Two of these sources are Democrats and are journalists. They were not trying to sabotage the Obama campaign. They were passing on something they believed to be true.Johnson does not name the sources in public; although we know that he refers to Sy Hersh and David Brock. (Brock may have received the info from an associate at Media Matters.) I've written to Brock but received no reply. The lack of a reply is, in and of itself, interesting. I've not yet tried to contact Hersh.
Johnson also says that his third source, a Republican friend (otherwise identified as a "CIA buddy"), has said that McCain nixed the use of the tape. Why on earth would he do such a thing?
As I see it, we are left with two options...
1. The tape never existed. The entire matter was a deception gambit, initiated for unknown purposes. There is some evidence to suggest that the whole thing began with Brock's operation. If so, then perhaps the intent was to tempt Brock into saying something in public that would harm his credibility.
2. The Republicans want to throw the election -- hence their refusal to release evidence that might change the game.
One can make a pretty good case for the second proposition. Even if you are an O-man fanatic, you gotta admit: This is not your usual Republican campaign season. I mean, where are the 527s? Why aren't we seeing nonstop commercials pushing Rezko, Rezko, Rezko?
Speaking of telling silences: I wrote to someone connected closely to the lady L, as mentioned in the last post. No response. No outrage. No shouts of "How dare you!" or "Who the hell put that idea into your head, you sleazeball?"
And as long as we're talking about Joltin' Joe Biden...
Something's comin', something bad... I'm sure you've already seen this...
"Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."
But he's gonna need your help. Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, 'Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?' We're gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I'm asking you now, I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you're going to have to reinforce us."I don't think I've ever heard such a bizarre prediction from a Vice Presidential candidate. This statement does not strike me as blue-sky conjecture. Something is up. Something specific. Something that will harm or destroy the popularity of a new Obama presidency.
Biden pretty much admits that Obama's response will piss off the Democratic base. I'm thinking military action against Iran after a terror strike on U.S. soil. That's just a guess.
In all likelihood, the Republicans also know what this "something" is. Maybe that's why the Republicans aren't even trying to win this thing. Better it should happen on the Democrats' watch.
At any rate, it'll be cute to see the Kossack reaction. First, they will twist their principles into knots as they try to rationalize the actions of their Messiah. Then they will have a collective moment of "dark samsara," at which time they will screech "You were right all along, my PUMA friends, right all along..."
And we will say: "I know thee not. Hie thee hence into the Great Orange Void, nevermore to be heard of again."
On the other hand, when the progs turn against Obi, I might start feeling sympathetic toward the guy. Call it the persnicketiness principle.
20 comments:
There's a third possibility, Joe:
3) McCain's a basically decent guy who doesn't want to play the race card in order to win (unlike his opponent).
Now that Biden has mentioned Kennedy, I think it is only fair to add that the Kennedy Administration gave us the Bay of Pigs invasion (to be sure, planned under Ike), a campaign of state-sponsored terrorism against Cuba including assassination attempts on Castro himself (even Bush/Cheney have not gone that far), the Cuban Missile Crisis which brought us to the brink of nuclear war, and of course who could forget the overthrow of President Diem and subsequent US commitment to South Vietnam.
Of course, it is odd that none of the above is allowed to disturb the Kennedy worship. When people tell me that Obama is just like JFK, I respond with recitation of the facts listed above.
All in all, the JFK example offers plenty of guidance for Obama on how to act, should he ever find he is being "tested".
Ah yes, I seem to hold that persnicketiness principle as well. The moment something becomes accepted as god's honest truth, my brain seems to kick into contrarian gear. However, I could see the hip blogs justifying BO to hell and back. If they accept his actions now, god only knows what else they'd accept.
I suppose there's a possibility #3 on the tape -- the Repubs know the tape wouldn't work, or given the utter abject fawning of the media, combined with accusations of racism, might backfire. I don't know if I buy that, but it's a possible explanation. Whether or not the thing exists, I think I like your #2 better: their interests are best served by a BO White House, which has bizarre and disturbing implications.
Speaking of bizarre and disturbing, Biden's remarks were the finishing touch on a prevailing feeling I have -- there's some weird disturbance in the force out there, some mighty storm brewing. It's only amplified by the fact that the BO team seems scared of something and methinks they're not concerned that their dirty campaign tactics will catch up with them. No, they seem scared of something else.
I vote for a trumped up attack on Iran based on intelligence lies (deja vu all over again), combined with some economic austerity at home. BO has been pretty clear that he wants to show his macho, warmonger cred in Afghanistan. The flyover commoners who embarrassed Obamaland so much during the election will be required, once again, to give their children to die and to cut back on basics while Obama and Co. eat cake.
