Often when your guy loses many things happen that can usually be associated with one of the 5 stages of grief. Unfortunately for some as evident by the birther movement after the 2008 election, they never get past the first 2 stages of denial and anger.
To see what denial looks like, one needs to look no further than Karl Rove’s reaction when Fox News finally called Ohio for Barack Obama. Fox was one of the last of the major “news” outlets to admit that Obama had taken Ohio and in effect had won re-election and even then Rove refused to acknowledge it.
And now a full week later, denial is starting to give way to anger and all the usual suspects are getting into the act.
First there is popular right wing blogger Michelle Malkin suggesting that the President and his “politically-correct, jihadi-coddling administration” be impeached for covering up their supposed foreknowledge and inaction of the pending Embassy attack in Libya.
And then there is the leader of the tin foil hat army, WorldnetDaily founder and king birther Joseph Farah who admits that he committed voter fraud in an effort to show that it was possible.
How about WND’s own investigation in which it demonstrated conclusively that the Obama campaign welcomed foreign contributions by intentionally leaving vulnerabilities in its web donation page that allowed even those using bogus names, disposable credit cards and foreign IP addresses to donate cash? The classic example was when WND staffers did just this using the name Osama bin Laden, listing his occupation as “deceased terrorist” and employer as “al-Qaida.” The contributions were accepted by the Team Obama, just as it accepted foreign contributions from the Palestinian Authority in 2008, as WND’s Aaron Klein demonstrated.
Interestingly enough, Farah who doesn’t provide proof that any fraud was actually committed other than his act, also intimated near the end of that same article that he needed his readers help to fund his efforts and to also help with a possible legal fight involving his admitted crime. In essence, Farah shows how a vulnerability could be exploited to commit fraud that really isn’t exploitable because he is likely to be charged for doing it.
Farah also engages in a common tactic in his call for action. Like most hyper-partisans on any side of the isle, he immediately dismissed any polls that didn’t jive with his views as being biased before the election instead focusing on those that support his bias. He then cries foul when his favored polls end up being wrong.
How about Michigan – Romney’s home state? How did Obama win such a resounding victory when the polls showed the two candidates in a virtual tie? And how is it that Obama won by 9 points while Democrats suffered a string of defeats down the entire state ballot? For instance, Republicans maintained control of both the state House and the Supreme Court, while Democrats lost three ballot propositions.
For the most part after the 2008 election, the tin foil hat army concentrated mainly on Obama’s citizenship in an effort to get him out of office. If week one of the 2nd Obama term is any indication, the wingnut brigade looks to have a few more paranoia arrows in their quivers.
No matter what your political stripes, the next 4 years should be anything but boring with the 5th and final stage of grief, acceptance, likely being nowhere to be found.