Monday, May 19, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

The Case For Skepticism on that Michelle Obama Rumor

A reader asks if Obama’s insistence that his wife is off-limits for the campaign discussion is pre-emptive defensive maneuver if the rumor about a video of Michelle railing against whitey is true. (I know, I know, Barack Obama doesn’t believe in the doctrine of pre-emption.) After a bit of thought, I am a skeptic of that rumor.

First, one detail about the rumor sounds odd. While it is not unthinkable that Michelle Obama would speak from the pulpit of Jeremiah Wright’s church, does that church often have members of the flock speaking from the pulpit? Or was it some special occasion? And unless the speech is from before Barack Obama had presidential ambitions, wouldn’t even she have the good sense to avoid language or a theme like that? Particularly if there were cameras? (Or was this from some camera-phone or hidden camera?)

Also, if this speech really occurred and this video really existed, wouldn’t the chain of custody of that tape make it more likely to end up in the hands of a Hillary supporter than a Republican? Presumably, whoever has the tape knows how devastating it could be to Obama’s chances. Would whoever recorded it or archived it give it to the Republicans, but not to Hillary’s people? Again, this doesn’t completely rule out the rumor being true, but it’s a reason for skepticism. . . . 

But I would note something else revealing about that rumor. Upon hearing that Michelle Obama had railed against whitey at Trinity United Church, how many people’s first reaction was, “No, that’s impossible, it’s just unthinkable that she would ever do something like that”? Uh-huh. My guess is that even most Democrats recognize she’s capable of remarks like that. . . .

05/19 12:44 PMShare