Did Tom Brokaw accidentally spill the beans about the vote-rigging in 2004 in Ohio?
On Meet the Press, Brokaw interviewed McCain, and shared this rather suspicious memory:
Brokaw: "Four years ago, I interviewed President Bush at a time when it looked like he may be in trouble against John Kerry — the final weekend of the campaign. I showed him a map. He said, 'Oh, I just don't do that. Karl Rove does that.' As soon as the interview was over, he said, 'I'll win here,' and pointed to southeastern Ohio. Where will you win, if you win?
Why was Bush so convinced he was going to win Ohio?
Even though he was down in all the polls, and was way down in all the exit polling on Election Day?
And, more to the point, why is McCain still pouring so many resources and so much time into Pennsylvania?
In June 2006, RFK, Jr., published an article in Rolling Stone titled, "Was the 2004 election stolen?" In this article, he gives details about how exit polling in 2004 was so wrong that it led pollsters to investigate the causes. In several battleground states, exit polling was wrong by as much as 9 points, which is highly unusual. RFK, Jr., writes, "After carefully examining the evidence, I've become convinced that the president's party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004."
The worst of these suspicious exit poll results came in Ohio. It was so suspect that Rep. Conyers decided to initiate his own investigation into the election results in that state.
The most extensive investigation of what happened in Ohio was conducted by Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.(52) Frustrated by his party's failure to follow up on the widespread evidence of voter intimidation and fraud, Conyers and the committee's minority staff held public hearings in Ohio, where they looked into more than 50,000 complaints from voters.(53) In January 2005, Conyers issued a detailed report that outlined ''massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio.'' The problems, the report concludes, were ''caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.''(54) Rolling Stone
Brokaw said that Bush pointed to southeastern Ohio as the reason for his confidence that he was going to win. Because he knew that Blackwell was going to "deliver" the state for him, just as Jeb delivered Florida in 2000.
What does this mean for 2008?
In the MTP interview, McCain didn't give a detailed answer to Brokaw's question of where he thought he was going to win -- but he did insist that "it's going to be close" and that he's going to win. But who knows what he might have said to Brokaw after the interview?
My guess is that McCain, if he obliged Brokaw, would have pointed to Pennsylvania.
Take this story from ABC’s Jake Tapper last week:
Rendell ‘Nervous’ McCain Could Win Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell wants Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., back in the Keystone State. He's worried Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., could still pull off a victory there. . . .
The Keystone State has not gone Republican since 1988, but it's often a close contest; Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., only beat President Bush there by 2.5 percentage points in 2004.
Even though the current RCP average for Pennsylvania shows Obama +11, Rendell is nervous. Why? And despite being consistently down in the polls in Pennsylvania, McCain is choosing to spend a lot time there in the remaining days of the campaign. Why? McCain was polling much better in Michigan than he has been in Pennsylvania, yet he pulled out of Michigan weeks ago . . .
Here are the reasons McCain's got his eye on the Commonwealth:
#1: The Electoral College
Consider this winning McCain scenario, improbable as it seems at the moment:
Assume McCain loses the four red states where the Obama campaign feels it's strongest, namely Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico and Virginia.
Assume, too, that McCain wins every other contested red state, including Missouri, Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Indiana and North Carolina, even though he trails in most of them now.
If all of that were to happen, McCain would eke out a 273-265 victory by winning Pennsylvania.
Link
#2: RACISTS
Let’s not forget about Rendell’s comments back in February, when he wasn’t sure the people of his state were willing to vote for a black candidate:
"You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," Rendell told the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in remarks that appeared in Tuesday's paper.
Link
#3: ELECTRONIC VOTING
Pennsylvania is one state that is awash in the controversy surrounding paperless electronic voting. Apparently, they had a lot of problems with their machines in this year’s primaries. Check out this story from last week:
Coalition of Voters and Civil Rights Groups File Federal Lawsuit in Pennsylvania Seeking Emergency Paper Ballots
A coalition of Pennsylvania voters and civil rights groups, led by the NAACP State Conference of Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit today in federal court in Philadelphia seeking to ensure that voters receive emergency paper ballots on Election Day when 50% or more voting machines become inoperable at any polling site in the state. The lawsuit, filed against Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortes, alleges that voters will be disenfranchised when they face the burden of having to wait hours in line, due to voting machine breakdowns, in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
"In Pennsylvania this year," the complaint states, "an unprecedented interest in voting, a record number of newly registered voters, and a well-established history of widespread electronic voting machine failures have converged to create a perfect storm that, left unaddressed, unquestionably will result in the disenfranchisement of substantial numbers of citizens."
The lawsuit follows numerous reports during Pennsylvania's primary election in April of voters facing long lines when electronic voting machines became inoperable at their polling sites. Voters called national election protection hotlines on primary day, including 866-MYVOTE1, reporting that election officials were not providing the safeguard of emergency paper ballots when voting machines malfunctioned. Callers stated that voters were told either to wait in line - sometimes for hours - or to come back later to vote. The reports revealed that many voters left their polling locations without casting their votes.
Other people have noticed a possibility for voting irregularities in Pennsylvania:
Pennsylvania: Where the Next Election can be Stolen?
Michael Collins: Election Fraud in Pennsylvania?
The thought of the GOP stealing another election makes me sick to my stomach. But I'm writing this diary because I believe that, if we're vigilant and informed enough, that we can overcome their efforts this time around. Hopefully, having a Democratic governor in PA, and a Democratic leader of the election commission in Ohio, will help.
But the GOP isn't going to sit back and "let" Obama win.
We're going to have to DEMAND that democracy wins this election.
UPDATE: Wow, I woke up and found my diary on the rec list! Thanks everyone!