WND featuring Corsi's swiftboating -- now on Obama's alleged "direct involvement" in Kenyan politics

[highplainsdem]

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=71143


This needs to be debunked asap, as it's a bit different from the viral email Snopes debunks here:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/kenya.asp


Corsi apparently isn't trying to present Raila Odinga as Obama's cousin, but as a "fellow Luo tribesman" -- and this attack, instead of saying Obama donated money to Odinga's campaign, instead emphasizes Obama's "repeated public appearances" with Odinga. The website has video I haven't checked yet, from WBBM-TV in Chicago, which supposedly helps back this up.

Corsi is also emphasizing an alleged "Memorandum of Understanding" between Odinga and radical Muslims.


So this attack is meant to emphasize that Obama is "tribal" (foreign, "scary") and sympathetic to those allied with radical Muslims (terra, terra, terra!).

I hope that there will soon be a Snopes page on this, as well as something direct from Obama's campaign.

[blogslut]

1. Who the hell besides the religiously insane takes World Nut Daily seriously?

?

[highplainsdem]

2. The sort of people who take viral emails seriously. The Obama campaign shouldn't ignore the swift-

boating. After all, this isn't likely to stay only at WND (and someone else here posted about Corsi appearing on Hannity & Colmes, though I don't know if Kenya was mentioned).

Since it is different from the earlier email that was debunked, it should be dealt with separately.

[karynnj]

3. Corsi has a new book on this that he introduced yesterday on Hannity's radio show

I was listening as I was caught in traffic driving to meet my husband before the Bruce Springsteen show and it was beyond sickening - starting from the praise of Corsi's willingness to stand up to the attacks on him after he and the "honorable veterans" attacked Kerry.

He went on and on about having researched Obama since 2006 and how many pages the book is (high 300s) and the number of footnotes - because, you know, if the are lots of foot notes this needs to be true.

This is scary as like the SBVT attack it is essentially the equivalent of a smear campaign cluster bomb. In 2004, the Kerry campaign immediately put out 36 pages that documented lies and inconsistencies. For every attack raised, they sent out surrogates - who often then were hit with alternative attacks that they often were unprepared for. Obama's, if anything, is harder to deal with as the attacks span his whole life, while the Kerry attacks dealt with a short period of his life where the official record was complete - even though the RW still says it isn't - and backed him 100%.

What 2004 shows is that debunking a significant number of lies is necessary, but not sufficient. One advantage this time, is that Corsi in 2004 could hide behind "vets, who the RW will designate as Heros". Corsi himself stayed hidden after his awful internet posting - which he admitted - showed him for what he was. Here, may be one of the few times, attacking the messenger might be warranted - as he is really that bad.

"In his interview on The Sean Hannity Show, Corsi said, "I apologize if anybody was offended by anything I said." Corsi then classified his comments (which included calling Pope John Paul II "senile"; asking if Senator "HELLary" Clinton is "a lesbo or anything"; and calling Muslims "RAGHEADS" and "Boy-Bumpers") as "silly," saying he "thought they were jokes" and complaining that they were taken "completely out of context."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200408110005

[highplainsdem]

7. Yes, the WND article is about his book. Did Corsi mention Kenya on H&C?

[karynnj]

14. Yes he did

He spoke of how Obama supported a leftish candidate in spite of something he wrote that Corsi had a problem with because his father was an ally of Obama's father. He also spoke of all the ideologies of every writer that Obama spoke of reading in high school - because of course you only read people who you 100% agree with!

He also started with attacks on Obama's father - which were beyond nasty and, of course, have nothing to do with Obama.

(Take this with a grain of salt as I was listening in stop and go NJ traffic - so I was pretty distracted.)

