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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / President Obama and the Dread Hampton Tape

President Obama and the Dread Hampton Tape

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Since one of this blog’s missions is to Read Those Idiots So You Don’t Have To, I figured it would be worth putting the the Drudge/Daily Caller OMG WHITEY TAPE here where you could all listen without having to get Carlson-cooties on your hard drives. Turns out it took almost two hours to download the 37-minute speech (I don’t know whether the problem was my desktop or Drudge’s website, but you have been warned) and by the time I finally scored the embed code, Cole had already done a long post about the whole less-than-a-nothingburger scenario. So, here you are, and what he said.

Frankly, the obvious reason so little note was taken back in 2007 is that there is absolutely nothing in the words to distinguish this particular speech from any other Barack Obama pre-November-2008 campaign speech. Any mainstream journalist reviewing it would probably have rated it A for Anodyne. The worst complaint I can imagine is that a dedicated Rationalist might be disappointed that Obama gives, at the very least, a convincing impression of being a proud member of the Black American Christian religious tradition. He might even be accused of considering himself a Person of Faith. As one of those PoFs myself (I’m a proud animist), I don’t consider this disqualifying. As someone who pays attention to modern American politics, I know that an out and proud atheist was not going to be running as a presidential candidate for one of the two major parties in the year 2008, or 2012, or probably 2016 either.

But I do expect at least one bold, thoughtful Libertarian to announce that, given the possibility that President Obama might not be faking his religious beliefs (or at least his belief in the social power of such community-oriented religious beliefs), they will no longer be able in good conscience to vote for him. It won’t be one of the Cornerites, of course, but there’s bound to be someone on the Reason or Cato payrolls already working on what they devoutly hope will be a front-page essay.

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    Soonergrunt

    @Anne Laurie, top:

    But I do expect at least one bold, thoughtful Libertarian to announce that, given the possibility that President Obama might not be faking his religious beliefs (or at least his belief in the social power of such community-oriented religious beliefs), they will no longer be able in good conscience to vote for him. It won’t be one of the Cornerites, of course, but there’s bound to be someone on the Reason or Cato payrolls already working on what they devoutly hope will be a front-page essay.

    I’m sure somebody here will jump all over that shit, too.

  2. 2.

    Carolinus

    It’s worth noting that, while teasing this “story”, the Drudge-bigot-traffic-spigot was connected to Romney’s donation page:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/10/this-might-be-the-drudge-obama-video-the-internet-is-buzzing-about/263172/

    For several hours, the Drudge Report has been teasing that a bombshell video will air on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Tuesday night — some of it while linking to a page for donations on Mitt Romney’s site.

    https://twitter.com/sam_baker?tw_i=253248763211173888

    Link on Drudge banner redirects to donate to Romney campaign.

  4. 4.

    Burnspbesq

    Drudge is a festering boil on the buttocks of America. He should be popped, cleaned out with peroxide, and bandaged.

  5. 5.

    ? Martin

    Going slightly immediately OT…

    What are the odds that the shredded Dem voter registrations in several states by the GOP will be used following the election to prove that more voter ID is needed because a bunch of unregistered Democrats showed up and voted or tried to vote?

    The GOP couldn’t lose here. However, they’re still under a consent decree from 1982, expanded in 1987, over ballot security and vote caging. That is to be in effect until 2017. I bet Holder and the DNC drops the hammer on them after the election. If we can win the House, there’s an opportunity for some election right legislation here.

  6. 6.

    MikeJ

    Our pet troll here was earlier claiming that this was now newsworthy because they released the whole speech, not just clips. Because we know the right wanted to keep the really damaging stuff hidden.

  9. 9.

    Carolinus

    As to the Romney Campaign’s relationship with the Daily Caller and Drudge:

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/02/conservative-outlets-push-old-video-of-barack-obama-talking-about-the-poor.html

    The video was obtained by the Daily Caller, a conservative website edited by Fox commentator Tucker Carlson and financed in part by Foster Freiss, a financier who is helping bankroll one of the pro-Romney Super PACs. It was touted by right-leaning Internet gossip Matt Drudge and played on the air by Sean Hannity, the most reliably Republican voice on Fox News Channel. Hannity accused the “left-wing press” of “hiding” the speech.

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/romney-campaign-denies-involvement-in-obama-video

    The relationship between campaign manager Matt Rhoades and Matt Drudge — whose site first started teasing the video — has been widely reported, and the Drudge Report regularly features stories and headlines meant to give Romney a boost.

