Also via Lawyers, Guns, and Money, this comment about the alleged “Whitey” tape:
At this point, there no longer needs to be an actual tape. Mission accomplished I’d say.
The other day I speculated:
It is as if folks are simply spending weeks prepping the ground preparing people to expect a bombshell, they can release some weak nonsense, and then pretend it is a big deal. While the “bombshell” will fizzle, the psyops will have been successful enough to make people think it is a big deal even when it isn’t. Right now, their goal is mainstreaming this and trying to get the chattering classes in the press and on the cable networks to talk about it. If they can get Chris Matthews to speculate about the “bombshell,” they will have succeeded.
It isn’t quite mainstreamed yet, but reporters are now asking Sen. Obama about it:
Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday batted down rumors circulating on the Internet and mentioned on some cable news shows of the existence of a video of his wife using a derogatory term for white people, and criticized a reporter for asking him about the rumor, which has not a shred of evidence to support it.
“We have seen this before. There is dirt and lies that are circulated in e-mails and they pump them out long enough until finally you, a mainstream reporter, asks me about it,” Obama said to the McClatchy reporter during a press conference aboard his campaign plane. “That gives legs to the story. If somebody has evidence that myself or Michelle or anybody has said something inappropriate, let them do it.”
Asked whether he knew it not to be true, Obama said he had answered the question.
Via Reason, this Robert George post:
This is the ’08 version of a really weird conservative urban legend that pops up every four years, The names change, but the basics remain the same: 1) It always involves the wife of the Democratic presidential candidate; 2) It always portrays the wife — not the candidate — committing some anti-American, unpatriotic act.
I was first exposed to this during the 1988 campaign when the line was, “There’s a picture out there of Kitty Dukakis burning the American flag…just wait til that comes out…” (that one got out of hand when a GOP senator actually believed it and called a press conference to say he would soon produce the evidence — which never materialized). Four years later, “There’s a picture out there of Hillary Clinton burning the American flag…just wait ’til that comes out…” In 1996, the Hillary thing repeated itself. In ’04, there was a similar one about Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Differences this year: Because of the racial angle and Jeremiah Wright, Michelle Obama — and Louis Farrakhan, for good measure — are blaming “whitey.” Because of YouTube, it’s a clip, not a photo. Oh, and it’s also real early: This urban legend isn’t supposed to start making the rounds until September or so. Perhaps it’s because this one has “crossed over” — Larry Johnson is a lefty blogger partial to Hillary, so he’s caught up in the feverish wish that this might be true. Sorry, Larry, don’t hold your breath.
I am not going to say there is no tape, because I have learned to never say never. However, that is just what Larry Johnson and others are playing on when they spread these rumors- you simply can not prove something does not exist. Between the shifting rationales, the fact that the right wing is sifting through everything at Trinity United, and the fact that still, in the age of viral YouTube videos, nothing has shown up, it looks like George may be on to something. Right now this looks like little more than a sophisticated version of the “Obama is a Muslim” e-mail smear that was so effective.
4tehlulz
He had the perfect response, essentially “Vids or STFU”.
cleek
libel
sue the fucker into penury
El Cid
I wonder why it is that right wing U.S. political stunts remind me of the cheapest, weirdest, yet occasionally effective paranoia campaigns of the CIA and its hired thugs in South America — you know, “we have a secret tape where the Sandinistas / Fidel Castro / Hugo Chavez promises to kidnap your babies and impregnate them with the seed of Russians / Che Guevara / his own siblings”.
Well, actually, I don’t, because they’re the same people, with the same mindset, and the same deep, abiding contempt for the common people they so loudly scream they’re trying to save by destroying.
And former CIA agent Flowbee Johnson knows this too.
Dreggas
You may want to include the following John:
Whitey Timeline from Reason
Ugh
Why does Johnson have such a hard-on* for Hillary? Can anyone explain it?
*sexist!
ThymeZone
We saw the backstory on this two years ago in a story from Kevin Drum’s website, and the effect was called “Dynamite in the Distance.”
It is not just deliberate, it is a polished technique, and the GOP uses it frequently, and effectively. The idea is to create a cognitive rumble in the distance, and create doubt in the minds of the public, without having to provide specifics, without their even having to be specifics.
