The Chris Moeller Archives

A little conspiracy theory for ya

Hear me out: Is the major anti-Trump campaign being waged this week by the establishment news media really an orchestrated anti-Sanders campaign?

In the week leading up to Michigan and Ohio, we have been bombarded with stories about the efforts to stop Donald Trump-- the 2012 loser, Mitt Romney, speaking out (of all people, calling Trump a phony), "the Republican national security community" speaking out, the push for Rubio to bow out. The Republican race has led the headlines all week.

But, in the background, something else was happening. According to FAIR and Alternet, the Washington Post ran 16 negative stories about Bernie Sanders in just one day.They weren't front and center. That space was reserved for the end of the world as we know it, Mr. Trump, but as I said in my February 28th post, the dirty work gets done when nobody's looking, when no one suspects it.

Bernie Sanders is the actual threat to business as usual-- the only candidate that challenges the concept of American empire. Trump hasn't said anything outrageous in nearly two weeks. He's already softening to the establishment. Ted Cruz is clearly the more terrifying Republican. Trump might be Hitler on the stump, but Cruz is Richard Nixon in thought, word, and deed.

Following Super Tuesday, the Washington media declared it over for Sanders, but without ever explaining for us the concept of a superdelegate. We haven't heard the word in weeks. (For what it's worth, Blogger's spellcheck still doesn't recognize it.) There has been almost no examination of how the party actually counts votes. The first-priority plot now of the establishment, I contend, is to secure an actual majority-vote victory for Clinton. It's not enough for her to claim the delegate one the DNC engineered for her through a lack of televised debates and caucus hijinks. It can't be obvious to general election voters that the primaries were a sham. Clinton has a real problem unfolding for herself in November and they know that.

Over the weekend, we were told that Clinton was "gearing up for Turmp" even as Sanders was taking three out of four primary states. Wins, yes, but "the road is about to get rougher" for the upstart socialist even though the only states thus far to have voted outside Clinton's stronghold of Dixie had mostly gone to him, and the approaching delegate-rich states of Michigan and Ohio were tailor-made for Sanders' anti-Wall Street message and his attacks on U.S. trade policy. During the debate in Flint, Michigan, the only take-away anybody in the tradition media seemed to have was that Sanders insulted all of womanhood by verbally reprimanding Clinton once for interrupting him. The polls in Michigan, they told us, had Ms. Clinton up on her opponent anywhere from 11 to 37 points. The Huffington Post Pollster, a measure of all public polling combined, had her by 18.

And then last night happened. Sanders WINS Michigan.

It couldn't have been last-minute vote changing. The facts don't allow for it. It was too much in too short a window of time. The polling was wrong all along. Why is the news media still clinging to a series of expectations that have been upended at every turn this year? Uncomfortable realities of the real America have been suppressed for some time for fear of what they mean for the people that live in Washington. In this year's race, they keep rearing their ugly heads, and the careerists are jittery as hell.

The new spin has already begun. (Of course, the Clintons made the art of political lying-- "spinning"-- into a glamorous profession. Think back to the era of Carville vs. Matalin, and Michael J. Fox as George Stephanopoulos.) I'm reading the new hook here in the wee small hours. Clinton voters thought she already had it sewn up (even though Sanders has vowed to stay in the race until all the states and districts have voted). They crossed over to vote against Trump instead.

The game is rigged, and the Super PACs and the national committee have the nomination in the bag for Clinton, Incorporated, but the outcome in Michigan shows how bad off Clinton's game is. It's getting harder and harder for her machine to hide it. Look for at least 20 negative Bernie stories on the Post's website on Thursday.

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Bonus early-morning blogging fact. I found this one when I was looking up how to spell 'Stephanopoulos': Did you know the host of ABC's Good Morning America and This Week gave the Clintons, his former bosses responsible for his entire career, $75,000 over three years from 2012 to 2014? The story is from 10 months ago on CNN, but I'm just finding it now. Don't worry about the potential for impartiality on his part, however. He settled the entire affair, after it was uncovered, by recusing himself from a Republican Debate on ABC last month.

posted by CM @ 4:39 AM