Hug Gate- The Anatomy of a Phony Conspiracy

Well, I think it's useful to spend some time on the tremendous "scandal" that Andrew Breitbart was about to release- a piece of film from Obama's college days that Breitbart said would destroy Obama.

Let's talk about the truth first.  In 1990, Derrick Bell, the first black tenured professor at Harvard University, held a protest.  He was angered that Harvard law school had denied tenure to a female black professor.  Unsurprisingly, the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, one Barack Obama, was selected to introduce Professor Bell.  This demonstration was covered by Boston PBS station WGBH.  Here is the entire surviving footage (from WGBH) of Obama's introduction.  It is important that you take the one minute and seventeen seconds to watch this, as it shows how absolutely inoffensive Obama's remarks were:



That's it!  And all in the service of a purported rabid black racist who is actually a Harvard law professor. 

Oh, wait a minute, there's more!  Obama actually HUGGED professor Bell after introducing him!  According to Breitbart's followers, evil liberals edited this shocking footage from the video.  Actually, it was never in the video, but here is a widely circulated photo of this abominable act:

Now, let us turn to a small sample of the right wing's reaction to this event, which Breitbart claimed would result in Obama's being crushed at the election next November:

Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit:  "BREITBART VIDEO Shows Obama Urging Peers to Embrace Radical Crackpot Racist Prof...Breitbart.com Editor-in-Chief Joel Pollak and Editor-at-Large Ben Shapiro appeared on The Sean Hannity Show tonight to discuss the Obama Harvard protest tape that was kept from the American public by the democrat-media complex back in 2008...The complete footage from 1991 shows Barack Obama leading a protest at Harvard Law School in support of Professor Derrick Bell, a radical academic tied to Obama’s racist pastor Jeremiah Wright. The unedited tape also shows Barack Obama embracing this radical professor. In the unedited video Obama encourages students to “open up your hearts and minds” to this radical race-baiting professor.

The democrat-media complex purposely hid this tape from the American public in 2008"

Well, no they didn't hide it.  It was broadcast in full during the 2008 campaign, but who cares about facts.  Now, may I point out to you how unlikely it is that "radical crackpots" are made tenured professors at Harvard?  Of course, Hoft is counting on his readers to know nothing about Derrick Bell, and to be ready and eager to believe any right wing smear about any black man.  And of course, the unedited video does not show Obama "leading" a protest, it only shows him introducing Bell.

Katie Pavlich, Town Hall:  "Barack Obama Palled Around With Radical Professor"

Pretty much the same as Jim Hoft, above, as well as numerous other wingnuts who insist that there is something "radical" about this Harvard professor, with the addition of the Sarah Palin phrase "palled around," which is a sort of cue to the anti-intellectual base of the Republican party that it is okay to believe any vile thing about Harvard people.

Frank Gaffney, Town Hall:  "Andrew Breitbart, Our Samuel Adams"

I guess he's talking about the beer, because Breitbart sure as hell didn't have a damned thing in common with the America patriot, whose career did not consist in being a lying prick.

Tony Katz, Town Hall:  "Vetting Obama: Leftists Take Steps To Prevent You From Learning Anything"
 
Except for the facts that A) they didn't; and B) there is nothing to learn from this pathetic piece of video, except that, contrary to the claims of many wingnuts, Obama actually did go to Harvard.

"This is a man so extreme that, as we’ve reported, he wrote a story in 1993 in which he posited that white Americans would sell black Americans into slavery to aliens to relieve the national debt"


How could anyone be so degenerate as to suggest that White Americans would sell Black Americans into slavery?

Ed Driscoll, Ed Driscoll.com:  "Obama’s Mentor: We Hid this Video Throughout the 2008 Campaign"

Obama's mentor?  Bill Ayers?  Jeremiah Wright?  Saul Alinsky?  Satan? No, some guy named Charles Ogletree.  Man, Obama had a lot of mentors.  And this story seems to be questionable too, because the tape in question was freely available during the 2008 campaign.  Well, surprise, surprise...this one has another big, Breitbart style lie in it.  The full tape of Ogletree's remarks has now been released, and it turns out that Ogletree was actually making a joke about how he and his fellow professors looked so much older than they did twenty years ago, and Breitbart, in his inevitable fashion cut out the context of Ogletree's remarks, to make it seem like they were trying to hide something about Obama.  They never change.

Joe Kovacs, World Net Daily:  "'Smoking gun' in Breitbart mystery video...Major cover-up alleged in 2008 presidential campaign"

What exactly it was they were covering up, I can't say.   It sure wasn't anything in this tape.

Thomas Lifson, American Thinker:  "The first of the posthumous Breitbart tapes debuted last night on Hannity, and today on Breitbart.com.  You can tell the left is concerned by the fact that:

1. Ben Smith, now running Buzzfeed, pre-empted the debut by licensing the same tape from WGBH TV in Boston, and running it, minus a couple of shots, and then rushed to dismiss its significance.

2. There has been a rush to conclude that this is much ado about nothing"

Much ado about nothing.  Those damned liberals, reverting to the worst refuge of scoundrels- telling the truth.  And to think that their rebuttal of Breitbart consisted of releasing the tape themselves.  What a strategy, if liberals really thought there was something bad here.

"Update: J. Christian Adams of PJ Media points to another tape showing black students occupying a Dean's office as part of the same effort to force tenure for a black professor who didn't earn it. One of the students seen occupying the office looks a lot like Michelle Obama."

Oh my God, there goes Obama's re-election.  His wife was in a protest twenty years ago- if it is even her.

