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Last week I inadvertently aided the latest Swift Boat operation. In that story lies a change in campaign tactics that could make 2008 a watershed election.
The story begins innocently enough. In the rush of returning from a Boundary Waters trip and planning for my son’s wedding I received a comment form a woman purporting to be a PUMA (more on that later) that attacked Barack Obama with half-truths and innuendos. The main thrust of the comment what that this Hillary Clinton supporter was angry about what happened with the Democratic Presidential nomination. My normal policy is to censor overt racist comments because I have no intention of allowing this blog to spread hate speech.
However, this comment was clever enough not to cross over that line. So in the interest of encouraging alternative voices and also providing a forum for Clinton supporters, it seemed the right thing to do. Little did I know that virtually every “talking point” in that comment comes from a series of anti-Obama groups that are taking this campaign into new territory, aided by a Federal Election Commission ruling that will make it difficult to counter their efforts. It is the new Swift Boating.
The New Swift Boating
As you remember, the Swift Boaters were fellow Vietnam Vets vehemently opposed to John Kerry because they maintained he distorted his service record, at one point even endangering his own men by violating the rules of engagement. I first heard about the Swift Boaters in November of 2003, writing an article that predicted they and Kerry’s war record would become a major factor in the 2004 election and perhaps cost Kerry the White House. No one would publish the piece. As the Kerry campaign gained momentum, so did the Swift Boaters, becoming as I had predicted a central part of the 2004 campaign.
The New Swift Boaters share some things with their 2004 counterparts–a deep personal hatred for the Democratic candidate and a belief he is unqualified for the nomination. Where they part ways is that the tactics they employ, tatics that go way beyond what the Swift Boaters used.
The Swift Boaters played on the resentment felt by many Vietnam Vets and other Americans about John Kerry’s actions in Vietnam and his subsequent anti-war activities, particularly his undocumented charges of atrocities. The new Swift Boaters play on the anger felt by supporters of Hillary Clinton that the Democratic National Committee virtually killed any chances for Clinton to win the nomination by their rulings on the Michigan and Florida delegations and their “arm-twisting” her into dropping out of the race.
It is important to realize that many of these Clinton supporters have accepted a mental model of what happened that says the DNC “stole” the election for Obama just as the Swift Boaters had a mental model of Kerry’s Vietnam record. As we found in 2004, mental models can be difficult if not impossible to change not matter what facts you marshal.
As everyone knows the argument over the actions of the DNC still rages over the Internet. As with the Swift Boaters it is inevitable this effort would become organized and political.
The Swift Boaters formed a 527 group, which is a political organization dedicated to specific issues that is divorced from a candidate’s formal campaign. In fact law forbids coordination between 527 groups and campaigns and 527 groups cannot endorse candidates; they can only endorse causes. Now, as in the case of the Swift Boaters, this cause can obviously hurt one candidate and not another, but their advertising can not say, “Vote for Candidate X.”
Aided by money from T. Boone Pickens and others, the Swift Boaters put together a wide-ranging and sophisticated media campaign that earned them national attention. The Internet was a part of this campaign, but mostly in the form of veterans emailing other vets or through veterans’ web sites.
With one exception, the new Swift Boaters have decided not to go the 527 route. Instead their main tactic has been to plaster the Internet with anti-Obama blogs purportedly started by disgruntled Clinton supporters and to inundate existing blogs, chat rooms and any other place they can find with anti-Obama material. Call them the Hillary Trojans–as in the Trojans that get into your computer and do nasty things.
How It Works
If the Swift Boaters consisted of a well-organized military-like assault on the Kerry campaign, the Hillary Trojans have deliberately tried to avoid the appearance of unity. Their tactic is to try to make their charges appear to be a spontaneous uprising with no leaders, no central group, no organization. The idea is to show that thousands of Hillary Clinton supporters are spontaneously swamping the Internet with their protests.
It is important to point out at this point that there are many legitimate Clinton supporters who ARE angry. They present a case that the media, especially early in the campaign, cast Clinton in a much more negative light then Obama. Then they marshal arguments to show the DNC actions were wrong.
This is not the place to get into these arguments yet again, except to note people believe them and they are not crazy, off-the-wall charges. Currently may of Clinton’s supporters are working to assure that her name be placed in nomination–which it should because she has earned that right. They also want Clinton to have a major speaking role at the convention, which she has also earned. Some still favor a Clinton-Obama ticket.
What distinguishes what I term the mainstream Clinton supporters from the Hillary Trojans are that they are working within the Democratic Party whereas the Trojans openly support John McCain. Here is where the new tactics become important. Those who form 527 groups operate under a strict set of rules that require periodic filings of financial records. In short, you know who is backing them.
On the other hand, the Hillary Trojans are taking advantage of a Federal Election Commission ruling that blogs are to be treated just like other media. So they can say what ever they want, openly support candidates, and need not reveal who is funding them. They file no reports other than tax returns. A certain orange left-wing blog is incorporated as an LLC for just this reason.
What this leads to is politics as spam. In addition to multiple blog sites, which of course make their way onto search engines with some clever SEO marketing, the Hillary Trojans can inundate any blog they wish with comments. Each web master is then forced to decide whether a comment is political spam or not. Traditional spam fighters designed to filter out old-fashioned spam such as porn, ads for Viagra, and other assorted trash have no way of coping with political spam.
Ironically the ruling that opened the gate came from our favorite orange blog. In its review of blog and Internet activity the FEC ruled:
As a whole, these final rules make plain that the vast majority of Internet communications are, and will remain, free from campaign finance regulation.
Political Spam
I predict political spam will become as much or more a problem for 2008 as the Swift Boaters were for 2004. They will make dealing with the Swift Boaters seem easy. The Obama Campaign, which has made the Internet a central part if their efforts, now finds the Net being used against it. To counter propaganda coming from the GOP is one thing, but to deal with political spam is another.
Sites have the right to accept or reject comments, but if we are suddenly inundated with Hillary Trojan comments how do we fight it? Right now the one opening is that like the comment I received the wording has all the earmarks of a mass mailing or chain letter, so perhaps mere calling attention to these cut-and-paste jobs could cut down the spam.
In the end the decision rests with each of us who have blogs and web sites. We must decide what to accept. In this the web may be its own solution because as sites expose the Hillary Trojans their impact can be diminished.
The next episode of this series will examine some of the people behind the Hillary Trojan movement, their questionable posts and Hillary Clinton’s own equivocal attitudes towards this activity.
Note:
Although I have come across others who have made the analogy between the Hillary Trojans and the Swift Boaters, my first note of it was in a piece by Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon, so I give her credit for making the analogy.
Coda:
For those who linked here from other places also check out the article which follows this, identifying some of the people involved in the Hillary Trojan movement. They are quite a collection and raise serious questions about thew integrity of Faux News and the mainstream media.
The People Behind the New Swift Boating
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