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Rove: President Succeeded by Suppressing the Vote

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Karl Rove was back on Fox again this Thursday, still making excuses for blowing through all of those billionaires' money and with a major dose of projection when it comes to which party believes in voter suppression -- Karl Rove: Obama Won 'By Suppressing The Vote' :

Mitt Romney lost the election because President Barack Obama engaged in voter suppression, according to Republican political strategist Karl Rove.

"He succeeded by suppressing the vote," Rove said in an interview on Fox News with anchor Megyn Kelly on Thursday afternoon, "by saying to people, 'You may not like who I am and I know you can't bring yourself to vote for me, but I'm going to paint this other guy as simply a rich guy who only cares about himself.'"

Rove didn't actually give any examples of ways in which Obama made it harder for people to exercise their constitutional right at the polls -- things like voter ID laws, which have been pushed by GOP legislatures around the country. In fact, Obama specifically said in his victory speech that it was unfair that people had to wait in line for hours to vote, which occurred in part because Republicans reduced the time period for early voting.

Rove did say that Obama had aired attack ads and painted Romney as out-of-touch with the concerns of ordinary voters, but these are fairly common tactics in politics, and Rove is certainly no stranger to them.

"Fifty-three percent in the exit polls said on Election Day that Mitt Romney's policies would only help the rich. And they voted for Obama by a 9 to 1 margin," added Rove. "Of the 21 percent of the electorate who said that the most important characteristic in a president was that he cares about people like me, they voted for President Obama by almost a 9 to 1 margin. They effectively denigrated Mitt Romney's character, business acumen, business experience and made him unworthy."

Kelly then pointed out that whoever runs in 2016 on the Democratic ticket is not likely to go any easier on Republicans. Rove replied that the GOP needed to be quicker to responding to attacks, saying the Romney campaign did not do so effectively enough.

"The first group to respond to the attacks on Bain Capital was not the Romney campaign, it was American Crossroads with an ad in July. We don't do defense all that well," said Rove, saying it was sometimes more effective to have the candidate appear in an ad and respond directly to the charges being leveled.

Someone needs to explain the difference to Turdblossom between voter suppression and running a good campaign.



Darcy Burner Keynote, Netroots Nation 2012

From NetrootsNationVideo and their channel on You Tube:

Darcy Burner gives a keynote at the Friday mid day plenary, "2012 and the War on (and for) Women" Netroots Nation 2012 in Providence, Rhode Island.

Here's more from their recap on KOS: Recap: 2012 and the War on (and for) Women.

Our sister site, Occupy America, is offering livestreaming from Netroots Nation.



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I'm not sure what impact this had on the recall election this Tuesday night in Wisconsin, but I agree with state Sen. Lena Taylor that those responsible ought to be held to account for this voter suppression tactic. Maybe if we had a few more people going to jail for pulling these type of stunts, they'd be less likely to do it in the first place. It's shameful that Republicans have proven themselves once again willing to do whatever is necessary to suppress voter turnout in order to make sure they win elections.

Wisconsin State Senator: investigations and prosecutions needed for voter suppression:

Investigations and criminal prosecutions are needed for election fraud in Tuesday night's gubernatorial election, Wisconsin State Senator Lena Taylor said. Taylor wrote to the state's Government Accountability Board, arguing that "It is imperative that your agency uphold the law and criminally prosecute any person that is engaged in voter suppression and disenfranchisement tactics." Robocalls have been made to citizens in Wisconsin misleadingly telling them that they needn't vote if they already signed the petition to recall Governor Scott Walker. "It is my understanding that a reporter did call and find out that that call did come from the Republican Party,"

Taylor said, speaking on The Ed Show. "I'm looking forward to the GAB doing an investigation, and I think the Attorney General also should have done and should be doing an investigation of anyone who is attempting to intimidate or to give misinformation to voters in order to suppress votes."Taylor said that the robocalls were an obvious attempt to reverse the momentum that the pro-recall side has made. "They know that the momentum is with [Milwaukee Democratic Mayor]Tom Barrett and they’re determined to cheat and do whatever they can,” she said. “I will characterize this robo-call, frankly, as a disgusting tactic. A fear tactic."

IMHO anyone engaging in this sort of activity ought to be facing some severe criminal penalties and looking at some real jail time for doing it. I'm no expert on Wisconsin law and do not know what the punishment is if they can prove who was making these calls. I was glad to see the state Senator call for the matter to be looked into. I'm sick to death of this type of tactic being allowed to go on and I hope sincerely that Ed Schultz follows up on it so what happened receives some further scrutiny than just the coverage on his show this Tuesday evening.