Trust me, I could go on and on here.  If this incident proves anything, it is what a blameless life Obama has led, and what a pack of vicious liars Conservatives are.  Well, we've had that proven so many times, we really didn't need another lesson.


Extra Added Bonus:  If you are feeling particularly masochistic today, you could go here, where you will find a host of incredibly tedious videos about how Obama had Breitbart killed to prevent the release of this video.  Honestly, I couldn't force myself to wade through much of it.

Comments

Silverfiddle said…
Yeah, it was kind of a letdown.

America already knew Obama was a radical leftist who marinated in race-tinged resentment at Reverend Wright's Church of God Damn America.
BB-Idaho said…
We should expect nothing less from the investigative arm of the Palinistas/Dittoheads.
Grung_e_Gene said…
There is no conflict, anything which serves the Alternate Conservative Reality is automatically true!
Grung_e_Gene said…
Did Frank Gaffney just defame Breitbart by calling him a raging alcoholic or is the truth that Breitbart was a slobbering alcoholic drunk a defense?
Dave Dubya said…
I must say, either America voted a "radical leftist racist" into the White House...or some Americans are so full of Limbaugh/FOX(R) cult koolade they can see a Kenyan Muslim commie in the White House.

I can't quite make up my mind which is true. Maybe I'd better ask Rush.

One thing I do know is, hate, fear and ignorance go hand in hand.

And we live in a hateful, fearful and ignorant country if either one of my two statements is correct.
Green Eagle said…
Leave it to Siverfiddle to totally ignore the fact that Breitbart reached out from the grave to totally humiliate himself one more time and make fools of every Conservative in the country; and at the same time repeat a nonsensical claim which he knows perfectly well is utterly false.

Silverfiddle, really, some day you have to explain to us where you thing this sort of behavior is going to lead us.
Magpie said…
I didn’t know Andrew Breitbart had died.

Local media here didn’t mention it.
They were more concerned with trivial things like death and torture in Syria, Iranian nukes, and the anniversary of Fukushima.

I WAS going to write “May I offer my sincere “get stuffed” to that lying shithead Breitbart and everything he represented”…

But then I thought… maybe that’s a bit crass and disrespectful, considering the man has died. So in the spirit of respectful discourse let us instead I reflect on what Breitbart respectfully said about Ted Kennedy when Kennedy died:

“a special pile of human excrement", "villain," "duplicitous bastard," and "prick".

And let us pay our respects with similar humanity, politeness and sense of decorum. Breitbart has shown the way.

Amen.
Anonymous said…
Breibart never killed anyone and if he did he wouldn't have been able to use his family's politcal power and/or money to get away with it.
I guess you would agree with Breibart had Teddy failed to report it had it been your sister,mother,cousin or friend left to die a slow scary death at the botom of a lake all alone.
How long do you think it took?
Anonymous said…
you guys are so easy to bait in. You don't even have a clue why this tape was released. It's good to know you are paying attention.
Dave Dubya said…
When Bill Maher featured Breitbart as a guest on “Real Time”, he asked if it was possible that people were racist without their knowing it. Breitbart responded, “I don’t understand the question”. I believe that perfectly answered the question.
Dave Dubya said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said…
Bill Maher is a frigging moron. It was a stupid question with no relevance except the typical race baiting from the left.Bill Maher is just an angry shit stirring liberal.
Dave Dubya said…
And the question is answered once again.
Anonymous said…
what was the point of the question except to accuse Breibart of being a racist even though he may not know it?
Give me a break please.
The racists are the ones on the left because they use it where it isn't used just to shut down the conversation.
The whole plan was to use Obama for his race so the powers that be could push their big government agenda knowing people would be against it and then instead of debate they call them racists.
Minorities should wake up and see how the left uses them.Although many have or should I say many have begun to speak up more because they know how the left abuses it.
The media influenced the 2008 election by not properly vetting Obama which is the reason for the backlash.The whole thing was orchestrated and choreographed
just like the upcoming documentary by Obama's rich Hollywood liberals to show us how wonderful he is because nobody would know otherwise.
The democrats are the ones who got the uneducated,uninformed to vote for Obama and worship him like some kind of cult figure.
mmmmmmm......mmmmmmmm....mmmmmmm
So you can blame yourselves libs. Good going.
Dave Dubya said…
So the troll thinks liberals are racists because they dare mention the subject.

I see.

That makes about as much sense as a Palinist whining about Obama not being "vetted".

I think real racists expose themselves by accusing only liberals of being racist.

It's called projection.

It's probably a safe bet the anonymous troll is both a bigot and a racist. And I'd bet he doesn't know the difference.

"The whole plan was to use Obama for his race" indicates a very racist form of paranoia.

(And here I thought it was all a secret Muslim plot to take over our country and impose Sharia law.)

He ain't just whistlin Dixie. He's gone around the bend.
Green Eagle said…
A few thoughts:

"Breibart never killed anyone"

On the other hand, Teddy Kennedy devoted his entire life to public service despite the fact that he was born rich and could have done nothing; Breitbart was nothing but a vicious liar who did as much as he could to destroy American democracy and turn the country over to his rich masters.

"You don't even have a clue why this tape was released."

Yes we do. It was the first step in a campaign of smears and distortions designed to destroy an honest, dedicated Democratic president and replace him with a hyper-rich monster.

"The democrats are the ones who got the uneducated,uninformed to vote for Obama and worship him like some kind of cult figure.
mmmmmmm......mmmmmmmm....mmmmmmm
So you can blame yourselves libs. Good going."

We can blame ourselves for the fact that the United States is not in a total depression. Boy, I really feel guilty about that.

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