Cenk Uygur from "The Young Turks" reports about publication of Stratfor-emails by "Politicalgates" - More bombshell revelations from the Stratfor-pile: Rick Perry told Stratfor-Vice President Fred Burton that he "feels that Mitt Romney cannot get elected" - PLUS "Much of the US media resigned from investigative journalism", according to Stratfor-analyst

By Patrick

Read also our previous reports about the Stratfor emails:

+++ PART 1: Disparaging comments about Sarah Palin, - "President Hockey Mom" - Contempt for the American electorate as a whole - The real reason why Republicans attack Obamacare +++

+++ PART 2: Bad news for Mitt Romney: "Romney has been disastrous", "Romney thinks he can win. Mormon, no way" - PLUS: More GOP inside info and brutal remarks about Michelle Bachmann and again, about Sarah Palin: "Can carry the white trash and redneck vote" +++

The reporting by Politicalgates about the leaked Stratfor emails finally got more attention. As I explained and proved in the previous posts, Wikileaks granted us exclusive unrestricted access to the complete pile of millions of Stratfor-emails.

After our first post was tweeted by Wikileaks themselves and Andrew Sullivan also reported a memorable quote from the emails, I was incredibly happy to see that one of our favourite independent journalists, Cenk Uygur from "The Young Turks", yesterday published an extensive segment about the emails on their show, and credited Politicalgates with the new revelations (as well as Wikileaks and Anonymous, who obtained the emails in the first place). Cenk quotes email after email and clearly had a lot fun explaining to his audience how cynical the experts behind the scenes view the whole process, and how badly they view Mitt Romney.

Watch this segment from August 8, 2012 (uploaded with express permission by "The Young Turks"):   

Screenshot from the "Current TV" website:

Click here to go to the main website of "The Young Turks."

If you are not familiar with Stratfor, read their Wikipedia-page.

However, there is of course much more. As far as the US-presidential race is concerned, there is one particular "gold nugget" which I found only after my first two posts were published, and which should raise eyebrows as well. In fact, it should make headlines.

The Vice-President of Stratfor, Fred Burton reports in June 2011 about discussion he had with Texas Governor Rick Perry - the content of which won't make Mitt Romney very happy!

Fred Burton wrote:

85 % Gov Perry will run for POTUS per a discussion with the Gov.

He feels Romney can't get elected.

Screenshot:

OH SNAP! Rick Perry feels Mitt Romney cannot get elected!

Is there actually anyone in the Republican party who thinks that Mitt Romney CAN get elected?

We already knew from the previous revelations that Fred Burton also strongly believes that Romney is unelectable, mostly due to the fact he is Mormon.

But I found another "nugget" by Fred Burton (who is not shy to make harsh and "politically incorrect" comments in the emails about a whole range of different topics). Fred Burton found another reason why Mitt Romney has a problem to find sufficient appreciation within the electorate:

It's a black issue in Michigan. How many blacks think Romney (Mormon
whitey with shiny hair) will help them? Zero. He looks like a Loo-siana State Trooper.

OH SNAP again! Fred Burton truly calls it like he sees it. One could virtually fill a book with memorable quotes by Burton.

Yes - how many blacks will actually vote for Romney? Do they really want a "Mormon whitey with shiny hair", as Fred Burton puts it?

Screenshot (as in the previous posts, I blacked out the name of the Stratfor-analysts):

"Loo-siana!" That really made me laugh. It is very mean, this remark, of course, and apologies to readers who are proud of their state, but this remark clearly has a hint of brilliance as well.

The Stratfor emails also deal with a subject which the mainstream is certainly not to keen to report about - the sorry state of the mainstream media and of investigative journalism itself. Here at Politicalgates we wrote many times about the fact that true fearless and hard-hitting investigative journalism in the USA is pretty much dead.

