The Stealth Candidate

[Daveparts]

The Stealth Candidate
By David Glenn Cox



The most difficult aspect of doing a story about media manipulation is where to start. Last week it was disclosed that Barrack Obama’s passport files, and privacy, had been violated. The Secretary of State, Condaleeza (Calamity Jane) Rice was out of the country and so proclaimed her complete and total innocence. Within 24 hours of her return, however, came further revelations that Hillary Clinton’s files and John McCain’s files had been violated as well. This is called dissipating: taking a politically-sensitive issue and dissipating its impact by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor while diluting the facts of what actually happened.

The original story, acknowledged by the State Department, was that a reporter made inquiries about the illegal snooping-into of Mr. Obama’s files. The State Department didn’t say, “Well, yes, we are investigating intrusions into all the candidates files.” Ask yourself, if it were you and you were a fair-minded and above-board type of person and you found one candidate's files had been violated, would you immediately check to see if the others had been violated? But the administration knew of the violations of Mr. Obama’s files as early as last January and the revelation about the other two major candidates was only released within 24 hours of Condi’s return.

Maybe it’s all innocent, it doesn’t smell like it, but it could be. The timing of the intrusion into Obama’s files corresponds nicely with primary wins and his move to the front of the presidential pack. With Hillary Clinton’s eight years in the White House and her Senate career, her dossier for those doing opposition research must look like a Manhattan phone book by now. John McCain’s career in the Senate is long and uneventful, he is affiliated with the party in power, however it is still possible that a State Department mole was doing opposition research on McCain. But what would they expect to find?

Of the three, only Obama is the relatively unknown quantity. The story acknowledged by the State Department was about the intrusion into Obama’s files. Everything since the original revelation has been spin, a plant, and a cover story. Today on NBC the story was further embellished with the announcement that celebrities' passport files had been violated, as well. Oh heavens, see how unimportant this is? The US Department of State released to the press that Anna Nicole Smith’s passport file had been violated. This is, no doubt, a planted story; mainly because Mrs. Smith is deceased and can’t complain and also because she’s not running for the highest office in the land.

In advertising it’s called the bandwagon approach: everybody’s doing it. Mr. Obama shouldn’t take it personally, they snoop on all the famous people. The State Department is rewriting the story, attempting to tie in the trivial and unimportant Ms. Smith to a man that might be the next President of the United States. The complicit media eagerly jump on stories about Hillary's claiming to have come under fire in Bosnia or what Mr. Obama’s minister said. The story of John McCain’s taxpayer-funded trip to Iraq, meanwhile, is reported as a photo-op and when McCain shows his ignorance of the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, while in Baghdad, the media fails to mention it. Apparently, to the American media, a candidate who claims foreign policy as his strong suit but doesn’t know the difference between the players isn’t considered newsworthy. Nor is it newsworthy when he says that, “the economy is not his strong suit.” Silly me, I was looking for someone with an overall grasp of the issues.

Orwell was a piker, we are long past 1984, the heirs of Goebbels are working around the clock, 24/7, to keep you from hearing or seeing the news. When some revelation does squeak out, the media’s job is to dissipate it, to dilute it, to undercut the impact and trivialize it. The recent home sales' numbers were broadcast to the public as good news! The figures were much better than expected, if you ignore the fact it was the seventh straight month of decline and the worst number in fifteen years. The media spin it as: Good News! It could have been much worse! Mom, good news! I got all F’s on my report card except for a D in Art! Why are you looking at me like that? But Mom, it could have been much worse!

We live under the myth of a free-broadcast media, where the President stands in front of his "Mission Accomplished" banner with all-encompassing media coverage. But when it becomes clear that the mission was not accomplished, we get full coverage of the explanations. The banner was up there for the ship’s sailors returning from their tour of duty. The lie built on lie, built on fabrication, that leads to situations that don’t even make sense anymore. First it was Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, then Saddam himself, then setting up democracy, then suddenly we are protecting the Iraqis from themselves and Al Qaeda. The security has suddenly gone to hell in Iraq and those poor people must be protected.

The candidate who used family influence to get into the National Guard and influence to get the most desirable spot as a fighter pilot is championed as serving his country, even though he ended that service under a cloud. Then the candidate who served two tours in a combat zone is deprecated, his first tour was on a Navy ship so that’s not really considered combat service at all. His second tour, on a river patrol boat, for which he volunteered, is explained away as: he was looking for easy duty and the plan went sour. The candidate was decorated for heroism and wounds suffered while in combat and the media explains: Everyone got decorations like that, I think even Anna Nicole Smith got one of those medals. Official Navy records are wrong and replaced by the recollections of those in the country at the time.

I watched the 1975 World Series on TV; I don’t remember Carlton Fisk being there though it could easily be proved just how wrong I am. If Mr. Fisk were to seek office, my opinion would suddenly matter. Every day opinion is sold to us as fact: the radical cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, is al-Sadr a radical? Isn’t he? But isn’t he in the government, too? “Al-Sadr is calling for civil disobedience as the fighting continues.” Neat how that works, isn’t it? The media meld al-Sader’s call for civil disobedience in Baghdad with the outbreak of violence in Basra; but then, he is a radical, after all. Right?

With every passing day it appears that Barrack Obama is going to win the Democratic nomination for President. The Democrats believe the White House is theirs for the picking and, after all, John McCain is only running part-time. His taxpayer-funded trip to Iraq is being used to cover up the fact that he only took in 11 million dollars against Obama’s 50 million and Clinton’s 34 million. The powers that be don’t believe that he has a snowball's chance. Unless, of course, the Democrats tear themselves to pieces first. McCain’s chances are directly tied to running against the record of his opponent, not on his own record.

The Republicans salivate at the chance to run against Hillary Clinton, so much so that they support her candidacy and Rush Loudmouth encouraged Republicans in Texas and Ohio to cross over and vote for her. Either way, whichever candidate is chosen by the Democrats, the Republican slime machine will be unleashed against the nominee. That said, what would be the ramifications on race relations if the full force of the Republican slime machine is loosed on the first African-American major party nominee?

Mr. Obama’s speech on race relations in America was probably one of the best and most accurate assessments in a generation. There are divisions between us, divisions that can only be made worse by an organized campaign of slime. While it might be easy to attack a Navy veteran’s record or the memory of a President's wife, what about a man from a minority group, once legally ostracized? A minority group once denied participation in the political life of this nation. A gap that still exists in America, either real or imagined, depending on your point of view in America today. And even more to the point, what type of candidate continues on when their only hope is that by destroying their own party, they empower the other?

[Demeter]

1. OH Yes, Very Convenient For Everybody, But Still an Attack on Obama

As for the spin, it's the way of the world. You should hear the whoppers I hear at co-op board meetings....How all the other Board members spontaneously meet and act, not planned at all....how email doesn't go through to one member, although evrybody else gets it, etc,

There are days when living in a cave like a hermit is very attractive. And affordable.