Posted by
Garnet92 on Thursday, September 18, 2008 12:15:00 PM
Obama’s campaign army included what was called a “truth squad.” They were tasked with responding to any ad that was supposedly less than truthful. It didn’t matter whether the “untruth” came from McCain’s campaign or from an unrelated 527, the response would be swift and aggressive.
Attorneys were poised to attack any radio or TV station, any newspaper or magazine, indeed any vehicle used to distribute “untruthful” information. The breadth of their monitoring would extend from major networks all the way down to supermarket bulletin boards.
Of course, the determination of what was “untruthful” was made by O’s campaign, and often they fudged a little. An item qualified for an “untruthful” label if it was deemed to be potentially damaging to Obama’s election. Period.
It was felt that the staff could parse the response wording so that it dammed the target piece and provided “evidence” of the untruth, but retained built-in plausible deniability in case the attack was refuted by real evidence. This technique allowed the squad to push the envelope well past innuendo and spilling out into out-and-out lies.
Headquartered in Chicago, the truth squad was known as the “Barely Legals,” and was directed by an extremely aggressive, cutthroat attorney who had successfully sued churches, orphan homes, and charities, Al Kasellser.
MCCain’s campaign had just received the details of the Barely Legals from a disgruntled Obama campaign staffer who had been sexually harassed by Obama’s pet chimpanzee, “Humpy”.
Sarah (and Mighty Mom) volunteered to watch the watchers and oversee a counter response team.
The first item to draw the attention of the BLs was a piece done by a pro-McCain 527 denouncing Obama for voting “Present” 130 times.
The BLs quickly trotted out a response which was e-mailed through their distribution mechanism (called a “crap shower”) which was made up of several levels of mail-bots which ultimately produced thousands of e-mails going to every news organization in the country, to left-wing blogs, and to many international news outlets.
The response alleged that Obama had not been voting “present,” but had actually been saying “president,” vocalizing his life-long ambition to lead the greatest country on earth to the promised land. What true patriot would chastise a citizen for aspiring to serve his country? Obama was prepared to sacrifice his satisfying and rewarding personal life as a community organizer to humbly serve his country – how brave and gallant.
The next ad was one that likened Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton for being a “celebrity.” The Barely Legal response was that it was a totally negative ad that demeaned a candidate for president by comparing him to two brainless Hollywood twits. It was reputed to be “a classless act by a struggling McCain campaign.”
The first ad was easy to refute. Audio tape was available as well as the Senate minutes themselves. All evidence confirmed that Obama had, in fact, said “present” during voice votes 130 times, not “president” as was alleged by the Barely Legals. Now the McCain campaign could not only refute the Obama “truth squad” response, but show that there was a clear intent to mislead (lie to) voters.
Another benefit became apparent while replaying the audio minutes of the Illinois Senate proceedings, the staff found some interesting off-the-record statements by Sen. Obama.
For example, one conversation on Oct. 14, 2004, is about a poker game. Obama asks, “you wanna join us for poker tonight”? Someone else asks “who’s playing”? Obama responds, “Bill, Jeremiah, and Tony, you know, the Thursday night poker group.” Again, an unknown voice, “doesn’t Michelle get pi$$ed that you always lose”? “How much you lost, must be thousands”? “Nah, that dumb ho doesn’t tell me what to do – I’ll slap her upside her head.” “Besides, she don’t know nothing about that money – it’s off-the-books stuff from Tony.” The voices trail off as they apparently move out of microphone range.
And another conversation on Oct. 20th of 2004, has Obama apparently talking to Emil Jones, the President of the Illinois Senate (and Obama’s benefactor). “Mojo, you know how much I appreciate my name on those bills as author,” Jones responds, “just don’t forget who made you a U.S. Senator – you owe me … big time.” “Mo, you know that I’ll do anything you want – you want to be an ambassador? Or Attorney General, just name it.” Mojo (as Jones is known to his friends) replies, “I’ll want some federal money for my housing renovation projects, you know, just a couple million here, a couple million there.” “Keep it under the radar.” Obama assures him, “consider it done.”
There was more, but Sarah thought that those two conversations packed enough dynamite for now and could be put to good use. In the meantime, the staff would continue to examine every session’s taped records for any more Obama slip-ups.
The second ad was known as the “airhead” ad. It was attempting to use a “trailer trash” image of Britney and an “empty-headed rich girl” stereotype of Paris to paint an image of Obama as being shallow and empty-headed, like the women. Various clips of Obama unknowingly contributing to that image by stuttering, uhhh’s and ahhh’s, and “you know’s,” reinforced the image.
