It seems totally believable that the party who could barely keep their caucus together to vote on their #1 legislative priority of the last 30+ years could have organized a vast array of liberal sleeper cells to effect voter fraud/intimidation on such a scale as to steal 80 electoral votes… without leaving a shred of evidence.
Apparently ACORN is actually an organization of communist ninjas.
RepubAnon:
December 5th, 2012 at 12:00 am
Dead organizations coming back from the grave to terrorize the living? This is a zombie lie on many levels…
Fighting Words:
December 5th, 2012 at 12:20 am
What the hell is wrong with these people? Everyone knows it was Tammany Hall that fixed the election for the President Obama.
CD:
December 5th, 2012 at 12:29 am
“How would you grade President Obama’s
overall performance so far? If you would give
him an A, press 1. If a B, press 2. If a C, press
3. If a D, press 4. If an F, press 5.”
So the poll was limited to people who don’t hang up when a robot calls.
Andy:
December 5th, 2012 at 1:18 am
Thank God Mayor Daley came through again delivering the votes of all his fellow dead buddies – surely no way Obama would have carried IL otherwise
ploeg:
December 5th, 2012 at 1:29 am
And Saul Alinsky. Why does everybody forget Saul Alinsky?
<a href="http://prospect.org/article/do-republicans-really-believe-acorn-stole-election"Bouie's point that people might just be saying that without really meaning it seems plausible. That is, they had no prior opinions on the matter, but when the possibility was raised they said “sure, why not” because they just don’t like Obama and are willing to say they believe stupid things about him when the opportunity arises.
Pollsters need to do more surveys about things like Panetta-Burns to get a better gauge of how many people just answer whatever questions sound vaguely like the sort of thing that they might hypothetically have an opinion on.
ploeg:
December 5th, 2012 at 3:48 am
Bouie’s point is plausible. But as Steve points out in the linked post, Fox News has been reporting as if ACORN has merely been “reorganized” and “re-branded”, so one must confront the likelihood that a lot of these people actually think that this is straight-up true.
herr doktor bimler:
December 5th, 2012 at 4:38 am
49% of the Republican vote is less than 27%. Surely this is progress.
I hear the conspiracy was so widespread and pervasive that the Democrats were able to achieve their perfidy with the aid of legion of accomplices, each of whom stuffed the ballot box with a single vote. Thus they were able to steal the election a tiny little bit at a time, almost imperceptibly, each one a chip knocked away from the foundations of the country our forefathers knew, taking us that much farther from a time when men were men and some were chattel.
Certainly a lot of low-info pollees & many reactionary commenters thought that Obama “stole” the election; ACORN’s just a handy easy name to attach to that belief.
owlbear1:
December 5th, 2012 at 6:06 am
These people were promised they would be in Heaven by now, joking it up with Jesus.
They’re pissed and beating a dead horse is what they consider brave defiance.
ploeg:
December 5th, 2012 at 7:46 am
“I helped Obama steal the election and all I got was this lousy free stuff.”
c u n d gulag:
December 5th, 2012 at 7:49 am
Yes, of course it was ACORN that helped win the elections for Obama!
But why, oh why, is FUX Noise not talking about how The SDS, The Weather Underground, The Yippies, and The Merry Pransters, were all equally culpable in putting that KenyanSocialistFascistCommunistAtheistMuslim Usurper on the throne?
Was young Roger Ailes a member of one, or all, of those anti-American organizations, and volunteered to help Nixon to atone for his past sins?
The mind, it reels!
Warren Terra:
December 5th, 2012 at 8:05 am
I blame the Wobblies.
mingo:
December 5th, 2012 at 8:05 am
That is a comment well worth re-writing.
Sort of OT, I canvassed for Obama prior to the election, so I recently got a big box of contraceptives – IUDs, diaphragms, pills, etc. I certainly appreciated the thought, but I am menopausal, so I’m not sure what to do with these items. I should donate them to PP, but I was thinking I could get a few bucks on eBay.
rea:
December 5th, 2012 at 8:07 am
I blame the tele-tubbies.
c u n d gulag:
December 5th, 2012 at 8:49 am
And I forgot the nefarious influence of “The Banana Splits” in corrupting impressionable young minds with their evil jungle music:
I’m surprised that Obama’s motto wasn’t ‘ HOPE! Tra-la-la, Tra-la-la-la.”
RedSquareBear:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:02 am
I voted for Tammy, not sure who this “Hall” fellow is…
RedSquareBear:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Still waiting for my damn toaster.
c u n d gulag:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:11 am
Hey Republicans, ‘The New Black Panthers’ are ‘pigments of your imagination!’
rm:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:16 am
I spend part of my day in the company of people who honestly, truly believe that voting for a treaty that encourages countries to recognize the rights of disabled people (as we already do) would be opening the door for UN black helicopters to take away their children.
