Why is he a plant? Because he disagrees with Rush?

Dave Rywall on April 8, 2009 at 11:16 AM

I find that most of the “concerned Christian conservatives” assert that they are conservative (or at least voted against Obama) without providing any rationale for their position. Instead, they segue into one or two talking points, which tend to be based on erroneuos information.

But I concede that he may just be stupid.

In this case we have a guy who keeps referring to “Levine” when he means “Levin” has no first-hand knowledge of the other conservative radio host who was supposedly so detrimental to the Republicans. That certainly speaks to his knowledge and, because it fits in with the Dems’ game plan of attacking the conservative radio voices, it suggests that he is an astroturfer.

Then he brings up Rush’s primary election tactic of encouraging Republicans to vote for Hillary, without mentioning it by name, but fails to explain how that led to Obama winning the general election.

He cites deaths from torture twice, but fails to back up his claim with a source. And, of course, McCain was clearly on the record as opposing torture, so again there is no connection between Rush’s opinion and the results of the election.

As I said, he may just be stupid, but he seems awfully worked up over nothing. He resorts to using the ultimate smear (Nazi) against Rush — which was totally uncalled for, so I assume that he must be very upset. If most of the conservatives I know were to have a chance to talk with the folks they felt were responsible for Obama winning the election, they’d spend at least some of the time venting about why they were upset about Obama winning. Instead, not a word of criticism about Obama passed this guy’s lips.

But maybe he’s just an idiot.

Y-not on April 8, 2009 at 11:31 AM

And the odds against this guy being anything like genuine end up in the high trillions.

logis on April 8, 2009 at 1:34 PM

I think there’s a chance that the guy is an amateur nut case instead of a professional astroturfer.

My completely unsubstantiated theory is that he’s an older guy — Korean War vet, perhaps (did he mention in which war he served? I don’t have the patience to listen to him again) — who considers himself to be “conservative” because his personal values are traditional and he voted for a Republican once or twice in his life. I think he may have voted for McCain without giving it much thought, but now regrets it because he’s being inundated by liberal talking points both from the media and his own family (probably one or two of his kids who were “shocked” that he voted for McCain and are telling good old dad he’s probably a closet racist). He is sincerely worried about the country and sees that Obama is failing but he has latched on to the notion that the reason Obama is failing has something to do with hate-filled conservatives like Rush… and Levine, whoever the heck that it.

I don’t think he listens to Rush or other conservative commentators. I think he was egged on by someone else, someone who is politically active on the left, to call in because he represented a demographic to them.

Rush should have asked him to explain why he voted for McCain. You can usually tell the astroturfers by their answer to that question.

Y-not on April 8, 2009 at 1:57 PM