Clearly, there is a concerted attempt to step-up efforts to defend Obama from any hint of accusations he had anything to do with the Blago scandal.
Depending on which lefty blogger you read, I'm either ...
1). An idiot who doesn't realize Hawaii is part of the United States, or...
2). An evil genius who is intentionally insinuating Obama is not "American" enough...
Obviously, I can't be both. In this case, I would say I'm neither (but hey, I'm biased).
For the record, here is the statement which has sparked such surprising controversy:
"I think it's very likely what we read tomorrow will not be a big deal. However, you know, you could make an argument that if he wants it to appear to be not a big deal he would be out of the country."Having read this many, many times, I am confused by the controversy. First, I did not say Obama was out of the country, nor did I say Hawaii is not a state. What I did say, however, is that if one wanted to make this story appear to truly be "no big deal," they would be "out of the country." Second, I actually think I am defending Obama at this instance -- which makes the attacks even stranger.
... Still, I stand by my statement, but I didn't expect my prediction to come true quite so quickly. Imagine my surprise when I read today's New York Times this morning and saw this:
"Mr. Emanuel was not available to answer a reporter’s questions on Tuesday, aides said, because he had left for a planned holiday trip to Africa with his family."Emanuel's leaving the country, of course, does not imply that he is guilty of anything (if you read my quote, you will see that I predicted as much). However, it surely does create the image of a man who is not in the least bit worried about his conversations with Blago being "a big deal" -- which was precisely my point to begin with. Stay tuned...