Zack Roth is doing a terrific job over at TPM on the Acorn "voter fraud" business. And I'm glad to see that the Obama campaign is publicly connecting the dots between this current fake brouhaha over "fraud" and the US attorneys scandal of years past. They are intimately linked, and the Obama people really have to push back hard on this.
Relatedly, here's my piece from today's formerly arboreal edition of the Guardian on this matter. I'll provide the important grafs as a service, but you should be aware that your mother will be very hurt if you don't click through and read the entire thing:
Republicans are bracing themselves for a John McCain loss. They probably don't believe that "exposing" large-scale fraud can salvage the election for them. But they may well be thinking along other lines.
Suppose Barack Obama wins, but a narrower victory than expected. Say he gets 284 electoral votes, and that 20 of those 284 come from Ohio. Since 270 are needed to win, Ohio will be the difference between victory and defeat. And suppose the Ohio vote is outside the margin that automatically triggers a recount, as was the case in Florida in 2000, but is still moderately close - 3% or so.
You can bet in such a case that the Republicans will challenge the result. They will find a few cases of people voting from the wrong address. Their propagandists on the Fox News channel will follow. They likely won't prevail, but the effort will have the crucial effect of casting doubt on Obama's legitimacy and impinging on his mandate.
The Obama people know all this, which is why they're working for a margin that would make such challenges moot.
OK. Now it's 11 am Saturday. Like any good liberal, I'm devoting my afternoon to golf and college football.
