staked its chances of winning the Presidency on convincing the public that Barack Obama is on the wrong side of the 'War on Terror' and, therefore, his victory in the Presidential election would put the power of the White House in the hands of terrorists.
Tumulty's report raises serious questions about whether or not John McCain is using campaign rhetoric that not only depart from recognized moral boundaries, but risk igniting actual violence.
In particular, by teaching his volunteers to see Barack Obama as similar to Osama Bin Laden--and by training his volunteers to convince voters of the same--McCain is using his presidential campaign to tie Sen. Obama to the mass murders of September 11, 2001. In this way, McCain is effectively teaching his supporters to believe that Sen. Obama is not only connected to terrorists, but that Sen. Obama deserves the same punishment as terrorists.
In other words, by bringing to light the rhetoric being taught to his campaign volunteers, Time Magazine has provided the explanation for why attendees at McCain and Palin rallies have called for the death of Sen. Obama rather than just his defeat, which would be the norm in such events. When supporters of a Presidential candidate view the opposing candidate as merely an election threat, they call for his defeat. But when they view the opposing candidate as a national security threat--as they are being taught by the McCain campaign--they call for that threat to be eradicated.
--Jeffrey Feldman, Huffington Post
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Comments: 31
Obama is well protected by his personal body guards as well as the secret service and as loony as Bush is he would not try to murder Obama like he has other opposition it would complete the destruction of the republican party.
Those two are loony enough to think they can take over America.
I'm disgusted and ashamed that our country is once again at risk from this kind of person.
I'm not.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27170749#27171025
Also send a letter to Homeland security. www.dhs.gov
Citizen Line
Operator Number: 202-282-8000
Comment Line: 202-282-8495
send email to
speaker of the house
americanvoices@mail.house.gov
I have been sending email and I do get response.
I will write to the governor of Virginia, he is a friend of Obama, and maybe he can use my response to this as a reason to do some about it.
(It has to be true. I found it on the same internet where everyone keeps finding those crazy reports about Obama.)
And I received this from the McCain campaign today:
Dear Supporter,
We're coming down to the final stretch of the campaign. Each day leading up to November 4th plays a critical role in securing a Victory for our team of reformers. And I'll get straight to my point - if we're going to win we need your immediate support
Will you join the McCain-Palin Victory 2008 team today during these critical final days?
The Obama-Biden Democrats and their liberal, allied interest groups are spending more than $1 billion to defeat our ticket in critical races across the country. They're flooding the airwaves and stuffing mailboxes with misleading information, and in some cases flat out lies about us.
The truth is that far-left groups in this country will do anything to help the Obama-Biden Democrats win the White House and maintain their majorities in Congress. And last week, we found out they're going even further to win.
The left-wing activist group, ACORN, is now under investigation for voter registration fraud in a number of battleground states. ACORN's political action committee has endorsed Barack Obama and Senator Obama himself has said, "I have been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career." The Obama Campaign even paid more than $800,000 to an ACORN affiliate for "get out the vote activity." And now we find out that ACORN is suspected of voter registration fraud.
But, the Obama-Biden Democrats would rather sweep these facts under the rug and use their mainstream media allies to bury this story. But we can't let that happen. We can't allow leftist groups like ACORN to steal this election.
That's why McCain-Palin Victory 2008 has set out to ensure a fair election and I'm asking you to join us today. Will you follow this link immediately to give $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or more to our effort?
McCain-Palin Victory 2008 helps fund our get-out-the-vote efforts in states across the country. We're working day and night to ensure this election is fair and we're working to elect the ticket that has a record of reform leadership.
Our team of reformers is ready to lead. We're ready to tackle issues affecting your family. But we'll get never get there without your support. Will you join our team in the final stretch before Election Day? With your help, I know we'll ensure this election is conducted in a fair manner. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Governor Sarah Palin
P.S. We've always known the Obama-Biden Democrats will do anything to win this November, but we didn't know how far their allies would go. The Obama-supported, far-left group, ACORN, has been accused of voter registration fraud in a number of battleground states. Our team, through McCain-Palin Victory 2008 is working to ensure that this election is conducted fairly. With your immediate financial support, we'll be successful. Please join our team for a fair election today. Thank you.
They have no shame, no conscience, no decency.
Wilka
Investigators probing ACORN have learned that an Ohio man registered to vote several times and cast a bogus ballot with a fake address, officials said yesterday, as they revealed that nearly 4,000 registration applications supplied by the left-leaning activist group were suspect.
The vote of Darnell Nash, one of four people subpoenaed in a Cuyahoga County probe of ACORN's voter-registration activities, was canceled and his case was turned over to local prosecutors and law enforcement, Board of Elections officials said yesterday.
Nash had registered to vote repeatedly from an address that belonged to a legitimately registered voter, officials said during a hearing at which the subpoenaed voters were to testify.
Board officials had contacted Nash this summer, questioned his address and told him to stop repeat registering.
But still, he breezed into Ohio election offices - the state allows early voting for president - reregistered with a fake address and cast a paper ballot, officials said.
"He came in on 9/30 and Mr. Nash again registered to vote at [someone else's] address, and he cast a ballot," said board official Jane Platten.
Nash did not turn up for the hearing.
The Post reported last week on the Cleveland-area probe and the subpoenas, which were sent out to four people - including two voters who said they were hounded by ACORN workers to register over and over, even when they warned they'd already done so.