    But asked whether Rhoades or anyone else on the campaign was involved in leaking the tape, communications director Gail Gitcho e-mailed, “We did not have any involvement.”

    Here’s an old NYT article on Romney’s Campaign Manager & Drudge-whisperer Matt Rhoades:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/us/politics/22drudge.html?pagewanted=all

    The early advantage on their side, in the view of several Republicans, seems to have gone to Mitt Romney, who hired the former Bush political aide who had been the central party’s prime point of contact with Mr. Drudge, Matthew Rhoades. His status was solidified after the 2004 election at a steakhouse dinner in Miami with Mr. Drudge, who for all his renown in politics is a somewhat spectral presence who rarely agrees to meet with political operatives or journalists and who did not respond to requests for an interview for this article.

    So important was the Romney camp’s perceived advantage in the eyes of aides to Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, that at one point this year they even considered sending an emissary to Miami to build their own relationship with him, two former McCain campaign officials said. (Mr. Drudge ignored the invitation, one of the officials said.)

    …

    Before Mr. Griffin left politics to work as a military lawyer in 2005, he had a dinner with Mr. Drudge and Mr. Rhoades to solidify Mr. Rhoades’s new place as the main Drudge Report contact for the central party. That dinner was first reported in the book “The Way to Win,” by Mark Halperin and John F. Harris, published last year.

    As the Bush political team dispersed among the Republican candidates this year, some of Mr. Rhoades’s former colleagues came to regret his special relationship with Mr. Drudge. Former aides to Mr. McCain said in interviews that they had cursed Mr. Rhoades’s name daily this year as Mr. Drudge ran a series of photographs making Mr. McCain look old and other items, like one wrongly raising the possibility that a bump he took to the head in Iraq was cancer.

  10. 10.

    Violet

    I suspect this tape will be discussed on cable news tomorrow. The morning network shows (Today Show, GMA) will probably do a segment on it, but most of their attention will be on the upcoming debate.

    Then the debate will happen and people will forget all about the stupid non-story of the years-old tape.

  11. 11.

    ? Martin

    @Burnspbesq: Yeah, I think the Dems best option is to jump off the cliff. They’ll have the power of the veto and Senate control to limit how anything gets restored.

  12. 12.

    Joel

    The unfortunate fallout of all this was that people started paying attention to Drudge again, however briefly.

  13. 13.

    Anne Laurie

    @Violet:

    Then the debate will happen and people will forget all about the stupid non-story of the years-old tape

    Agreed. But I’m a believer in primary sources, so when your idiot co-worker spouts whatever Fox News is telling him, you can say, “No, if you actually listen to the tape, I can assure you that’s not in it.”

  15. 15.

    Nemo_N

    Tucker Carlson treats as news something he already covered 5 years ago.

    Tucker Carlson thinks you all are very very stupid.

  16. 16.

    Violet

    @Nemo_N: Tucker knows that no one was watching his show five years ago so he figured no one would remember. And yes, he thinks we’re stupid.

    How sad for Tucker that he didn’t get invited back for this year’s Dancing With The Stars All Stars show.

  17. 17.

    DPS

    This isn’t about content; it’s about accent. The heart of this will be that he’s a different person before different audiences, just like El Mitterino. The hope is that this will neutralize the 47% tape. Media will make it about content so that they can play tape of the accent. Don’t know if it hurts Obama. Can’t see how it helps him. But I’m wrong all the time anyway.

  18. 18.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Heard in a secret meeting of the conservative echo chamber; “You call that stupid? I can out-stupid you any day of the week.”

  20. 20.

    DPS

    Really ? So the voters gonna give a shit about how he talks ?

    Please reread my comment and comment again if you’re still confused.

  22. 22.

    Carolinus

    @amk:

    Really ? So the voters gonna give a shit about how he talks ?

    I imagine you need to have an ear for white resentment politics to hear that particular dogwhistle. This whole thing is in the BS framing, no one is supposed to actually listen to the full remarks or read the transcript, instead they’re just expected to tune in for the rants of the Hannitys of the world who remind white folks how down-trodden they are.

  23. 23.

    Another Halocene Human

    Hey, I came away in 2008 thinking if he wasn’t sincere at that religion thing he sure sounded sincere. At this point I accept he’s a religious believer because only a Goddist would willingly go through everything he’s gone through knowing what would happen–and he was certainly smart enough to know what was coming. (Unlike some soi-disants Christians who are too damn stupid to see the consequences of following the diktats of Jesus their pastor, their id, and midnight snack fever dreams.)

