Talk Nation Radio Election Coverage 2008
Featuring: Dori Smith, Brad Friedman of Bradblog.com, RNC and McCain-Palin campaign manager Rick Davis, Gov. Matt Blunt, and ACORN National and State Directors who respond to various charges by the McCain Campaign.
Listen to this one hour special here
TRT: 59:52 long music fade of 1:36
Download in various formats at Archive.org
McCain-Palin Campaign Director Rick Davis accused ACORN of trying to help the Obama Campaign steal the 2008 Presidential Election in battleground states. The allegations were made during a conference call held by the McCain campaign 10-10-08. We’re fact checking the conference and debunking statements by Rick Davis and Missouri Governor Matt Blunt.
Davis lashed out at the grass roots organization ACORN, which operates on behalf of low and
moderate income people nationally, doing voter registration and legislative advocacy. The press conference was only the latest in barrage of attacks launched by the McCain campaign and Republicans.
Is it a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from Friday’s report of abuses by the Palin administration in Alaska, that as the Republicans experience another dive in the polls and Wall Street suffers worst week in it’s history.
Brad Friedman debunks allegations of “Voter Fraud” and alleged “voter registration fraud.” He defines the two, noting that real voter fraud is extremely rare, and pointing out that it is ACORN that reports the cases mentioned by the McCain campaign.
Obama-Biden campaign response to McCain call on ACORN
“Today’s conference call was another effort by the McCain campaign to throw out false charges to ‘turn the page’ from the issues that matter to American families. Barack Obama strongly condemns voter registration fraud or any other breach of election law by any party or group. The McCain campaign’s allegations about Sen. Obama are completely transparent and false. He believes that the registration of voters at record levels is good for our democracy, and the McCain-Palin campaign’s false claims are nothing more than another dishonorable, shameful attempt to divert voters’ attention from the unprecedented challenges facing their families and our nation,†said Obama-Biden campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.
ACORN RESPONDS TO MCCAIN CAMPAIGN ALLEGATIONS
Austin King at the National ACORN Headquarters joined us by phone from New Orleans where he works to try to save families’ homes from foreclosure.
Nicholas Graber-Grace of the Hartford and Bridgeport Connecticut offices of ACORN
Bruce Dorpalin of ACORN Housing Corporation operating as a 501c3 since the mid 1980s helping people get affordable mortgages without high adjustable rates and weird sub prime stuff. Over 100,000 mortgages have been created with this program over the past twenty years. They took on the sub prime banks engaging in scandalous abuses years before the term “sub prime” was used.
As of 10:30 PM EST The New York Times had published a story on the McCain campaign’s allegations. The New York Post quickly followed suit, and the RNC and Republican blogs republished these and other stories on ACORN that repeated the McCain campaign’s allegations.
A follow up to the NYT piece that raises some questions Here and
coverage by Lynn Sweet who participated in the conference call here
Also of interest: Media Matters and Huffington Post
More late coverage 1:30 A.M. October 11, 2008 from CBS
featuring only one side of the story but mentioning ACORN denials without going into detail. In this story CBS News claims they, “talked to nearly two dozen ACORN workers who all said they were pressured to increase their number of registration cards – to the point of copying names out of phone books, signing up inmates, and registering the dead”.
This swift moving story is now being called the “swift boat” campaign of the 2008 election, in reference to the Swift Boat attacks that hurt the campaign of Democrat John Kerry in 2004. It has been posted, reposted, and blogged at incredible speed all night.
Will the truth ever be told? Who ARE these ACORN staffers that media seems always able to locate? How does the information about allegations of voter registration fraud involving ACORN magically appear in the hands of Republicans even before investigations are complete as to any charges?
What should happen to those who started these stories if the ‘facts’ offered turn out to be all old, exaggerated tidbits jammed together to make it seem like ACORN has been charged with thousands of ‘violations’ recently?