The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Obama’s Smear Machine

Posted on | May 23, 2011 | 42 Comments

I take Chris Christie at his word when he says he isn’t running for president in 2012. Neverthless, Team Obama is ready:

Despite New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s repeated pronouncements that he will not seek the GOP presidential nomination, Obama operatives are compiling a dossier of what they call “opposition research” — material that could be used to damage Christie if he changes his mind, The Post has learned.
The Obama campaign is trying to keep its efforts from public view, concerned they would only elevate Christie’s already impressive standing within the Republican Party, sources said. . . .
The operatives have chosen not to dispatch their own people to New Jersey, but instead are talking to people there and in New York who know Christie from his time in the governor’s office, as a gubernatorial candidate and as US attorney.

On the one hand, this looks like mind-games: Democrats are trying to mess with Republicans’ heads, to promote the notion that Team Obama is unbeatable even by the GOP elite’s “dream candidate.” On the other hand, the fear of a ferocious Chicago-style attack is very real, as the New York Times obliquely notes in its story on Mitch Daniels’ decision:

Saying that his family did not want to go through a campaign, Mr. Daniels became the third high-profile Republican in eight days to choose not to compete for the chance to challenge Mr. Obama. . . .
But after weeks of deliberating in public and making clear that his wife and four daughters had deep reservations — caused in part by the knowledge that they would be exposed to intensive scrutiny over a period in the 1990s when Mr. Daniels and his wife, Cheri, divorced and then remarried — he said he was unsuccessful in swaying his family.

The question: By whom would the Daniels family “be exposed to intensive scrutiny” over their previous marital woes? By Team Obama, or by the New York Times?

Or do I repeat myself?

The major media ignored John Edwards’ adultery in 2008, and insisted that Obama’s relationships with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers were irrelevant “distractions.” Yet they stand ready and willing to provide stenography for Team Obama’s opposition-research effort in the 2012 campaign.

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Category: Election 2012

Comments

  • Anonymous

    For the Left, the ends justify the means, and by any means necessary…

  • Anonymous

    Yah, Stacy. However, you’ll notice that there’s always one gal who’s absolutely unafraid to challenge Obama and his machine. The one gal from Alaska who never appears to stop hitting Obama in the jaw.

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

     ”Opposition research” is part of the game.  It’s how it’s done in the big leagues.  Both sides do it, and they should, lest we end up with Sarah Palin.  Mitch “I Ruined The Economy” Daniels didn’t want to have to answer too many questions.  His answers would not be teahadist-approved. 

    And so it’s down to Newt, Mittens, T-Paw, Bachmann, Cain, and Paul.  I give it to T-Paw, the only governor left standing that isn’t Mittens.  And he will then lose his home state to Obama next year.  

  • Anonymous

    Well, there’s “opposition research” and there’s “character assassination.”  Take a wild guess which party has specialized in the latter since they invented the verb ‘bork.’

    d(^_^)bhttp://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive” 

  • http://twitter.com/alwaysfiredup alwaysfiredup

    “teahadist”, eh?  You’ll deserve President Palin. 

  • http://twitter.com/alwaysfiredup alwaysfiredup

    “teahadist”, eh?  You’ll deserve President Palin. 

  • guest

    You’re right.  I’m sure it had nothing to do with the Republican primary.  Because we all know the Democrats are the ones who impeached a sitting president over “moral failings,” focused relentlessly on Senator McCain’s less-than-ideal marital history, and drove John Ensign (the only major American politician with a sex scandal that actually implicated his office in recent history) right out of office by relentlessly pursuing the probably-illegal and certainly punishable offenses he committed.

    Get real.

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

     President Palin?  Please tell me which states that Obama won last time around that she will win.  In fact, none of the crop of fanatics calling themselves conservative candidates for President can take back the states they need to win.  Too much crazy in the air.  Too much “belief” and not enough paying attention to actual facts on the ground.

    Which states?  Be clear, now.  The GOP will be lucky to hold on to Texas.

  • savedbygrace

    Which States? How about all 57, if there is any sense or ability to rationally see what has been happening the last several years. It didn’t start with Bush, but man oh man does OHalwaysfiredup baba know how to take it to a whole new idea of doubling  down on a bad idea. Billions of dollar giveaways, Bush? How about now that its BHB’s turn lets make it trillions, mostly unconstitutionally and behind closed doors. There are so many ways that this man is dead set on bringing down the greatest country that has ever been conceived under God! I refuse to believe that he is evil so I have to believe in the only other rational. He is a puppet, and no I dont mean the obvious like Soros and the union bosses that are in the white house more than the first family. No, I think Satan has been grooming this man for a long, long time. Until he took office I swear I couldnt understand why I couldnt find the prophesies about the US in the Bible. After all, Russia is there. China, Iraq and Iran but not America (mostly). But now it is beginning to make sense, unfortunately. If he does get another term, pack your bags cause, Dorthy, we aint in Kansas anymore…

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

     This unintelligible ramble pretty much settles my case for me.  Too much belief, not enough paying attention to facts on the ground.  Too much trying to discredit without any intention of debate or the compromise necessary for competent government.

