Friday, June 27, 2008

The "Whitey" thing. Yes, that. Again.

The various Obama sub-scandals have grown too numerous to track. I should have discussed the latest "whitey tape" developments earlier. Yes, we have new info about the most infamous rumor of the campaign season.

Time magazine did a story on the rumor, and on the Obama campaign's attempts to battle what it calls the "smears."
When the Obama campaign got wind of the rumor in April, Michelle's close friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett asked Michelle if there could be anything to it; the candidate's wife dismissed it out of hand. But by mid-May, it was picking up steam on the Internet, and Michelle's advisers decided it was time to have a serious talk with her about it...
If this were an episode of Ally MacBeal, the sound effects editor would insert the "LP record screech" at this point.

Larry Johnson was the first to mention the tape in public -- on May 16. He insists that he did not get wind of the tale until that month. No evidence suggests that he or any other anti-Obama writer had heard the rumor before that time.

A strange situation. Whoever decided to spread this story spread it to the Obama folk first. In effect, Time magazine has verified that Johnson did not concoct the claim.

Does this mean that the claim is true? No. Not necessarily.

As you know, Johnson's story holds that he learned of the tape at second hand, from sources who knew of screenings held by Republicans for the benefit of rich donors. In the past, I've speculated that a fake tape was put together to help loosen fatcat wallets.

(Obots -- who have repeatedly demonstrated an inability to read the English language -- will probably interpret the previous paragraph as an announcement that the tape is real and that I'm screening it in my living room next Saturday right after Family Guy.)
On a campaign swing through Oregon, Michelle's chief of staff Melissa Winter grilled her on the particulars of the various versions. Had she ever spoken at Trinity Church? Could she ever recall having uttering that racial epithet? No, no, Michelle answered again and again. Additionally, she said, "whitey" is simply not a word that African Americans of her generation tend to use — or that she herself would ever say.
This is one reason why the "fake video" thesis appeals to me. On the other hand, I'm ill-disposed to believe anything from the Obama camp -- not after the NAFTA lies, the Rezko lies, the Iraq war lies, the campaign financing lies, the FISA lies, and all the other lies.

Even after Time's revelation, Obama's band of fanatics will probably continue to presume that this whole business is nothing more than a Clintonian scheme. Of course, progressives blame the Clintons for hurricanes, floods, and the final episode of the X-Files.

But why would the Evil Clinton Conspirators spread a false story of this sort to the Obama camp -- a month before any public mention? What purpose would that serve? For that matter, why would a Clintonian rumor-meister use Larry Johnson as a cut-out -- one month later? Without actual evidence, such a story could not impact the campaign. The only predictable outcome would be to discredit Johnson -- if the tape does not show up as the proverbial "October Surprise."

The likeliest answer is that the "whitey tape" story has its origin point with people inside the Republican party. For what it is worth, Roger Stone says he learned about the tape from Republican sources. The tale, true or untrue, began somewhere within the innermost ranks of the GOP.

Conceivably, Rovian forces created the story in order to stoke the fires of animosity between Obama and Clinton. We have good reason to believe that the Obamas genuinely share the Kossack paranoia about all things Clintonian. This theory would explain why the rumor reached Valerie Jarett before it reached Larry Johnson.

11 comments:

katiebird said...

Obama and his representatives have a history of Very Specific denials. So if Michelle Spoke someplace else (not Trinity but maybe an affiliated event) and didn't say "Whitey" But spoke in an overly passionate manner they would (I think) deny the validity of the problem.

Not acknowledging that there could be some other problem.

NOT that I believe in or have any knowledge of any such problem.

I'm just saying that a man who says his kids go to school with (or did he say the same school as) the Ayers kids has a very fine sense of the English Language. One that I don't necessarily share.

Anna Belle said...

Wow, great catch on the dates, Joseph! I'm so glad I found your site. You really pay attention, and that's what it takes to fight this.

Anonymous said...

I have no way of knowing if this "Tape" actually exist'.
But with all the lies coming out of Obama and his camp, I am truly starting to wonder if there is fire behind this smoke.

