Day: October 28, 2006
Poll: Middle Class Set to Swing to Dems Nov. 7
I’ve been pessimistic about the elections lately but this cheered me up:
A massive apparent move by the middle class away from the Republicans has 56 percent of likely voters saying they plan to vote to send a Democrat to the House on Nov. 7 compared with 37 percent who said they would vote for President George W. Bush’s Republicans, the latest Associated Press-AOL News poll shows.
If the tally bears this out a week from next Tuesday, Republican control of the House of Representatives could become a victim of the Iraq war. Voters rated the war and the economy as their top issues in the poll released Thursday.
Middle-class voters deserted the Democrats a dozen years ago, but the promise of their return is giving the party its best chance to reclaim the House of Representatives since the Republicans swept Democrats from power in 1994. The AP-AOL survey found voters leaning considerably more toward Democrats in the final weeks of the campaign.
Welcome back, homies.
Wal-Mart Fires Producer of Racist Ad in Tenn. Senate Race
Who knew the producer of the anti-Harold Ford racist ad that was paid for by Ken Mehlman and the Republican National Committee was named Terry Nelson — or that he worked for Wal-Mart? We all know it now, thanks to the fact that Wal-Mart forced Nelson to resign late on Friday.
They fired him to keep in good standing with their African-American customers, obviously, so while it doesn’t make Wal-Mart any less evil, it does keep the story alive into the weekend news cycle, for whatever that is worth:
In submitting his [forced] resignation, Terry Nelson said Wal-Mart had “come under political pressure from liberal special interest groups” as well as labor unions. “It’s unfortunate that this pressure has had an impact on Wal-Mart.”
In an interview, he said of the commercial that critics deemed racist: “There was no intention to offend anybody and it’s unfortunate if people took offense. That was certainly not what people planned for or hoped for.”
Of course not, Terry. You accidentally cast a white woman as the hootchy-mama who pouts as she says, “Harold, call me.”
Surprise! Saddam Death Penalty to be Announced Two Days before U.S. Elections
The timing of the verdict to complement the GOP’s new and highly effective GOTV “microtargeting” campaign is way too perfect.
You probably missed this story because it has barely been covered, but earlier this month the Iraqi court that is trying Saddam Hussein re-scheduled the dates for announcing its verdict — twice.
An earlier date was bumped to Oct. 16, only to be rescheduled for the current date: Nov. 5. Yup, two days before the U.S. midterm elections.
According to Media Matters, the court explained the first delay by saying it might need to hear more witnesses. The excuse for the second delay was a real howler: The court said it was having difficulty choosing between the death penalty and life imprisonment for Saddam.
As if! There’s no way they’ll give him life.
This is way too perfect. The sensationalism of the headline, “Saddam Is Going to Fry,” will be irresistable to the TV newsers. The verdict will be a strong second lead in the coverage of the elections’ final 48 hours. It will accrue as a win for the president and provide an updraft for Republicans as voting begins.
Not coincidentally, the new date puts the verdict midway into the 72 hours when Republicans deploy their new and highly successful Get Out The Vote strategy of “microtargeting” voters. This technique of calling likely fence-sitters with scary messages tailored to their fears — “the Democrats will let gays marry goats, burn the flag and/or take away your guns” — has been credited with giving Republicans their slim winning margins in the last two election cycles.
And here’s one last non-surprise: Your Liberal Media are pretending to be clueless that there could be any Rovian manipulation behind moving the verdict into the election’s news cycle. In fact, the delayed verdicts have barely made it onto the Old Media radar.