There are of course a few independent journalists left who are not afraid to report about the truth. Journalists like Brad Friedman and of course Cenk Uygur come to mind, and then there are websites like Think Progress, Alternet, and some others - but frankly, these journalists are few in number, and their readership is relatively small. And even these independents journalists cannot touch certain taboo subjects, as the reporting about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy proved - a scandal which was incredibly easy to discover and was also an open secret in Alaska in 2008 (see for example our rebuttal to Justin Elliott's article which he published at Salon).

We have news: The analysts at Stratfor share our negative view about the USA media!

Quote:

If newspapers were doing their job properly, if they were following the edict of the great London Times editor Thomas Delane that 'the duty of the press is disclosure', there would be little space for Wikileaks. Much of the media, particularly in metropolitan America, has resigned from investigative journalism, preferring instead to feed off the corporate and government spin doctors for serious news, and publish tedious 'lifestyle' sections.

Can you believe it? If you would like to read some true thoughts about the US media these days, you need to resort to leaked emails!

Also, note the positive comments about Wikileaks in this exchange. But, but...I thought they were terrorists, who need to be assassinated, according to a large section of right-wingers?

It turns out that the Wikileaks-people are in fact "sick of spin doctors and politicians telling lies."

Screenshot:

What a great quote by this Stratfor-analyst. For this quote alone, it was worth to publish these emails.

However, I was pleased to read that these negative views apparently do not apply to all the media outlets.

The analysts at Stratfor hold for example the German "Spiegel" and the UK "Guardian" in high regard:

To answer xxxx's question, this is certainly something that could be assumed. Mossad and German intelligence have grown close over the years, especially following the fiasco in Munich. On the other hand, Der Spiegel usually does very good in depth analyses and investigative work. Best at that in Germany. In that way, it has a very good tradition of
investigative journalism similar to the Guardian (although it is a weekly, not a daily like the Guardian).

Screenshot:

It is just a shame that "Der Spiegel" is published in German, although it also features a small English section. It really still is the beacon of investigative journalism, with nearly 100 people working in their fact-checking department, even if this is not often visible to the English-speaking world. The UK Guardian provides outstanding investigative journalism as well. In the USA, it is mainly the group of small independent journalists who deliver, although I would like to point out that it gives me some hope when even a rather "inconspicuous" outlet like AP presents some solid investigative research on Mitt Romney. There might be hope, but only if the media is not afraid of the truth, which in many cases will be shocking and highly inconvenient. Just remember: "The duty of the press is disclosure", not getting involved in partisan politics.

+++

UPDATE:

Wikileaks just tweeted this post! The second tweet by Wikileaks in a week to one of our posts! Many thanks, we really appreciate it!

I now have the complete video to the clip by "The Young Turks", which they have posted on their website. Look at the youtube clip with just the audio for listening which I included above!

I do not want to post the complete video clip by "The Young Turks" right now, as it seems to be behind a paywall. Maybe they will publish it on youtube later. Here are some screenshots with the brilliant Cenk Uygur:

An exclusive look at the leaked Stratfor-emails, part 2 - Bad news for Mitt Romney: "Romney has been disastrous", "Romney thinks he can win. Mormon, no way" - REVEALED: Mitt Romney was still "No 1" on John McCain's VP-shortlist on August 25, 2008 - PLUS: Brutal remarks about Michelle Bachmann and again, about Sarah Palin: "Can carry the white trash and redneck vote"

Also read the our other reports about the Stratfor-emails:

Read part 1: Disparaging comments about Sarah Palin,  - "President Hockey Mom" - Contempt for the American electorate as a whole - The real reason why Republicans attack Obamacare 

Read part 3: Cenk Uygur from "The Young Turks" reports about publication of Stratfor-emails by "Politicalgates" - More bombshell revelations from the Stratfor-pile: Rick Perry told Stratfor-Vice President Fred Burton that he "feels that Mitt Romney cannot get elected" - PLUS "Much of the US media resigned from investigative journalism", according to Stratfor-analyst

By Patrick

As explained in our first post, which was picked up today by Wikileaks and by Andrew Sullivan, we were granted exclusive access by Wikileaks to the complete pile of several million Stratfor emails, which were obtained by Wikileaks, who have created a new, sophisticated and "bullet-proof" database for these emails. For the "official releases" from these emails by Wikileaks, see here. For information about Stratfor, see here.