It's the latest issue in the probe of ACORN's registering voters in Ohio, one of at least nine states where officials are investigating similar reports of phony sign-ups by the group.
At the same time, officials said, some 5 percent, or 3,650, of the 73,000 total registration cards turned in by ACORN in the Cleveland area from its Project Vote initiative to sign up low-income voters were "questionable," Platten said.
There were "egregious acts of registering multiple times," said Platten. "The extent of it is beyond the resources of this board."
Nash's case and three others were turned over to authorities yesterday, said Ryan Miday, a spokesman for prosecutor Bill Masson.
"We will consider presenting it to a grand jury," Miday said.
A member of the board said if necessary, the FBI or federal prosecutors could be brought in for assistance.
Still, members of the bipartisan board downplayed any voter fraud.
And Platten insisted officials with ACORN have offered "any and all" help in probing the questionable activities. Katy Gall, the Ohio state director for ACORN, said her group is cooperating fully with the investigation.
She added that her group has fired anyone who was found soliciting duplicate registrations.
ACORN, whose political arm has endorsed Democratic nominee Barack Obama, has signed up more than 1.3 million voters for this cycle.
ACORN adviser Scott Levenson said, "If one of the 13,000 [people] we hired is potentially a bad apple in the bunch, we encourage the authorities to prosecute, as appropriate, anyone that did the wrong thing. We discipline [and] we fire workers who [abuse their position] . . . We encourage prosecutors to follow suit."
He also denied suggestions that the group pays canvassers by the number of names they sign up, and that they have quotas.
Also yesterday:
* Two of the four subpoenaed voters, Freddie Johnson and Christopher Barkley, met privately with sheriff's deputies and described what they'd told The Post about being hounded by ACORN workers. Barkley testified at the hearing that some of the registration cards listing his name weren't filled out by him.
* In an e-mail to supporters, John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, slammed "the left-wing activist group ACORN" and suggested, "We can't allow leftist groups like ACORN to steal this election."
This is Obama's ACORN in support of Obama ... crimes and criminals ... here and now.
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Even elderly Democrats feel the need to cheat to win.
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ELECTION 2008
Poll workers clash at Falls nursing home
Police, elections board investigate alleged assault over marked ballot
By Stephanie Warsmith
Beacon Journal staff writer
Poll workers from opposing sides in the presidential race apparently clashed in a physical altercation Friday at a Cuyahoga Falls nursing home when one accused the other of improperly marking a ballot.
George Manos, the 75-year-old Republican, told police that Edith Walker, the 73-year-old Democrat, jumped on his back and struck him in the head three to four times with her fists. Manos said two other elections workers had to pull Walker off his back, according to a report filed with Cuyahoga Falls police.
Manos said it happened after he accused Walker of ballot tampering, and he wants to prosecute.
The incident, which occurred about noon at Gardens of Western Reserve nursing home, is being investigated by both the police and the Summit County elections board. The board probe could lead to a closer examination of the other votes with which Walker was involved.
The alleged assault piqued the interest of
Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign — as the voter in question reportedly wanted to vote for McCain but her ballot was initially marked for Sen. Barack Obama.
''This is a troubling report that emphasizes the importance of having a transparent and open process in every voting place in Ohio,'' said Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for McCain's campaign.
The elections board sent two teams of poll workers, each with one Democrat and one Republican, to the nursing home to assist residents who otherwise would be unable to go to the polls. Such early voting is a routine service offered by elections boards to nursing homes.
Board officials said they have received conflicting accounts — and are trying to sort out what happened — as Manos and Walker were attempting to assist a female nursing home resident with her ballot. Until they do, Walker won't be involved with voting.
''Any type of disagreement at a voting center is not appropriate,'' said Tim Gorbach, a Democratic member of the elections board. ''We need to find out exactly what happened and will take action.''
The voter was able to cast a new, correct ballot with her desired choices, according to elections board officials.
Workers finish vote
After the incident, Manos and Walker were asked to return to the elections board and the remaining team of poll workers finished the voting at the nursing home.
Manos, Walker and the two other poll workers gave written accounts to the board.
Walker said in her statement that Manos tried to grab the ballot in question out of her hand. She said he accused her of marking the ballot wrong and she ''apologized to him if I did do it, but he was very mean to me.''
Manos' written statement is similar to what he told police. He also said Walker initially refused to show him the ballot, then marked it a second time.
Richard Bader, a Republican poll worker at the nursing home, wrote that he forced his way between Walker and Manos and ''she tried to strong-arm me out of the way, but I held my ground.'' Bader said the incident drew a crowd of six to 10 people.
Robert Dengle, a Democratic poll worker who witnessed the incident, wrote that Manos grabbed the ballot out of Walker's hand and she went after him to get it back. When they ultimately reviewed the ballot, he said, it was marked both for Obama and McCain.
New rules suggested
Bryan Williams, the board's deputy director, sent the statements to elections board members Monday, along with suggested new nursing home guidelines for elections board staff. If the board approve the rules, he said, the staff will be retrained before voting resumes at area nursing homes today.
Among the recommendations are that both the Democrat and Republican poll worker review each vote on a ballot as it is marked and that — when reviewing the choices — a poll worker will say them aloud so the voter can hear them.
Brian Daley, a Republican member of the elections board, said he thinks the board should have a hearing on the incident. He said the board may need to examine the other votes Walker was involved with to make sure they were properly marked.
''If it results in looking at the others, so be it,'' he said. ''The facts as they unfold will dictate where we go with it.''