The Republican Party strategists are masters at manipulating the minds of the masses. They know if you repeat a lie or unfavorable characteristic about an opponent often enough people will eventually accept it as fact. I recently read where the McCain team had been joined by the main strategist behind the Bush campaign's successfully labeling Kerry as a "flip-flopper". The technique he advocates is really simple. You answer whatever question is asked with the key phrase or description you want to implant, whether it is relevant to the question or not. Every interview or press release includes mention of the desired implant phrase or description every time. Repeat it constantly, over and over again at every opportunity. After people hear the implanted term enough times, they no longer question it but accept it as being true. It worked well for Bush. Why not for McCain?
Therefore, expect to hear Obama is "elitest" over and over, more than before. Is it raining in California? Yes, the elitest Obama is getting wet. That is how McCain, who owns nine houses (not just seven) and who is a multi-, multimillionaire who flies around in his own jet plane, will succeed in getting the masses of America to equate Obama with elitism. It works since many Americans are so superficial that they believe anything if they hear it often enough. (Same principle as used in mass advertising.
I'm told that in selling books people need to see your title six or seven times before it sticks in their mind. Hence the need for multiple reviews, ads, etc.)
The even uglier side of this involves circulating known lies through emails again and again. Here we have "Obama is a secret Muslim, not really a Christian", "If Obama is elected, we will have a Muslim (non-Christian) in the White House". This message refuses to be killed but keeps re-circulating, stirring up doubts and fears about Obama.
(McCain could stop it with one statement saying that he knows Obama is not a Muslim but is a Christian and that those "swift-boating" Obama by continually spreading this lie are in truth the non-Christians here. Don't hold your breath.)
Another McCain campaign claim that makes the rounds in emails is the lie that Obama would raise incomes taxes on most Americans earning less than $100,000 annually. I imagine you've all seen the emails with the little tables of taxes to be paid under Republicans versus under Obama showing thousands $$ more under the Obama columns. Truth is, according to the Tax Policy Center's figures, Obama's plan would actually reduce taxes for 80 % of American households. Taxes would be raised for only about 10 % of households, those earning in excess of $227,000 annually. At that exact income, the tax increase would be $12. (Obama's plan would generate increased revenues by increased taxation of the ultrarich and of corporations. Over 20 % of U.S. corporations currently pay no income tax on their earnings. Greater than 30 % of foreign corporations currently pay no U.S. taxes on income earned in America. Obama would close those loopholes.) Yet, this particularly egregious and obvious lie is constantly being circulated via emails. The truth can't stop them.
Too bad that so many Americans are so gullible that simply constantly repeating a lie or false characteristic makes them accept it as truth. Too bad the Republican Party knows how to use this technique so effectively.
