Update:  Sorry for the site problems – we are experiencing one heck of a Insta-launch today as we are getting links from all over the blogosphere.  Many thanks to all who linked here (too many to list)!  Hugh Hewitt confirmed the Beckel statements from FNC this morning, and mirrored my view this is not a GOP effort but the last big gasp for the Clintons.  And Larry Johnson has confirmed my speculation from yesterday that the transcripts that hit the leftward blogs yesterday do reflect the actual content of the video – which I assume Johnson confirmed with those sources he talked to, who talked to other sources, who saw the video.  Now all we can do is wait to see how good my speculation is (see below) on how things transpire – though the fact this post is getting so much publicity means the entire plan may have to be re-thought by those trying to take out Obama.

Major Update: While the ‘rumors’ of the tape were hinted at this morning on talk radio, nothing major was discussed as far as I could tell (I only get to listen to small bits, if at all).  But one bit of critical information was let out by Jed Babbit (spelling?) this morning as he sat in for Laura Ingraham:  it turns out the tape does not have Louis Farrakhan and Michelle Obama, it has Mrs. Farrakhan and Michelle. This revelation tells me (again) that the media has the tape and are working with someone to time its release, still expected for tomorrow sometime.  

As I predicted below and yesterday it seems Clinton will not end her campaign, but simply suspend it tonight, with the tape coming out (coincidentally) tomorrow before a wave of Super Delegate pronouncements hit the news.  As I noted below I find the collusion with the media (left or right) on determining the timing of this news to be totally improper and manipulation of our democratic process. – end update

Democrat political heavyweight Bob Beckel said this morning on FNC that a ‘big shoe’ was about to drop on Michelle Obama (H/T to Doug Ross for the news and the link):

“shoe will drop on OBAMA regarding Michelle, tomorrow” Bob Beckel on FNC @ 6:23AM ET

He said he is hearing this from people he knows are credible. He thinks it is stupid of Repubs re timing.

He said it is a MAJOR SHOE. Was asked if it was worse than her thesis. He said much worse.

He also reported that all of Hillary’s advance people were told to wrap it up in their states and return to HQ.

Now this could just be CLINTON COVERING HER TRACKS on the MAJOR SHOE!!

If this is accurate (it is an email report blasted through the blogosphere from someone very reliable) then we should see or hear more news on the subject throughout the day.  The timing is everything here.  The voters are locked out of the nomination process after today.   Now is the best time to kill off Obama’s chances so that there is the summer to let things cool off and hope the Democrat base is more afraid of McCain and the GOP than mad at Clinton (not likely) and reform behind Clinton.

Plausible deniability, as I explained yesterday, would be Clinton signaling the ‘suspension’ of her campaign (not the ‘end’) and waiting to step into take over as Obama falls.    The tape comes out and Obama starts to sink, so she can claim innocence since she had ‘suspended’ her campaign.  Even Beckel notes how bad the timing is if it is the GOP holding the shoe, but it is not bad for Clinton of course.  I get the feeling a lot of people in the Democrat party are repulsed by this action, and they are hinting as strong as they can about what is going on without being called traitors to the cause.

BTW, don’t think Obama is all innocent and naive in this – he took out an icon of the liberal left in Illinois to get his State Senate seat, which is the excuse the peddlers of this video might use to try and beg forgiveness from the Black Community:

The day after New Year’s 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city’s South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama’s four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot.

…

A close examination of Obama’s first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.

…

It was in this part of the city that an eager reform Democrat by the name of Abner Mikva first entered elected office in the 1950s. And here a young, brash minister named Jesse Jackson ran Operation Breadbasket, leading marchers who sought to pressure grocery chains to hire minorities.

Palmer served the district in the Illinois Senate for much of the 1990s. Decades earlier, she was working as a community organizer in the area when Obama was growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. She risked her safe seat to run for Congress and touted Obama as a suitable successor, according to news accounts and interviews.

But when Palmer got clobbered in that November 1995 special congressional race, her supporters asked Obama to fold his campaign so she could easily retain her state Senate seat.

Obama not only refused to step aside, he filed challenges that nullified Palmer’s hastily gathered nominating petitions, forcing her to withdraw.

Much more on Alice Palmer can be found here.  Obama took out Alice Palmer in an ugly way – he removed the chance for the voters to make a choice.  He gave them just one choice – himself.   This hit job on a fellow liberal of standing shows Obama’s unfettered ambition for power.   And that ambition carried him the the US Senate, again by removing challengers instead of allowing voters a choice:

Had Palmer survived the petition challenge, Obama would have faced the daunting task of taking on an incumbent senator. Palmer’s elimination marked the first of several fortuitous political moments in Obama’s electoral success: He won the 2004 primary and general elections for U.S. Senate after tough challengers imploded when their messy divorce files were unsealed.

