spinning the flu and making my friends sick

I went canvassing this morning for Kerry with some other folks – friends and acquaintances that I’d either bullied or cajoled into helping. We met at 10:00 AM and broke up into four teams. My team, consisting of myself and my friend Dirtgrain, took to the streets between Cross and Michigan, and did pretty well. In two hours, we turned up a little over 25 strong Kerry supporters and a few folks that were on the fence. There were a few folks that said they were planning to vote for Bush, but, for the most part, they were pleasant.

Most Bush supporters kind of gave me a good-natured chuckle and slowly turned their heads from side to side when I’d say, “I don’t suppose there’s anything that I could say that would convince you that John Kerry is the better candidate, is there?” (At this late date, we aren’t trying to win people over – we’re just trying to identify unlikely voters who are supportive of Kerry, so that we can talk with them again on election day — but I always feel like I should at least try.) One fellow, who clearly wasn’t going to change his mind, turned his back on me when I said this, and began stalking away, toward the back of his garage. I was still standing there, looking at him, when he reached the back wall and had nowhere to go. He just stood there, staring at the wall for a moment, knowing that I was still there, and trying desperately to find a prop of some kind, to make it look as though he’d gone off for a reason. I waited a split-second and then headed off to the next house. Later, as we were making our way down the other side of his street, he saw us, stopped his lawnmower and began to walk toward us. I thought about taking off my glasses so that when he hit me the glass from my glasses wouldn’t lacerate my eyes, but I just stood there as he approached. When he got about five feet from me, he stopped and… apologized for having turned away from me as I was speaking. He said, “I’m sorry about before.” I thought that was pretty cool. I just nodded and told him not to worry about it. If I’d been able to think any faster, I would have told him that this election’s got us all on edge. At the time though, I was just thankful that I still had my sight.

Around this same time, I got a call from a friend who was across town, working off of another list. He, unfortunately, wasn’t having as good of a time. His mean people didn’t apologize. Not only that, they didn’t walk away — they yelled. I felt bad for not having gone with him on his first time out canvassing, but, as he’d been partnered with one of the regional MoveOn coordinators, I thought that he was probably in good hands. As it turns out though, she’d left him on his own after their first few houses. He kept going for an hour or so, but he never got any momentum. All he got were angry looks. Instead of making him feel better about democracy and our fellow human beings, I think the experience just kind of kicked him in the gut… And, I would later find out, team three didn’t do much better… So, half of us did well and half of us didn’t. My hope is that those people who didn’t have a pleasant and rewarding experience don’t hold it against me. I know they’re probably drinking together somewhere (my wife included) right now, cursing my name and talking about my bait-and-switch, but I really did think that they’d enjoy themselves…. (Someone somewhere sobs and mumbles, “But he said they’d greet us with flowers and chocolates.”)

At some point during the morning, I also got a call from my father. I was standing on Lincoln Street, rattling someone’s rickety old gate to see if they owned a pit bull, before extending one of my meaty legs into their yard, when I felt my phone vibrate. My dad, I think, had been pissed at me since the day before when I’d responded to a photo he sent me of Kerry and Edwards dressed up in leotards and masks like effeminate superheroes by saying, “People come up with some pretty funny stuff when they’re desperate.” This morning’s call, his retaliation, was about John Edwards. My dad wanted to tell me that he’d read that the reason there wasn’t enough flu vaccine to go around this year wasn’t the Bush administration but John Edwards… Apparently, according to my dad, Edwards had won a $5 million judgment against a US vaccine maker in the late 80’s, when he was a trial attorney, which caused all the US manufacturers to get out of the business. I told him that I thought it was doubtful, but thanked him for his time and went about the business of finding more voters among the decaying homes of Ypsilanti.

When I got home, after training another MoveOn volunteer, I checked my email and found that my dad had followed up by forwarding the email that he’d called about. With that, I began to look into the story. I don’t know a hell of a lot about the vaccine business, but having read a few articles about MedImmune, the company that last year launched FluMist, an inhaled flu vaccine, I knew that, at the very least, the assertion that no American companies now make vaccines was false. I started there and began digging. After a half an hour, I ended up where I probably should have started in the first place, at Snopes.com. They’d already heard the rumor and debunked it. American companies, it seems, got out of the business because they were losing money in vaccines, not because of John Edwards. In fact, it doesn’t seem as though John Edwards was ever even involved in a case against a vaccine maker, although he has successfully gone after a number of companies that have hurt Americans through their willful disregard of health and safety issues… As an aside, in my research, I also found evidence of a request that Edwards had formally made in 2003 to look into the shortage of flu vaccine… So, not only did he not cause the current situation, he suggested a year ago that we do something about the inadequate vaccine supply.

I don’t know that it was necessarily a good idea, but, when I found this out, I sent it not only to my dad, but to the people CC’d on the original email that he’d received. I debated it for a while, and wrote and rewrote my letter about five times, but ultimately just sent a link to Snopes saying, “It’s not true.” (I didn’t send the, “Next time, do a few minutes of research before you propagate something like this,” note that I’d written, complete with links to stories about other disinformation being spread by the Bush/Cheney campaign.) So, right now, I’m just sitting here waiting for the response.

UPDATE: OK, I just got a note from my mom, who was also copied on my response. She said that it was unfortunate that both sides resort to such smear tactics. Personally, I don’t see this as being something that happens on both sides. I see this as a Republican tactic… And it was as predictable as it was dishonest. The minute it looked as though the flu might be an issue that resonated with the American people, to the detriment of the Bush campaign, they began looking for a way to spin the story so that it hit the Kerry campaign. The facts didn’t matter. They never do. Bush and Co. don’t even care that it will be debunked in time. All they want is to get something out quickly to confuse the issue and add a little more doubt in people’s minds about Kerry and Edwards. It’s disgusting and Americans should demand better.

UPDATE II: I don’t want to drag this thread out too long, but I just got a response back from the person who sent the note to my dad in the first place. If I’m reading it correctly, she knew that it was a lie and sent it anyway, hoping that it might hurt the Kerry campaign. I’m tempted, but I won’t be responding. Here’s her note:

“I saw that too but decided that if Kerry (including Mrs. Heinz-K) and Edwards could stoop to slinging mud at the Cheney family (“complimenting” them on loving their daughter) and Laura Bush (Never had a “real” job???
What do you call raising children, being a librarian AND First Lady???), I could toss some mud back. The lies Kerry and Edwards have spewed are outrageous. John Edwards has proven himself to be nothing more than an ambulance chasing, sleazebag, opportunistic trial attorney who doesn’t deserve to be the vice president of our country. You’ll note that snopes.com clearly states that it can’t be determined who was the attorney of the case quoted. So, who knows. I do know that Kerry/Edwards are a dangerous ticket… I do appreciate someone who does his homework. Good catch.”

So, that’s what we’re up against.