The technique is based on an understanding of the information stream, which is of course, the media. The media is lazy. The media is also self conscious. They won’t drill into this unless they find something specific. Their reticence, their reluctance to expose the lie (the rationale being, why give it more exposure?) is just the cover that the lie machine needs. As long as they don’t trigger a blowback, the lie works.
I will try to find the original story from Drum’s site, I don’t know if it’s still available.
Incertus
Maybe he faps at night to the idea that she’ll make him DDO of the CIA in her administration, as a reward for all his months of loyal service?
Krista
It’s enough of a part of the political culture that they even put it in the movie “The American President”, when they find a 20-year-old picture of Annette Bening’s character at a rally, standing near a burning American flag.
The sad part is that people keep falling for this bullshit.
SpotWeld
Wasn’t there a right-wing blogger that said something to the effect of “Sure it’s not true, but the fact that we can all image that it is certainly means something”?
*wince*
It’s the last defense of a con-man. “Sure my snake oil doesn’t really cure you, but certainly the fact that you believed it did means that I’m not scamming you.”
And that seems to be all the far-right-wingers have. Sanke oil and the political equivalent of hypochondriacs.
lr
Don’t worry. There’s still plenty of time to have Mrs. Obama burning the flag.
Overall, doesn’t Obama do a nice job of fielding the “gotchas?” It’s refreshing to watch.
What I want to know is, will the Repubs run an ad similar to the one they ran against Ford in Tennessse? “Obama, call me!” This is what I think Obama needs to get out in front of.
The other thing I wonder about–The “ReCreate68” movement.
Is it legit? Or is it secretly financed by Repubs? Why has this not received more coverage? It needs to be defused now. Riots by the scary ones in Denver will be pretty devastasting, I believe.
Also Rush “jokingly” calling for riots in Denver. Can you imagine the outcry if someone on the left dared to utter such nonsense? CNN would go wall to wall, there would be a congressional resolution condemning it, etc.
Will the dems get out in front of these stories? Or have they learned nothing?
jibeaux
Well, I’ll say it.
“There’s no tape.”
Keith
There’s another one that always gets me, and I had a friend (who railed on Kerry in ’04 about this and is doing the same about Obama): “DemCandidate has the MOST liberal voting record in the Senate” Never mind the fact that the rating comes from the same conservative think-tank (HA!) every time and is never the same Senator twice (but always the candidate – if a Senator), it’s still thrown around like it’s some huge albatross. My response is generally, “Perfect, because I’m a LIBERAL!”
Davebo
I just can’t stand Obama so I’m gonna vote for the guy who joked “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father”. (via Kleinman)
Yes, I’m a rational female baby boomer.
AkaDad
Since McCain was captured by the enemy, he has to prove to me that he isn’t a brainwashed Manchurian candidate.
lr
Another one making the rounds is that Obama’s daughter said she didn’t like white people. I ran across that while browsing around, don’t remember where. It might have actually stemmed from an essay I read on the internet somewhere where the man said his daughter asked, do we even like white people? I couldn’t find the original, though. Wasn’t Obama’s essay, of course.
In 1996 a rumor went around that Clinton let all these immigrants in so they would vote for him. Then in the 2000 controversy, I received the same info by email, it just had Gore’s name inserted instead. So silly.
Ugh
Maybe he faps at night to the idea that she’ll make him DDO of the CIA in her administration, as a reward for all his months of loyal service?
That occurred to me after I commented. Or put him on the NSC, or something.
Dreggas
I actually thought that joke was funny. Of course Chelsea grew up and no longer looks like Veruca Salt from Willie Wonka, so things do change.
Zifnab
I think part of it is tied in with the “liberal media” myth and part of it is tied in with the prudishness of the old channels of information. People assumed that if a flag-burning picture existed, it would never be released by a friendly press corps. Furthermore, the media censors itself heavily. So while they’ll be happy to talk about such a tape or a picture, they will never offend the viewer’s senses by actually displaying it.
Of course, the era of purdishness and MSM information domination is wanning. If a picture or a tape like that existed, it would be all over the internet so fast, Google would server crash. Dirty little rumors have less shelf life in the age of Digg.com and instant access. I’m reminded of the little stir up a week ago about a guy from Denver who swears to god he’s got alien autopsy footage. That meme is more or less dead, as far as I can tell. No beef, no burger.
