Mitt Romney’s October Surprise?

Credit goes to Craig Unger at Salon who posted a column yesterday that disclosed plans by Mitt Romney’s campaign to ambush President Obama with a late-breaking attack commonly known as an “October Surprise.” Unger cited a Republican source with firsthand knowledge who said that…

“[T]op Republican operatives are primed to unleash a new two-pronged offensive that will attack Obama as weak on national security. […] they planned to release what they hoped would be “a bombshell” that would make Libya and Obama’s foreign policy a major issue in the campaign.”

So the next day that “bombshell” went off on the Fox News community web site, Fox Nation:

Fox Nation October Surprise

Unger called that one with pinpoint accuracy, right down to the language used by the campaign. And it was nice of Fox to cooperate with the Romney campaign’s strategists in getting their propaganda out. The article on Fox News reported this highly speculative story by saying that…

“U.S. diplomats in Libya repeatedly asked the Obama administration for more security in Benghazi in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate but were “denied these resources,” two congressional lawmakers said.”

Fox apparently made no effort to confirm the allegations made by hyper-partisan GOP congressmen Darrell Issa and Jason Chaffetz. There is no presentation of evidence that any diplomats ever asked for, or were denied, additional security. The diplomats in question were not identified, nor were the sources who alleged that any security requests were made.

This story couldn’t be any thinner if it were run over by a steamroller. However, its purpose, to steamroll the Obama campaign, is pretty obvious. And the conspiracy between Romney operatives, congressional representatives, and Fox News to launch this surprise attack reveals just how deeply the political/media machine is integrated into the right’s political infrastructure.

Expect this issue to show up in tomorrow’s debate. It is not a coincidence that the bombshell was let loose just prior to that event. And the right has been attempting to manufacture a story around this that they think is on a par with Watergate. They could not be more mistaken. This is just another wild swing and a miss that demonstrates how out-of-touch the GOP is with what is on the minds of the electorate.

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4 thoughts on “Mitt Romney’s October Surprise?

  1. It’s curious how this “bombshell” is being played down as some dumbass conspiracy and cooperation between the Romney campaign and FOX News.

    The fact that this legitimate story was practically ignored by the rest of the media is in no way indicative of cooperation between the Obama administration and the rest of the media.

    Here’s the problem for FOX News. When they take a more conservative view of a story, it sticks out more than Alfalfa’s best hair day because FOX is the only network that takes a more conservative view. The rest of the media ignores the story fort he most part and nobody stands out, nobody can be found to be complicit with the administration because everybody is doing the same thing.

    It’s easier to hide when you’re in a large group than when you’re standing all alone.

    • No one but Fox is reporting this because only Fox will publish pure GOP propaganda with no proof.

      Did you research any of this? Did you find any evidence to corroborate the allegations? Do you really think a story should be published without substantiating the facts? If so, you may be a redneck Republican.

      If Fox could back up this story I wouldn’t be criticizing it. But there is literally nothing – ZILCH – to back it up other than a couple of rabidly right-wing congressmen and the Romney campaign. That isn’t news.

  2. Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s rain. Conservative view or liberal view I can careless. Fox need to stop the none sense.If you walk like a duck quack like a duck you are a duck.Stop saying you are fair and balanced. It’s an insult to real news organizations. Fox do not let facts get in the way. You only have to watch 10 minutes of any program to reach the conclusion it’s propaganda. There is no accountability when they get caught running a story that is false. That’s standard operational procedure at The Good Ol’ Boy network

  3. Could someone please explain to me why each and every time other media outlets fail to take on an anti-Obama story that the first thing

    ‘the right’

    states is that the

    “..legitimate story was practically ignored by the rest of the media..”

    ?

    Does this not cause one to possibly stop and think that if no one other than the normal right wing conspiracy outlets pushes a story that there just might be something wrong with it?

    If any media outlet believes it can gain revenue from a viable story it will push it. It’s only those stories that are obviously problematic that are ignored by those with journalistic integrity (does that even exist today?).

    The case with Fox is this; what appears on their network oft gets repeated verbatim by conservative lawmakers, and visa-versa. This story just drives the narrative home.

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