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As you may have heard, it’s an election year. As such, there are certain traditions that must be followed.
Such as The October Surprise – which is to say, a major news event with the potential to influence the outcome of an election, with its release or occurrence intentionally timed for that purpose by the people whose preferred candidate stands to benefit.
Part of the fun is trying to guess what that October Surprise might be – especially in this age of fear and loathing we live in. Thanks to a significant portion of the voting public being convinced Presidente Obama is a Muslim Socialist, the predictions can range from plausible to complete and utter batshit.
For example, here’s what people are predicting Obama will unleash in October to ensure his re-election:
Obama will arrest Wall Street executives!
Obama will bomb Iran!
Obama will legalize pot!
Obama will pardon all illegal aliens and make them registered Democrats!
By far, though, this is the best entry to date:
Seriously. Joe Angione has it all figured out [PDF], according to the Canada Free Press and the Constitution Party of Florida:
And there you have it.
I love this kind if thing. It’s one of those conspiracy theories that has everything it needs to perpetuate indefinitely – an unnamed but well-placed “senior” source, the qualification that it’s only “a rumor that cannot presently be confirmed” (but presented as a real enough possibility that it’s worth taking seriously, because it’s not like no one has ever tried fake assassination as a re-election strategy before – or at least been accused of it) and the assertion that by reporting the rumor, you can potentially prevent the event from happening in case it turns out to be real.
That way, see, if no one assassinates Obama by Thanksgiving, conservatives can take credit for foiling his evil plot.
Also, if at some point between now and November someone actually tries to assassinate Obama (like, say, Great Britain, or these guys), conservatives get to go around claiming Obama staged the whole thing because WE TOLD YOU SO.
Genius!
Anyway, while this is mostly being perpetuated by the usual fringe wingnuts, the article is written with enough qualifiers and loopholes that even Republican lawmakers in Tennessee can blast it to their email list safely without being lumpted in with the batshit conspiracy theorists. “I’m not saying this is going to happen, I’m just letting you know in case it does.”
Or maybe not. After not a little online mockery, Kerry Keisling has already apologized for sending it – even though in his preface to the email he seemed pretty convinced it was worth passing on because hey, it could be true.
PRODUCTION NOTE: Incidentally, the Constitution Party also believes that the US govt was behind 9/11.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I was born and raised in Tennessee. I don’t talk about it much for a reason.
Just shoot me,
This is dF
Such as The October Surprise – which is to say, a major news event with the potential to influence the outcome of an election, with its release or occurrence intentionally timed for that purpose by the people whose preferred candidate stands to benefit.
Part of the fun is trying to guess what that October Surprise might be – especially in this age of fear and loathing we live in. Thanks to a significant portion of the voting public being convinced Presidente Obama is a Muslim Socialist, the predictions can range from plausible to complete and utter batshit.
For example, here’s what people are predicting Obama will unleash in October to ensure his re-election:
Obama will arrest Wall Street executives!
Obama will bomb Iran!
Obama will legalize pot!
Obama will pardon all illegal aliens and make them registered Democrats!
By far, though, this is the best entry to date:
Obama will stage a fake assassination attempt on himself!
Seriously. Joe Angione has it all figured out [PDF], according to the Canada Free Press and the Constitution Party of Florida:
The faked assassination, says the CFP report, would be carried out through the assistance of DHS agents, and “other colluders” taking their orders from the White House. The objective would be to stir up enough racial unrest to justify the imposition of martial law in major urban cities, including erecting DHS checkpoints, restricting travel, and delaying (possibly indefinitely) the November 2012 elections.
And there you have it.
I love this kind if thing. It’s one of those conspiracy theories that has everything it needs to perpetuate indefinitely – an unnamed but well-placed “senior” source, the qualification that it’s only “a rumor that cannot presently be confirmed” (but presented as a real enough possibility that it’s worth taking seriously, because it’s not like no one has ever tried fake assassination as a re-election strategy before – or at least been accused of it) and the assertion that by reporting the rumor, you can potentially prevent the event from happening in case it turns out to be real.
That way, see, if no one assassinates Obama by Thanksgiving, conservatives can take credit for foiling his evil plot.
Also, if at some point between now and November someone actually tries to assassinate Obama (like, say, Great Britain, or these guys), conservatives get to go around claiming Obama staged the whole thing because WE TOLD YOU SO.
Genius!
Anyway, while this is mostly being perpetuated by the usual fringe wingnuts, the article is written with enough qualifiers and loopholes that even Republican lawmakers in Tennessee can blast it to their email list safely without being lumpted in with the batshit conspiracy theorists. “I’m not saying this is going to happen, I’m just letting you know in case it does.”
Or maybe not. After not a little online mockery, Kerry Keisling has already apologized for sending it – even though in his preface to the email he seemed pretty convinced it was worth passing on because hey, it could be true.
PRODUCTION NOTE: Incidentally, the Constitution Party also believes that the US govt was behind 9/11.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I was born and raised in Tennessee. I don’t talk about it much for a reason.
Just shoot me,
This is dF