The content of the emails is newsworthy. They offer fascinating insights into the inner workings of the USA, the only global superpower, a country which has to deal with cynical politicians, arrogant billionaires, bought elections, imperial ambitions and a corporate mainstream media which leaves the population in the dark about what is really going on beneath the surface. At Politicalgates, it is our aim to educate ourselves. The Stratfor emails are very helpful in contributing to this goal.

The last post mainly dealt with comments about Sarah Palin. During my latest troll through the emails, I actually found a new, smashing quote about Sarah Palin which I will present below. However, I would like to focus in this new post on Mitt Romney, the man who wants to beat Barack Obama.

The Stratfor emails contain no good news for Mitt Romney. In short, the people at Stratfor think that he is unelectable - and some sort of joke, apparently.

Also, if you like conspiracies, the Stratfor emails surely fuel the fire in this respect!

In the last post, I blacked out all the names of the senders and recipients of the emails. However, I now decided that this went a bit too far, as it is actually important if the CEO George Friedman and the Vice-President Fred Burton themselves leave comments. Therefore I now left their names visible. However, all the other participants still won't be identified.

It is probably the best idea to publish the messages in chronological order.

First, a surprising revelation, which also raises serious questions for the current presidential race between Romney and Obama: On August 25, 2008, Mitt Romney was "still number 1 on the list" for John McCain's VP, according to Fred Burton!

However, only a few days later, on August 29, 2008, Sarah Palin was announced as his VP! What happened during these days?

Characteristically, the response from Fred Burton's colleague shows the whole contempt that the Stratfor-analysts had for Mitt Romney:

"Eewwwww, romney...grosssss"

Screenshot:



So, what happened? Let's search for clues. A quote by Fred Burton about a conversation with a source from the McCain-team from October 2010 gives an indication:

"He also mentioned Romney has been disastrous. Said he could not go into it now, but think about the Michigan pull out."

Although I cannot completely decipher this quote right now, I guess Fred Burton was speaking about the Republican Primary in Michigan 2008, in which Romney got 39 percent of the votes.

Screenshot:

Let's look at an email exchange from July 2007. The source that Fred Burton was talking to in this instance was a "GOP billionaire fundraiser." The message from this source is also not very encouraging for Mitt Romney:

"Source does not believe a Mormon can get elected."

Screenshot:





Let's now take a look at a conversation from December 2009. Fred Burton now has another source - a "millionaire Jewish fundraiser for the RNC." Here we find some pretty, pretty interesting information:

Spoke to a millionaire Jewish fundraiser for the RNC today --

1) The RNC believes Obama will cause the Dems to loose 20 Congressional
seats and 3 to 4 Senate seats in 2010.

2) Jewish support for Obama has nose dived from over 80% to 50% and
shrinking. Concerted effort underway to keep those numbers falling.

3) RNC believes Dodd will loose his seat.

4) McCain was described as a two-faced bastard (plus a phoney and
asshole). Romney was promised the VP nod ny Rick Davis and McCain, than
Sarah Pallin was picked. McCain also refused to meet with many big money
Jewish backers leading the RNC to opine that he was part of the set-up to
get Obama into the office.

5) RNC is waiting for the 2010 Gov races and believes their next candidate
for POTUS will be one of them, i.e., a new Republican Governor.

6) Gates is going to resign to go back to Texas A&M.

7) Obama's strategy is to get through as much as he can during the first
two years, than concede everything the last two in an effort to get
relected, however, many of the big money Dem feels he has been a disaster
and won't support his next go around.

8) The lack of big money Dem Jewish support forced the White House to cut
back on their holiday party from 300 under Bush to less than 100.

9) Netanyahu will be used by the RNC next go around to muster big money
Jews.

John McCain is a "two-faced bastard?" Romney "was promised the VP nod by Rick Davis and McCain?"

