>>>>The Empire Strikes Back

[Jacobin]

Mr. Rove said Republican candidates still hold a huge cash edge over Democrats, which will give them clout in the final three weeks of the campaign . . . "Between now and the election, we will spend $100 million in target House and Senate races in the next 21 days."

Karl Rove
Washington Times interview
October 18, 2006


"From here you will witness the final destruction of the Alliance, and the end of your insignificant rebellion . . . Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station!"

The Evil Emperor
Return of the Jedi
1983

From Billmon: http://billmon.org/archives/002847.html


PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE no more celebrations until victory. PLEASE no complacency. I'm doing what I can and I know DUers are too, but please do not be lulled into complacency.

$100 million in propaganda can do a lot a LOT of damage to the 20% undecideds in the middle.

:scared:

[MrCoffee]

you jerk! now i have Vader's theme stuck in my head!

:hi:

[Jacobin]

3. da, da....dadadaDAda..

sorry.

Now the ear bug is stuck on me too

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Cash vs Truth...

It bums me out that it's even a contest anymore...:(

[Jacobin]

8. Its a bummer

[villager]

2. "This is *not* a diplomatic cruiser...."

n/t

[saltpoint]

4. No complacency at my house. Let's fight the little turds right up

to the second the polls close.

A few dozen envelope stuffings per district can swing an entire election, and with it, the course of the nation.

Hey there, Jacobin. Nice to see you.

[MrModerate]

5. Let's ask ourselves: the 93rd time you see the same ad on TV . . .

Does it have any effect on you?

The 'Licans are going to make a whole bunch of TV stations and placement consultants even richer than they are right now, and the listeners will stop registering the ads by Tuesday. All the voters will be left with will be a vague distaste for the entire electoral process.

While this is not a desirable outcome (I'd like to encourage people to vote, not drive them away), in this environment, such anomie favors Dems -- who are motivated as all get out -- significantly.

[trotsky]

6. Hard to say.

Remember one of the very last Chimpy ads in 2004? It basically came down to, yeah, we know our guy hasn't done that great but the other guy is much, much worse and in the voting booth you can do the right thing and no one will know. Did it work? Dunno. But the election was close enough for Bushco to win.

[MrModerate]

7. But Kerry had let the race get tight enough to steal . . .

weeks beforehand.

They successfully painted him as "weak" (the only real tipping point for serious, non-insane voters) and kept hammering at it until enough people believed it. The rest of the attacks on him were either purely for the base or trivial.

[originalpckelly]

9. Yes but the Jedi Return...

and when they do, watch out emperor.