Reactions to story from NO QUARTER

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  Michelle Obama Calls out Whitey

  http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=1488
  105 days ago in Right Pundits · Authority: 348

  Well, I debated whether to even post this or not. Im not usually into rumor or innuendo, but what the hell, lets have some fun. Larry Johnson over at No Quarter has apparently learned (he has 4 sources on this) that a video tape exists of Michelle Obama
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  http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-call-bullshit-inc...
  105 days ago in No More Mister Nice Blog · Authority: 191

  I CALL BULLSHIT The increasingly unhinged Clinton-or-death absolutist Larry Johnson "reports": I now have it from two three four sources (three who are close to senior Republicans) that there is video dynamite -- Michelle Obama railing against
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  Flowbee Watch

  http://bjkeefe.blogspot.com/2008/08/flowbee-watch.html
  6 days ago in bjkeefe · Authority: 20

  Can you believe Larry C. Johnson is still typing out this same sentence? From his latest post: I asked a friend who knows someone who has seen the video to [sic] Michelle Obama making disparaging remarks about “white” folks. Samplings from times past ... 16 May 2008: I now have it from two three four sources (three who are close to senior Republicans) that there is video dynamite–Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at Jeremiah Wright’s church. 19 May 2008: Four Republican sources have told me that the tape exists. I’ve also been informed that Karl Rove and his allies have a copy of it and are using it to raise funds for independent expenditure groups. [...] And I’ve learned that a right-wing Republican billionaire has put a $1 million bounty on the video. He doesn’t want John McCain to win, like a number of conservatives, and thinks Obama is a pathetically weak candidate. The billionaire wants that video released now. 26 May 2008: I have two friends. One is a Democrat and one is a Republican. One lives on the west coast and one lives on the east coast. They do not know each other. Yet each has spoken directly with someone who has seen the tape. [...] The clincher came when my buddy on the west coast wrote to me that he had a friend who had seen the tape. 31 May 2008: New and dramatic developments. This is a heads up. I’ll post the news Monday morning by 0900 hours. Now I know why people who have seen the videotape say it is stunning. Barack’s headaches are only starting. 2 June 2008 07:43 AM: I learned over the weekend why the Republicans who have seen the tape of Michelle Obama ranting about “whitey” describe it as “STUNNING.” I have not seen it but I have heard from five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape. 2 June 2008 10:48 (by Larry Johnson tool co-blogger "SusanUnPC"): FYI, for those expecting to SEE the tape, GET REAL. Read Larry Johnson’s description of what is ON the tape. That is the story. 4 June 2008: At no time have I claimed to have the tape or promised to deliver said tape. 5 June 2008: So, sure looks to me that there a recording of Michelle’s racist rant exists in the hands of folks working to help elect McCain. 7 June 2008: The recording that shows Michelle Obama saying disparaging things about white folks is for real. It is not part of some elaborate dirty trick. The people who have seen her comments describe it as “stunning” or “devastating.” I have not spoken directly with the people who have seen the tape, but I have spoken to two of my friends who are friends with those who watched the tape/dvd. Flowbee's original goal, of course, was to sway the primaries in favor of Clinton. When it became obvious that wasn't going to happen, he changed his tune, and started floating the idea that the sinister GOP operatives absolutely, definitely had the tape, but they were planning to hold it until after the convention. WHEN IT WOULD BE TOO LATE FOR THE DEMOCRATS TO DO ANYTHING!!!1! Presumably, somewhere in his addled mind is the idea of a last-minute change of heart by enough delegates to change the nomination, which, if you ever skimmed the comments from a couple of months ago at NoQuarter, is something you were reminded, early and often, COULD HAPPEN, ABSOLUTELY, NO DELEGATES ARE BOUND!!!1! I'm going to go way out on a limb here and predict that's not going to happen, either. The interesting question then becomes: will Flowbee continue to push the story of the imaginary tape, thereby revealing himself to have been a McCainiac all along? (pic. source)
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  Is Barack Obama Good for the Jews?

  http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2008/06/is-barack-obama-good-fo...
  79 days ago in Jon Swift · Authority: 355

