Grand Theft Election, Fourth Edition

"The Republican Party is a permanent majority for the future of this country"

-- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, November 3, 2004. "We're going to be able to lead this country in the direction we've been dreaming of for years. And we're going to put God back into the public square." The same day House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told the Sacramento Bee, "We have lost just about everything we can lose."

Cousin John's calls tipped election tally

Melinda Wittstock in New York
Sunday November 19, 2000

Observer


John Ellis is not unlike any other American journalist in wanting to be first with big news. At the helm of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Network's election night decision team, he achieved the now dubious distinction of being the first to call Florida - and the presidential election - for George W. Bush. The numbers he was working from were not official, but the viewers did not know that. Nor did they know that Ellis was very chummy with Bush - he's his first cousin.

No one might have given Ellis much notice if the election was not still hanging by a chad almost two weeks later - or if he had not bragged to the New Yorker magazine that throughout what's come to be known as 'Indecision 2000' he was constantly on the phone with his cousins George and Florida's Governor 'Jebbie', tipping them off with the latest internal projections on the voting.

The revelation has caused disquiet within the more high-minded of media circles, not least because his decision to call it for 'Dubya' on Fox at 2:16am forced the hand of competing networks. CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS followed the Ellis lead within four minutes, only to be forced into embarrassing retractions less than two hours later. But the fateful decision has proved convenient for Republicans in the ongoing PR war, say media watchers, creating a lasting impression that Bush 'won' the White House - and all the legal wrangling down in Florida is just a case of Democratic 'snippiness'.

'The notion you'd have the cousin of one presidential candidate in a position to call a state, and the election, is unthinkable,' says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. 'Fox's call - wrong, unnecessary, misguided, foolish - helped create a sense that the election went to Bush, was pulled back, and it's just a matter of time before his President-elect title is restored.

snip

Election Theft Emergency

By Terrence McNally, AlterNet. Posted January 27, 2006



Terrence McNally: You also include the 2002 congressional election. That one also broke too consistently against predictions?

Mark Crispin Miller: That's exactly right. In Colorado, in Minnesota, in Georgia, and in a couple of other states -- there was what we might call "Diebold magic" everywhere. In all these states, you had far-right-wing politicians predicted to lose by pre-election newspaper polls and by exit polls, and all of them won.

snip

NBC News
Feb 13, 2004

“MEET THE PRESS WITH TIM RUSSERT”

INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH


Russert: Two polls out this weekend show you —

President Bush: See there, you're quoting polls.

Russert: — you're trailing John Kerry in both U.S.A. Today and Newsweek polls by seven and five points.

President Bush: Yeah.

Russert: This is what John Kerry had to say last year. He said that his colleagues are appalled at the quote "President's lack of knowledge. They've managed him the same way they've managed Ronald Reagan. They send him out to the press for one event a day. They put him in a brown jacket and jeans and get him to move some hay or move a truck, and all of a sudden he's the Marlboro Man. I know this guy. He was two years behind me at Yale. I knew him, and he's still the same guy.”

Did you know him at Yale?

President Bush: No.

snip

Russert: Are you prepared to lose?

President Bush: No, I'm not going to lose.

Russert: If you did, what would you do?

President Bush: Well, I don't plan on losing. I’ve got a vision for what I want to do for the country. See, I know exactly where I want to lead. I want to lead us — I want to lead this world toward more peace and freedom.

snip

By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2006

Rove, who is under investigation in the leak of a CIA operative’s identity, thrilled the partisan audience with behind-the-scenes anecdotes in the West Wing or on Air Force One. He recalled his sophisticated computer program to track returns on election night 2004 that contradicted exit polls showing Bush losing in Florida.

“I’ll never forget. The first county I clicked was Hernando. Then Pasco. And about that time, Jeb called in,” Rove recalled. “I started working my way down the east coast and he said, 'Start with Broward.’ … It was clear, we were running well ahead of where we needed to run, and Jeb said, 'We’re going to win, and we’re going to win big.’ ”

Associated Press
06/14/2006

WASHINGTON - President Bush predicted on Wednesday that Republicans will maintain majority control of the House and Senate this November despite polls showing voters favor putting Democrats in charge.
"I believe we're going to hold the House and the Senate because our philosophy is one that is forward-looking and optimistic and has worked," Bush told reporters at a White House news conference.

Last week, the Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that only 24 percent of those surveyed approve of the way the Republican-controlled Congress is doing its job. Fifty-two percent said they want Democrats to capture control of Congress in November, about the same as last month's survey.

snip

(AP) Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday that the Republicans will prevail in the midterm elections because of a strong economy and the ability of the Bush administration to prevent another terrorist attack.

Polls show voters favor Democrats taking charge in November, but Cheney said the GOP will maintain its majority control in the Senate and House. He cited an economy that's "kicking along in very good shape" and President Bush's record in the war on terror.

snip