| Subject: Fwd: "going negative" |
| From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> |
| Date: 10/7/10, 17:49 |
| To: Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> |
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: "going negative"
To: "Antonio M. Elias" <
Antonio@legrowforuscongress.com>,
wvelegrowmd@telpage.net
We've come up with an idea that will bring much wider attention to Forbes' reluctance to meet you for a debate, as well as setting the stage for continuous local coverage and potential for national coverage over the next month: do a short video at your office with two chairs (and podiums if you have them) with you sitting in one. Camera rolls, zoomed to you, and you say something like, "Hello, my fellow Virginians. This is Wynne LeGrow, your Democratic candidate for Virginia's 4th district. I was hoping that Randy Forbes might be willing to debate with me in front of his constituents, but as you can see, we're one short tonight." Camera zooms out, revealing empty chair with sign reading 'Randy Forbes'. "Both my campaign and the Daughters of the American Revolution have been trying to get Randy to come out and debate for some time now, but for some reason he keeps refusing. If I didn't know otherwise - and, frankly, I don't - it might seem as if Randy is afraid of having to come out and answer my questions. That's his business, of course. But even if Randy doesn't think he has a duty to face the people who put him in office time and time again so that they can compare the two candidates side by side and maybe learn a bit more about the issues we're all facing and what each of us plan to do about them, I have a duty to ask those questions. Because these questions are important. This country is in the midst of a recession that was a long time coming and which could very well get worse - and Randy's response is to adapt a new tax policy that's been rightfully dismissed as crazy and unworkable by economists on both sides of the party divide. Our foreign policy over the last decade has been an abject failure, so much so that many of those Republicans who once supported and even designed those policies are now admitting that they were wrong to do so - but Randy isn't one of them. At this point in history, the U.S. needs legislators who will lead them in accordance with the facts, rather than blindly following his party leadership into one disastrous decision after another. So the questions I'm going to ask Randy give him the opportunity to explain what exactly he's been doing in Washington over the last ten years, and how he's going to avoid making those same mistakes in the future. I'll be putting a question to him every day starting tomorrow and continuing right up until the election, and we'll be putting those questions up on our website,
legrowforuscongress.com, for everyone to see. So I'll be asking him quite bit over the next couple of weeks, but one question I'm not going to ask is why he won't get in front of the people who elected him and answer for the manner in which he has decided to conduct himself in office. That's a question that his supporters ought to be asking him, but I don't think they're any more likely to get a good answer than I am. Thank you for your time, and I hope to earn your support as well."
This will be followed, of course, by distributing a question each day from the day after the video is released up until the election. These questions, which I can start writing up immediately, will be damaging to Forbes by virtue of the information presented in the asking - "Why did you tell Virginians that you were going to do X when you actually took money from Y and did Z?" sorts of things that may be easily constructed once I've gone through the material that my people have provided for me (legislative records, donations to his campaign, remarks on the floor). This will guarantee a great deal more coverage than I've been able to drum up in the last day or so and will provide you with what Forbes is trying to deny you by refusing to debate - a chance to state a comprehensive case against Forbes while also building greater notoriety and positive recognition for yourself. If Forbes answers the questions, they get more play and thus bring to light more about his negatives. If he doesn't, we will bring attention to them by virtue of being a question he won't answer. Forbes' campaign people are not clever enough to counteract this, even if there were any good way to do so to begin with.
Let me know if this is acceptable to you.
On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 12:50 PM, Barrett Brown
<barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Great, just signed up. I'll try to get in touch with Reddit admins today and will probablyt back to you later tonight with further suggestions/questions.
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Regards,
Barrett Brown
512-560-2302
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Regards,
Barrett Brown
512-560-2302