    All things being equal I have to respect someone who sincerely believes over somebody (psst: Al Gore) who just seems to be faking it to get “cred” with the tribalist crowd. That’s all things being equal–I wouldn’t vote for a convinced Dominionist, no matter how sincere.

  25. 25.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Violet: What’s even funnier is that this speech was covered by FOX NEWS in 2007!

    Oh, and how do you “leak” a tape that has been on YouTube for six years?

  26. 26.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @amk:

    Really ? So the voters gonna give a shit about how he talks ?

    It’s been a common claim for decades that people can identify a “black voice” without fail, that there is something inherent to the way a black person talks that can’t be trained out. It’s been the subject of studies by linguists. Last I heard, analysis of the recorded voices hasn’t been able to pin down what people think they’re hearing.

    It’s something I’ve played with ever since I first heard about it. I think that what makes my trained-in-childhood receptors identify a given accent as “black” has to do primarily with the interaction of various vowel sounds with a following “r”.

    Just another piece of the whole mass of things we don’t even think about that supports racism in our culture.

    It’s also one of the things that drives racists absolutely nuts about Obama. He doesn’t sound black.

  28. 28.

    Schlemizel

    Sure this could have been about fund raising but I don’t see it a a huge cash cow. Certainly no enough to replace the sugar daddys that are abandoning Willard.

    The attention it will draw to Pinky TuscadaroTucker Carlson is not impressive either really.

    I can see 2 angles. One is this has had some impact on the news cycle and will dribble on for another with some bleed into the weekend chats possible. It would have been much better for them if they could have used it during one of Willards floundering days. But the idea that there is a ‘race tape’ out there is now in some peoples minds.

    That is the bigger impact I think they wanted. 99% of people will never watch the tape. They will be aware of it though & heard someplace that it somehow shows how racist President Blackety-black is. Chances are good they might even get assured it is the real deal by their most trusted new sources (Rush and FAUX) or their friends who listen to them.

    Its pretty weak tea, trying to suggest this shows some racism but weak tea is all they have left.

  30. 30.

    Tony J

    So… this is about as dramatic and paradigm-shifting as those ZOMG! “Exclusive! Obama Ate My Dog/Obama Invented Girlfriends/Swears Like A Negro ‘scandals’” the Right were pimping all through the Primaries?

    Who could possibly have predicted that?

  31. 31.

    El Cid

    To right wingers it’s gospel that no one in the pro-Obama librul medja was willing to report on Jeremiah Wright.

    The constant screaming about it driving Obama to not only denounce his former preacher (more for public preening I think than the supposedly controversial comments) but give a full speech on race in the USA — it never happened.

    It wasn’t covered. I imagined all that.

  32. 32.

    kay

    They spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Romney, and he’s worth way more than than that to them if he’s elected.

    They weren’t going to just give up.

  33. 33.

    kay

    Conservative groups sent out a comically racist DVD about Obama to millions of households in Ohio.

    People here are talking about it.

    I’m amused that the cowards in political media won’t talk about it.

    It’s probably too scary to admit that conservatives are running a national campaign and then a whole other sleazy underground campaign on the ground, but I wonder about the disconnect between what people are seeing with their own eyes and what political reporters selectively cover.

    I think that disconnect corrodes trust.

  34. 34.

    hep kitty

    I think Rachel summed it up nicely last night.

    President Obama, sounding like a black man while speaking to a black audience

    We need to be reminded that he is black, y’see. Cuz the right has done such a poor job of that up until now.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    Wouldn’t be at all surprised if, after the immediate debate coverage has settled down, a breathless announcement is made of further ‘analysis’ of the video, ‘proving’ that Obama was facing Mecca.

  37. 37.

    Bostondreams

    @Arundel:

    That Walsh piece…you could feel the disgust and disdain she has for Hannity and Carlson and Drudge dripping off the screen.

  38. 38.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @kay: I think it might be better for the press to ignore it and also the campaign if it’s not working. The press will never really cover the offensive bits-like the accusation that Obama’s Mother was a porn star – just like they never brought that up with Dinesh D’Souza. Sure Maher yelled at him but what good did that do.

  39. 39.

    gogol's wife

    @Violet:

    He was hands-down the worst contestant on DWTS in history. (Although I refused to watch when Bristol Palin was on, so maybe she surpassed him.)

  40. 40.

    quannlace

    Then the debate will happen and people will forget all about the stupid non-story of the years-old tape.

    Ditto. If the Romney campaign had anything to do with this, it shows their usual great timing and competence. Whatever happens at the debate tonight, it’ll be hashed through ad infinitum, and this old video will be buried.

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