Wikileaks Smoking Gun McCain “Clinton Strategy” Memo: Bush AWOL Documents Redux?

Here is the link. Read it.

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Divide_and_conquer:_McCain%27s_plan_to_wrest_Clintonion_women_from_Obama%3F

All I can do is speculate. I am about 99.5% sure that the substance of the memo is accurate. Everything contained within it about the use of bloggers and GOP moles who pretend to be Clinton supporters so that they can mind-fuck Clinton supporters in a divide and conquer oppo designed to siphon Democratic votes away from the nominee and towards McCain fits the overall plan that has been unfolding since early in 2007. I have actually heard GOP strategists talk about plans to paint Obama as a “typical Daley style corrupt politician” in early 2008 when McCain secured the nomination, and I have heard Clinton supporters repeat this meme recently, indicating that the RNC has succeeded in getting the message through at Hillary sites. The press took care of Rev. Wright by making it the number one story of the primary season according to the recent Pew study, with almost 7% of all coverage devoted to this one non-issue. As for inexperience, this was Clinton’s main point of comparison during the primary and is almost certain to be McCain’s, given his age, so that is a no-brainer, and probably will not amount to much in this change year. The public did not care about Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter's experience in their "change" years either, and as a Senator, Obama has more DC experience than either of them.

As for “We have already worked to reinforce the Clinton campaign’s narrative about the unfair treatment that some networks, specifically MSNBC, have given her camp”, I have been saying for some time that the guys in charge of MSNBC have been encouraging KO to bully Hillary so that women would think that he was speaking for Obama---in hopes that all that rage would stick to the Democratic nominee and help the Pentagon’s favorite son peel off some Democratic female votes this fall.

And then there is “We have organized dozens of “meet-ups” across the
country for Clinton supporters, and we have used that time to stress the importance of punishing the DNC for choosing the undemocratically selected far-left Obama.” Well yes, this is the kind of stuff that Pat Buchanan was talking about when he described staging attacks against one Democrat that appear to come from another Democrat way back in 1972 when he was setting up the dirty tricks operations for Dick Nixon.

However, like the Bush AWOL documents that were used in the 60 Minutes story that the right wing used to bring down Dan Rather and Mary Mapes prior to the 2004 election, we do not know the origin of the memo. Rather and Co. thought that they knew where their memo came from since they had had a plausible witness who swore that it was the real thing. In this case, we have to rely upon the document itself—meaning whoever typed it up and whoever passed it on to Wikileaks---for clues as to its origins. And those could be faked for a number of reasons.

Wikileaks explores two possible motives for the document. The first is the most obvious. The document is just what it appears to be, and the McCain campaign is guilty of dirty tricks.

Second, the document is a fake put out by the Obama campaign to paint the McCain campaign as a bunch of dirty tricksters. Wikileaks does a good job of countering this scenario, but it remains a possibility.

Third, the document is a fake put out by the Clinton campaign to paint Hillary as innocent of all the negativity that originated from her camp. Guilt is thrust onto the McCain camp instead. Those who despise Clinton should like this one. Chances that it is true---slim. The document paints Clinton supporters as gullible. It shows them being lead around by a bunch of GOP operatives. This is hardly flattering, and indeed, it is likely that a few Obama supporters will actually blame Clinton even if they believe that McCain’s campaign wrote the memo and did these dirty tricks, saying If only she had suspended her campaign sooner, then McCain wouldn’t have been able to use her campaign for this kind of operation. She should have known this would happen

Fourth, the document is a fake put out by a third party in order to punk the news media, just as the Bush AWOL documents were intended to set up Dan Rather so that he would not be available to investigate Grand Theft Election Ohio 2004. How simple it would be to take the facts which we all can see with our own eyes---Freeper moles have infiltrated the Democratic primary and both the Obama and Clinton camps---and create a document that says that John McCain’s staff workers directed the operations against the Clinton campaign. Remember, John McCain cultivates a reputation as an honest Joe who does not resort to dirty tricks. It would be mighty tempting for MSM journalists, reporters, anchors to run with the story that he was caught doing something nasty in the woodshed with a memo---

And then, when Karl Rove’s minions revealed that the memo did not come from McCain camp after all, some nationally known progressive news figure(s) would take the fall, just like Dan Rather took the fall in 2004.