  For most Presidential elections of the past 100 years, Jews have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, with the exception of the 1920 election when many Jewish women, overwhelmed by Warren Harding's goyische good looks, pulled the lever for the Republicans. But this year many Jews are asking themselves, Is Barack Obama is good for the Jews?The most prominent Jewish politician in the country, Joseph Lieberman, has endorsed John McCain, even though Obama backed him in his Democrat primary race for Senate in Connecticut. But that doesn't necessarily mean that other Jews will follow suit. In the 2000 Presidential election many elderly Florida Jews surprised pundits by voting for Pat Buchanan rather than Al Gore, despite the fact that his running mate was Lieberman, apparently because they felt that Lieberman was "too Jewish." (They didn't vote for Bush because they were angry at his father who they suspected of anti-Semitism for trying to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians.)Lieberman has always been a bit embarrassing to many Jews because he seems to confirm the worst stereotypes people have of Jews. He's like the whiny kid in Hebrew class you didn't want to walk home with because it would be like walking with a magnet for anti-Semitic bullies. And his disloyalty to the Democrats and Obama (after begging Obama to help him) and his lack of subtlety about appearing to put Israel ahead of American interests embarrasses many Jews who have worked so hard at appearing to be loyal trustworthy Americans.Lieberman's disdain for Obama seems puzzling. But I have two three four five sources who claim that there is a damaging videotape of Michelle Obama that explains the rift. Apparently, when Obama first came to the Senate, there was a luncheon of Senate wives, which someone videotaped. According to my friends who have not actually seen the tape but have friends who have friends who have seen it, Mrs. Lieberman asked Mrs. Obama if she had ordered the pastrami on rye and Mrs. Obama can distinctly be heard saying, "No, Jew." Obama's staff later claimed that his wife was actually saying, "No, did you?" but the damage was already done. I think this may actually be the mysterious videotape that Larry Johnson's friends' friends claim they have seen.But most Jews will not be so easy for the Republicans to woo as Lieberman was. Many Jews are suspicious of conservatives, especially evangelicals. They, of course, appreciate the Christian Right's staunch support of Israel but suspect an ulterior motive. Evangelicals seem to love Israel just a little too much, perhaps because they believe that Israel's existence is necessary for the Rapture. They believe that when the Rapture comes many Jews will convert to Christianity, which they don't think will be such a big deal because they think of Christianity as Judaism Plus. Though I did eventually see the light and converted from Judaism to Christianity after seeing The Chronicles of Narnia, many Jews are a bit more stubborn about the conversion thing, even when weighed against the prospect of eternal damnation, and I suspect that when the Rapture does come many evangelicals will be disappointed.Jews are also nervous about many conservatives' anti-immigration activism. It's not that Jews like Mexicans any more than conservatives do (and their food certainly gives many Jews heartburn) but some of the rhetoric about immigrants sounds oddly familiar. A recent post that appeared on a number of conservative blogs illustrates why many Jews are troubled. Writing about a federal immigration raid on a kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, Nancy Matthis described the situation as "a Protestant (mostly Lutheran) small town co-opted by Jewish business interests, Jewish businessmen skirting the law to turn an extra buck." Just in case the anti-Semitic overtones of greedy Jews taking over a small Christian town was not clear enough, one blog even tagged the post "Den of Thieves," a phrase that sets off anti-Semitic alarm bells, though I'm sure this blogger, who is from the south and probably hasn't met many real Jews, didn't realize that. If conservatives actually do want to win over Jews in the Fall, they really must be careful not to put the words "Jewish business interests" and "turn an extra buck" in the same sentence.Of course, McCain, loves immigrants and hopes to give them all amnesty, which is why he is having trouble winning over many conservatives. And when one of his supporters, the Rev. John Hagee, was discovered making anti-Semitic remarks, he immediately denounced him, though he didn't seem to care so much when this man made anti-Catholic remarks.Obama, however, is going to have to do a lot more denouncing to overcome Jewish concerns. No matter how many times Obama denounces people like Farrakhan and Rev. Wright and Hamas, there always seems to be another anti-Semitic supporter to repudiate, like the one who posted something on Obama's public blog, which was immediately removed but not before many claimed that it proved that Obama was anti-Semitic because anti-Semitic people like him, while McCain doesn't have any distasteful supporters at all. And Obama is going to have to work overtime to deny rumors that he is a Muslim who wants to wipe Israel off the map and that he has a secret plan to round up all the Jews and put them in ghettos where black people now live. If Obama would just say, "I do not have any secret plans at the current time to make peace with Iran by driving the Jews out of Israel into the sea or move black people into the homes of Jewish people and move all the Jewish people to Harlem," I think many Jews would be relieved. But so far Obama has not forcefully denied these rumors. And how hard would it be for Obama to release his birth certificate so that we can be certain his middle name is not really Muhammad instead of Hussein, which would make a lot of difference as to whether Jews could support him (though I must say I'm not quite sure why Muhammad is worse than Hussein)? Not very. So why hasn't he done it?Although Obama said all the right things about Israel in his speech to AIPAC (and, in fact, he may have gone overboard, which also makes Jews suspicious), he is going to have to do more (but not too much more). Every day, it seems, I get emails making yet another anti-Semitic charge against Obama. I can't imagine who is sending out all these emails but I'm sure they have Jewish voters' best interests at heart. Some of them do seem a bit outlandish. Now, I don't personally believe that Obama uses the blood of Jewish babies in ritual sacrifices to help him maintain his youthful appearance, but until Obama states unequivocally that he does not, many Jews will be reluctant to vote for him. That doesn't mean that they will vote for McCain, but they just might write in Pat Buchanan's name instead.Share This Post Technorati Tags: Jon Swift, Barack Obama, Joseph Lieberman, 2008 Election, Republicans, Democrats, John McCain, Politics
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  Larry Johnson’s strange trip by David Weigel How a onetime hero of the liberal blogosphere and the Democratic Party spread perhaps the most damaging anti-Obama smear of the primary.

