Michelle Obama “whitey” rant rumor false?
See previous posts here and here.
The Politico reported yesterday:
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.
“Frankly, my hope is people don’t play this game,” Obama said. “It is a destructive aspect of our politics. Simply because something appears in an e-mail, that should lend it no more credence than if you heard it on the corner. Presumably the job of the press is to not to go around and spread scurrilous rumors like this until there is actually anything, an iota, of substance or evidence that would substantiate it.”
Larry Johnson, the increasingly ballyhooed “whitey” rumor launcher, called this a “nuance[d]” response, adding:
My sources have not backed off. They maintain they have a tape and will drop it on the Dems in the fall. Now if Barack said, “No, and hell no” I would be wondering about my sources. But he punted. He went for the weasel word. The non-denial denial.
Meanwhile, Reason.com dissects the changing story and even the detailed description of Michelle’s rant, closing with:
Until he comes out with a video tape that shows at least one of the many rumored “Michelle speeches,” I think that’s the last we need to hear from Larry Johnson.
As I’ve stated before, my red flag on the “whitey” rumor has been that no news organizations have gotten hold of the tape. Johnson may say it is being held under lock and key for a last round knockout attempt, but there can’t only be one outside copy in the entire world.
So in the end, seeing will be believing.
[Photo of Obama speaking with reporters March 6, 2008, courtesy of the New York Times]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
The beauty of this racist smear is that if you repeat it enough, even after acknowledging its falsity, some will believe it.
Ironically, the most famous racist smear of modern times was by Bush against McCain in the primaries in 2000. The smear was that McCain’s daughter, who was adopted by them from one of Mother Tesesa’s orphanages, was the product of McCain’s affair with an African-American woman.
Of course anyone with an IQ over 12 could probably tell the difference between a native of Bangladesh and a mixed-race African-American, but smears are aimed at morons. I am sure you could find people who still believe the smear.
One would hope as result, McCain and his supporters will not use the racist smear against Obama. Maybe even Jill will stop it.
Anon, nice spin. And its interesting that you skipped past the most recent examples of politically racist remarks when you skipped past both Clintons.
Funny-
You BANNED me for posting McCain’s timeless “I hate the gooks” quote, even though it was true.
If this tape is ever released, it will certain make the issues Rev Wright, William Ares, Father Pflagher, seem petty in nature. While BHO may be able to dodge and weave his way through the aforementioned relationships, as purely coincidental, the American people would certainly pin his character to that of his wife — the person closest to his heart.
If this tape is ever released
Posted by: Charles at June 6, 2008 10:21 AM
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What tape are you referring to?
Jill, certainly the Clintons have used the racist smear, most notably Bill’s remark about Jesse Jackson winning in North Carolina too, and Hillary’s talking about “hard working white voters”, apparently as opposed to shiftless Black voters.
What I find interesting is that YOU have “skipped past” Hillary Clinton, even though her policies on abortion are EXACTLY THE SAME
as Obama. You have attacked Obama maybe 30 times for his abortion policies, with little or no mention that Hillary has the same policies.
Gee, could racism explain your different treatment of two politicians whose positions are identical?
Charles – you seem to be speaking with certainty that it actually exists.
In the age of YouTube, facebook/myspace/TMZ, cell phone video cameras, etc, I find it VERY hard to believe that there is only ONE guy with unnamed “sources” claiming this occured, and not one. single. person. other than this guy have come out and said they’ve seen the tape, or witnessed her say those things, or have any proof this tape exists.
If Britney Spears can be paid a million dollars to permit someone to photograph her baby, can you even IMAGINE the amount of money people would be paying the holder of these supposed tapes? If someone risked DEATH to release the video of Saddam Hussein being killed, does it really make sense these “sources” would hold on to this?
I’m sticking to the fact that I don’t think John McCain is the type of guy to mess around with this kind of thing, so it doesn’t ring true to me that he, or his camp, would be paying someone off to hold on to this tape until October. It makes WAY more sense to me that this was a last minute gimmick from the Clinton camp, and since it didn’t catch the frenzy they hoped it would, it will just fizzle away.
Amanda,
I don’t know if you seen the news casts where the media has attempted to interview folks from Obama
“What
Charles,
What I would say if confronted with this smear is “show me the evidence”. That is exactly what Obama said. There was no response and no evidence from the smear merchant.