The reason I find myself in their company is that they are sane, productive, competent people in the realms of life in which they have not been fed toxic propaganda. But in the areas in which they have been fed this, it’s reinforced by all of their news sources and by their churches, and by their social networks, and they really, really do believe it.
I cannot laugh and snark at them. It’s too sad; I feel sorry for them and it’s depressing to consider how toxic bullshit has become such a major force in our culture and politics.
Incontinentia Buttocks:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:19 am
Just writing about contraception violates the religious freedom of God-botherers across the land. At long last, mingo, have you no sense of decency?
Tucker:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:25 am
Banana Splits? You are as old and mentally deficient as I am. I hated that show but watched it religiously
When one’s raison d’etre is “feeling sorry for myself”, it’s not really a surprise to see how far they’ll walk for it.
c u n d gulag:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:46 am
Yeah, I don’t know why I watched it, but I watched it.
It was probably the cartoons they had on between “music” sets, and skits.
Left_Wing_Fox:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:57 am
But that “tra-la-la” migrated from the “Banana Splits” to “Woy-yoy-yoy” in “Buffalo Soldier” by Bob Marley. A song about a BLACK FOREIGNER fighting IN AMERICA?!
HOW DEEP DOES THE RABBIT HOLE GO!!1!11
Incontinentia Buttocks:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:58 am
Don’t forget the Lovestoneites, Georgists, Greenbackers, One-Worlders, Bundists, and Pinguidists! You need at least three whiteboards to track these people!
mds:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:59 am
I blame the Wobblies.
Oh, if only.
Jameson Quinn:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:01 am
Not toaster. Cellphone. Get with the times.
Snarki, child of Loki:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:03 am
Hey, it takes *time* to paint those toasters with red Hammer & Sickle on one side, and a Star and Crescent on the other!
Besides, the whole production line got slowed down after DHS decided that *all* new toasters needed to have an internet chip to report if someone was toasting a suspicious quantity of White Bread. Those FEMA re-education camps aren’t going to fill themselves, you know.
I’m disconcerted by all the high-functioning nutcases out there. One of ‘em’s bound to be a Lex Luthor/Dr. Evil type eventually, right?
Malaclypse:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:58 am
Yes. He’s the current governor of Florida.
DrDick:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Elvis’s hips did it.
STH:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:08 am
And it makes it easier for them to believe the election was stolen when they literally don’t know a single person who voted for Obama. How could he possibly have won without fraud?
Lee:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:08 am
I still maintain the Obama one the election by promising to redistribute acorns from rich squirrels to poor squirrels by socialist tampering in the acorn market.
dan:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:20 am
I was called for this poll (really, not kidding) and thought I’d have a little fun with it by lying, repeatedly, in my answers. I remember this question and thinking WTF?! (I have no recollection of the Pinetta-Burns question, however). Anyway, in the poll response I’m a conservative Republican with a favorable view of President Obama who doesn’t think that ACORN stole the election. Adjust your reading of the poll appropriately….
Is Rick Scott really that high-functioning? I kinda get the impression that asking him to make himself a cheese sandwich would end with him accidentally setting his bathroom on fire…
Pepperfez:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Damn lazy union workers!
Bill Murray:
December 5th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
do you think he just got lucky in stealing all that medicare money?
Bill Murray:
December 5th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
I blame the Weebles. They wobble but they don’t fall down
rm:
December 5th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Well, they know at least one person, but I am hoping to stay in the closet. You have to pick your battles, and I have no political connection to them.
rm:
December 5th, 2012 at 2:48 pm
There is a distinction, although probably not absolute, between the con men and the true believers. Rick Scott is one of the con men. I’m sure he is very, very competent at what he does, but what he does has nothing to do with public service.
PPP was basically trolling the wingnuts: the only available options were that Obama was elected fair and square, and that ACORN stole it for him. No option for “Obama stole the election, but obviously not via ACORN since it doesn’t exist.”
In other words, it wasn’t an entirely honest attempt to gauge opinion. That people were still driven to pick the ridiculous option out of some tribal need to believe the election was stolen is still sad, but I wouldn’t read too much into it.
IM:
December 5th, 2012 at 4:36 pm
ghost ninjas
Anna in PDX:
December 5th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
this is indeed sad and no one seems to have any suggestions as to how to do something about it.
J.W. Hamner:
December 4th, 2012 at 11:59 pm
It seems totally believable that the party who could barely keep their caucus together to vote on their #1 legislative priority of the last 30+ years could have organized a vast array of liberal sleeper cells to effect voter fraud/intimidation on such a scale as to steal 80 electoral votes… without leaving a shred of evidence.
Apparently ACORN is actually an organization of communist ninjas.
