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The Election: It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

Written by Phil Brennan
Saturday, October 28, 2006

           In the intelligence business this is known as "disinformation," which is an effort to delude people by feeding them lies and distortions designed to effect an objective.  In this case, the media's disinformation campaign is meant to discourage the GOP's often mercurial base from voting on November 7.  After all, the subliminal message is:  ''Why bother voting.  The Democrats are certain to recapture control of the House of Representatives and maybe even take the Senate.''

           They tell you:  You might just as well stay home and watch television or go out and play golf.  Voting Republican will be a waste of your time.  Besides, the Republicans have failed to live up to all their promises to implement many conservative goals, and they don't deserve your votes. Stay home and punish them by depriving them of your votes.

            The incessant drumbeat is all but deafening.  Day after day polls are trotted forth, each more dismal for the GOP that the previous one.  Based on these polls, political soothsayers are forecasting a ''wave'' that will sweep hordes of Republicans from their seats in the House and Senate.  We are assured that conservative Republicans are so disillusioned with the GOP that they will stay home.  Ditto so-called "values voters--members of the religious right--who are so upset by the Foley scandalette that they will sit on their hands on November 7 and deny the GOP of a voting block that has kept them in office since 1994.

              That leaves only one bloc that needs to be discouraged.  Now comes a Washington Post/ABC poll of a mere 1,200 alleged independents that assures us that all independent voters--often the "swing vote" that can determine the winners in an election--favor the Democrats by a two-to one margin.  Obviously the nails have already been pounded into the GOP coffin and all that remains is its interment in the political graveyard.

               The liberal media which is shouting the poll results from the housetops doesn't bother reporting just how these results have been obtained.  Anybody familiar with polling techniques is aware of how easy it is to get the results you want: it's all in how you ask the questions.  What result would you get if you asked a person interviewed:  "In view of the 3000 deaths of American boys in Iraq who would you support in the election, the Republicans who want them to stay in Iraq and continue to die, or the Democrats who want to bring them safely home?"  Maybe that's an extreme example, since pollsters tend to be more subtle, but you get the point.

               One of the favorite disinformation devices is the generic poll--one that seeks to show how individual congressional races will be decided based on how respondents rate the two parties.  It is a deceptive ploy that ignores a couple of key factors:  first,  that most voters tend to view their congressman primarily as an individual and not as merely as Republicans, and second, that thanks to gerrymandering, most incumbent members of Congress are all but locked into their seats.

               The media disinformation campaign also relies on matching all the negative stories about  Republicans with positive stories about Democrats--a ploy meant to erase the negative image many voters have of  Democrats such as Howard Dean or Nancy Pelosi.  If you're wondering why the nation has suddenly been deluged with hymns of praise for Sen. Barack Obama, who is running for absolutely nothing this year, think about the image of the Democrats as a bunch of wild-eyed radicals.  Suddenly he's everywhere, appearing on ''Meet the Press'' three weeks before the election, and showing up on the cover of Time magazine.  The subliminal message here is: See Barack, see how handsome he is, how reasonable  he seems, how moderate his policies.   He's the new face of the Democratic Party,  the new Abraham Lincoln from Lincoln's Illinois.  No matter that his record shows him to be more like Karl Marx than Abraham Lincoln. He's the new American idol, canonized by the liberal media.  He's the real face of the Democratic Party.

              The voter's genuine fear of having the likes of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and a mere two heartbeats away from the presidency has been a potent GOP weapon.  Not to worry, stories suddenly pop up quoting anonymous Democrat members of Congress as saying not to worry, we won't back her for Speaker, she'll never make it.  Yeah, sure.  And they'll vote for more and bigger tax cuts.

               Today, many days before the election, the outcome is anything but certain, but it is nowhere near as certain as the media and Democratic disinformation specialists would have you believe.  With them, the wish is father to the thought and the thought is a Democrat victory.

                It ain't over 'til it's over, and it's not over yet.  Keep that in mind on election day and head for the polls and drive a stake through the heart of the disinformation hacks.

About the Writer: Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who is editor and publisher of the website "Wednesday on the Web," whose online address is http://www.pvbr.com. He has written for NewsMax and National Review, and has handled important public relations assignments.