For the second time we’ve gotten an email that says it comes from a spokesman for Revelation Press about a major announcement that’ll be made in Washington on MONDAY about a candidate running in the New Hampshire primary..one DAY before the vote there — seemingly a CLASSIC case of leveling an eleventh-hour charge so a candidate doesn’t fully have time to answer it.
(See UPDATE at bottom of this post. A respected blogger believes it is aimed at MCCAIN.)
And if there is a charge (and this is legitimate) the media will NOT have time to fully explore the charge — just report it and then get a “they’re full of baloney” comment from the target of the charge. So if there is a charge, it’ll linger there on Election Day.
Here’s most of what the email says:
Major Leading U.S. Presidential Candidate to be exposed prior to NH Hampshire Primary — Will Moderate Voice cover it?
We’re sure this is being sent to many blogs and newspapers with their names on it.
One of this year’s leading candidates will be “Swift-Boated” in a new book to be announced next Monday, January 7th at 1:30 p.m. in the Murrow Room at the National Press Club in Washington.
That’s about as honest description as you can get…
One candidate is about to be challenged – with hard and cold facts, presented cogently by an author, former TV business news editor, decorated military hero and college political science instructor who shares this candidate’s party affiliation – and who has known the candidate personally since their college days.
Next Monday, the truth will be revealed when a book that literally gives “chapter and verse” about this candidate’s less-than-candid candor with the American people.
This book is supported by 10 pages of meticulously-researched end-notes supporting every factual assertion about the candidate’s failure to shoot straight with the American people, and this breach-of-faith’s implications for the Presidency.
If you’re serious about covering the 2008 Presidential campaign, you won’t want to miss this news announcement – and you will want to meet the author.
It has a link to confirm whether the recipient can be there (we’re on the West Coast and would pass on something like this) and it’s signed by Daryl Toor, CEO/Chief Awareness Officer, Attention Group (apparently a PR firm) for Revelation Press. Mr. Toor does have a presence on the Internet.
Unlike a lot of sites, The Moderate Voice has been AGAINST “swift-boating” no matter who does it.
This site took a lot of criticism when it did not do posts on it in 2004. Nor did we do endless posts on George W. Bush’s military service. The argument can be made — and we will make it again — that (a) our campaigns need to be focused on the many critical issues facing our country (b) voters should make a point of voting against candidates who indulge in the politics of bilge and try to eliminate their competition by personally destroying them. Most “swift boating” is done with plausible deniability but in most cases the fingerprints of who benefits are VERY clear. Our politics is too personality driven as it is.
If the “swift boating” is in terms of actual POLICY (what the candidate did versus what he or she asserts on the stump) that is fair game.
This may be a nothing story or there may be something to it.
OUR GUESS: There have been several news stories over the pasts few weeks about attempts to stop McCain’s momentum. We’d guess it’s something aimed at McCain. Because the people who “swift-boat” try to find a quality something about someone that most people admire and then raise the negatives.
OR Rudy Giuliani. There have been stories about firefighters who believe his pre-911 decisions contributed to deaths wanting to ‘swift-boat” him.
OR Obama? Went to college with him? Is this going back to the old youthful drug use stuff again?
But this is all uninformed guess-work. Legitimate? Stay tuned. But no matter what it is, if it was totally legitimate — if the intent was truly to bring new information to the electorate — the announcement would be made way before the day before the election.
UPDATE:
—Rick Moran believes it’s aimed at McCain and his reasoning is logical. A tiny taste 4 U:
The candidate isn’t mentioned but the military angle would seem to suggest an attack on John McCain.
The same fellow who mounted the Viet Nam Veterans Against John Kerry now has a group called Viet Nam Veterans Against John McCain. Gerard “Jerry” Kiley is claiming that McCain betrayed the United States as a POW and hints that he is being blackmailed even today by the Vietnamese.
I will not sully this site with details of the charges. I will only say that any legitimate news outlet that attends that press conference or runs with any story connected with these folks should be sued by the McCain campaign.
We say: BRAVO…Read it in FULL for more details.
–James Joyner got it, too. He tried to find out more about it.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.