Of course, the people who would buy the dynamite in the distance are people who don’t know how to operate a web browser. So if we see a high old-people voter turn-out, tricks like this can still carry weight. If we see more informed (younger) voters, it won’t swing as easily. Nasty rumors and offensive smears like this get debunked on a daily basis on the interwebs.
ThymeZone
Here is the whole article, it is fascinating and chilling. This is the beating heart of the modern propaganda machine.
It is deliberate manipulation of the information stream, made easier by the cooperation of a flaccid press.
Rick Massimo
Why settle for a blogger when you have Peggy Noonan’s immortal “Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.”
Davebo
One more thing,
If Balloon Juice is hosted on a Commodore 64 then No Quarter’s server must use punch cards.
Ripley
If you watch the tape, America dies in 7 days!!
TCG
Has Larry Johnson always been this big of a douchebag?
Or he just get an uncurable case of BDS that has rendered him mentally unfit?
Cain
I’ve never understood that either. Every 4 years the Democratic candidate almost always ends up being the “most liberal senator evah!” Obama’s only been in the Senate for two years yet he’s more liberal than John Kerry who had the mantle of “Most Liberal Senator Evah!” Kerry should hold a press conference where he passes the title ‘most liberal senator evah!” to Obama as way to cut through the bullshit.
“My fellow Americans, 4 years ago when I ran for president. I was accused by the Republicans that I had the most liberal voting record evah!”
“But they were wrong, they apparently have changed their mind, I can no longer in good conscience keep the mantle of Most Liberal Senator Evah!”. I will pass on this prestigious title to Senator Obama. Senator Obama is.. The Most Liberal Senator Evah!” Give him a round of applause! Thank you, my fellow Americans! Thank you!
cain
Jack
This crap is only effective when it gets continued net time. So, John, let’s not feed it anymore!
– Jack
Dreggas
It’s like political hatchet-job mad-libs. Seriously:
There is a tape of ______________ doing _____________ while _________________ watch. When this gets out it will be explosive! In fact it will thoroughly destroy any chance they have of making it to the whitehouse.
Of course in this case the line that best summed it up was SusanUnhinged’s post saying “It doesn’t matter if the tape is released, the underlying story is what matters”.
Jeffrey
If this tactic really works and Obama does lose in November I’m going to be pissed. And I’m not even American.
cleek
There is a tape of Larry Johnson doing a dirty Sanchez with Bea Arthur while bin Laden and Charo watch.
this is fun
Elvis Elvisberg
I didn’t remember the stuff about Kitty Dukakis.
It’s pretty disconcerting. I wonder if this stuff happens on its own, or if there’s a cabal founded by Lee Atwater than cranks this stuff out each time.
It’s really frightening to realize that one of the two major parties in the world’s most powerful country is based entirely on ressentiment, nationalism, and cronyism, with no policy or ideological content whatsoever.
And it’s just lovely that Larry Johnson decided to go along for the ride. GOP operatives told him it existed! What can he do but pass it along with Drudge sirens every day? As hideous as the GOP is, we sure aren’t immune from idiocy on our side, either.
Zifnab
What did Bea Arthur ever do to get dragged into all of this? Sexist.
Dreggas
This should really be spun off into a Mad-lib friday thread.
Chris Johnson
Aren’t we all sick of this crap? Half the time it’s supposed to be effective not because YOU believe it but because of all those OTHER stupid idiot people out there who will unquestioningly believe it.
Fuck it, those people don’t exist- we’re all Americans and reasonably capable of not being total fools. Let’s rule this shit out of bounds.
Rick Massimo
Oh, and by the way: Let me be the first on record to say that there could be a tape and I wouldn’t care.
#1, she’s not the candidate.
#2, When I think of what black people are expected to put up with, forget and/or put behind them on a daily basis, I personally am able to summon up the strength to ignore being called whitey.
#3, You wanna talk about tapes? I got a tape of John McCain saying it’s all right with him if we’re in Iraq for 100 years. Really! I swear it!
karrsic
You’re right that it is too early. The bad guys want this to filter up in Sept., to plant a seed of doubt. Interestingly, since it’s so early, it could work to Obama’s advantage. If any McCain staff or other wingnuts latch onto this and then are not able to product the vid, their cred will be further damaged. I mean, what cred remains…
Phoenix Woman
The alleged tape apparently isn’t about “whitey”, but Bush — as in “Why’d he (Bush) let New Orleans drown?”