Some really fine investigative work was done by Claire Annette when she was able to get the speed dial numbers from Paris Hilton’s cell phone. Paris had left it in one of L.A.’s hot new clubs, “Get Lucky.” The paparazzi had paid a thousand dollars for a list of her “favorites,” before the phone was returned, and Claire got a copy. Guess who was on speed dial? Barack Hussein Obama! BINGO! Claire was intrigued – she paid a phone company employee to get phone records for both twits and found … BINGO! Nine calls to Barack Hussein Obama from Paris and five from Britney and about as many from Obama’s phone back to them! It appears that both “brainless twits” were more “familiar” with the Senator than anyone knew. Wonder if Michelle knows?
It was time for Mighty Mom to don her snappy red, white, and blue frock and go to work. Although Obama was campaigning in Ohio, Michelle didn’t accompany him; she stayed in Chicago with the kids. It was 260 miles from St. Louis (as the Mighty Mom files, cape fluttering in the breeze) but only took MM a few minutes to get there. She flew around the Greenwood Avenue mansion and found Malia and Sasha playing in the back yard.
Being careful to stay out of sight of the secret service, MM swooped down and placed a package on the back stoop. The girls saw her and were startled, but MM smiled and waved, and was off. Malia ran to the back door and picked up the package - it was wrapped like a present, bow and all. She took it inside and found her mom. “Mom, mom, there was a flying lady and she left this,” handing the present to Michelle. Sasha was now beside her too. “She was flying – and she waved at us.”
Michelle didn’t like this one bit. A flying woman? And a wrapped package delivered to the back door? No sir, she didn’t like it at all. She immediately called her secret service detail. They picked up the package with all the care of a suspected bomb and took it to the police bomb disposal facility. It was x-rayed and found to contain a small electronic device, but no evidence of any type of explosive charge. Carefully opening the package, they found a small mini-cassette recorder. After checking it thoroughly, they clicked “play.”
“You wanna join us for poker tonight”? “who’s playing”? “Bill, Jeremiah, and Tony, you know, the Thursday night poker group.” “doesn’t Michelle get pi$$ed that you always lose”? “How much you lost, must be thousands”? “Nah, that dumb ho doesn’t tell me what to do – I’ll slap her upside her head.” “Besides, she don’t know nothing about that money – it’s off-the-books stuff from Tony.”
A number of law enforcement officers were present: FBI, secret service, and Chicago police. Obama’s voice was unmistakable, they didn’t recognize the other. It appeared to be a conversation between Obama and some unidentified male friend. The reference to “off the books stuff from Tony” prompted the Chicago detective, Lou Breekashun and the FBI agent, Sal Minella, to alert federal authorities. They made a copy of the tape, retaining the original as possible evidence, and returned a copy to Michelle.
That night, Michelle played the tape.
She had been briefed on what was on the tape by the secret service so she waited until the girls were in bed. If she had been lighter, the blood rising to the surface would have been more easily visible. She played it several times, becoming more and more incensed each time. “Ho, … he called me a ‘dumb ho’ to his friend,” “he’ll slap me upside my head”? She was every bit as mad as when she answered his cell-phone and found females calling him, and they didn’t sound like campaign staffers either.
“Thousands of dollars”? Money he was hiding from her? She already didn’t like his “friends.” She didn’t trust Ayers or Rezko and the Reverend had hit on her more than once. She’d almost rather Obama hang around with republicans (shudder). And those Thursday night poker games – he was supposedly mentoring some community organizer trainees on Thursday nights. Just one lie after another. She had transitioned from rage and anger to “get even” and revenge. She’d play it cool for now and bide her time. As Michelle fell asleep, a name kept creeping into her consciousness Lorena Bobbitt she couldn’t place it Lorena Bobbitt but it just kept coming back Lorena Bobbitt and finally, without ever really knowing the significance of the name, she drifted off to sleep.
Before flying back to St. Louis, Mighty Mom slipped into the Obama house. It wasn’t difficult to open a third-floor window, no one ever expected an intruder to have access to the third floor. MM moved silently about the house until she found Michelle sound asleep. MM looked inside her and saw a dream. Whoa – there was Michelle and a man. They were “busy … very busy … together.” Mighty Mom couldn’t make out a face until they changed positions and he lay on his back – it was Father Pfleger! Fr. Michael Pfleger, the parish priest and Rev. Wright’s best buddy. Wow. MM couldn’t tell whether this was a memory of something that had actually happened or if it was just a dream and nothing more. But the plot had (as they say) thickened. Sarah was pleased to see that, outside of doing penance with Father Pfleger, Michelle was relatively clean inside – she was okay.
Mighty Mom had seen and done enough for one night, but she’d be back – she wanted to have a little tete-a-tete with Mojo Jones, Obama’s benefactor in the Senate. That could wait until after the debate.