Jun 02 2008
Larry Johnson Has Nothing, Knows Nothing, About Michelle Obama Tape
Well, the much anticipated breaking news from mouthpiece Larry Johnson on that tape of Michelle Obama is out, and is pretty much useless. Remember, he is just the bullhorn someone else is using to scare Obama supporters to dump Obama and go to Clinton. His job is to weave tales of pending doom for Obama at the hand of the Republican dirty tricks masters. Johnson pulls out all the boogyemen for this one, Islam, Farrakhan, Pfleger, Rezko – and of course those evil Republicans. It’s all so transparently pat, too much of the perfect storm, so contrived.
Here are what few salient parts there are as Johnson tries to milk this enigma and stir up panic and fear within the Obama supporters:
I have not seen it but I have heard from five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape. It features Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan. They are sitting on a panel at Jeremiah Wright’s Church when Michelle makes her intemperate remarks. Whoops!! When that image comes out it will enter the politcal ads hall of fame. It will be right up there with the little girl plucking daisy petals in the famous 1964 ad LBJ used against Barry Goldwater.
…
It also should come as no surprise that Barack hired two members of the Nation of Islam to work on his staff—Jennifer Mason and Cynthia K. Miller. (And no, I am not merely recycling info initially reported by Debbie Schlussel. I have two independent Chicago sources for this info.) If Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger had kept their yaps buttoned none of this would mean much. But the fact that both men have been—until scrubbed from the website in recent weeks—listed as spiritual advisors to Barack Obama and also are very close to Louis Farrakhan, forces the question about Barack’s faith and beliefs.
In probing those matters we begin to understand that the Nation of Islam has been a critical component of Barack Obama’s base of support. And, I am told, Louis Farrakhan has been careful to use Tony Rezko as the intermediary in his relationship with Barack. This is not guilt by association, this is guilt because of actual relationship. Farrakhan, Wright, and Pfleger are each on tape in various settings spewing the most vile racists garbage in the guise of preaching.
Like I said, sounds too good to be true if you want Obama out of the race. So why is this tape not being made public? As I have postulated before Johnson is trying to pin this on the GOP, but clearly the timing of this whisper campaign is best suited for Clinton – someone he adoringly supports.
Think about it, Johnson’s ‘sources’ are five people who have talked to someone who has seen it. In previous posts this group includes Republicans and Democrats, and include an Obama supporter. But none of them have seen it? It sounds to me like someone is shopping the tape around, like Democrats shopped those Foley emails around in 2006, making them sound worse than they were and creating an impression that was very exaggerated to what finally emerged. But the vauge and overblown impressions were what stuck in people’s minds.
Johnson is attempting the same thing here. He is letting the imagination create a horrible picture of Michelle Obama sharing racist comments with Pfleger, Wright and Farrakhan. We don’t know what is on the tape (which apparently is in the hands of a TV network and should be released right now to close the window on this propaganda game of fiction), and neither does Johnson supposedly. He talked to someone who talked to someone else.
I am against Barack Obama, but this tape needs to come out and Michelle deserves an opportunity to attempt to put it into context. By allowing this whisper campaign to continue, America is just enabling the kind of gutter politics we so desperately want to see ended. Bring on the tape and let’s see what Johnson’s puppet masters have.
Finally, I posted yesterday that one of Johnson’s sources is the puppet master. Today Johnson admits he has only one source who claims the tape is a GOP sourced hit job. Five who claim to know someone who has seen it (all five probably referring to a single Clinton surrogate shopping the tape) and only one who claims this is a GOP dirty trick. That is not confirmed information, that is rumor and propaganda.
Update: It is truly a mad, mad, mad world. Booman at Booman Tribune speculates the video in question is just Michelle Obama sprinting through a series of “Why’d he” claims about Bush which come out sounding like “whitry”. Creative thinking, but not based on anything factual. But the entire blogosphere is acting as if this explains the whole mess? Doubtful, but it is interesting to watch the waves of mob thinks splashing from one extreme to another on these rumors.
My previous post on this matter:
Clinton Campaign Goes Nuclear On Michelle Obama
More On The Michelle Obama “Whitey†Rumor
That Michelle Obama Mystery Tape Surfaces Again
Clinton Camp Digs Down Into The Muck
Only a release of a tape with a real ‘whitey’ remark would damage the Obama camp.
A sounds like wouldn’t play at all.
Any way you play this the only people who would gain is the Clinton camp no matter how it plays.
Right now I don’t think it is so much to get Obama delegate defections but more to slow the bleeding of those on the Clinton side.
Looks to be a freeze play to hold every thing in place to allow the contest to continue into the convention.
