Letters to the Editor
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We know all the dirt about the Clintons?
No, you think we know all the dirt about the Clintons. What we actually know is all the dirt about the Clintons circa 1999.
We do not know the names of the donors to the Clinton library in Little Rock.
We do not know about Bill Clinton's clients in his consulting business.
The Clintons don't want us to know. Why is that? And yes, it's material, since the money Hillary Clinton lent her campaign came from joint assets.
As for this supposedly incendiary Michelle Obama tape... I'll believe it when I see it.
There are always rumors like this. In '92, it was that LA Times was going to drop a bomb about Clinton and cocaine. In 2000, the GOP supposedly had some big October Surprise that never appeared. In 2004, conservatives were wetting themselves because they had a picture of John Kerry sitting next to Jane Fonda at a protest! (except that it was doctored) Then they had the goods on him for an affair with an intern. (except she denied it)
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Re - FYI: a cut and paste from the blogs
I now have it from two three sources close to senior Republicans that they have video dynamite–Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at Jeremiah Wright’s church.
Hey, it must be true. We all know that "senior Republicans" always tell the unmitigated truth, as do the flunkies -- I mean aides -- that leak rumors to bloggers. The fact the 2-3 sources same the same thing ices it because, let's face it, the GOP is crappy at staying on message.
So put me down in the believe-it-when-I-see-it category.
I may be wrong, but I doubt any such video exists. This would be about as a good a time as any to let it out. It would destroy Obama's candidacy, but that doesn't mean it would help Clinton. A lot of Obama supporters would blame Clinton for it, especially since this was first reported by Larry Johnson on his website, and Larry Johnson supports Clinton.
Even if they didn't blame Clinton, they wouldn't want her to benefit from it. Meanwhle, the Democratic party would be floundering around trying to find a nominee who hadn't won a single primary this year -- Mike Gravel, it's not too late to switch back to the Demoratic party.
The only possible worse time than now would be a day or two before the Democratic convention starts. But that just gives Obama more to diffuse the situation.
On the other hand, if the GOP just made this shit up, they get the benefit of stirring things up.
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Michelle Obama "railing"
I now have it from two three sources close to senior Republicans that they have video dynamite–Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at Jeremiah Wright’s church.
I've noticed that almost all of the anti-Obama posts are filled with inaccuracies.
That's rather odd. There are plenty of valid things to criticize Obama on.
But that's not how it goes. One particularly blatant individual even had the gall to suggest that Obama "hides" his "unpopular" positions. Obama's positions are extremely easy to find, and they tend to be right in line with popular opinion, by coincidence or not.
Now, I'm going to point out that Michelle Obama is married to a very light-skinned black man whose mother, her mother-in-law, is white. It would be pretty easy to bring Mom Obama out to discuss whether Michelle is an anti-white racist, I would think. Odd that nobody mentioned this.
Of course, that doesn't mean that she isn't "railing against whitey", whatever that means, on some blurry tape, at least to the eyes of a lizard-brained wingnut "opposition researcher". Note that it doesn't necessarily mean using the word "whitey". Or saying anything that any normal person would care about.
Most likely the whole thing is a delusion or fabrication, though.
By the way, being ready for a hard fight is not the same as trembling with fear and rolling your eyes around in despair at the most minimal threat. It really annoying that every time a wingnut posts BS, a lot of "progressives" quickly write sobbing, submissive, defeatist, begging-for-mercy posts.
If you see something that scares you, why don't you check the damn facts out for yourself? Why does it have to be a minority of us who call BS on the BS?
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What About Georgia?
Obama won this state in the Democratic primary by a huge margin. If he can turn out enough college kids, professionals and minority voters, he can win this state like Bill Clinton did in 1992.
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Handy Reference
Yes, I guess it is scary when those big bad conservative posters say that Obama can't win.
I guess it is hard to focus when panic is making your thoughts spin.
Here is a summary of commonly encountered BS, contrasted with the facts. May be worth memorizing.
1) BS - Clinton voters in the primary won't vote for Obama (Alternate version - "I am a Clinton voter who won't vote for Obama")
Fact - This would mean that Obama would either get approximately 30% in popular vote polls, or be getting a huge amount of crossover Republican support to do better (*remember, Math Doesn't Suck!*) Obama is ahead of McCain in popular vote polls (sometimes tied in Gallup, ahead in all others). Therefore either Clinton primary voters or an equivalent number of someone else is a source of support. It doesn't matter which.
2) BS - "All my liberal friends in CA and MA say that they won't vote for Obama"
Fact - Weird. Again, he's at the very worst dead even with McCain in the polls. I guess he picked up enough far right militiamen somewhere to cancel that out. Or you're lying.
3) BS - "People won't vote for Obama because he's left/liberal/socialist/whatever".
Fact - Just the popular vote polls shoot this down, but you can also look at the issue polls for a lot of individual issues, and see that a super-majority usually supports the position associated with Obama, not McCain. In fact, what's remarkable is that McCain is doing as well as he is (but still behind) despite the unpopularity of his issue stances. To put it another way, if Obama is a "leftist", then so are 50-70% of Americans.
4) BS - In the end, people won't vote for him because he's black.
Fact - Although in the past, there has been a tendency for polls to overestimate support for black politicians, this tendency has not been seen in very recent elections. We'll have to wait and see, but this really amounts to a claim that all polls are wrong.
5) BS - Obama will lose because the Democrats always screw things up.
Fact - Gore and Kerry didn't run especially good campaigns, it is true, but came close to winning anyway, in far more Republican-favorable times. This is a new election. Obama has run an excellent campaign so far.