This is a very wise piece on Swiftboating AKA "The Big Lie"

[beachmom]

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/04/dissent-of-th-5.html#more

The reader tells Andrew Sullivan that he is wrong to think we will know Bittergate is over once we have the primary election in PA:

It won't kill him in PA, but it will hurt him a lot over the long run.

The problem is that this is going to be used to define Obama. He's an elitist who has contempt for rural America, aka the real America. If you have a minivan, and take your kids to softball games, he thinks he's better than you. That he knows better what's good for you than you do.

This first episode doesn't tip the scales. But he'll say something else, and they'll try to plug it into that narrative. They'll just make stuff up -- it will circulate in emails, and no one of stature will endorse the lies. But they'll be out there. And they'll be talked about on talk radio.

People will phone in and say, do you believe that Obama did x, y, or z? And the host will say, I've heard those stories, and they need to be looked into, and you know, I wouldn't be surprised if they turned out to be true. But right now, we just don't know. So the host seems reasonable and cautious, while the show spews out the lie.

Back when I was a Hillary supporter, a big part of the logic behind my position was that the Clintons understood the big lie. They knew how to run against it. It turns out that they understand it as well as anyone, as we're finding out now.

This is the beginning of the big lie for Obama. And he has to have a viable strategy to beat it. I see him doing exactly what Kerry did -- he's above it, and he's refuting it by saying, this is nonsense, that's not who I am. It ain't gonna work.

Guys like you have to take the danger of the big lie seriously. The fact that it is the big lie has to be pushed out into the debate, and talked about, and it has to become part of the conventional wisdom. We have to talk about it as the big lie, and openly discuss the best way to respond.

Because really, the best response to the big lie is to talk about it. Not to get bogged down in whether or not Obama is an elitist -- that's playing on the liar's home court. But rather to talk about the strategy of the big lie, and to show how it's being used, and to try to get people -- or at least pundits -- to become more skeptical of this stuff.

I don't need to tell you how big the stakes here are.

Personally, I think we now have a very good term for Swiftboating that is not Kerry-specific: The Big Lie.

[blm]

1. The Big Lie is also a great WAY to attack back those who are employing the technique.

THAT would make a great activism post for GD-P. You should explain it to them much as you did here. But with GD-P you really need to have to press your point.

You came up with a great strategy AND replaced the gawdawful 'swiftboating'in one feel swoop. Let's PUSH it.

[beachmom]

2. I started with this. What do you think?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5532351

[blm]

3. Good start. I think this can be carried forward easily as long as we do it consistently.

Fortunately, we have a lot more activists willing to do this now.

Look how long it took for 'Tonya Harding' to make inroads. heh