    It allows  the poster to ignore  the question:  which states?  The poster wants it make it into a religious war, but it’s actually just an election based on math.  Which states?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1385852725 Richard Mcenroe

     The worst thing about Daniels withdrawal is I wasted all that time on those Frank Perdue/Mitch photoshops that will never see the light of day.  Oh, well, Newt hasn’t beamed up to that great whites-only L5 colony in the sky yet…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1385852725 Richard Mcenroe

    Yeah, and Kloppenburg will win in the courts… 

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  • savedbygrace

    sorry, its called being sarcastic. A nasty habit I picked up when every time I try to have a reasonable discourse with a liberal all I get is dodges and misrepresentation of the facts. I did not make this a religious argument, though I am a believer, but that was not the point, which I see like as is mostly the case, you avoided completely. Are you saying that everything he did was constitutionally proper? Because there is a lot of evidence that would point to the contrary. Would you say that his policies have made things better? Jobs more abundant? He has done some pretty spectacular stuff that if necessary could easily be pointed out. How is it that the shareholders of GM that legally should be in the front of the line end up behind the union? Th.at is flat out against the law. Now we are in the auto business, and failing! Am I going to fast or is that of course, defensible too. There is a lot, lot more. Lets pass some more bills so we can find out whats in them, like post-dated checks that shouldnt even be in a legislative bill.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Every single one that is not a bought and paid for, wholly owned subsidiary of the Union Mafia Commie Alliance, The Feminazi Male-Castration Society, Pole Smokers Incorporated, and the Democratic Jim Crow Public Housing Foundation. And she might pick up two or three of the ones who are.

    If you leftists are really that smart, you might eventually wake up long enough to stop doing the dirty work of the Murkowski wing of the Alaska GOP, made up of people who would put you on a missing person’s list at the drop of a dime or a hat.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

     Really? The Democrats impeached a sitting president over moral failings? Wow, I didn’t know about that. When was this? Hearing about this kind of reminds me of the time the Republicans tried to impeach a sitting president for committing perjury in a court proceeding.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

     And of course leftists are all about the facts on the ground. They never act on belief. They’re all about practical solutions. Like for example, when they see the economy is in the shitter, well those facts on the ground mean its time to raise taxes. When they see conservatives opposing a Democrat president, they ain’t buying this “progressive” bullshit reason. They see the facts on the ground. The president is black, so his opponents are obviously racist. Stuff like that.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

     Opposition research, while it is certainly “part of the game”, is supposed to be conducted by consultants and investigators paid by the candidates election committees. They aren’t supposed to be done by people in the media, who should make the attempt to establish a neutral position. It’s one thing to support one candidate over another in an op-ed, its something else all together when media figures conspire to actively assist one candidate, or one party, at the expense of another, while laughably trying to present themselves as neutral and unbiased.

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  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Man…you ‘ve been on fire lately, Pagan.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Wait to you see my Photoshop of T-Paw!

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

     This amounts to whining over minutiae.  No one on the planet is unbiased.  All the GOP has to do is present a candidate who’s policies are rooted in demonstrable fact, and who can convince a majority that his or her ideas are superior in governing the country over Obama’s, and the GOP will win.

    Yammering and whining about the media won’t cut it.  Telling white lies on the campaign trail won’t cut it, either.  It killed Newt before he even declared.  Refusing to deal with the media you detest won’t work, either. See: Sarah Palin.  Too much crazy, not enough talking in real terms.

    Now, to the relevant question: which states is (likely) T-Paw going to take back from Obama?

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

    All this answer needs for completion is a shower of spittle.

    It does not, however, enumerate the states (likely) T-Paw will need to take back from Obama.

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

     Snark must be forbidden in the Pagan’s Temple….

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  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

     ”The only good progressive is a failed progressive.”

    That you need your fellow citizens to fail for you to suceed illustrates one of the core reasons why my conservative friends cannot win outside The Hollar.  Even in the depths of W’s criminal enterprise posing as  a Presidency (much of which continues aided and abetted by the current administration), I never wanted the President to fail.  Nor did any of those with whom I argue politics in person on a regular basis.  When the Presidency fails, so fail we all.

    It’s one thing to disagree, which I will support and fight to protect your right to do so within the extant of my own rights.

    But when you call for failure of others so you can succeed, you take our politics back to the third grade recess playground, and rob yourself of your own voice.

  • Anonymous

     T-Paw could be the only reasonable alternative to Cthulhu. 

  • Anonymous

     Oh, look, a concern troll! We haven’t had one of those in a while.
    :allears:

  • Anonymous

     You have conservative friends? Do tell.

  • Anonymous

     You already know the answer to this, if you’ve been paying attention. And if you haven’t, all the more reason to point and laugh at you and your fake concern.