  http://mcnorman.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/larry-johnsons-stra...
  66 days ago in Mcnorman's Weblog · Authority: 1

  On May 13, 2006, Larry C. Johnson — former CIA intelligence officer, counterterrorism pundit, classmate of Valerie Plame — put up a breaking post claiming that Karl Rove was under federal indictment for perjury and lying to investigators looking into the leaking of Plame’s identity. “Rove Indicted,” Johnson blogged. “Frog march the bastard. As Freddie Mercury sang, ‘another one bites the dust.’” The post linked to the investigative site TruthOut, and an anonymously sourced story that it turned out wasn’t true. Still, on May 21, Johnson approvingly linked to TruthOut’s explanation for the blunder. “They are sticking to their guns and justifiably so,” he wrote. “Time will tell.” In response, National Review’s Byron York asked how an intelligence consultant who’d downplayed the threat of terrorism less than two months before September 11 became a player in the Plame scandal and an icon on the left. But Johnson had been attacked by the right ever since he became an advocate for Plame. The criticism rolled right off. But, by May and early June of this year, Johnson had become much more hated on the left than he ever was on the right. He was instrumental in spreading the rumor that Republican operatives possessed a tape of Barack Obama’s wife Michelle railing against “whitey.” The affair has turned some of Johnson’s old friends and allies into raging, red-eyed enemies. “Smears of this type are unforgivable,” wrote blogger Booman, who said that his friendship with Johnson had ended over the matter. “You’re a sad and pathetic piece of shit,” wrote Brad Reed of Sadly, No!. Daily Kos, the left-wing blogopolis where Johnson’s diaries once drew upward of 400 comments, became a carnival of Johnson-bashing. “You,” wrote Kos regular Bob Johnson (no relation), “and the denizens of your cesspool of hate have promoted and stoked every fringe-lunatic, rightwing smear of Obama.” In the space of six months, a man who had been one of the most high-profile, credible recruits of the liberal blogosphere became as loathed as the White House apparatchiks he used to attack. Johnson’s following at places like Daily Kos was always something of a fluke. He followed four years as a CIA analyst with four years at the State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism. Johnson left intelligence work in 1993, going on to build a dual career as a business consultant and a pundit on intelligence issues. He argued throughout the 1990s, on shows like The News Hour and Larry King Live, that domestic law enforcement was dropping the ball on terrorist threats while the threat of international terror was decreasing. In this age before blogs, Johnson’s commentary, whether printed in The New York Times or submitted in congressional hearings, was dry, analytic, and laced with facts. Of course, part of the reason Johnson was able to build such a public profile was that his analysis was colored by his flinty, swashbuckling personality. In 2001 Peter Lance, an Emmy-winning investigative journalist, was writing the screenplay for a movie called Terror.net for Showtime, a project that retained Johnson as a consultant. The September 11 attacks occurred in the midst of pre-production, and as part of his rewrite, Lance followed a tip that Abdul Hakim Murad, a plotter of the 1993 World Trade Center attack, had revealed some of the planning for the next attacks while under interrogation in the Philippines. Johnson told Lance not to follow the tip: “He went ballistic,” Lance remembers. When Lance’s tip turned out to be right, Johnson worked to discredit it and keep it out of the movie. “Larry, to me, is one of the great empty suits,” Lance says now. “He is emblematic of what goes wrong in the agency, emblematic of the attitude that let 9-11 happen.” But Johnson’s commentary career boomed after 9-11 in part because of that pugnacity. As he recounts in Robert Greenwald’s 2004 documentary OutFoxed, Johnson signed on as a regular commentator on Fox News a few months after 9-11 and “called it like I saw it,” but was purged from his regular guest spot after he told Sean Hannity the Iraq War would bog down American forces. In July of 2003, Robert Novak revealed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity in a column about her husband Joe Wilson’s fact-finding trip to Niger. Johnson had trained at the agency with Plame and immediately became one of her most public advocates. He testified in October 2003 alongside two fellow former agents before a special Senate committee on the leak. He gave the Democrats’ radio response to President Bush and started blogging at Daily Kos and Josh Marshall’s TPMCafe. Johnson’s embrace by the left and the blogosphere was underway. The analyst who’d written don’t-believe-the-hype assessments of terrorist threats became a brash, score-settling blogger who went out on limbs. For example, in a July 2006 post at Daily Kos, Johnson ripped into Michael Scheuer, the ex-CIA analyst and author of Imperial Hubris , calling him “an embarrassment to the profession of intelligence analysis,” “the Salieri of intelligence analysts,” and “a vicious little prick.” Days later Johnson posted a diary accusing Israel of “taking the stupid pill” by invading Lebanon. He was pilloried by the right of the blogosphere for a few minor flubbed facts, but the Daily Kos community defended him. In July 2007, Joe Wilson endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Wilson and Johnson were friends who kept in close contact even after Wilson moved to New Mexico; both men were began to swap rumors and arguments with other Clinton allies and donors. Johnson, like Wilson, began commenting more on electoral politics. It was after this that Johnson’s two-year-old blog No Quarter and his posts on other blogs started to swell with praise for Hillary Clinton and criticism of Barack Obama. In November Johnson posted his first anti-Obama broadside, “Why is Obama in Bed with Karl Rove?” on NoQuarter and Daily Kos. The Obama campaign had used a Robert Novak column as grist in an attack against Clinton; in Johnson’s eyes, an unforgivable sin. “If Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Hillary Clinton’s campaign told him that they had some dirt on Obama,” wrote Johnson, “would Obama’s staff react as they did to the Robert Novak column of November 17?” On Dec. 26, 2007, Johnson unloaded on Obama in a Daily Kos post, accusing “pro-Bush Republicans” of “hyping” him to Democrats. The Daily Kos version of the post drew 1,157 comments, most of them negative. The night of the Iowa caucuses, Johnson called the state “a pimple on the gnat’s ass.” “Obama, What Drugs Are You Using?” he asked in a Jan. 6 post about Obama’s New Hampshire campaign chair (and pharmaceutical lobbyist) Jim Demers. On Jan. 12, Johnson announced that he was “all in for Hillary”; the next day, he pounded the drug theme again after Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson made a reference to Obama’s teenage drug use. “No relation, unfortunately,” wrote Larry Johnson, “but I’m willing to be adopted.” As he grew increasingly vitriolic, the Daily Kos community turned on him. On Feb. 13, Johnson published his final Daily Kos diary. Meanwhile, Johnson’s own blog became a proving ground for anti-Obama bloggers. Johnson began mocking journalists who went overboard in praising Obama’s speeches (”Jesus Fucking Christ!!! ‘Triumph of word over flesh?’ Great, we now have the black Jesus.”), pushing Obama for answers about his financial deals (”You don’t know dick about Tony Rezko? I don’t think so.”), pronouncing Obama’s doom after the South Carolina primary (”Barack is the candidate of black voters and that won’t win him much in the rest of the country.”), and blasting MoveOn.org for endorsing him (”They fuck the people who stand up for them and reward the ones who refuse to stand. That is courage in their eyes? Assholes!!). It was months later — in late April — that the “whitey tape” rumor started, mostly among pro-Clinton Democratic donors in New York. One of the earliest versions of the rumor, according to one reporter who heard it in April, was that researchers for Rudy Giuliani had their hands on a tape of Michelle Obama at Trinity United giving a speech where she attacked white America using the word “whitey.” Johnson told me over e-mail that he heard the rumor for the first time in early May. On May 16, he claimed to “have it from four sources (three who are close to senior Republicans) that there is video dynamite — Michelle Obama railing against ‘whitey’ at Jeremiah Wright’s church.” The next day Johnson posted a fresh rumor of “an ultra conservative Republican billionaire” who “hates John McCain” and had put out a $1 million bounty on the tape. The new story came from a “major Republican operative” who told Johnson that “Karl Rove and his political allies control the tape.” It was corroborated by “a retired CIA buddy” who was “friends with a lawyer who saw the tape.” Two days later, with this story still uncorroborated, Johnson speculated that Barack Obama’s angry response to criticism of his wife came from fear of “the ticking ‘whitey’ time bomb.” On May 26, Johnson, for the first time publically, explained that he’d originally heard the story from “two friends,” one a Democrat and one a Republican, who didn’t know each other, but each claimed to have seen the tape. By this point, Johnson’s writing on the rumor was becoming the hub for a national game of telephone. The story had taken on a life of its own. Liberal blogs buzzed about the rumor; journalists swapped stories and second-hand info about whether the tape existed. On May 30, Rush Limbaugh dropped a mention of the rumor of a tape that shows “Michelle going nuts in the church, too, talking about whitey this and whitey that.” The next day Johnson promised “new and dramatic developments” to come on Monday morning. The day after Johnson’s “bombshell” post, Roger Stone appeared on Geraldo Rivera’s Sunday Fox News show and gave his own version of what he was hearing. “There’s a buzz,” Stone said, “which I believe now to be credible, that some indelible record exists of public remarks that Michelle Obama allegedly made, which are outrageous at best, but could be termed racist, including some reference to white people as whiteys, allegedly.” NoQuarter bloggers Bud White and SusanUnPC used the Stone video as proof of the story’s veracity; NoQuarter even uploaded the segment onto YouTube. The frenzy continued throughout the day, as Montana and South Dakota Democrats went to the polls. NoQuarter blogger and Clinton-backer SusanUnPC produced a picture of Michelle Obama with Louis Farrakhan’s wife at a 2004 event. The next day the anonymously written blog Hillbuzz produced a new version of what was on the tape. Johnson all but endorsed it, calling it “important news,” even though the facts and timing of the 2004 event where Hillbuzz claimed the video was taken negated important pieces of the other theories, like Louis Farrakhan’s presence, the Trinity United setting, and the timing — how could Obama have referred to Katrina in 2004? But by this point, Clinton’s campaign was clearly losing steam. New rumors ground to a halt. When Obama was asked to respond to one version on his press plane, Johnson accused him of a “non-denial denial”: “If Barack said, ‘No, and hell no’ I would be wondering about my sources. But he punted.” The story had become a joke, with bloggers riding the rumor to “RickRoll” gullible readers, sending them to a video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” disguised as “Michelle Obama’s Whitey Video.” (As of June 18, the video had clocked more than 175,000 views on YouTube.) Hillary Clinton dropped out of the presidential race the weekend after Johnson posted his accusation about Obama’s “non-denial denial.” The “whitey” story had spun itself out. And on June 12 Obama’s campaign launched a site called “Fight the Smears” which provided a no-frills response to the rumor: “No such tape exists. Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit of Trinity United and has not used that word.” It was the denial that Johnson didn’t get a week earlier, but he wasn’t satisfied. On the contrary, the fact that Obama’s campaign told Time magazine that they’d heard about the rumor in April convinced Johnson of the veracity of his sources. Reached over e-mail on June 12, Johnson was unrepentant. “There is a recording of Michelle saying disparaging things about white people,” he wrote. “A person who saw the tape said the word ‘whitey’ was used. I don’t know when or where she made the remarks. I do know that the Republicans who are circulating the tape don’t want this out until after the convention. Those are the facts as I know them from multiple sources who do not know each other. I stand by their accounts.” And what of the bloggers who have written him out of the movement? What about his credibility? “I am amused that my ‘credibility’ is now in question,” Johnson wrote. “The Democrats did not have such a problem when I was asked to deliver the response to President Bush’s Saturday radio address in July of 2005. I have not changed. Some just don’t like the message.”
• 

  Waters Falsely Suggests Conservatives Didn't Spread False Obama Rumor

  http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/blog/index.blog?entry_id=18205...
  77 days ago in ConWebBlog: The Weblog of ConWebWatch · Authority: 41

  In a June 13 NewsBusters post (and TimesWatch item), Clay Waters responded to a New York Times claim that rumors of a video of Michelle Obama "making a racially tinged speech" was "circulating on conservative blogs" by asserting: "Hate to break it to the Times, but this rumor first appeared on Hillary supporter and (liberal loose cannon) Larry Johnson's blog No Quarter back on May 16, a full two weeks before the Obama site's timeline showing that Limbaugh mentioned the rumor on his radio show." But that doesn't disprove the claim that the rumor was "circulating on conservative blogs." Indeed, a blog post on May 16 -- the same day Johnson made his post -- at conservative TownHall.com repeats Johnson's claim, teasing, "it might be big -- if it's true." Free Republic also repeated the rumor that very same day. So the answer to Waters' headline question -- "Did 'Conservative Bloggers' Spread Michelle Obama Video Rumor?" -- is a very emphatic yes, despite what Waters wants you to think.
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  MSM Agrees: Conservatives Circulated “Whitey” Rumor

  http://amerpundit.com/2008/06/13/msm-agrees-conservatives-ci...
  77 days ago in The American Pundit · Authority: 97

  MSM Agrees: Conservatives Circulated “Whitey” Rumor by Stephan Tawney | 3:08 pm Apparently in the spirit of bringing the Democratic Party together, much of the MSM has decided that the blame for the “whitey” rumor rests squarely in the hands of conservative bloggers. Ignoring the fact that the rumor’s pusher was pro-Clinton blogger Larry Johnson, the NYT becomes the latest outlet to claim conservative blogs are to blame. But the final straw for Mr. Obama, his aides said, was the story circulating on conservative blogs that a video existed showing Mrs. Obama making a racially tinged speech at their former church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Mr. Obama was visibly irritated by the rumor when a reporter asked him about it last week. See, that’s funny because I remember bloggers like Ace, Allahpundit, and Jim Geraghty being skeptical of Johnson’s claims and the last even attempting to debunk it. As Ace would say, the Deciders have decided.
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  Did ‘Conservative Bloggers’ Spread Michelle Obama Video Rumor? NYT Says Yes

  http://www.conservativesyndicate.us/did-conservative-blogger...
  77 days ago in The Conservative Syndicate · Authority: 7

  New York Times reporters Julie Bosman and John Broder gave Barack Obama defenders a boost on Friday with "Obama's Campaign Opens a New Web Site to Strike Back at ‘Dishonest Smears.'" Called Fight the Smears, the website was apparently inspired by unfounded rumors that a recording exists of Obama's wife Michelle ranting about "Whitey" at the pulpit of the radical Trinity United Church of Christ, which the Obamas attended for 20 years until Barack Obama came under fire for the anti-American raving of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Showing early signs of a bad habit, the Times strongly implied that the rumor originated with conservative bloggers, even though all evidence suggests that it first broke in the blogosphere in mid-May at the blog of a Hillary Clinton supporter. Confronted with one of the trickiest problems in politics -- when to ignore rumors and misrepresentations and when to risk giving them greater visibility by rebutting them -- Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign began to push back aggressively on Thursday against what it said were unfounded and potentially damaging reports. Bosman and Broder lamented how Obama ...has been dogged by potent, fast-moving rumors about his religion, his birthplace and his patriotism, to name a few, for more than a year. More recently his campaign has confronted persistent but unsubstantiated reports about Mrs. Obama using angry and derogatory language about white people. ... But the final straw for Mr. Obama, his aides said, was the story circulating on conservative blogs that a video existed showing Mrs. Obama making a racially tinged speech at their former church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Mr. Obama was visibly irritated by the rumor when a reporter asked him about it last week. "It is a destructive aspect of our politics right now," Mr. Obama told reporters last week as he flew through Virginia. "And simply because something appears in an e-mail, that should lend it no more credence than if you heard it on the corner. And you know, presumably the job of the press is to not go around and spread scurrilous rumors like this until there's actually anything, one iota of substance or evidence that would substantiate it." The Web site devotes its most prominent space on the home page to that rumor. "The Smear," it begins. After describing the smear in a point-by-point fashion it concludes, "The Truth: No Such Tape Exists." Hate to break it to the Times, but this rumor first appeared on Hillary supporter and (liberal loose cannon) Larry Johnson's blog No Quarter back on May 16, a full two weeks before the Obama site's timeline showing that Limbaugh mentioned the rumor on his radio show. (Johnson has previously vouched for serial misleader Joe Wilson's credibility and defended the falsehood that Karl Rove had been indicted by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.)

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