The story can still be used. Just be careful how it is done. Instead of denouncing the John McCain camp, present it as a mystery. Who wrote it? (wide eyed innocence). Why did they write it? . Discuss the substance of the memo. Discuss Pat Buchanan and the dirty tricks which were played by CREEP back in 1972 against the Democrats during their primary . There are so many ways that this memo can be used besides the obvious one, which could be a baited trap.

It has been happening here on DU. There were the 'I'll vote for McCain threads. There were also on some days, threads which carried a similar sentiment, with the same word structure and phrasing, and finally many of those most virulent about Obama have seemed to disappear since he took the nomination.

"Daley operation" is true, the "try to paint" sounds like a preemptive strike (one should note that the battle was between the Hynes Machine ( daddy Thomas Hynes was a former Illinois Senate president and Cook County assessor and Dan was the Clinton 96 Illinois campaign head) and the Daley Machine with the Daley machine's candidate Obama winning the primary for the Federal Senate race).

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

papau may leave this place for a while, as will many Clinton supporters because the atmosphere is rather cloying for Barack, but papau will not be tombstoned.

Or do you know something we don't about how this board is run? What's the cut-off year for immunity?

And I've been reading papau's posts for a long time. O supporters are throwing around "threats" of tombstoning at anyone they disagree with. It's pathetic.

Those people have no place on this forum.

Congratulations.

I'm sure in your world, that's all that matters.

judgemnet


who made you boss?


oy

I'll be happy to join in with the celebration. :rofl:

If the Obama camp is really that devious, then we have nothing to worry about.

have to be that devious but, hell, guess we need to do what we have to do to win this thing.

Is there nothing that is Obama's fault? This is a known quantity, republicans pretending to to democrats to push the party apart. Hell there are people on freerepublic bragging about it. Ignore it at your own peril

While their moles have been at DU using terms like "Clintonista" and talking about Vince Foster, Cattle Futures, Hillary's amazing super powers and Bill's Penis, their counterparts have been filling Hillary's supporters heads with tales of

1. Obama's terrible inexperience which will plunge the country into a thousand Bay of Pigs and doom all of the necessary social initiatives required to bring us out of the recession (think JFK's ideals but lack of ability to get things done)

2. Obama's ties to the Chicago Daley machine which has been transformed from just another Democratic Party machine into something more like a cross between the Mafia and the Borgia Family. Obama is their tool/minion. They have so much blackmail dirt on him that he will not be able to take a shit without consulting Daley.

3. The secrets in the closet which McCain will use to torpedo the Obama Campaign, dooming us to 100 years of war. Is Obama gay? Is Michelle the love child of Malcolm X and Angela Davis?

Yeah, I am making most of this up, because I never go to the Clinton sites. However, I have talked to some Clinton supporters recently and so I can deduce the propaganda that the RNC moles are spreading on those sites from what I know of the propaganda that they have spread here.

The Democrats have been sliced and diced with some pretty nasty Ginsu Knives just like the ones they used to advertise from Ronco. Fortunately, we are an organic party, so we can grow back together.

"Obama's ties to the Chicago Daley machine"

How about those articles? Hell bent and breathless indictments without any connection whatsoever to
Obama, screeds without end. A triumph of the will.

I have no doubt there were and still are paid disruptors online.

I have no doubt there are plenty of memos referring to various aspects of hijinx.


However, I find it hard to believe someone would lay all of that out, point-by-point so the dumb masses understand everything, in a memo dated May 15th.

1. Rove repeats himself. If something works once, he will do it again. In 2004, he conspired with CBS to get rid of Dan Rather by having them allow 60 Minutes to do the Bush AWOL story. However, someone leaked the memo to the Republicans and an operative pretending to be a type writer expert immediately went online and claimed that he could prove that the Memo was a fake. Obviously, the WH knew that the source for the memo had lied about how he got it, and that when he changed his story this could be twisted to discredit Rather instead of the source if they were clever. So there was some planning before hand. The memo could have even been legitimate. That would make sure that CBS ran the story. All they had to do was get the source to admit that he had lied about the chain of custody and then have an expert or two question the authenticity of the document and then have CBS throw Rather under the bus---as they had prearranged in exchange for the FCC looking the other way over Viacom/CBS's violations of federal media ownership rules violations. Here is my journal on the subject.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3539083

This document mentions MSNBC by name is if daring that news network to ignore it. It practically begs those people at the news network who are usually critical of McCain to pounce upon the memo and say "Look! McCain dirty tricks! We were not guilty of Hillary bashing! McCain made people think we were!"

