I’m totally amazed that they pulled that off so well.

That’s been their MO for a long time now. In the runup to the 2000 election, Al Gore’s inarguable main strength was his championing of the Internet, such that “{whatever} superhighway” (derived from his coining of the term “Information Superhighway”) had already become a well-worn joke format. Karl Rove took Gore’s perfectly defensible - and actually 100% true - claim that he “took the initiative in creating the Internet” and through simple repetition turned it into “Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet”, making Gore seem like a crazed person. Which helped Bush Jr. get elected and cemented the GOP’s current control over the Supreme Court.

“Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!”

Fun Hitler fact (as if there is such a thing): the phrase “Night of the Long Knives” was coined by Hitler himself in a speech given shortly after the event, although he used the phrase to describe what Ernst Rohm had allegedly been planning himself. The media instead attached the phrase to Hitler’s actions, much against his wishes.