Thanks for illustrating so well how a smear campaign works- you will believe it and spread it in the absence of ANY evidence, through election day and beyond.
Luara:
There’s a difference for somebody saying they hate someone after being tortured and held captive for five years as a POW and someone who simply is a racist by nature and character.
If Obamanation wants to be treated equally then he should be willing to take the heat equally.
Based on Obama’s answer to the question my bet is the video exists. This story will grow now that the Pandora’s box has been opened and he will now find out what it truly takes to be President.
Interesting news from Gallop:
McCain leads Obama by 10 points among Protestants and other non-Catholic Christians, the largest religious group in the United States. McCain’s lead would be even larger except for the facts that blacks are most likely to be Protestant and overwhelmingly support Obama. **Catholics are a traditional swing group, and McCain and Obama are evenly matched among them at this point.**Obama has a significant lead among two reliably Democratic groups — Jewish voters and voters with no religious affiliation.
I didn’t see where Obama was unwilling to “take the heat.” He asked to see the evidence, and no one came forward with it.
Hal & Anon, how about Obama comming out to say the following,
Charles, he could do that. But to respond to completely unfounded rumors just encourages more. What’s he have to say next? “I never beat my wife or kids” “I never called my wife the c-word in public” (oh, that’s the other guy)
Hal, nice try with the old Slippery Slope fallacy.
slippery slope is not a fallacy.
It’s not always a fair argument, but in this case i believe it is.
Why should he way anything when no one has accused him of anything?
Really, not a fallacy –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope
Tell me why he would nip this in the bud right away. He could simply look at the camera and say: “That’s abusurd”
Again, the question is why wouldn’t he deny it?
Now Hal, remember the speach he gave on race a few months ago. Did anyone from the media call him a racist? So why give the speach?
HisMan 11:45am
Great point.
After surviving the Siege of Bastogne and WW2 my father loathed Germans. Was this racism? Hardly, my father looked more “Aryan” than most Germans.
He loathed Germans for the same reason my father-in-law loathed the Japanese, and McCain loathed his Vietnamese captors. Its called war.
No need for Obama to be defensive, angry, or even to discuss this at all.
All Obama has to do is look into the camera and say “put up or shut up”. End of discussion.
I agree, Mary!
That pretty much sums up what he said here:
“If somebody has evidence that myself or Michelle or anybody has said something inappropriate, let them do it.”
end of story:
http://raggedthots.blogspot.com/2008/06/michelle-farrakhan-sitting-in-treenot.html
Hal, so we have moved from the Slippery Slope argument to the little boy that cried wolf. Wow. This is great.
Hey, what do you want me to say. I don’t think any secret tape exists, I don’t care if one does. Hard to get all excited aboout any of this.
Rose Mary Woods lives!
Instead of perpetuating the rumor (which I suspect was your intent), you could have just said “hey it’s false”. Yet you want to keep it alive so some numbskull will believe it actually happened even though they never heard it or saw it. It would have been so much easier, and more honest.
Hi Anonymous 8:35,
We tend to have a slew of Anonymous’s now and then which makes it difficult to direct our responses to the correct Anonymous.
We would appreciate if you could assign yourself a name: that way we are certain that we’ve said the right thing to the right person.
Thanks.
I think it would be great fun if we could all post as anonymous.
It sure would be refreshing to see an IDEA being debated rather than a person for once.
Anonymous,
Your posts are going to be deleted if you don’t use your other name. Is that what you want? People tend to be a lot more respected and respectful when they have a name attached to their comments.It goes both ways. :)
oops! double post! I thought the first one didn’t take.
NOTICE:
I realize that on other blogs posting as anonymous is allowed, even encouraged. But here on Jill’s we are all about conversation. Something that is very difficult when 5 or 6 people are posting under the same moniker.
Jill and I have discussed this, and we have decided that from now on anyone posted as anonymous will be removed.
We are trying to make commenting easier for everyone.
You do not need to put your email in to post. So call yourself Buford, Amos, Clyde or Florence and we still won’t know who you are in the real world. But we WILL know who we are speaking with here on Jill’s site.
Thanks for understanding…
MK
(with Jill’s approval)
That tooth looks like a stand-in for a cleric’s collar.