Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups





















« The Left’s Freaked Out Reaction To Citizens United v. FEC | Main | Obama: Hey, It Turns Out That 3000 Years of Warfare in the Middle East Wasn't Going to End Just Because You Elected an Unprecedented, Historic Guy Made of Pure Awesome. Sorry, My Bad, I Thought They Would. »
January 22, 2010

Politico Notices: Hey, There Seems to be Some Light-to-Moderate Astroturfing Going on for Obama

As has been endlessly documented, David Axelrod was the "gold standard of astroturf campaigns" for his many PR clients. Astroturf, in case you don't know, is "artificial grassroots" -- a paid consultant attempting to create the illusion of grassroots support.

Readers of this site know we had a lot of "Concerned Christian Conservatives" who showed up in the months before an election to write the same script ten times a week:

1) I'm a Christan.

2) I'm a conservative. I voted for Regan and both Bushes!

3) But I have these concerns about McCain and Palin... like, did you know that Palin tried to ban all books about dinosaurs from public libraries? And that her daughter got knocked up and is, we can surmise, the victim of bad, slutty parenting? Google it! Anyway, this gives me concern as a Christian Conservative... I'm just saying, as a Christian Conservative, I want to vote for McCain/Palin, but all these concerns about them are making me consider Obama... and maybe you should too!

This happened so often it was definitely organized. Perhaps not by Axelrod-- we could never prove that -- but somewhere out in lefty-land, on Organizing for America, a bunch of lefties got the idea to "Moby" (discojagoff Moby suggested this tactic in 2004) and write comments on rightwing blogs to depress the vote and encourage crossover voting for Obama.

(This is why some of you are accused of being "concern trolls," which I think may have been a term created by 4chan to describe this (or a similar) sort of thing. We have, in fact, had this go on here -- and people are a little quick on the trigger to throw out the accusation. But it did really happen. Oddly, after the election, all these Concerned Christian Conservatives stopped posting on the blog. They no longer had any interest in sharing their concerns with us.)

Whether Axelrod (did I mention? "the gold standard of astroturf campaigns") is behind any of this, I don't know (but he almost certainly is).

And it's happening yet again.

In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical “Letters to the Editor” in support of President Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers.Every letter claimed a different residence for Light that happened to be in the newspaper’s circulation area.

“It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything,” said a letter from alleged Philadelphian Ellie Light, that was published in the Jan. 19 edition of The Philadelphia Daily News.

A letter from Light in the Jan. 20 edition of the San Francisco Examiner concluded with an identical sentence, but with an address for Light all the way across the country in Daly City, California.

Variations of Light’s letter ran in Ohio’s Mansfield News Journal on Jan. 13, with Light claiming an address in Mansfield; in New Mexico’s Ruidoso News on Jan. 12, claiming an address in Three Rivers; in South Carolina’s The Sun News on Jan. 18, claiming an address in Myrtle Beach; and in the Daily News Leader of Staunton, Virginia on Jan. 15, claiming an address in Waynesboro. Her publications list includes other papers in Ohio, West Virginia, Maine, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and California, all claiming separate addresses.

Light – who e-mailed an identical missive to this reporter on Jan. 16 without listing a hometown – would not answer e-mailed questions about the address discrepancies in newspapers that ran her letter, or her identity, although she did say she wasn’t a former co-worker of this reporter’s who had a similar name.

Create the illusion of a inevitability. Make people think they are almost alone in disapproving of Obama, so that they self-censor and won't say they disapprove of Obama, and thereby make other people think they're alone in that too.

PR, PR, PR. Spin, spin, spin. Alinsky, Alinsky, Alinsky.

It was always dishonest. Now it's just pathetic.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.


digg this
posted by Ace at 12:41 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
TRex: " 74 As a navy pilot I was able to fly all over Nor ..."

goatexchange: "This is an odd mix (although it may be my second K ..."

no one of any consequence: ""I have told story in 1981 hiked down the Grand Ca ..."

javems: "Posted by: MD_Mike at October 12, 2024 06:17 PM (B ..."

NemoMeImpuneLacessit: "95 96 I thought a little over 14 billion years was ..."

memek: "Now I am going away to do my breakfast, afterward ..."

no one of any consequence: "I took the train from Darmstadt to Heidelberg one ..."

Skip : "In London went to castle, Imperial War Museum, s ..."

goatexchange: "I love London. My wife's a Brit, and she worked an ..."

Skip : "I have told story in 1981 hiked down the Grand Can ..."

rhomboid : "Ray van Dune, that’s incredible! What timing ..."

Notorious BFD: "[i]Have fond memories of England, shame what it so ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64