new GOP talking points as election draws closer

Fox News is profoundly successful at the "some people say . . . " tactic, which is a great way for an anchor to express an opinion or spout a talking point while appearing to just report the news. For example, "Some people say that if Ned Lamont wins in the general election, the terrorists will walk right into your house and steal all your beer." or "Some people say that George Bush is the greatest most super duper awesome fantastic president ever in the history of the world and everyone who doesn't support him is a terrorist lover who had a party on 9/11 because they hate America so much." etc.

It's been very successful, because the Fox audience, who so desperately want to believe that Dear Leader and his Merry Band of Colossal Fuckups are doing a great job, can hear "some people" and immediately substitute "those evil liberals" or "the Democrat party[1]."

Now the "some people" language is moving up a notch in the GOP food chain, from Fox News right up to the White House.
A couple of days ago, we heard Dick Cheney say:

"Some in our own country claim retreat from Iraq would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone," Cheney told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada. "A precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be ... a ruinous blow to the future security of the United States."

The big problem with this claim is that nobody is saying that. An even bigger problem is that the media are dutifully and credulously spreading the specious claim. Now Rumsfeld is using the same "some people" language, and making the same completely false claims, which 36% or so of sadly deluded Americans are gleefully listening to and believing.

Expect this language, and this framing, to be repeated more and more as we get closer to the election, and especially when the Decider tries to make everyone believe that Iraq=9/11 and Saddam=Al Qaeda.

Guess what? "Some people" are finally waking up and realizing that George Bush's GOP is a complete and utter failure.

(via Americablog)

[1] As an aside, whenever you hear someone call Democrats or the Democratic party "the Democrat Party" you can be assured you're listening to a wingnut. The right wing noise machine has been trying to replace "Democratic" with "Democrat" for a little over a year, now.