FRONTLINE | Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story | PBS

[blahblahyawnzzz]

..so, Glen Beck DO have a soul brother

[PBS]

Due to rights restrictions, FRONTLINE cannot stream this program in its entirety. However, you can view excerpts from the show on our website (see link in the video description).

[laurencelikestopgun]

How come this isn't the full episode isn't on Frontline's website anymore?

[Lalo3001]

A monster, literally and figuratively.

[Lalo3001]

Atwater became a monster, literally and figuratively.

Figuratively because he foreover poisoned the well of politics. No campaign since then has been civil because of him. The Swift Boaters, Karl Rove, Andrew Breithbart et all have him to thank for their breeding.

Literally because his face grotesquely swelled up 2X it's real size because of all the Meds, especially Steroids, he was on to fight the brain cancer.

To his credit, he re-canted all of the shit he did in his final days.

[BEBOP268]

true sociapath

[evelynjoyce]

Karma's a bitch.

[SSArcher11]

The most fascinating thing about Atwater was that, as death closed in on him, he recanted his tactics against his Democratic opponents.

Hopeful, no?

[jbugko]

Roger Ailes produced a lot of the ads Lee Atwater used.

Roger Ailes is now president of Fox "News".

[starcraftfan9112012]

great movie i support the bushes however.

[rick9565]

Brain tumors were part of Atwaters family medical history, he had a relative who died of the exact same thing. Some tried to tie it to cell phone use as the tumor was right behind the ear he held his phone to.

[JamesTKirkCobain]

Lee Atwater is a primo example of how stress can be just as dangerous as smoking and eating bad. The dude jogged everyday, never smoked, but he still got the big C. I read he use to get so stressed out he would vomit for days

[neojournalist]

Burn in Hell, Lee Atwater

[greeniem]

@neojournalist just jealous

[lordcron]

Lee Atwater was cancer to the world and nature simply corrected itself.

[greeniem]

@lordcron even more jealous

[timin770]

@lordcron democrats/liberals are the a** cancer of the world. Die you POS

[drstan1]

this was an important film how about the b. gumble interview of atwater missed opportunity to say the least

[jon3308]

Atwater was scared of going to hell so he seeked forgivness on his death bed....

[greeniem]

@jon3308 you should go to bed with him. his corpse

[boottotheace]

Atwater was the man!! He told the truth about liberal hypocrite scum! God and liberals are far seperated!

[tanio12]

"Atwater was the man!! He told the truth about liberal hypocrite scum! God and liberals are far seperated!"

And what did it get his ass, a ticket to the grave whey before his time.

[dylanfanatic22]

Yea, except he did more in his short lifetime than just about everyone else ever will.

I don't agree with boottotheace's comment, but looking at it your way is completely stupid.

[ultramagellan]

"Yea, except he did more in his short lifetime than just about everyone else ever will."

Things which he duly regretted when he was on his death bed- lying, cheating, slandering people. And sent out many letters of apology as a consequence.

[rakrobn]

No sweetie, bc of his lies and deception, God had him die from a brain tumor way before his time.

[murphycline]

You spoke with God and he told you that he gave Lee Atwater a brain tumor as punishment for his life as a political pit fighter? Wow, I wish God told me his motivations too. Self-righteous ghoul.

[integral]

@boottotheace time to get back on yer meds, pookie

[basjanader13]

Unfortunately Forbes uses the same sensationalism in this movie as Atwater did in his campaigning. I just hope that this "eye for an eye - tooth for a tooth"- attitude is not the new way of dealing with dirty tricks.

[mythcrusher]

Sabu: thanks for making my point for me. I said there'd be invective-filled responses void of reason, and I was right. Re-read the post, and then THINK before reacting. NOWHERE did I say or imply that a liberal's religion was inferior. I said they were hypocritical, (in that most liberals want God removed from all walks of life), but then will invoke God when it suits them. Atwater manipulated an ad. Carville/Emanuel helped destroy the lives of women who accused the "pro-women" Clinton.

[ayundame]

Your sentence: "Carville/Emanuel helped destroy the lives of women who accused the "pro-women" Clinton" does not make sense. Accused the "pro-women" Clinton of what?

Also, how do you know the posters who invoked the name of God are liberal? Did they identify themselves as such in other threads? Just curious. If they self identified as liberals in THIS thread, have their comments been deleted?

[mythcrusher]

(1) I find no small irony in the fact that some liberal posters within this thread are suddenly invoking the name of God.

(2) Does anyone with even a tenuous hold on reality believe that Emanuel, Carville, and their ilk haven't employed the same scorched earth tactics as Atwater? When will THAT Frontline episode air?