Larry Johnson, in trying to turn “Why’d he” into “Whitey”, also turns an interrogative statement into a declarative statement, along with putting the term “whitey” into the mouth of someone with more education and experience in high-profile work settings than he possesses.
cleek
i’m really surprised it’s taking them this long to manufacture a 30 second video clip.
Rome Again
How does a supposed hero of TGOS end up using the same tactics of GOP operatives? Remember, he was CIA, so, it seems to be he was probably a GOP plant all along (something I was informed yesterday couldn’t possibly be true of another former TGOS poster – hmmmmmmmm!!! Why is it so hard to believe the GOP would use long term sleepers? Really, is it that hard to believe?
Jake
WAIT. Just stop for a minute. This is fucking nonsense.
What you’re now discussing is what someone hypothesized, HYPOTHESIZED, she might have said in the tape. LJ wants this to happen too. Don’t you get it?
The longer people discuss A NONEXISTENT TAPE, he wins.
Same goes for you Cole. Seriously. Cut the shit. Even when you poke fun at this sort of thing you enable it.
slippytoad
A couple of corrections. Larry Johnson doesn’t seem to be a lefty blogger. At best he’s an attention whore. At worst he’s actually a CIA operative (and he actually WAS CIA as I understand it) and he’s trying to sow disinformation to fuck this election up because somebody he used to work for can’t have a black man up top. Or he’s a right-wing nutjob doing this on his own.
But I don’t think Larry Johnson is liberal at all, and he’s certainly not a blogger. That would imply that he’s doing something even moderately legitimate with his website. He’s not. He’s smearing his own poo on Barack Obama’s stolen laundry and waving it around hoping someone catches sight of it.
I WILL NOT visit his site to give him the satisfaction of page hits, but he does need to be served his steaming mug of STFU like yesterday. This whole tape business is EPIC FAIL.
Rome Again
Score!
Davebo
Man, when even the Libertarians are mocking you ya know it’s bad!
chopper
wait, johnson has pictures of kerry and jane fonda?
Rome Again
Who is the one person who has at been both head of the CIA and the GOP?
Yeah, him!
w vincentz
The video will surface along side the one of Big Foot at the controls of the UFO that’s buzzing the head of the Loch Ness Monster in the Bermuda Triangle.
Rome Again
Sorry Jack, but what topic needs is NOT silence (that would spell out guilt or fear) but a very, very strong dose of ridicule.
jamfan
I hardly ever emerge from lurkdom, but I do want to say how distressing it is that — based on, what, a 20-year-old, relatively mild college thesis and one imperfect remark — it becomes believable to even people on her own side of the political equation that Michelle Obama, an Ivy League educated lawyer only in her mid-40s, mother of two little girls, whose husband’s career (not to mention her own) has relied on a carefully modulated and positive public image, talks like George Jefferson on steroids. This alleged tape is supposed to have been recorded after Obama launched his Senate run, or even after he was elected to the Senate. She doesn’t even garner the benefit of the doubt that a Senator’s/Senate candidate’s wife wouldn’t talk like that?
TenguPhule
How many children has Mrs McCain molested?
Inquiring minds want a definite answer to this question.
Dreggas
Larry Johnson should be sued for plagiarism
Rome Again
Gosh jam, you’re not supposed to actually THINK about it and, you know, use logic to tear the argument apart, you are simply supposed to hear a rumor and believe that “Of Course it’s true” and then say “I will work my ass off to make sure someone like that lady’s husband doesn’t win the presidency”!
zzyzx
I don’t worry about this rumor that much because it appeals to the people who would believe any rumor floated about Obama. They’re not going to vote for him. They weren’t going to vote for him before people made this up and they won’t vote for him after it’s completely disproved, assuming Larry makes the mistake again of giving details to his rumor.
Unless the tape actually exists, it won’t effect the election at all. Wright barely changed things and there WAS a video clip then.
Grand Moff Texan
Long live the new flesh.
.
Desmond
I’m now convinced there is no tape. Larry is full of shit. And a disgusting excuse for a human being.
crw
This, along with swift boating, is a tactic for 50%+1 elections. These kind of tactics only work at the margins, because they prey on people who have no other overriding concerns. No one says “Gee, I would like to vote for a progressive candidate who’s going to fix the economy, help me put my kids through college and end the war, but I can’t because the candidate’s wife may or may not have said whitey.” It’s more like “I don’t really care one way or another because the gubmint doesn’t affect my life, so I’m going to go with the guy who seems more patriotic.”
