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JANUARY 9, 2004 - As reported by American
Research Group (ARG), an independent polling organization, someone
is continuing to play Bush-like vote-suppressing games with primary
voters, particularly those who would support General
Clark.
In this latest move, older New Hampshire voters,
the ones General Clark is getting most of his support from, are
getting phone calls telling them they can't vote in the upcoming
primary. However, if they say they support Dean, they are
being told they can vote.
As ARG reports, "Over the past 2 days of calling,
a number of older respondents registered as undeclared voters have
reported that they have received telephone calls from a campaign
informing them that they will not be allowed to vote in the
Democratic primary because they missed the deadline to switch
parties. A respondent discovered, however, that when she the
caller that she was thinking about voting for Howard Dean, the
caller told her that she would be eligible to vote."
Now, these are the exact tactics the Republicans
have used in recent elections to suppress the Democratic vote.
While the first rush to judgment might lead one to suspect Howard
Dean and his supporters, it is just as likely that this is the
Republicans directly involving themselves. In fact, it fits
far more in the mold of the Republicans than with it being Dean
supporters. Dean supporters are passionate, but they are not
so subversive.
In fact, this would seem to fit the pattern of the
Republicans both pushing candidate Dean, who they think is a much
easier match up for Bush than Clark, and also trying to breed nasty
infighting among the Democratic candidates. There is nothing
more the Republicans would like than to have Clark and Dean tearing
each other apart - in fact, and insider tells us directly that is
their plan.
So while this is yet another act of subversion in
support of Howard Dean, the Democratic campaigns need to think twice
before directly blaming Dean and his supporters. In
particular, because they will need Dean's supporters in the general
election should they win the nomination. This, indeed, is why
the Republicans are trying to seed animosity, to create a wedge so
if Dean doesn't win the primaries, his supporters will be too angry
to join the winning camp, and if Dean does win, the other camps will
be too angry to join his.
Of course this could be Dean supporters doing
this, but from all we know, hear, and see - and we have been pretty
darn accurate so far - it is much more likely the Republicans
seeding this than the fervent Deanies. |