2. The ham handedness/over the top nature of the document is also in keeping with Rove. The man has no subtlety. For one thing, he never went to college. There is only so far you can go with native intelligence. Since he styles himself as Rasputin and uses fear to keep his political enemies in line and flaunts the fact that he is above the law, he has never perfected the art of understatement which is so useful when doing dirty tricks. Recall that Pat Buchanan's number one injunction back in 1972 was that the guys and gals in CREEP make sure that none of the pranks that they pulled against one Democrat which appeared to come from other Democrats every be traced back to the Republicans. The Reagans, being actors, understood the need to keep the public in their court. The Bush's have never understood the importance of pr. They want people to fear them. Karl Rove in particular wants people to admire him for what he can get away with.

3. The date. May 15. Good point. On May 14, KO took his eyes off Clinton for a moment and put them back on the prize long enough to deliver a memorable Special Comment that probably had the WH and the NeoCons and Dick Cheney squirming. It ended with



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24647047/

(Maybe in a spirit of general election solidarity someone over at MSNBC should put this Special Comment back up at the webpage and take down the one they have up at the moment)

If this is what they had to look forward to in the months leading up the general election, then they would have a hard time using the so called war on terra to their political advantage. Maybe they figured it was time to call their conservative buddies at General Electric and arrange an exit for KO.

Just a thought, but KO had better watch his back. Dan Rather had the highest recognizability and the highest approval rating of any journalist in the US when CBS sold him down the river.

He did it with J.H. Hatfield and Fortunate Son ---Rove was the source for the cocaine and other stories---then he proceeded to destroy Hatfield--which scared the press into thinking that the substance of the book was taboo. And everyone was scared to touch those subjects in 2000 even though they were W.'s greatest vulnerabilities.

He did it with Rather and the AWOL story--we do not know that Rove was the source but it was likely someone in the Bush Re-election team which he ran. The substance of the story was all true---and then he proceeded to have CBS destroy Rather--which scared the press into thinking that Bush's bad military record (which should have helped Kerry in time of war) was taboo. And everyone was scared to touch that subject in 2004.

In 2008, when we all know that the RNC is going to be just oozing anti-Obama oppo---racist garbage, calling him a Muslin, a terra-ist, unpatriotic---one of McCain's biggest risks is that his character as a nice guy will take a hit. Esp. on the racism charge. So, it would be typical Rove "The Math" to do a story that attacks John McCain on the topic he most does not want to be attacked on---being a dirty trickster---just so that the McCain campaign in conjunction with Freepers and selected media whores can launch a planned counteract against anyone in the press who dares to report upon the memo as originating from the McCain camp. They could paint it as a combo liberal media/Obama campaign dirty trick----making the subject of McCain dirty tricks seem taboo for journalists if they can effect the disgrace of a well known reporter or media figure. Their hope would be that the press would react as it did in 2000 and 2004. Suddenly, McCain's "nice guy" image would be sacrosanct. If anyone in the Obama camp charged McCain with dirty tricks, they would be ignored or laughed at by the press which would talk about the "Clinton Strategy" hoax.

Like I said, Rove repeats himself. This would his typical strategy for immunizing a candidate against his perceived greatest weakness. And Rove would assume that no one would expect it to come from him or from the RNC, because the memo contains info that might reflect poorly upon McCain, just like Fortunate Son and the Bush AWOL story.

I forget the details, but believe it was when W* was running for Gov. The idea was to make his opponent look bad and desperate, and take the heat off his trickster self.

Whether this memo is real or planted. Whether it stems form Rove, or whether he was aware somebody was going to write it - I can tell you right now, Rove is laughing his creepy ass off.

I hope he is in jail someday very soon after President Obama is inaugurated, and Bush* is out of our White House and can't pardon the SOB.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter whether this memo is real. What does matter is the ideas behind it are real. I've had no doubts there are infiltrators infiltrating as many aspects of our Party as possible. They are known for it. Too bad they don't use the time, effort and money for public good, but their desire is is power and control, not doing what is good and decent.

I've no doubt they made a concentrated effort to impose themselves into Hillary's campaign. I've wondered many times about how suddenly Hillary's supporters blossomed after Pennsylvania. I'm not talking about her voters, but the all-of-a-sudden vocal and huge turn outs at her rallies. I'm not saying Hillary 'padded' her rallies, I don't believe she'd do that, but I do believe the GOP would because they needed her to pump up their (GOP) base. The type of "supporters" that became so vocal and suddenly came out in droves did not act or talk like Democrats. Unfortunately they came on like gang-busters that some Democrats embraced them, or attacked them, depending upon which candidate they supported. The GOP banks on these reactions when time is limited and emotions are high.

Why do this? Like Limbaugh's Operation Chaos, the one thing the vrwc loves is a good Clinton bashing. They made a lot of money off the Clintons in the 90s, and I'm sure they would look forward to some more years of Clintons to rekindle their party base of voters. It gives the slick and sick GOP a sense of purpose. The GOP also fears Obama, his gaining popularity even among Republicans and the votes he may bring take from them (there was an article on that a few weeks ago).

The GOP, and Karl Rove in particular play dirty politics. Rove is in so much hot water over politicizing the Federal Government that the only and best way to effectively sabotage the 2008 elections is at Faux news. What better place can he be? He's right there at the GOP network where he can quietly plant stories, manipulate with dis-information and talking points, and not skip a beat. He still can keep his fingers mingling in the White House, Capitol Hill, K Street, etc. as a newsman, or a colleague of a Faux newsman, and not get in trouble for doing it on the tax payer's dime - while make more money to boot.

I'm so sick of all the bs.

The best thing we can do is ignore it while filing it away in the back of our minds. Being ever aware the tricks they will use; and not give them the satisfaction of knee-jerk reactions when something is said or done, but instead, investigate and calmly discuss it.

If the memo is not real, then the goal is to fu%k with our minds. Good grief, we're no longer fighting a primary and are making amends. They just can't have that, can they? It's so much easier for them when we're fighting amongst ourselves.

I spent yesterday reading up on McCain, and realized that the GOP needs us to fight each other so we lay off their guy.

Speaking as an American, and not as a Democrat, I am afraid of a John McCain presidency. I'm really curious who his running mate will be, and the reason why he chose this person.

Wouldn't that be the funniest thing? RNC oppo being done in some other country, because the Republicans are so low on funds that they can not afford Americans to do it?

I think I will include that in my novel.

Best kind of soldiers are those who will die for a cause for nothing as they will do anything without question.

You've become famous for it.
And now you're trying to pretend otherwise.

:applause: :toast: :bounce: :toast: :applause:

some of them are still in op on DU.

The Wiki folks ask this question: Is the memo what it purports to be? Under "YES", these two points
stuck me:

"Despite Wikileaks sitting on the document for several days while waiting for comment from the
McCain team, the memo did not appear anywhere elsewhere on the internet or in the press. Nor did the
McCain spokesperson mention that they had seen it before."

"Genuine sources want protection, but campaign fabricators want maximal dissemination, so why hasn't
the document been disseminated elsewhere?"

The second reason to believe it's from the McCain camp is reinforced by the first above. It says
to me that the leaker was in the McCain camp and objected to the strategy. The leaker probably
attended a McCain rally and actually heard what his/her candidate was saying.

People can play all the games that they want, and this one of them no doubt.

It's "Time for Truth" and the truth is that McCain is a disaster, unmitigated, four more years
of Bush. The citizens voting know that, the overwhelming majority, and cute leaks, Rovian
convolutions, etc. don't matter. People will vote in overwhelming numbers and it won't be
for the perpetrators of this crap.

Very nice find and post.

I wouldn't put this past the evil bastards.

...I automatically think, "Operation Chaos."

I think I will write a funny story about it once this is all over. Call it the Big Book of Enron maybe . That is what started it all. Enron, the mother of all scandals. Everything they have done has been to cover up for Enron. They could all still go to jail for it, too. Does not the statute of limitations for Bush and Cheney start when they leave office? And there is no Article II exemption for the Rape of California.

after them?

The memo says they plan to attack Obama at Hillary groups for being too "far-left." That doesn't make sense, since Obama and Hillary are about as far left as each other. I've read thousands of complaints from Hillary supporters about Obama,but I've never seen one that said Obama is too "far-left." Only someone who knows nothing about Democratic politics would conceive an attack like this. Its some freeper in a basement trying to stir up resentments between Democrats.