Does Yvonne Abraham read Slate?

Ya think she's pulling a Barnicle?

Or maybe Slate reads Talking Points Memo, which also made the same point and cited the same Barnard professor on Oct. 10.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/223436.php

In fact, if you do a Google search, you'll notice the Barnard prof has been quoted in more than a dozen articles in the past few weeks about voter fraud. A PR firm even issued a press release touting her as an authority on voter fraud last month. So, it's not exactly shocking that a Globe columnist would quote her, too.

McCain's accusation, if without merit, is the story here. Even if it does have merit, it's the story here.

Why would McCain level a categorical accusation "greatest frauds in voter history" and qualify if with the word "maybe"? Hyperbole. It's irresponsible.

For comparison take this statement: Adam is on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest pedophile attacks in history, maybe destroying the fabric of the family. It's completely irresponsible, don't you think?

Yvonne Abraham writes:

...the robbery wasn't the worst thing to happen to ACORN that night.

That came from GOP nominee John McCain, who on national television accused ACORN of being "on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

[snip]

ACORN is not without its problems. Its founder recently resigned after it was revealed his brother had embezzled almost a million dollars from the organization. And they get in people's faces. When negotiations to prevent foreclosures have failed, ACORN workers have tried eviction blockades and confrontations in lenders' offices.

But they do some great things for their members. They get residents help with trash pickups and broken streetlights and overgrown vacant lots. They offer loan counseling, and try to prevent foreclosures, and connect poor residents with services.

Nobody knows whether there's any connection between the robbery and the drubbing ACORN has been taking in the closing weeks of this presidential campaign, but it's a rotten coincidence.

The computers will be replaced. It will take longer for ACORN to recover from claims that it is undermining democracy.

"This is very painful," said Maude Hurd, ACORN's national president and a member of the Dorchester branch.

To anybody who looks at the facts, the voting fraud accusations are as bogus as those phony registrations.

Yvonne Abraham's assessment of ACORN is a lot more reasoned than John McCain's assessment. McCain doesn't make his case.

Here's Robert F Kennedy Jr. making his case for voter suppression. There's a link to an article he wrote for Rolling Stone that discuss voter suppression techniques used in 2000 and 2004. Kennedy makes a far better case for voter suppression than McCain makes for voting fraud. clip