Oh, it's going to be very interesting.
Kossacks will never face reality.
The Kool-aid is too powerful.
I'm betting Obama will bomb Iran. You heard it here first.
My sympathy will be in short supply. He stole the nomination, so tough noogies. As I said of George Bush in 2000, "He didn't steal the election to do right by the working man."
(What I'm thinking is a nuclear strike on Pakistan. It would be hard for even the Obots to justify nukes.)
"'...we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right.'"
I'm gonna try to be hopeful here, and say that this is a thinly-veiled reference not to Obama's pre-election consent to invade Iran, but to Obama/Biden's desire to resist pressure from MSM and Cheney Co. to invade after a possible Big Wedding II. Very gutsy. Even insinuating that the upcoming "mysterious" crisis could be "generated" goes a lot farther than I've seen any Democrat go in public. Well played, Mr. Biden. I could get behind the idea of your presidency yet.
I have thinking for quite a while now that the Cons are trying to throw this thing. Would make sense seeing as how Bush is handing coin out like there is no tomorrow. They are planning on leaving the Dems with massive debt and the world crisis crap to deal with. What politician in their right mind would want to deal with what is to come in the near future...(also makes sense that they are running McCain instead of someone more Conservative. Palin is priming for the takeover in 2012 or 2016)
"2. The Republicans want to throw the election -- hence their refusal to release evidence that might change the game."
Which is what I was saying at least two months before the '06 Congressional elections. And every few months since.
Who the hell would want to belong to the party in power when the financial, social, and political Armageddons descend upon the Earth?
The media and the Republicans have Obama in a great blackmail position. What they have given, they can take away.
I won't make any comment on the "whitey" tape. Regarding the "something big is coming," I've posted this elsewhere, so I'll post it here and see how this flies.
Obama's surrogates (Jesse jackson and others) have been bragging about how Israel won't have the same access, and that other voices would gain influence.
Samantha Power, one of Obama's foreign policy advisors, is on tape suggesting that US forces be redployed from Iraq to invade Israel, and establish a Palestinian state. She has also wondered about how to do this without upsetting a major democratic lobbying group. She didn't elaborate on which one. I'm pretty sure that the video of this can be found on youtube.
General Merrill "Tony" McPeak is another top advisor to Obama. He has openly stated that US policy will no longer be made in NYC and Miami.
Here are two possible outcomes.
1) Iran announces that it has nukes or is close to it. Israel launches a pre-emptive strike, and the outcry is huge. Obama leaves Israel to twist in the wind.
2) Syria/Iran/Hezbollah/Hamas takes the opportunity to attack Israel or re-start the war. Israel retaliates, and Obama intervenes against Israel. The pro-Israel lobby in the US raises objections, and they are ignored.
I know this is amateur strategy prognostication, but it seems like a reasonable guess. Thanks for letting me post.
I believe the tape never existed. I don't believe that the Republicans want to throw the election to Obama though anything is possible. If there was a tape, McCain and his camp would release it regardless of what any other Republican thinks. McCain wants to win and anyone who would throw away a chance to ruin Obama with this tape is too honest to be a politician. Only Hillary Clinton was unable to use Wright and Obama's other associations because she and Obama belonged to the same political party and the media hates her so they would've used Wright against her to paint her as a racist anyway. I still believe that there will be an October surprise if the Republicans actually have anything damaging that hasn't been mentioned in the media already.
There's yet another possibility: Biden was drunk and talking out of his...mind.
liberalcommontater...
Obama will do as he likes and his crowd will follow him rationalizing the whole way. Where else will they go?
Ok, what about this: Our economy is really screwed up. Our financial people have pushed us way past the brink. They've cut rates and encouraged bubbles to cover what should have been a natural decline after the tech bust. Seems every debt has been bought and sold, insured, resold, re insured etc.
I'm not a business guy but it looks to my like we've taken a 4th mortgage on the whole country and the entire scheme is starting to break down. We're borrowing money to inject new life into our over extended economy and they can't think of another way out. The money people are looking really desperate and when all those guys are uncomfortable you'd best believe we're in for a lot of trouble.
Remember when they tried to rebalance the economy in the late 70's? To be honest, I don't because I was just a kid but I've seen the rate charts and heard people bitching about how bad Carter was because the interest rates shot up, unemployment etc. Reagan rolled in on 'The American way of life is non-negotiable' or some crap like that. Since then we've been continually ramping up deficit spending; everybody, the government, homeowners, credit card holders, everybody.