I anticipate the typical overwrought invective, but save it. I'm a Dem who worked on Clinton's presidential campaigns. I'm just not a hypocrite.

[SabuPtolemy]

And how arrogant are you imply that liberals' belief in God is somehow inferior to someone who is conservative? The main difference between Dems and Reps, politically speaking, is that the former generally don't make God and religion an issue while the latter use it at every twist and turn to divide people and pander for votes. - As for comparing Emanuel or Carville to Atwater - start listing examples of 'Willie Horton' style tricks they've supposedly employed to get their candidate elected.

[SIKE01]

a great documentary....and a begrudging admiration. R.I.P SOB.

[SabuPtolemy]

There is a God - and he has a sense of humor: That's why he gave Lee Atwater brain cancer.

[StephanAOTTO1]

What's really tragic is that Atwater's tactics are so easy to defeat, but, it seems that NO ONE in the Democratic Party had the balls to take him head-on & call him & the GOP out for their bigoted, divisive & distractive tactics.

[wardlemike]

True.

[SabuPtolemy]

That's not true. Atwater's tactics are not easily defeated because a huge chunk of the American electorate is 1) frighteningly ignorant and/or uneducated and 2) has been conditioned by the right wing media to fall for the type of lies, smears, fearmongering and swiftboating the GOP has used for the last quarter century to get themselves elected. Lowest common denominator politics is highly effective with paranoid, intellectual knuckledraggers; Atwater knew it and exploited it for all it's worth.

[StephanAOTTO1]

All one has to do is educate the public in Atwater's tactics & the rest will take care of itself. For example, had Dukakis come out & raged against the racism used in the Willy Horton ad & asked the American public, "Does Lee Atwater really think that you're so racist AND stupid that you'd fall for such lowball advertising?". It would have been all over for LA & put him & his people back on the defensive. Educate people about the tactics & the tactics will no longer work.

It's very easy.

[SabuPtolemy]

You can't educate stupid/ignorant people, especially those with racist tendencies of which are still many and were many more back then. Look at how many millions of mental knuckledraggers still believe that Obama is a Muslim - even AFTER McCain himself told his sheeple that he isn't. If educating the public was as simple as the dissemination of facts, we'd be much further along. But that's not the case because manipulating people with lies and BS is much easier than making them accept the truth.

[StephanAOTTO1]

People are suckers for the truth. All Obama had to do was directly & forcefully state the facts in an open forum, as well as state WHY the Muslim story was being circulated, if, indeed, it wasn't true. Only time will tell if those stories are true.

Personally, I don't trust him, especially now that I know that his new chief of staff wants all 18-25 year-olds to enroll in COMPULSORY military defense training.

Something doesn't pass the 'smell test'...

[PrimetimeSheed]

Great, hope to use this against Obama 2012.

[quicksite]

Wow, PBS. Who is controlling your programming department? This is very disturbing that such an important story -- that has seminal relevance to Presidential election dirty tricks -- is being scheduled to air A WEEK AFTER this election.

Sorry, but that reeks of GOP interference.

There is NO WAY a documentary team goes off to make this film -- with the intention that it air AFTER the election.

It's a total parallel to the whole dirty tricks philosophy. After it's safe, THEN you can come clean.

[abarrenfuture]

The movie has been out in theaters for a month or so

[billheartyface]

paranoid much?

[d3ckhand]

Showing in limited theatrical release is one thing, showing to a national television audience of millions is quite another.

[SCW01902]

It just seems like between the left and the right....America under goes a never ending civil war. Perhaps the biggest lie ever told is there in our name....United States. Pay close attention to any presidential election every four years, and one learns real quick that the United States is by no means united.

[StephanAOTTO1]

L&R always seem to be fighting because the middle, aka, THE MAJORITY, never takes a stand & sets things right, content to 'go along' w/ whatever happens & complain to anyone who'll listen, as opposed to actually do something about it all.

[tanio12]

"L&R always seem to be fighting because the middle, aka, THE MAJORITY, never takes a stand & sets things right, content to 'go along' w/ whatever happens & complain to anyone who'll listen, as opposed to actually do something about it all"

Agreed I voted third party and pushed as hard as I could to convince people to break away from both parties and let the real voices speak. Unfortuntaely the ignoramus drink both the KOOL-AID and LEMONADE so I failed.

[StephanAOTTO1]

And, in my state, when I went to vote, they made me declare myself a D or R, instead of allowing me to declare myself an Independent.

[perfectbark]

Really??....that's interesting....what state if you don't mind??....just curious ...