Liberal judges unsealed those divorce files, files that had been closed for years and were begged to be kept closed by both parties in the divorce.  Only ugly ambition would expose someone’s personal life like that. But Obama skated to win in a US Senate seat Illinois as the GOP tried to transport in a candidate from Maryland in the form of Alan Keyes.  

Today Obama is fighting a team as cold and calculating as he is.  The Clintons don’t play bean-bag politics. The reason I am certain Alice Palmer will come up as part of this political play is the foreshadowing Larry Johnson did in his last post about the video: 

Barack may have quit his church but his religious problems are not over. Barack Obama has a Nation of Islam problem that will receive more attention in the coming days. Before Barack came on the scene, THE MAN in his political district was Louis Farrakhan. No one could take Alice Palmer’s seat without Farrakhan’s blessing. No one. I do not fault Barack Obama for seeking out the blessing of Farrakhan, but the story of what was done behind the scenes to get rid of Barack’s predecessor—Alice Palmer—has not been told. A knowledgeable source tells me that Tony Rezko played a direct role in this feat. And Rezko has been tight with Farrakhan.

Emphasis mine.  So the play should unfold something like this (all wild speculation on my part of course):  The last two primaries end, Clinton announces something weaselly about her campaign but does not end it – simply puts it on hold. Then the tape of Michelle Obama comes out,  Clinton acts shocked at the dirty tricks of the GOP, the media plays along to some degree (and this is the big wild card here) and Clinton notes Obama was no saint when he took out fellow liberal Alice Palmer, pretending to still be the protector of the African American cause.

Well, it looks good on paper, but I doubt it would work out too well.  The Democrat party is at each other’s throats over this primary.  While something along these lines could derail Obama, it would destroy the Democrat party by throwing it into a nasty civil war.  It’s almost there already.

One final note.  At the end of Hannity’s radio show he said he would not confirm or deny having the tape. As I suspected this has been shopped around to the media with some sitting on it for some reason. Personally withholding this tape seems to be a case of manipulating the public and an election.  I don’t like it one bit.  The media needs to get this out when they have it, not put it out so it is timed for maximum affect (and in the corporate media world that means maximum profit).  

All this holding onto something while Americans run rampant speculating is manipulation in my mind.  This is why these whisper campaigns work, too much imagination and minimal facts.  The news media shouldn’t be playing with Americans and holding back information, they should be informing us and let the chips fall where they may.

You can find all my posts on this subject here.

Addendum:  Johnson is feeding the rumors again today, reporting on information that is hard to believe his little blog could dig up all on its own.  Looks like the Clinton media machine is passing fresh news to Johnson to feed the flame:

The Obama campaign is telling reporters from major news organizations that the videotape of Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at a panel alongside Nation of Islam maximum leader Louis Farrakhan is nothing but a “scurrilous lie,” according to one of those reporters who called for an answer.

But at the same time the Obama campaign has disseminated either a doctored or concocted transcript of the supposedly nonexistent videotape. Major Obama donors went to the campaign demanding explanations after the posting of my story on No Quarter about the contents of the videotape confirmed to me by several reliable sources, all Republicans with access to knowledge but who do not know each other.

Well, Johnson just admitted that he has GOP sources on the tape’s content, but the one source he has quoted over many posts on the idea the video is in GOP hands and is part of GOP smear campaign to get McCain (yeah, it’s still a loopy concept weeks later) must be that Democrat he talks to.  He has a Democrat source and he has an Obama supporter as sources on his posts.  Not sure if they are one in the same (doubtful).  In one of my previous posts I noted the Johnson’s puppet master was one of his sources, now we know there is a democrat who has been pushing the GOP smear campaign idea, and I would bet this source is from the Clinton inner circle.

So the campaign created a would-be transcript of the video it says doesn’t exist. In the Obama campaign produced transcript Michelle says “why’d he” instead of “whitey.” Very clever. Then the campaign sent this transcript to key Obamaton bloggers to circulate. And the campaign sent it to the donors to prevent them from having a nervous breakdown.

In other words, the Obama campaign is a two-faced operation, telling the national press one thing and using eager little bloggers as propaganda stooges.

Pot, meet Kettle.  Nice try at projection and deflection there Larry – you little blogger you!

Meanwhile, Obama’s political collapse is accelerating. Two new polls in the final primaries conducted by American Research Group show Obama’s fortunes in rapid decline. 

…

And now we’re beginning to understand why Obama engaged in his thuggery at the Rules and Bylaws Committee, stealing delegates in Michigan that rightfully belonged to Hillary according to votes actually cast. Yup, looking at his bad poll numbers and rising unfavorabilities, Obama needs every delegate he can steal.

Then, out of further desperation, Obama spread a false story that Hillary was dropping out. He’s doing everything he can before the vote in South Dakota and Montana to try to depress Hillary’s turnout. Obama’s Big Lie has worked before. To listen to Obama, Hillary has been dropping out since the beginning of the campaign.

The implosion of the Democrat Party has built up plenty of steam, and now it is about to blow apart.