You need an apathetic electorate for this tactic to work. I don’t think we have an apathetic electorate this year. Like you, I think this is a realignment year. The fundamentals are all there for the Republicans to be handed their collective ass. And, Obama has a great deal of star power, which gives him the ability to drown out the distant rumbles. If he was another negative charisma flop like Kerry, I’d worry. Obama is a rock star. These tactics will generate noise among the crazified, and not much else. Even the Muslim smear has produced results below the crazification threshold.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I am hoping (and at this point it is no more than a hope) that this may work to Obama’s advantage. These smears have worked in the past because they were carefully calibrated to do as much damage as possible without crossing a line of shameless indecency which ordinary people would recognize and cause blowback against the GOP.
This time around the fact that Obama is a mixed-race candidate may cause the drooling ‘tards to lose their self control and go too far over the line into really nasty stuff, to the point where decent Americans will wake up and smell the coffee regarding this whole scam. If that happens, then game over.
Blue Raven
Racists believe the darndest things.
crw
Mark my words, if this starts to get play in the media and take hold, we’ll see Obama’s team put together a 150k+ rally or something equally dramatic to suck the oxygen away from it. His people are brilliant. I have full confidence they will bat this shit down with ease.
Conservatively Liberal
Here is something from the GoS about how the ‘whitey’ bit may only be a ‘novel’ idea by Larry Johnson. I just about shit when I read it.
Conservatively Liberal
Now that I read the thread I see that Dreggas got the jump on the book angle at Kos. Good catch! :)
Dreggas
Heh I just wanted to get the plagiarism crack in there.
nepat
You’re unwilling to say it, John, so I’ll say it for you: there is no tape. There never was a tape. This is Whisper Campaign 101. The whole point of which is never truth or fact but to get people to begin whispering. Still amazing that we fall for it from one election to the next like a bunch of mindless zombies. Proposal for a new strategy: the next time you hear one of these “whishpers” without any evidence, ignore it. Please.
GSD
Has the video of John McCain blowing Ho Chi Minh surfaced yet?
-GSD
Helena Montana
If the rumor of a tape of Michelle Obama saying whitey is the best and only weapon the forces of eeeeevil have, I’d say Obama doesn’t have a lot to worry about.
nepat
@Conservatively Liberal –
Not surprising. The whole “Larry Sinclair” smear was a direct lift from Joe Klein’s Primary Colors. Smear plagiarists!
Conservatively Liberal
You know that when they reach the point of stealing ideas out of a book, they have hit rock bottom for any ideas of their own.
I read a book before 9-11 called ‘The Prometheus Deception’ and for a few days after 9-11 I had this weird feeling of deja vu. When I realized the similarities between that book and 9-11, it was just creepy. The idea behind the attack in the book (planes into buildings by terrorists) was to convince the public to allow invasive spying by a secret government agency on all citizens with the assistance of a control freak (who is eerily similar to Bill Gates in profile) who owns a computer operating systems/software company.
There were other terrorist attacks in the book too; a high speed passenger train derailment in France, an anthrax attack (in Sweden I think) and some other incidents. All in all it was pretty creepy at how similar it all was.
Rick Massimo
In a primary campaign, you don’t even have to believe it. You just have to think that enough people believe it that you vote for the other candidate.
uri
The thing that chaps my ass most about this is the smear is this: A Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer with a long and successful career, who serves on the boards of public and private organizations, would suddenly let loose with a rant containing racial epithets while speaking at a recorded event.
Yeah, that seems likely
Rick Massimo
Oh, one other thing:
1) It’s harder to sell the idea that the candidate, who has been a public figure for some time and is wise to the ways of politics, would do such a politically explosive thing, whereas (I don’t know whether this part is true, but it’s the perception) politicians’ wives have more trouble getting used to the idea that their lives are public too and they can’t perform their America-hating acts like they want to. And hey, who really knows what they’re up to all day?
