quote:

Brock says he first conceived of Correct the Record last summer. "Having left the State Department," Brock told me, "Clinton didn't have the kind of robust operation that one would have if one was holding public office. That's where I saw the need." He wrote a memo predicting "an uptick in political attacks" against Clinton and proposed a rapid-response group to defend her. As it happened, the very next day America Rising, an opposition research outfit founded by former Mitt Romney and Republican National Committee staff, announced a "Stop Hillary 2016" initiative.

Correct the Record's staff (18 and counting) is crammed into a newsroom-style bullpen in the back corner of the offices of American Bridge 21st Century, Brock's super-PAC. "They're always there; they're working around the clock," former Clinton White House adviser Paul Begala says of the crew. "I always tease David that he finds all of these nerd virgins and locks them away in a vault where they never see sunlight or have a drink or get laid. But God bless them!"

The team has been building an exhaustive database of factoids documenting Clinton's career, as well as compiling opposition research on her putative opponents. With Clinton's own press team largely silent, Correct the Record has become the go-to source for reporters seeking pro-Clinton quotes in response to Republican attacks.

Correct the Record is part of a larger shadow campaign that's gearing up for 2016. It includes Ready for Hillary, which is collecting voter data, and Priorities USA, which is raising big money. "For the first time in my adult life, the left has their poo poo together," says Begala, who relies on Correct the Record for talking points when he prepares for cable spots as a Hillary surrogate.

Hillary Clinton has always had a rocky relationship with the press, thanks in part to dealing with conservative smear artists like the young Brock. Correct the Record reflects her prickly approach to media relations. The group spent much of the early summer sending out press releases touting the sales of Clinton's book and tweeting about stories that questioned the numbers. When New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a column about the lavish speaking fees commanded by Hillary and daughter Chelsea, Correct fired back with a dossier on Dowd, highlighting her own speaking fees.

But this strategy could backfire. Hillary has always struggled with the perception that she is inauthentic and quick to become defensive; being shielded by a group that pounces on every slight could reinforce that image.

But Strider isn't too concerned. The Democrats failed in 2004, he explained, by not building a media operation that could respond to the Swift Boating of John Kerry. He doesn't want Clinton to suffer from the same mistake in 2016. "One thing Nancy Pelosi has said to me is, 'Burns, in politics, if you take a swing at somebody you can rest assured of one thing: They're going to swing back. So why not prepare in advance?'"

EugeneJ posted:

quote:

Paul Begala says of the crew. "I always tease David that he finds all of these nerd virgins and locks them away in a vault where they never see sunlight or have a drink or get laid. But God bless them!"

EugeneJ posted:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/david-brock-hillary-clinton-correct-the-record


How do we combat online campaigns bankrolled by millionaires that use sockpuppets to try and thought-police society on this forum and others?

D&D and C-SPAM threads have devolved to Hillary surrogates shouting talking points at each other and laughing.

The circle if someone who's not a Hillary supporter comes along to a thread usually looks like this:

I support Bernie
Well you support a losing candidate, you sexist bernout
But he had good policies that were better than Hillary's proposals
Did you not see Bernie endorse the true progressive candidate, Hillary Clinton?
Hillary isn't progressive and is going to start a war

And then they start posting pictures of food because they don't have a response.

The mods won't ban them, so how far is this going to go exactly? If Hillary loses, will the two major parties decide that astroturfing doesn't work and abandon it? Or will it get worse?

Can I pay my own army of nerd virgins to say that Lowtax raped and killed a girl in 1990?

General Dog posted:

Anybody who disagrees that the elderly Jew socialist was America's last hope has to be a paid plant, it's the only possible explanation.

Meta Ridley posted:

The paid shills don't give a poo poo about this dead gay forum. DND is filled with privileged, white upper middle-class IT janitors making a lower 6 figure salary who think they are part of the elite Hillary stands for, even though Hillary considers them garbage-tier.

Jellidelic posted:

goes all the way to the top imo

quote:

"They're always there; they're working around the clock," former Clinton White House adviser Paul Begala says of the crew. "I always tease David that he finds all of these nerd virgins and locks them away in a vault where they never see sunlight or have a drink or get laid. But God bless them! [...] For the first time in my adult life, the left has their poo poo together," says Begala, who relies on Correct the Record for talking points when he prepares for cable spots as a Hillary surrogate.

quote:

I thought my ideas were so clear. I wanted to make an honest post. No lies whatsoever.

guidoanselmi posted: