When you work for conservative causes, you get used to dealing with left-leaning “astroturf” groups. Second Amendment issues are a big magnet; while the NRA musters over three million actual Americans of all political stripes, “The Brady Campaign” and the “Violence Policy Institute” muster thin little films of people – even though an NRA membership is a non-trivial $50 (as I recall), and the “Brady Campaign” last I checked was $15. Locally, it’s even worse. While Concealed Carry Reform Now would muster hundreds to come to legislative Citizens for a Supine “Safer” Minnesota has roughly two “members” (who are, I think, also paid staffers) and can maybe drag a dozen people to a really important hearing, and would be a complete non-entity in politics in a rational world.
Which is a world the anti-gun movement doesn’t know well.
Astroturf is everywhere, though, especially when issues are emotional. Like, say, uppity broads who should be home with their kids upending political messiahs.
And boy, is it sweet when you find it:
- Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.
- The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.
- Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.
- Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.
- The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.
- This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod’s firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as “astroturfing.”
- David Axelrod is Barack Obama’s chief media strategist.
- The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.
This suggests that false rumors and outright lies about Sarah Palin and John McCain being spread on the internet are being orchestrated by political partisans and are not an organic grassroots phenomenon led by the left wing fringe. Our findings follow.
This story has tripped off a blogswarm – a mini-Rathergate. Michelle Malkin catalogs the contributors and runs the story. Patterico says it goes all the way to the top of The One’s campaign.
Stay tuned
What did Barry know and when did he know it? I look forward to the following headlines:
“Obama ordered to preserve all emails”
“Obama subpenad to testify before congress”
“Allegations of corruption continue to dog Obama”
“Poll shows people concerned about Obama’s alledged corruption”
“YouTubegate testimony points fingers towards Obama staff”
“Situation similiar to Watergate coverup”
“Probe asks for Obama papers and records in Youtubegate investigation”
Get it. Barry may not have had anything to do with this, but you can get him anyway through investigations and headlines. Except MSM would never print the above headlines about a liberal Democrat.
It’s vanishingly unlikely that Obama knew anything about this in advance; he’s not exactly a details guy.
That said, when he told his followers to “take the gloves off” what the heck did he think was going to happen? Louder singing of “Imagine Hopey Changey”?
Joel is right: Obama wonders aloud, “who will rid me of this meddlesome priest (and priestess)?” and the flying monkeys come out.
I wonder what standing this has with McCain Feingold?
If candidate A hires a PR agency to do legitimate, McCain-Feingold complying work for him, and that agency — authorized or not — produces non-compliant ads & does not identify itself as their source, well, it sounds like there could be some trouble.
It’s vanishingly unlikely that Obama knew anything about this in advance; he’s not exactly a details guy.
I don’t think that helps. For a candidate who touts his “judgment” (and who has pretty much nothing else to fall back on) to continue having to admit that he doesn’t know what the people closest to him are up to, that could end up being almost as bad as a recorded phone call by him dictating the script to his subordinates for the ads.
I’m not trying to help Obama, honest, and I think this is a relatively minor example of his failure of leadership; he should be insisting that the folks near him keep their hands far cleaner than this appears to be, and not just wear gloves.
But compared to his unreadiness for the job, this doesn’t stack up as a huge example of his flaws.