I am sure the Obama campaign will go through the book with a fine tooth comb as soon as it comes out - but as I said Kerry's team did this and got a 36 page memo of lies and inconsistencies (including debunking) within one day of the 2004 book coming out - and we know that was not enough. I hope they create either some pages on their Stop the Smears cite or better they create some you-tubes with Obama addressing specific issues - so if needed we can become the media. (Imagine in 2004 that the technology was this good - the 5 minute rebuttal Kerry gave on the service charges before the firemen would have been perfect as a You tube that we could have sent out to everyone. The number of DU people (including me) who did NOT see it in 2004 on MSM shows that the media covered it very inadequately given the time they gave the SBVT.)

[scheming daemons]

4. The fact that you were reading WND makes me wonder a little about you

Masochist?

[ProSense]

5. Why the hell are you giving this wingnut asshole exposure? n/t

[highplainsdem]

6. In response to replies 4 & 5 -- this turned up checking Google News for stories on Obama,

which I do every day. I checked this story because people have mentioned the Corsi book here before, and I wanted to see what this was, and since it doesn't take the same line of attack as the viral email that's already been debunked, I hope this will be debunked, soon, including on Snopes.

You seem to think it will help if we're completely oblivious to RW attacks launched against Obama.

[ProSense]

8. Worldnut always turns up. Nothing they print is worth repeating. n/t

[highplainsdem]

9. Faux News is giving his book coverage. And we've discussed other smears that should be debunked.

I just found the Hannity & Colmes transcript, since someone upthread said Corsi was on H&C last night.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,395823,00.html

So there's no point in pretending the story isn't out there. This needs to be debunked, not ignored.

[ProSense]

11. That has nothing to do with the BS Worldnut smear. He gets coverage for his book, but

Worldnut's ridiculous claims rarely make it out of wingnut channels. Why be the first to give them exposure? You can find a lot of crazy wingnut crap in Google searches, but why link to them?

[karynnj]

15. It is worth at least knowing that Corsi has written this book

just as it was important knowing it in 2004 on the other book. The problem is how to convey what it is, giving enough info to let people know the overall content and the fact that we should be trying to counter it. Now, I'm sure that Corsi et al likely had a file on JRE and HRC that they would have converted to a book - that would likely be as contradictory and as dishonest as the SBVT one - had eitehr of them won.

[treestar]

10. We need to start making up emails about McNuts

In fact, they could be true.

We're always on the defensive on this - mainly because only repukes are so presumptuous as to send these things on.

[kevinmc]

12. Media Matters has already been debunking this Book. n/t

[kurtboss]

13. Corsi will be on again tonight

Odinga was robbed in the Dec elections...Kibaki is Bush's guy. Corsi is an idiot, see his attachments to "Unfit to Command" of which he was co-author. Corsi's book is out today and he'll be back on Fox for Part II...another hour of advertising. (Which perhaps should lead to charges of Fox being a PAC as they are clearly coordinating.)

On the fourth, Monday, the second anti-Obama book drops, "The Case against Obama"...it will receive the same attention and acts to reinforce the same bullshit.

I'm getting worried that I've only seen a Media Matters campaign against these books as the Obama people have known they were in the pipes since spring. Kerry was faced with a similar problem and chose to do the "Reporting for Duty" crap at the convention and then ignore and then engage the swiftboaters. Obama needs a coherent policy he needs to communicate about these books as they are viral turds dropped with maggots and fly eggs to spread disease. Anyone know the Obama plan?

I don't think refuting individual claims is a good idea...that just gives legs to the story and allows for networks to the old fair and balanced schtick where they report the bullshit and then say, while "obama contends..." Since there are million charges in these books a broader strategy is needed.

Corsi is tainted with Swiftboat, so we should be able to get the media to distrust him and his book, but that's why they have two books coming out, the second by David Freddoso of National Review. The hope is to get people talking Obama allegations.

We need a shit storm of the most sensational stories and accusations about McSame/Bush III, in my opinion. Capsize the debate by unexpectedly attacking McCain "dirty" with sex,drugs, race, nukes, bin laden, terrorism, 9/11, flip-flops, corruption, infidelity, blatant attacks on age. Remember they have to be sensational stories that will sweep the media attention away to McSame/Bush III. Otherwise this going to become all about Obama, when it should be all about Bush III.