Now we're in this huge trouble because America is no longer this rock-solid bellwether of everything political and financial. The world is sick of our shit and they want out and we've got nowhere to turn but on ourselves. Politicians have been patching up the U.S. economy since before the USSR lost the cold war. Now it's our turn.
Maybe they know that there isn't anything left to borrow and we will have to make up the difference by cutting back big time. Maybe they know that on top of that, there's signs all over the place that the environment is changing and environmental change is incredibly hard to deal with. Maybe they know that no matter who is in power a year from now, the shit will hit the fan and there will be no borrowing our way out of it. Maybe they know that the next president will have to try lead this country through its darkest times and if the people don't understand and accept it, America will end.
Seriously why would the Republicans want to throw the election and leave all 3 branches of government in the hands of the Dems? Allowing them to choose between 2-4 of the next Supreme Court justices unchecked. The far left will do so much damage to this country that it may never be fixed. It would not be in the Republicans best interest to throw this one.
Biden seems drunk most of the time, but if so, he let slip something already discussed in der Obamafueher's inner circle. My guess -- they're gonna hang Israel out to dry.
Huh,
I just noticed that someone else is posting comments under the identifier/name "G." (above).
It's possible someone else randomly chose to use this identifier. Perhaps this other "G" has been posting using this identifier long before me (I only began reading this blog and posting here relatively recently - at the time the COLB was being argued).
But it seems odd that of all possible identifiers, someone else would happen to use "G" (I started using "G" when posting comments after Joseph posted some correspondence from me under that identifier).
And I know that people at other anti-Obama blogs have had problems with people impersonating them under their identifiers (e.g. fake "Steve Diamond" comments at No Quarter). And I did respond recently to a post from "John", by saying that he should check out my previous comments here and at No Quarter (i.e. comments I made under the identifier "G"). And I know that this blog draws a lot of hostile attention from Obama fanatics.
I'll note that I post using the Name/URL option (grey "G"), not the Google/Blogger option (orange "G"). I can't say for sure that I've never used the Google/Blogger option - but if I have, it hasn't been in quite a while.
Most likely, this is all just a coincidence. After all, it's one letter - as in an initial - and two people could end up both using it just by chance.
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Regarding the question of the underwhelming Republican campaign. I think the explanation is pretty simple - some interrelated factors.
McCain isn't a typical ideological/hater Republican. He fails to march in lockstep. Apparently, he was even exploring switching parties a while ago (and according to some metrics has the most unpredictable voting record in the Senate).
So a lot of Republicans really hate him. They're not going to be enthused, and they're not going to mobilize in the same way.
The Palin pick helped draw back some of the base, but it alienated many of the Republican elites (e.g. David Brooks, Peggy Noonan).
Then on top of this, McCain doesn't like to do personal attacks (as noted by sextus propertius above). He'll tend to use these only when running out of options (e.g. he apparently nixed attacks using Wright, though he's rumored to have finally OKed them, given how badly he's losing). This sort of goes back to McCain not being a hater. W, and most other Republicans, would generally have had no such compunctions. Perhaps this goes back to the old cliche, "nice guys finish last" - which, unfortunately, has a bit of truth to it. [On a related note - I think McCain's history with Mo Udall says a lot about the man.].
Then, on top of all this, the Democrats have been the primary recipients of the big money/business interest this election cycle (the Republicans have raised quite a bit from business interests this year, but it's dwarfed by the amount raised by Democrats). The financial sector (and information technology interests) have contributed waay disproportionately to Obama relative to McCain. As Joseph has noted, everything is topsy-turvy this year (all my life, the monied interests have basically backed the Republicans).
By the way - I'm not saying that I think McCain is fine. I disagree with him passionately on most core issues (offshore drilling, abortion, etc., etc.). But, given the alternative ....
I'll close by posting a link to one of the better analyses that I've seen (posted at Joe Bageant's site). Though I think that there's much more going on than is covered in this essay, I believe it does capture core features of the current political landscape:
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/07/life-in-the-pos.html
I think those of you hoping Obama will hang Israel out to dry are engaging in painfully delusion wishful thinking. But I still think there's a chance he'll refuse to kick off World War III.
Maybe Biden is trying to warn the American electorate not to vote for Obama because if you do you are voting for WWIII. Obama and his supporters are already appear to be very sympathetic to Palestine and Obama has stated that he would meet "unconditionally with Iran". Biden knows that Obama is not ready for prime time and is trying to warn us. If Israel is hung out to dry under an Obama Administration, Israel is just the canary in the coal mine and say good bye to Western Civilization as than is what Obama and his buddies Ayers and Rev. Wright have already stated in no uncertain terms is their goal anyway.
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