Jeffco Recall Opponent Channels Baghdad Bob in Response

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by: Colorado Pols

Baghdad Bob.

Comical Ali. Baghdad Bob. The former Iraqi Information Minister (real name: Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf) secured his name in Internet infamy when he appeared regularly during the 2003 Iraqi Invasion to confidently deny the American surge into Baghdad and U.S. military success in general — sometimes with American tanks as his backdrop. As The Atlantic wrote in 2013:

Sahaf’s nickname, “Baghdad Bob,” now denotes someone who confidently declares what everyone else can see is false–someone so wrong, it’s funny.

Back here in Colorado, opponents of the campaign to recall three right-wing Jefferson County School Board members are channeling Baghdad Bob in their response to the news that more than 90,000 signatures supporting the recall were gathered in less than three weeks. This would be a massive success for a grassroots group for any issue on any level, which makes it difficult for opponents to tamper enthusiasm.

Enter Sheila Atwell, head of a group called “Jeffco Students First” that supports the right-wing majority school board. Atwell told 9News last weekend that she is surprised that it took 17 days to get the required signatures, saying that they should have been able to do it in a week:

We did the math here. In order to gather more than 90,000 signatures in just one week, organizers would have had to average 9 signatures PER MINUTE, 24 hours a day. That’s completely silly, of course.

6 thoughts on “Jeffco Recall Opponent Channels Baghdad Bob in Response”

davebarnes says:

July 28, 2015 at 10:35 am

"We did the math here."

"Math is hard."

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bullshit! says:

July 28, 2015 at 11:04 am

12857 per day

535 her hour

8.91 per minute

And if they had made that, they should have gotten it done in THREE days.

You can never win the expectation game. Sheila Atwell does a great Lucy with the football.

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Davie says:

July 28, 2015 at 12:39 pm

And after the recall is successfully concluded, I'm sure Ms. Atwell will crow that "The recall campaign was only successful in getting 65% of the vote instead of 100% they should have been able to get!"

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dlof says:

July 28, 2015 at 1:16 pm

Of course, if they were to do it in 17 days:

90,000 = 5,294 / day = 220 / hour = 3.7/ minute

For shame! Damn Liberal layabouts.

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RunningOnEmpty says:

July 28, 2015 at 1:35 pm

I remain amazed at how little Atwell thinks of "her" candidates. "They're so widely hated I'm shocked they didn't get all the signatures in a week."

She champions paying employees for performance. Does she think this pathetic performance will earn her a raise? Or will losing the election mean the end of her?

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Craig says:

July 28, 2015 at 4:24 pm

This made me laugh out loud when I heard it on TV. I nearly wet myself. It's hysterical.

But, more importantly, my wife was watching the news too. She is totally apolitical and couldn't care less about this stuff. You know what? She burst out laughing with no prompting from me whatsoever. She was at a different TV with a 7 second delay over the one that I was watching.

I haven't heard any so patently absurd since, well never.

And by the way, so it only should have taken 7 days to gather 111,000 signatures? How bad would that make this Board look.

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