Obama’s perspective of America, grounded in the Black Liberation Movement gives ample ammunition to any political opponent from the center to right of center. Attacking his wife is a no go. When Obama has to describe policy to correct the perceived ills of this country it will be quite obvious where he is coming from.
Aj,
According to the National Review Jim Geraghty, Louis Farakhan was at Trinity church in 2007 and Michelle Obama may have shared the stage with him at this time. From his post:
UPDATE: Contemplating the rumor below, I wondered when and how Michelle Obama and Louis Farrkhan would appear on a panel together. Farrakhan doesn’t seem like the type to voluntarily share the stage. But then I noted that in late 2007, Trinity United gave Farrakhan its lifetime achievement award with a full ceremony — the video shown that evening is still on YouTube, with the feminine announcer declaring, “For his commitment to truth, education and leadership, we honor Minister Louis Farrakhan with the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. lifetime achievement award.” (Before you ask, the announcer is not Michelle Obama.) Is it possible the two are at the head table for a banquet? Is this the circumstance of Michelle Obama’s remarks?
Rumored Transcript of Michelle Obama “whitey†Video(very juicy)
mikefrancesa.com ^
Posted on 06/02/2008 6:48:48 AM PDT by wsjreader
This is pure rumor:
Reported verbiage from Michelle Obama’s tape
Michelle Obama, “Once again, the white man keeps us down, what’s up with Whitey, Why’d he attack Iraq, Why’d he let Katrina happen, Why’d he leave millions of children behind. This is the legacy the white man gives us.â€
Again the above is an alleged quote from a rumored video featuring Michelle Obama.
Remeber Obama gave a presser recently where he told everyone his wife was off limits. Maybe this is why.
[…] Larry Johnson Has Nothing, Knows Nothing, About Michelle Obama TapeWell, the much anticipated breaking news from mouthpiece Larry Johnson on that tape of Michelle Obama is out, and is pretty much useless. Remember, he is just the bullhorn someone else is using to scare Obama supporters to dump Obama …The Strata-Sphere – http://strata-sphere.com/blog […]
[…] AJStrata on LJ’s conservative conspiracy theory: Today Johnson admits he has only one source who claims the tape is a GOP sourced hit job. Five who claim to know someone who has seen it (all five probably referring to a single Clinton surrogate shopping the tape) and only one who claims this is a GOP dirty trick. That is not confirmed information, that is rumor and propaganda. […]
Who is Larry Johnson?
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/883raiiu.asp
[SNIP]
Well, it’s good to see that the former CIA employee is now worried about the war on terror. But it’s a bit late. On July 10, 2001–two months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon–Johnson wrote an op-ed for the New York Times (“The Declining Terrorist Threat”) in which he argued that Americans were “bedeviled by fantasies about terrorism” and, in truth, had “little to fear” from terrorism. And, in turn, he rebuked his former colleagues in the national security bureaucracy for using the “fiction” of the terrorist threat to pump up their budgets.
Nor was this Johnson’s first foray into dismissing bin Laden and al Qaeda. Johnson, who also served as the deputy director for the office of counterterrorism at the State Department in the early 90s, was interviewed by PBS’s Frontline for its 1999 program, “Hunting for bin Laden.” According to Johnson, Americans had “tended to make Osama bin Laden sort of a superman in Muslim garb,” when in reality he is “more of a symptom of a problem” than a looming threat. And while bin Laden “would like to kill Americans . . . wanting to is different from being able to, having the full capabilities in place.” By Johnson’s lights, “Osama bin Laden . . . has not been a very effective organizer or leader. He talks a great game.”
There is no tape.
If you read LJ stuff, it’s clear that he is trying his best to believe his own rumours .. and still doesn’t believe it himself.
Nobody has gone on record as having seen it (except perhaps LJ).
Nobody knows if Karl Rove, Richard Mellon Scaife, Lee Atwater, E Howard Hunt or Donald Segretti have a copy of the tape, that’s only LJ spinning new rumours.
Have a good laugh .. but don’t expect any tape .. ever
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: There’s another transcript floating around FreeRepublic and elsewhere that would make it hard to believe that this is a mispronunciation of “why’d he.” I have no idea where this alternative transcript comes from, and note that those who are posting it to various conservative chat rooms, etc., give no sense of where they heard it from.
An interesting point about the alternative explanation posted on Booman Tribune. Whoever felt the need to give that clarifying transcript to a liberal blog is, by that action, confirming that the tape exists.
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2008/06/whitey-or-whyd-he-that-is-question.html
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Larry Johnson can’t remember what “he” says accurately day to day.
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