RepubAnon:
December 5th, 2012 at 12:00 am
Dead organizations coming back from the grave to terrorize the living? This is a zombie lie on many levels…
Fighting Words:
December 5th, 2012 at 12:20 am
What the hell is wrong with these people? Everyone knows it was Tammany Hall that fixed the election for the President Obama.
CD:
December 5th, 2012 at 12:29 am
“How would you grade President Obama’s
overall performance so far? If you would give
him an A, press 1. If a B, press 2. If a C, press
3. If a D, press 4. If an F, press 5.”
So the poll was limited to people who don’t hang up when a robot calls.
Andy:
December 5th, 2012 at 1:18 am
Thank God Mayor Daley came through again delivering the votes of all his fellow dead buddies – surely no way Obama would have carried IL otherwise
ploeg:
December 5th, 2012 at 1:29 am
And Saul Alinsky. Why does everybody forget Saul Alinsky?
Substance McGravitas:
December 5th, 2012 at 1:35 am
First rule of Alinsky Club.
UserGoogol:
December 5th, 2012 at 3:33 am
<a href="http://prospect.org/article/do-republicans-really-believe-acorn-stole-election"Bouie's point that people might just be saying that without really meaning it seems plausible. That is, they had no prior opinions on the matter, but when the possibility was raised they said “sure, why not” because they just don’t like Obama and are willing to say they believe stupid things about him when the opportunity arises.
Pollsters need to do more surveys about things like Panetta-Burns to get a better gauge of how many people just answer whatever questions sound vaguely like the sort of thing that they might hypothetically have an opinion on.
ploeg:
December 5th, 2012 at 3:48 am
Bouie’s point is plausible. But as Steve points out in the linked post, Fox News has been reporting as if ACORN has merely been “reorganized” and “re-branded”, so one must confront the likelihood that a lot of these people actually think that this is straight-up true.
herr doktor bimler:
December 5th, 2012 at 4:38 am
49% of the Republican vote is less than 27%. Surely this is progress.
Warren Terra:
December 5th, 2012 at 4:44 am
This seems like an opportune moment to repost the comment I had the most fun writing of any I can recall recently:
M. Bouffant:
December 5th, 2012 at 5:10 am
Probably both. Remember “Who killed Bin Laden?”
Certainly a lot of low-info pollees & many reactionary commenters thought that Obama “stole” the election; ACORN’s just a handy easy name to attach to that belief.
owlbear1:
December 5th, 2012 at 6:06 am
These people were promised they would be in Heaven by now, joking it up with Jesus.
They’re pissed and beating a dead horse is what they consider brave defiance.
ploeg:
December 5th, 2012 at 7:46 am
“I helped Obama steal the election and all I got was this lousy free stuff.”
c u n d gulag:
December 5th, 2012 at 7:49 am
Yes, of course it was ACORN that helped win the elections for Obama!
But why, oh why, is FUX Noise not talking about how The SDS, The Weather Underground, The Yippies, and The Merry Pransters, were all equally culpable in putting that KenyanSocialistFascistCommunistAtheistMuslim Usurper on the throne?
Was young Roger Ailes a member of one, or all, of those anti-American organizations, and volunteered to help Nixon to atone for his past sins?
The mind, it reels!
Warren Terra:
December 5th, 2012 at 8:05 am
I blame the Wobblies.
mingo:
December 5th, 2012 at 8:05 am
That is a comment well worth re-writing.
Sort of OT, I canvassed for Obama prior to the election, so I recently got a big box of contraceptives – IUDs, diaphragms, pills, etc. I certainly appreciated the thought, but I am menopausal, so I’m not sure what to do with these items. I should donate them to PP, but I was thinking I could get a few bucks on eBay.
rea:
December 5th, 2012 at 8:07 am
I blame the tele-tubbies.
c u n d gulag:
December 5th, 2012 at 8:49 am
And I forgot the nefarious influence of “The Banana Splits” in corrupting impressionable young minds with their evil jungle music:
http://www.vevo.com/watch/the-banana-splits/tra-la-la/USUV70805741#/watch/the-banana-splits/tra-la-la/USUV70805741
I’m surprised that Obama’s motto wasn’t ‘ HOPE! Tra-la-la, Tra-la-la-la.”
RedSquareBear:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:02 am
I voted for Tammy, not sure who this “Hall” fellow is…
RedSquareBear:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Still waiting for my damn toaster.
c u n d gulag:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:11 am
Hey Republicans, ‘The New Black Panthers’ are ‘pigments of your imagination!’
rm:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:16 am
I spend part of my day in the company of people who honestly, truly believe that voting for a treaty that encourages countries to recognize the rights of disabled people (as we already do) would be opening the door for UN black helicopters to take away their children.
The reason I find myself in their company is that they are sane, productive, competent people in the realms of life in which they have not been fed toxic propaganda. But in the areas in which they have been fed this, it’s reinforced by all of their news sources and by their churches, and by their social networks, and they really, really do believe it.
