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It's a devious strategy, (but with a proven track record of success), i.e., hurl enough slurs, innuendo, exaggerations, false accusations, downright lies, and assorted negativity at your opponent hoping that enough stick (or enough doubts are raised in the minds of the undecided)in order for your chosen candidate to look that much more electable.

This Rovian strategy, refined from the Nixon book of "dirty tricks" and even earlier, has worked before, but will it work again?

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GEORGIA:

"So for example, if Obama has a fundraiser and organizer working to support his campaign, and one were to discover that this person is the son of an al-Qaeda operative that our government is attempting to deport"

So for example, if McCain has a fundraiser and organizer working to support his campaign, one were to discover that this person is a lobbyist who was paid to represent Burma's military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the Bush Administration and State Department for its human-rights record, would this be newsworthy?

So for example, if McCain has a fundraiser and organizer working to support his campaign, one were to discover that this person was a lobbyist who was paid to represent Angola guerrillas, whose human-rights records have been harshly criticized, would this be newsworthy?

Whoops. These two scenarios are NOT hypothetical. These people ACTUALLY ARE PART OF MCCAIN'S CAMPAIGN TEAM.

Please explain YOUR answers. LOL.

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http://www.newsweek.com/id/136321

"McCain, who has portrayed himself as a crusader against special interests, is surrounded by lobbyists. Doug Goodyear, McCain's selection for GOP Convention Chair, is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil and GM.

Goodyear's firm was paid $348,000 to represent Burma's military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today. His firm created a PR campaign to burnish the junta's image, denouncing 'falsehoods' by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.

Goodyear's firm also pioneered so-called 527 groups, precisely the kind of operations that McCain, in his battle for campaign-finance reform, has denounced.

Ironically, Goodyear was chosen for the post after the McCain campaign nixed another candidate, Paul Manafort, who runs a lobbying firm with McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

"Longtime uber-lobbyist Charles R. Black Jr. is John McCain's man in Washington. Black was Jonas Savimbi's man in the capital city. His lobbying firm received millions from the brutal Angolan guerrilla leader and took advantage of Black's contacts in Congress and the White House. Black and his partners were at times registered foreign agents for a remarkable collection of U.S.-backed foreign leaders whose human rights records were sometimes harshly criticized.

What the firm achieved was quickly dubbed 'Savimbi chic.' Foreign-agent records document hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on behalf of UNITA, including $76,491 for limousines, $13,675 for photography and $216,186 for lodging at the Grand Hotel and the Waldorf-Astoria.

McCain 'portrays himself as Mr. Clean, and then he has all these lobbyists around him who are connected to a lot of not-so-clean people.'"

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