Campaign Notes: News & Updates

HopeChange®! The astroturfed smearing of Sarah Palin--Jawa Report has the extremely detailed investigation.

Hope, Change, & Lies: Orchestrated "Grassroots" Smear Campaigns & the People that Run Them

Extensive research was conducted by the Jawa Report to determine the source of smears directed toward Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Those smears included false allegations that she belonged to a secessionist political party and that she has radical anti-American views.

Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.

It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign.

More and linkage to more from Dan Riehl, Ace, Patterico, and Michelle Malkin. Naturally, as soon as the story broke the cover-up began, but the investigating blogs had already archived the pages. Is this the HopeChange® you were looking for?

Slice from Little Miss Atilla:

"Astroturfing" by a huge PR firm—Winner & Associates, with ties to the Barack Obama campaign—might actually have been aided, financed, or encouraged by "The King of Astroturfing," Axlerod himself, who works for . . . um, who was that? Oh, yeah: Barack Obama.

************************

In other news, Charlie's Angels have apparently deserted him. The revelations of Rangel's "adventures" just keep piling up. But we hear his get-way vehicle* is still there...

Remember, this man is head of the House Ways and Means Committee. The phrase "Culture of Corruption" has such a ring to it, doesn't it?

[*--UPDATE: So much for the getway vehicle. After being stored for over four years without registration or insurance in the Congressional parking lot, Charlie's Mercedes has apparently been towed away. Towed by whom and to where are unknown at this time, although a parking tower employee claimed it had been towed to a dealership for service. Maybe Charlie's just getting it ready in case of need...]

************************

In still other news, the FBI has served a search warrant on David Kernell, the chief suspect in the hacking of Palin's email account and son of Mike Kernell, a Tennessee Democratic state representative. That 20-year-old seems to have done a better job of covering his tracks than Winner & Associates, but that's not saying much. Is this the HopeChange® you were looking for?

Outside of a very few AP wire reports, coverage of this scandal is conspicuously lacking in the MSM.

And really, dude, you're under federal investigation waiting for the hob-nailed federal boot to stomp, and you throw a party? I mean, six points for style, but minus seven for intelligence.

*************************

Slate has spotted some hefty stealth pivots occuring on the Obama campaign web site. The old Memory Hole just isn't as efficient as they would like it to be. Still, I look forward to the inevitable "softening and refinement" of Obama-Flex™ polling-responsive policy positioning. Is this the HopeChange® you were looking for?

************************

More as circumstances warrant and time allows. CMR.