I cannot laugh and snark at them. It’s too sad; I feel sorry for them and it’s depressing to consider how toxic bullshit has become such a major force in our culture and politics.
Incontinentia Buttocks:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:19 am
Just writing about contraception violates the religious freedom of God-botherers across the land. At long last, mingo, have you no sense of decency?
Tucker:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:25 am
Banana Splits? You are as old and mentally deficient as I am. I hated that show but watched it religiously
John Protevi:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:29 am
Ha!
BigHank53:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:40 am
When one’s raison d’etre is “feeling sorry for myself”, it’s not really a surprise to see how far they’ll walk for it.
c u n d gulag:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:46 am
Yeah, I don’t know why I watched it, but I watched it.
It was probably the cartoons they had on between “music” sets, and skits.
Left_Wing_Fox:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:57 am
But that “tra-la-la” migrated from the “Banana Splits” to “Woy-yoy-yoy” in “Buffalo Soldier” by Bob Marley. A song about a BLACK FOREIGNER fighting IN AMERICA?!
HOW DEEP DOES THE RABBIT HOLE GO!!1!11
Incontinentia Buttocks:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:58 am
Don’t forget the Lovestoneites, Georgists, Greenbackers, One-Worlders, Bundists, and Pinguidists! You need at least three whiteboards to track these people!
mds:
December 5th, 2012 at 9:59 am
Oh, if only.
Jameson Quinn:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:01 am
Not toaster. Cellphone. Get with the times.
Snarki, child of Loki:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:03 am
Hey, it takes *time* to paint those toasters with red Hammer & Sickle on one side, and a Star and Crescent on the other!
Besides, the whole production line got slowed down after DHS decided that *all* new toasters needed to have an internet chip to report if someone was toasting a suspicious quantity of White Bread. Those FEMA re-education camps aren’t going to fill themselves, you know.
So be patient. It’s in the pipeline.
Joe:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:03 am
Any thoughts on what happened in the NY State Senate?
BruceK:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:12 am
I blame the Judean People’s Front and the People’s Front of Judea.
bob_is_boring:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:30 am
The Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the Saucer people, under the supervision of the Reverse Vampires…
We’re through the looking glass here, people.
Pestilence:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:33 am
win
mark f:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:55 am
I’m disconcerted by all the high-functioning nutcases out there. One of ‘em’s bound to be a Lex Luthor/Dr. Evil type eventually, right?
Malaclypse:
December 5th, 2012 at 10:58 am
Yes. He’s the current governor of Florida.
DrDick:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Elvis’s hips did it.
STH:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:08 am
And it makes it easier for them to believe the election was stolen when they literally don’t know a single person who voted for Obama. How could he possibly have won without fraud?
Lee:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:08 am
I still maintain the Obama one the election by promising to redistribute acorns from rich squirrels to poor squirrels by socialist tampering in the acorn market.
dan:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:20 am
I was called for this poll (really, not kidding) and thought I’d have a little fun with it by lying, repeatedly, in my answers. I remember this question and thinking WTF?! (I have no recollection of the Pinetta-Burns question, however). Anyway, in the poll response I’m a conservative Republican with a favorable view of President Obama who doesn’t think that ACORN stole the election. Adjust your reading of the poll appropriately….
Scott S.:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:22 am
Is Rick Scott really that high-functioning? I kinda get the impression that asking him to make himself a cheese sandwich would end with him accidentally setting his bathroom on fire…
Pepperfez:
December 5th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Damn lazy union workers!
Bill Murray:
December 5th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
do you think he just got lucky in stealing all that medicare money?
Bill Murray:
December 5th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
I blame the Weebles. They wobble but they don’t fall down
rm:
December 5th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Well, they know at least one person, but I am hoping to stay in the closet. You have to pick your battles, and I have no political connection to them.
rm:
December 5th, 2012 at 2:48 pm
There is a distinction, although probably not absolute, between the con men and the true believers. Rick Scott is one of the con men. I’m sure he is very, very competent at what he does, but what he does has nothing to do with public service.
Matt McIrvin:
December 5th, 2012 at 3:14 pm
PPP was basically trolling the wingnuts: the only available options were that Obama was elected fair and square, and that ACORN stole it for him. No option for “Obama stole the election, but obviously not via ACORN since it doesn’t exist.”
In other words, it wasn’t an entirely honest attempt to gauge opinion. That people were still driven to pick the ridiculous option out of some tribal need to believe the election was stolen is still sad, but I wouldn’t read too much into it.
IM:
December 5th, 2012 at 4:36 pm
ghost ninjas
Anna in PDX:
December 5th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
this is indeed sad and no one seems to have any suggestions as to how to do something about it.