This summer, from the producer who brought you “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” comes a buddy picture about two guys from Chicago who lied, connived and grafted their way into the highest levels of government: Obama & Blago.
Actually, that’s a web site devoted to revealing “What the Obama-adoring press won’t report during the trial of Rod Blagojevich” -- namely, that Obama and Blagojevich are equally contaminated creatures from the swamp of Chicago politics.
Today’s entry speculates that Blagojevich confidant John Wyma tipped off Rahm Emanuel that the feds were closing in on Blagojevich. That would explain why Emanuel stopped pushing Blagojevich to appoint Valerie Jarrett to the U.S. Senate.
Their proof? They don’t have any. BUT.
Wyma was not directly participating in the wiretaps so it is impossible to know whether he knew the feds were zeroing in on the Senate conversations. But Wyma certainly knew the end was near for Blagojevich and if he got wind from Emanuel that he was negotiating with Blago, he easily could have told his friend Rahm to back off.
Smoking gun! But not really! At all!
Politics
Obama & Blago is funded by the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, an organization started by Rick Reed, who produced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads during the 2004 presidential campaign. Reed also produced campaign ads for Jim Ryan and Judy Baar Topinka. So Reed has a few scores to settle with Blagojevich.
The reason this won’t be another successful Swift Boat campaign is that Obama is already president. The Swift Boat ads worked against Kerry because the public was still building its impression of the senator from Massachusetts. But no one cares anymore what Obama did in Chicago. That swift boat has sailed. The public is going to judge him on what he’s doing in Washington: fixing health care, stopping the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, ending unemployment, crafting an immigration policy.
“Obama and Blagojevich” is so 2008. The guys behind this site are obviously trying to make up for opportunities they missed during the presidential campaign. Obama’s enemies spent all their time attacking Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Tony Rezko. They were Obama’s most outrageous associates, but they had little to do with his rise in politics. Conservative researchers ignored Obama’s real mentors, Abner Mikva and Emil Jones. They also ignored Blagojevich, seeing him as a lame-duck governor who’d collaborated with Obama on health care, but hadn’t played a role in his campaign. Now that Blagojevich is in trouble, they’re struggling to establish a connection.
Unfortunately, if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the Blagojevich trial so far, it’s that Obama wanted nothing to do with the governor’s schemes. It’s true that Obama asked Blagojevich to appoint Jarrett to the Senate, but as soon as he figured out the Blago was trying to milk the appointment for a cabinet seat/ambassadorship/foundation presidency/new Oxxford suit, he made it clear that all he had to offer was “gratitude.” When that wasn’t enough for Blagojevich, Obama appointed Jarrett to a job in the White House.