Again, the urgent question:

If Mitt Romney was promised the VP nod by John MCain and if Romney was still "No 1" on August 25, 2008, why was he rejected in the end, and the unknown Sarah Palin chosen instead?

This question needs to be answered ASAP. My belief is that McCain discovered something so shocking about Mitt Romney in the last minute that they were unable to keep their promise. But what was it?

Another important quote in the following email from December 2009:

"Netanyahu will be used by the RNC next go around to must big money Jews."

Yes, that's EXACTLY what we witnessed just recently. Right on the mark. Getting the "big money Jews" on board, that's what really counts.

Screenshot:

Next, a quote from November 2009:

Fred Burton: "Romney can't make it. Mormons are viewed as Voo Doo."

I think Fred knows what he is talking about. Does the rest of the GOP know it as well?

Screenshot:



Now comes my favourite quote of all times by Fred Burton!

This is a kick-ass quote, but mainly in regard to Sarah Palin. I only discovered this quote now, otherwise I would have already included it in the last post:

"Romney and Pallin want the job, but neither are winnable (Mormon and

Walmart night shift aisle stocker..but she can carry the white trash and

redneck vote.)"

LOL! Sarah Palin "can carry the white trash and redneck vote!" Thank you, Fred Burton!

Also, Romney, you already lost, according to the experts.

Screenshot:



I would now like to present an "essay-like" email message by Stratfor CEO George Friedman, who explains his view on US elections. Particularly interesting for us is a quote by Friedman about Mitt Romney:

Looking at this model, it seems that Romney is the candidate the model
spits out. Then you have a Northern Liberal running against a Northern
Moderate. Very strange math leaving the sunbelt in the lurch and
opening the door for a third party challenge unless Romney can nail it
down fast and early. If the primaries gives us a weakened Romney and an
angry Tea Party, Obama wins.

So, in this model, the key is to watch Romney and see if he moves out
fast and secures the south. If he does, we may be looking at a repeat
of 1980, when a flukey democrat gets demolished by a corporate
Republican.

Yes, Romney "is the candidate the model spits out." What somehow explains how "Mitt the Twit" could win the Republican primaries. But careful, Mitt: You have to "move out fast and secure the south." I guess Fred Burton would have his doubts whether Mitt Romney achieved that goal. Also, apart from the south, there is also the north, west and east. Right now, Mitt Romney has a long way ahead when it comes to conquering the USA. Also:

"If the primaries gives us a weakened Romney and an angry Tea Party, Obama wins."

I guess that's what is just happening. The Obama-fans can rest easy.

Screenshot:

More from Fred Burton: According to a "very good Tecas GOP source", Mitt Romney is "not getting a lot of people excited." 

I very much doubt that has changed!

Screenshot:

Now comes a huge nugget for "conspiracy theorists." As you all know, I have mentioned many times that I am not a fan of "conspiracies", despite being a "Trig Truther" since 2008. But Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy is a simple fact, and not a conspiracy, and was also an open secret in Alaska in 2008.

However, the following message by Fred Burton even gave me second thoughts!

The money quote:

The NY Tribe Money and the 12 who run the world want Petraeus to run.

Romney thinks he can win. Mormon, no way.

Excuse me? OK, Romney cannot win, we got that already. But what about "the NY Tribe Money and the 12 who run the world?" Any ideas who Fred Burton is talking about?

Screenshot:

Finally, as a bonus, so to speak, a fascinating quote about Michelle Bachmann. The Stratfor-people are discussing the fact that Michelle will become a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

One of the Stratfor-analysts is not convinced:

"I really hope she smartens up. But I fear she will say a bunch of dumb shit and leak things in odd ways."

Well, she already might have done just that.

Screenshot:

That's all for today, friends! I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

+++

UPDATE:

I would like to add this wonderful comment by our reader "HopeForAmerica" to the post:

"So I guess McCain picked the winner of the "loosers" and went with Sarah. Then they got a two-fer--a loser and the loosest one of them all. ;)"