  • Anonymous

     Hey, I’m all for legitimate political criticism (and some illegitimate, now and again) but I will not stand for having one of the Elder Gods besmirched by association with the Democrats.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Ignoring for the moment you went from asking what states Palin had to win to Pawlenty, just look at any state in the South that Obama won that usually votes GOP and you have your answer. You might also add one or two, or maybe even more from the Midwest, and maybe Florida. On top of that, look at the western states Obama won the first time around, and its starting to look like Obama has got a rough time coming his way.

    Put another way, I’m by no means convinced that Obama won’t be re-elected. He could well be, depending on a lot of factors. But on the other hand, if he does win, I have no doubt it will be by a razor thin margin, whereas if the GOP wins, it could very well be by a substantial margin, maybe as high as three or four percentage points. If Obama wins, you’re looking at roughly a 50-50 split.

    Like it or not, your man’s in trouble.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

     I’ve been on the receiving end of the Murkowski’s bile, so I know how they are. A Murkowski thug named Art Chance and a bunch of his sycophants on Red State attacked me for a diary entry I wrote suggesting Palin to replace Michael Steele as head of the RNC. They lashed out so bad I thought I was being attacked by a bunch of Democrat trolls. There’s literally not a dime’s worth of difference between them.

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

     That would be “most of them.”  But we keep our politics civil because we are friends first.  Just as we are all citizens first, and members of political parties thereafter.  

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

     First of all, he’s not “my man.”  I did not vote for Obama, and for whom I voted is none for your business.  

    Second, none of this is relevant to the question I am asking, which you have at last answered.  My response is that GOP over-reach in the Midwest robs my conservative friends if any hope of taking WI or MI.  Ohio will be a close one.  But none of these three states matter if Obama wins Florida.  And, Obama can lose FL, and still win any number of ways.  FL is also out of reach, thanks to Paul Ryan and Rick Scott.  

    By contrast, the GOP starts out way behind in the count.  There are no states they can afford to lose.  Not a one.  So, which states will they pick up?  I will give you NC, VA and throw in MI for good measure, and the GOP still cannot win.

    This arises from spending millions of dollars and decades demonizing the exact voters my conservative friends now need to win nationally.  And the votes are not there, nor is the plan in place to woo them back.

    Until the GOP accepts we must unite to survive, to another 40 years of political wilderness will it be doomed.

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

    When Denny Hastert was elected Speaker, and they kept repeating his name, it was always a wee too close to He Who Must Not Be Named for my level of comfort.

    Of course, it’s well-documented Hastur was a democrat…

  • http://profiles.google.com/caljrel James Knauer

    Concerned?  No.  Curious as to where the votes are going to come from?  Always, and since Watergate, which interrupted all three channels and further addicted this TV addict to politics when one’s age was measured in single digits. 

  • Anonymous

    Two points in reply:

    1) You apparently miss the point of my blog project is to mock the Left’s no holds barred  politics.

    2)  Why wouldn’t I want a wrong headed ideology to fail?

    d(^_^)bhttp://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”

  • Anonymous

    That’s whats wrong with politics today too much Dems and Pubes not enough Traitorous Dogs and Conservatives. Civility will be the  death of the Republic. Mainly our fault.

  • Anonymous

    I’m probably too responsible an Adult to sit it out or vote for the lunatic fringe third party candidate. I doubt I’ll ever be enthusiastic about T-Paw but I wouldn’t have to hold my nose to vote for him. If the Stupublicans make me choose between O’Sputnik and Romney I’ll never forgive them,  I’d vote for Romney but I’d feel dirty for the rest of my life. Huntsman is obviously unacceptable, his gushing praise of O’Sputnik alone makes that so.  

    The problem with voting for Romney is he is a deal maker and has been trained to compromise with Bolshevism, I bet he’d say that bringing both sides together in search of the elusive “common ground” was admirable. When a bear is intent on eating one’s baby what is the common ground? 

    If the American People are going to deliberately vote for the economy to collapse and the Republic to fall it would be appropriate that a Social Democrat presides over the catastrophe.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

     You’re talking like the election is tomorrow. If things haven’t gotten appreciably better by the time the election is held, its going to be an entirely different scenario. The Republicans have a year and a half to sell and fine tune Ryan’s Medicare plan to a public that might very well become more open to it as time goes by. Nothing is written in stone here. It’s a blueprint, not a take it as it is demand. The election is still a year and a half out. Do you really think one plan is going to make the difference if the country doesn’t improve between now and then?

    The real state to watch is Pennsylvania. If it closes early for the GOP, or if it goes all through the night too close to call, that will probably be a pretty good sign of how the election is going to go.

  • Nospam

    “Until the GOP accepts we must unite to survive, to another 40 years of political wilderness will it be doomed.”

    Thaks for admitting that, James! Now that you’ve acknowledged the truth, I expect to see you and yours knuckle under and “apologise” in the proper fashion for siding with the Democrats, just  as quickly as you can.  
    Otherwise, as you’ve admitted, the GOP will lose!

    The kneepads and mouthwash are in the corner, James… get to it.

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