WikiLeaks and Stratfor - The 2008 Federal Election and What Might Have Been

I rarely post twice on the same day but, with today's WikiLeaks/Stratfor email release, it is just too tempting.  I found these two emails, the first entitled "Insight - McCain #5" dated November 5, 2008 and the second entitled "Insight - The Dems and Dirty Tricks" dated November 7, 2008 of particular interest.  Both emails were flagged as **Internal Use Only - Do Not Forward**.  You'll see why.

The author of both emails, burton@stratfor.com, could well be Fred Burton, Stratfor's Vice President for Intelligence, a former special agent with the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service among other things. 

Let's start with the second email to put the first one into context.  The second email opens by stating that:

"1.) The black Dems were caught stuffing the ballot boxes in Philly and Ohio as reported the night of hte election and Sen. McCain chose not to fight.  The matter is not dead inside the party.  It now becomes a matter of sequence now as to how and when to "out".

2.) It appears that the Dems "made a donation" to Rev. Jesse...to keep his yap shut after his diatribe about the Jews and Israel.  A little bird told me that it was a "nice six-figure donation".  This also becomes a matter of how and when to out.

3.) The hunt is on for the sleezy Russian money into O-mans coffers.  A smoking gun has already been found.  Will get more on this when the time is right.  My source was too giddy to continue.  Can you say Clinton and ChiCom funny money?..."

For your information, the word "ChiCom" generally refers to Chinese Communist.

The recipient of the email, howerton@stratfor.com, responded by stating that

"...The Dems quit pretending and admitted to themselves that to win it you have to get off your high horse and play dirty when you have to.  And they won."

 Now, let's look at the second email.

"After discussions with his inner circle, which explains the delay in his speech, McCain decided not to pursue the voter fraud in PA and Ohio, despite his staff's desire to make it an issue....Staff felt that they could get a federal injunction to stop the process.  McCain felt the crowds assembled in support of Obama and such would be detrimental to our country and it would do our nation no good for this to drag out like last go around, coupled with the possibility of domestic violence."

"Curiously, there are whispers of McCain being set up by the Cheney/Bush crowd, because McCain was never liked by either...My guy said Rove and company want to bring in someone they can control the next go around.  McCain was not controllable.  Jeb Bush's name is being discussed...".

To summarize, the evening of the 2008 federal election, John McCain was urged by his aides to contest the results of the election by seeking a court injunction to prevent the voting results in both Ohio and Pennsylvania from being certified.  All I can think is thank goodness that John McCain had the strength of character to just say "no" when it counted.  I also found it quite interesting that, according to Mr. Burton, Karl Rove et al did not like John McCain because he was "not controllable".  What does that say about George W. Bush?

For fun, let's look back at the results of the 2008 election to see what might have changed if Senator McCain had succumbed to the wishes of his handlers and contested the vote in both Ohio and Pennsylvania.  First, nationally, Barak Obama received 365 electoral votes and his share of the popular vote was 69,456,897.  John McCain received 173 electoral votes and his share of the popular vote was 59,934,814.  Ohio had 20 electoral votes in 2008 and 52 percent of voters chose the Democrats giving Obama all 20 electoral votes.  Pennsylvania had 21 electoral votes in 2008 and 55 percent of voters chose the Democrats giving Obama all 21 electoral votes.  If John McCain had won all 41 electoral votes from both Ohio and Pennsylvania, his total would have risen to 214 and President Obama's total would have dropped to 324, making the end result exactly the same as it turned out to be with an Obama victory.  If John McCain had elected to contest the election, it would have solved nothing other than perhaps creating unnecessary national chaos, especially in light of the kerfuffle after the 2000 election.

It is interesting to see how Stratfor involves itself domestically by opining on America's political theatre.  It is also fascinating to see that Mr. Burton, a Stratfor Vice President and one of the world's leading experts on international terrorist organizations, has a very strong anti-Obama leaning.  But, I guess when you're a spy, you're able to ferret out a conspiracy around every corner.  It's just one of the benefits of the job.