Given the nature of that Church they belonged to and the people the Obama's surrounded themselves with, it would not surprise me in the least if this tape existed.

Anonymous said...

I just have such a hard time believing a tape of either Obama using a racial epithet actually exists.

Joseph Cannon said...

I don't find it all that difficult to believe that a tape exists. But if it does, is it real?

katiebird said...

How could you fake a tape (video tape) with more than just a couple of syllables?

Joseph Cannon said...

Well, kb, such things have happened in the past. In an earlier post, I've discussed a tape produced many years ago which allegedly shows Ronald Reagan involved in degrading sex with Vicki Morgan. Quite a few people have seen it, including Larry Flynt and -- of all people -- Frank Zappa. Flynt probably still has a copy somewhere in that big oval building he owns in Beverly Hills.

It's a fake, accomplished with lookalikes. It is said that it was put together by an Wast bloc intelligence service.

Nowadays, such things are much easier to do. Try here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/dotmil/arkin020199.htm

katiebird said...

(stunned)

Doubles! OMG -- I forgot about them!

Please make this stop....

Anonymous said...

All the evidence suggests that even fatcat$ can't trust that a 'tape' can't be faked. So you need corroborating witnesses. Or liars. So lighten up for an hour and watch this most wonderful brilliant mockery of hoaxes, being itself an extraordinary hoax. It's in 9 parts on YouTube here (part one):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUOItuKm5UE&feature=related

Willing participants in the hoax include Rumsfield, Kissinger, Stanley Kubrick's widow, Christiane, Alexander Haig, and many other real persons.

Padraig

Joseph Cannon said...

I've seen that video. The "willing participants" were not willing. Interviews done for other purposes were cleverly edited. Kissinger, for example, was talking about Watergate.

Christiane is a superb painter, and I'm sorry that I once pissed her off. That's a story I will never tell you. I CAN tell you that her husband kept a file filled with allegations that he was a willing participant in various conspiracies. The file went back to the first release of 2001. He thought that stuff was very amusing.

Anonymous said...

Joseph,
I tend to lean toward your real-but-fake theory as well, but perhaps via a different route. I have some basic questions about the timeline as well.

1) I haven't had time to search Larry's posts on the subject, but I don't recall his claiming MO used the term "whitey", but that the contact described it as a rant against whitey (a term a republican might use). IIRC, he posted that his source had seen the tape and that it was "stunning" and basically was an anti-white rant. The only details to "emerge" later were those found at Hillbuzz, with no attribution, as far as I could find. From all I could glean, the dating and location were completely assumed based upon the pic of MO with Mrs. F. I think it could be instructive to figure out when/where each of the alleged "details" came from (i.e., Farrakhan's presence, etc.)

2) I'm not sure what to make of Hillbuzz. As you noted, there is no attribution to most of the posts, but I have scanned the archives and found a few consistent clues, if you have any interest. (I haven't checked there in a week or so) However, the articles cited there are often from conservative sources (or those righties would see as liberal). I guess my question is whether this was a plant because Larry was getting too much credibility. The first time I heard "whitey" I thought "she wouldn't use such a dated/cliched term." and I'm white, from the original white-bread town. (This would also fit with katiebird's astute observation that they can deny, because she didn't say precisely that.)

3) I e-mailed you before about my suspicion that the source of the tape was not TUCC, but the guy that Jack Ryan had following BO around in the months leading up to June 2004. It may very well be that she was responding to Pres. Clinton's appearance at that conference, but it might have been in an informal conversation. I'm not sure where Ryan would fall on the hate-McCain v. okay-with-McCain Republican spectrum, but iirc, he's a moderate, so he would probably be on board with waiting for November for the ultimate O'Bama humiliation payback for the '04 scandal, which had Axlerod written all over it.

4) The fact that Ryan probably has miles of video of MO and BO allows for plenty of raw material for a real-fake tape as you described. It is apparent that he was not limiting himself strictly to campaign appearances, because BO complained that he couldn't even call his wife without the video guy overhearing. After BO kvetched, but eventually acceded that it was a common practice - Ryan agreed to back off, but not to stop (that was late May 2004, iirc).