2) As well as throwing “patriotism” mud, it also plays into one of the underlying, fundamental beliefs of the GOP attack machine: Democratic men are wimpy and effeminate, here “evidenced” by the “fact” that they can’t control their wives. For the candidate himself to do such a risky thing as burning a flag would, if nothing else, at least show some balls; balls, however, are what Democratic women are supposed to have. Cf. the recent respective treatments of John Edwards and Hillary Clinton for examples.
rachel
(with apoligies to Tom Lehrer) I am never forget the day I first meet the great
LobachevskyLarry Johnson. In one word he told me secret of success inmathematicspolitical smears: Plagiarize!Brachiator
Shout it to the roof tops. There is no tape.
There is no point in speculating about the possible reactions to a nonexistent tape.
Any reporter who asks about it should be met with the reply, “I understand that there are photographs of you cheating on your spouse. Have they been posted on the Internet yet?”
Also,
Soon there will be a YouTube video of Rush Limbaugh banging little boys in Costa Rica.
Sean Hannity performed a sex act on Bill O’Reilly. Bill can clearly be heard on a tape saying, “Do it. Do it live!”
And of course, Joe McCarthy set the standard for scurrilous bullshit:
Reporters are lazy, stupid and shallow. They will continue to ask nonsensical but scandalous questions because it creates a buzz even if the issue is totally false. And they and their editors are immune to criticism; they will circle the wagons and mumble “1st Amendment” as though it were a magic charm that will protect them from demons.
One counter-charm would be to send emails to the sponsors of the news programs: “[name of program] devotes air time to baseless rumor-mongering. This taints your products and makes them very unattractive to me. Have a nice day.”
Any site which attempts to create rumors about Obama’s children should be condemned, pure and simple. The always angry Clinton supporters should make this their first priority since only a sexist monster would attempt to make something out the statements of little girls.
I note in passing that McCain’s adopted Bangladeshi daughter is kept out of the campaign. And reporters respect this, as they should. It is a despicable double standard that anyone seeks to exploit race by using Obama’s daughters. It is doubly despicable since McCain’s daughter had been made the subject of an insane, vicious and obviously racist smear campaign during the 2000 South Carolina primary (The anatomy of a smear campaign):
JoshA
NRO’s Jim Geraghty points out that the plot is very similar to one in a 2006 Stephen Frey novel “The Power Broker.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/6/123441/5219/827/531074
To summarize: a black candidate is galvanizing the country in his race for President. However, he has links to a controversial minister. And a rightwing mucky-muck gets his hands on a tape where the candidate refers to “whitey.”
Apparently, Larry Johnson enjoys Stephen Frey in his spare time.
Pug
Have you seen Johnson’s response?
Here’s the “logic”: Johnson makes an accusation supported by no evidence and, when asked about it, Obama doesn’t flatly deny the tape exists. That means the accusation must be true.
Bill Arnold
Does anyone know of anyone who has been enterprising enough to apply the same methodology to McCain’s 2007 voting record? The statistical artifact (lie) that it uses appears to be symmetric. Perhaps McCain is the “Most Conservative” Senator, because he missed votes while campaigning.
JDRhoades
The thing that chaps my ass most about this is the smear is this: A Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer with a long and successful career, who serves on the boards of public and private organizations, would suddenly let loose with a rant containing racial epithets while speaking at a recorded event.
Yeah, that seems likely.
Now you know them black folks just caint’ control theyselves.
southpaw
This isn’t new:
slag
What a jackass thing to say.
rawshark
It’s like the old SNL skit with Steve Martin standing on stage looking out over the crowd saying, ‘what is that?, what the hellll *is* that? hey folks you oughtta move away from there you don’t know what the hell that is.’
then others join him on stage doing it too.
southpaw
Check it out, I found the footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP0itTD98W4
dmhlt
And a direct link to NRO story showing the parallel plot lines from “The Power Broker” which pretty much puts the kibosh on this Dirty Tricks/Swift Boat attempt. (Not that it won’t have some impact … or be an orphan.)
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mzc3ZWNhNThmM2JhMzliZDUxMWNmMmU5M2ZiNmM1YTY
Kilkee
What astonishes me is that in an age in which every pimple-faced redneck GOOPer has a (pirated) copy of Photoshop, there hasn’t yet been a positive torrent of bullshit mocked-up photos flooding teh Intertubes of Michelle burning the flag while stabbing kittens and biting the heads off premature white babies. And you know damn well that there’s an audience out there just drooling for the chance to see and believe. I’m guessing the over/under date is, say, October 22.
