Presidential Foul Play: Tricks Some Candidates Use to Get More Votes

Running a successful presidential campaign depends on many things. It depends on charisma, character and wisdom. It depends on expressing your ideas and goals to the people in ways they can understand and relate to. It depends on the media as a channel to deliver these ideas to the people. But are you 100-percent sure that who you're voting for isn't using foul play to make him or herself stand out?

Slander:
Too often a presidential candidate may not make his (or her) opinions known because he is too hung up on explaining an incorrect rumor or something that happened in his past.

Rumor: Barack Obama would not represent America well because he is Muslim.
Truth: Barack Obama is not Muslim, and religion has nothing to do with how well a President would lead a nation. A late 2007 CBS News Survey reported that eight in 10 people did not know what religion Obama was. In total, only 1% actually knew he is a Christian.

Overall: If the President will be representing you and your country for the next 4 years, he/she deserves to have a voter who doesn't base his/her vote solely on a chain email they received the morning of the election.

Redistricting: President Bush as well as other Presidents, have exploited loopholes that allow them to redistrict areas. Redistricting allows the President to remark political borders, solely for the concern of nullifying the opponent's votes. By doing so, the President could win a region which he would have otherwise lost.

Popular Terms: Many Presidential Candidates will take sound bytes from other candidates and run them on the television in quick advertisements. These ads are designed to distort the view of the target candidate. By doing "oppositional research" and picking out certain facts that would make a candidate "seem" unfit, the trickster candidates are able to easily turn away undecided voters. Don't be fooled by these sound bytes, don't take any kind of advertisement as truthful.

Rush Limbaugh and Democratic Radio are not accurate sources of information: While these stations may be able to relate to you, what they say is rarely more than an opinion. Do not allow one candidate to have ideas spoon fed to you through popular talk show hosts, many of whom are guilty of their own accusations.

Example:

LIMBAUGH: On Bill Clinton: "Never trust a draft dodger." (Radio show, quoted in FRQ, Summer/93)

REALITY: Although a supporter of the Vietnam War, Limbaugh used a minor physical impairment to avoid the draft (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 9/27/93).

(from: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1895)

Scare Tactics: Those candidates who lack a conscience may even resort to preying on the fears of the American people to gain support.

"Back in the post-Civil War days in the South, to scare blacks and poor whites away from the polls, the KKK used both fear and trickery. Today's "new GOP" is doing the same thing. There are getting increasingly more stories about intimidation and fearmongering by the RNC. Here's the latest: Campaign mail with a return address of the Republican National Committee warns West Virginia voters that the Bible will be prohibited and men will marry men if liberals win in November. The literature shows a Bible with the word "BANNED" across it and a photo of a man, on his knees, placing a ring on the hand of another man with the word "ALLOWED.""

(from: http://archive.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Republican%20Dirty%20Tricks)

These are just a few of the ways that some candidates prey on other candidates, American people, and take advantage of those who aren't willing to do the research for themselves. If you are going to fall for some kind of political trickery, some kind of distorted opinion, maybe its best you do a little more research, or think about keeping your vote to yourself.