PrintOctober 20, 2010
This Year's October Surprise
I assumed that the Democrats' October Surprise for this year's election would be either a faked administration success, like doctored statistics showing a dramatic reduction in unemployment, or a negative attack, such as a rumor that the Tea Party movement is secretly funded by al-Qaeda. It now seems that there will be no spectacular national event, but rather, in numerous local contests, a series of "tomato surprises."
No, I don't mean the old egg-cooked-in-a-tomato, which happily seems to have disappeared from modern cuisine. In science fiction parlance, a tomato surprise is a sudden revelation about the identity of a character or locale that completely changes the plot. The classic example is the half-buried Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes; we suddenly realize that the strange planet is our own Earth. In other examples, the supposedly human hero turns out to be an alien or a pre-programmed android or (in one parody) a tomato.
The tomato surprises that the Democrats have cooked up come in two flavors. The first is a slide personal attack, insinuating that a Republican candidate is not what he or she seems to be, but something much worse. For months, Democrats have been busily digging for dirt in the private lives of Republican candidates. And what they couldn't find, they fabricated.
The opening firecracker was the press conference at which Nikki Diaz, represented by the ever-flamboyant Gloria Allred, accused Republican California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman of exploiting Diaz as an illegal immigrant housekeeper. This was quickly refuted and exposed as a hoax, but the image of a cruel taskmistress standing over a weeping Hispanic woman had been planted in voters' imaginations.
However false such attacks are proven to be, they influence voters. Mainstream media journalists suffer from pica: they greedily swallow political dirt but have no appetite for truthful refutations. So the voting public is likely to see the accusation but not the refutation. And even if the accusations are disbelieved, they help the Democrats by diverting attention from major national issues, wherein the public perceives them to have failed.
Since the Allred affair, other candidates have been subjected to similar treatment. Michele Bachmann has had to endure pornographic mockery on Playboy's website and satirization in a musical. These attacks, however preposterous, plant subconscious doubts; if these people hate Bachmann so much, maybe there's something bad about her. In other assaults, Democrats have accused Rand Paul of being a bad boy in college, Christine O'Donnell of being a witch, Bill Brady of being a dog-killer , and Dino Rossi of being (gasp) a banker. The general Democratic message is: "beware of _______; he (she) is really a _______ in disguise!"
A subtler form of accusation is being used in a crucial congressional race in western Washington. The campaign between Jamie Herrara and Democrat Denny Heck seemed fairly straightforward until female voters began receiving large, lavish, beautifully photographed postcards with messages like this:
Notice the sly insinuation that a guilty secret is being revealed. Herrera's pro-life stance is a matter of public record, but the postcard makes it seem as if she has been hiding it and that the startling discovery is something to be intimately whispered woman-to-woman over teacups. Herrera is tacitly branded as a deceiver. To give her opponent his due, he doesn't seem to have initiated this canard; the postcard shows (as compelled by law) that it came straight from Democratic National Headquarters.
The other flavor of tomato surprise is a revelation that a Democratic candidate is really a closet conservative. The candidate unzips his reptilian Progressive suit and behold, there's a human being inside. But, as Ed Lasky has pointed out, Dems fake this by blandly lying about their voting records, hiding their party affiliation and incumbency, or pledging to overturn the ObamaCare legislation they are on record as having favored.
The last case, Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has been accompanied by theatrics such as a video showing him shooting a copy of the cap and trade bill. This supposedly got him in trouble with the Democratic National Committee, but some voters are skeptical:
Tim Kaine knows good and well that Manchin can't get elected by supporting Cap 'n Trade and Obamacare and that Manchin has to run as far and as fast from Obama as possible before election day. I wouldn't be surprised if both Kaine and Obama approved this ad and helped Manchin produce it, because they know once he gets in office, he will be a loyal democrat soldier, or as Manchin's opponent puts it, "A rubber stamp for Obama." This faked anger on Kaines part is all part of the plan so Manchin can say, "See those Obama folks don't like me. I am a different kind of democrat."
Sad to say, other voters are easier to fool. After the video's release, Manchin sprang ahead in the polls.
Of course, the final October surprise will be vote fraud. Already, Democrats posing as Libertarian pollsters have been trying to mislead voters in Illinois, vote fraud is rampant in Wisconsin, and absentee ballots for our soldiers overseas have been delayed so that their overwhelmingly conservative votes will not be counted. And finally, a supposedly dead ACORN will rise from its grave and stalk the streets, recruiting and herding illegal and mythical voters. Watch for the premiere on November 2 at your local polling place.