Mnemosyne
As Barbara Mikkelson and Jan Harald Brunvand can tell you, the only way to combat an urban legend is by repeatedly debunking it. Leaving it alone only allows it to grow.
rachel
Holy cow! Brunvand was one of my profs when I was an undergrad.
Darkrose
You know, I’ve been black all my life, and I have yet to hear anyone use the word “whitey” except a) ironically, or b) to refer to Billy Bulger’s brother. So I have to ask: what crack is Larry Johnson smoking?
grumpy realist
It’s stuff like this that makes me think we should re-write libel law. I’d love to see Larry Johnson or Richard Hand up before a judge, sweating bullets, trying to prove how they KNOW what they have said is true….
Trailer trash Josh
Second of all, considering what black people are told to put up with, “get over” or “forget about” every single day, I don’t feel the vapors from a couple of intemperate remarks about me (I’m white). I don’t know about Larry Johnson, but I’m tough enough to handle it.
Meanwhile, 2 of every 3 murders here in Columbus in 2007 were committed by the 6% of the population that are (black, male, aged 16-35). Don’t forget to mention this stat has continually re-occurred every year since 1977.
I knew Terry Ward.
When will the Community-Based Reality of the “left” be willing to admit that African-Americans are much more likely to commit crimes based upon “race”. (See also “home invasion” crimes- along with “rape” and “assault” statistics.)
And if you want to whine about the “racism” in the ‘system’- I would urge a “google search” on:
Mayor Michael (Mike) Coleman, Chief of Police James Jackson, Columbus(OH) City Council, Columbus School Board, Superintendent of Schools Gene Harris– not to mention “Frankie Coleman falsifying time sheets” (Nice “no-show” gov’t job, Mrs. Coleman!), or even Frankie and alcoholism.
Did you hear that she has also burnt her own house down?
Twice!!? (no jail time!)
Here in Ohio, we will elect a “Michael Coleman” (Not to mention Kenneth Blackwell and Jeanette Bradley)- meanwhile, you sister-humping racist Democrats in W. Va. consider an inbred ‘Ex-Kleagel’ like Bob Byrd as the “conscience of the Senate”.
mere mortal
Isn’t this the absolute worst way to defuse this rumor? What’s wrong with “It’s a vile, rancid lie”?
There’s a fine argument that once you address this, you’ll always be answering the question in various forms, “are you a racist?” Much like the Clintons had to do after South Carolina.
However, the argument I see is that he might end up more like Gary Hart, challenging the media (and thereby legitimizing the issue) to bring on or investigate any allegation.
Don’t know if it’s true (don’t care if there’s a tape), and I don’t know what it would mean even if it were. However, it should be easy to determine if Mrs. Obama ever went to such a forum, at such a location, with such panelists. Shouldn’t it?
HRA
“Here’s the “logic”: Johnson makes an accusation supported by no evidence and, when asked about it, Obama doesn’t flatly deny the tape exists. That means the accusation must be true.”
Not exactly. It means I don’t want to wallow in that tank of BS with someone who has the audacity to use material from a book attributed to my wife.
I did read about the book being used this past week. As it has been mentioned here – it’s nothing new. In fact, there is print material ready for the taking by anyone who wants to use it’s premise against a candidate. I have to say kudoes for whoever caught the usage in this case.
Written by someone who has the aforesaid print material up close daily in my work.
Also has a mother of 5 daughters and 1 son, I resent using anyone’s children as a smear campaign.
Paul Avery
Hi, I’m just a lurker. Thought this piece from TPM was interesting
Now Jim Geraghty of National Review has claimed that the rumor may be based on…fiction. A political thriller called The Power Broker, published in 2006 by Stephen Frey, features the presidential campaign of Dem candidate Jesse Wood, who’s aspiring to be the country’s first African-American president.
We went out and got the book. And sure enough, in the novel, Wood’s opponents discover video of the candidate himself — not his wife — discussing with a radical black minister how he will “f— whitey” when he gets into office, despite all his public rhetoric about racial reconciliation.
Koz
Who cares already? Between Rev Wright, “bitter”, Mrs Obama’s pride in America, there’s already plenty of verified dirt to go around anyway. If this tape were to materialize, I don’t think it would change the dynamics of this race much.
Unlike many prominent Democrats of recent vintage, Obama seems to be a truly likeable guy. But we still have a long campaign to go, and the Magical Unity Pony act will not last forever.