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Ratfuck

May 2nd, 2008 at 2:43 pm by Susie

Let Lambert explain it. The whole thing makes my head hurt.

Posted in Blogosphere, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Media, Politics As Usual

12 Responses to “Ratfuck”

on 02 May 2008 at 3:42 pm1HeywoodR

Obama connected to Texas polygamy Hoax?
on 02 May 2008 at 4:03 pm2lambert strether

Teh funny. But no. On a postcard:

As yet unnamed Obama supporter doctors a “War Room” clip to insult IN voters before the IN primary, featuring Clinton supporters Carville and Kantor, and it gets propagated (somehow) onto the A list, who should have known better. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, the thing goes viral before it gets debunked. What I’d like to know is who blogwhored it to the A-list, but we’ll never know that. Well done, all.

In the days when we had a media critique, this would never have happened. Now, of course, we don’t.
on 02 May 2008 at 5:34 pm3HeywoodR

As yet unnamed Obama supporter doctors a “War Room” clip

Would you care to support this allegation? Forget about a media critique, you’re making a baseless accusation and it’s hardly the first time.
on 02 May 2008 at 5:39 pm4neil

The clip wasn’t doctored. It was subtitled with a questionable interpretation of Kantor’s whisper, and the audio was amplified to make it easier to make out.

Here’s a clip of the section of War Room that this was taken from. If you skip ahead to about 4:30 you get to the part where Kantor walks in. Turn your speakers up and you’ll hear that the audio on the original clip was not doctored. (Then keep listening and you’ll hear that the context makes the anti-Indiana-people interpretation totally implausible.)

I smell a rat, personally. The same 30-second clip went up on YouTube on Thursday evening, only without the totally implausible “n-word” part. Then this morning, the same clip pops up with that attached, it catches fire then gets debunked, and presto, everybody who linked to it Thursday evening takes their post down. To answer Lambert’s question, that’s how you put a viral video back in the tube.
on 02 May 2008 at 6:21 pm5Ron

I agree with HeywoodR, at least the part about support for the allegation. I didn’t see a statement definitively identifying an Obama supporter as responsible.

The term ‘ratfuck’ was coined describing what rethugs do to Dems. This sounds like the epitome of a Rethug Rovian Ratfuck. Put something out impugning a Dem candidate that can be easily debunked, when it is found out point the finger at a Dem opponent and yell, “you bastard” (or bitch as the case may be). Everyone looks at the sucker and cries YOU BASTARD. It’s especially effective in the internet age. Charge and counter-charge circle the globe a million times in an afternoon to the point nobody can untangle the original story nor cares much to do so by that point. My first suspect is always a Republican, even if the culprit is a member of a Dem cadre. Can you say, mole? It’s their MO.
on 02 May 2008 at 6:57 pm6Joe

doctored?? maybe - maybe not…but really - who cares! OB and hrc both have their supporters in IN and really now all that is left is GOTV. Too bad that bosnian sniper-fire death run to with daughter could;t have been doctored up somehow…you know make it look like Grand Theft Election 2008!!
on 02 May 2008 at 11:00 pm7Lambert Strether, Philadelphia, PA

1. The clip was both doctored and subtitled; the word “doctored” is from D.A. Pennebaker, the director, by the way. There are two versions, one with subtitles, one without.
2. An Obama supporter has admitted to altering the video.
3. We now have a transcript available, and there’s nothing to the story at all (”Kantor never impugned Hoosiers”)

However, the damage is done, the story has now gone viral, will be endlessly discussed in the OFB fever swamps, along with who killed Vince Foster, and will doubtless cost Hillary some votes, which is, after all, the important thing if we’ve got our priorities straight.

A hearty “well done” to the Obama supporters responsible, and especially to the A listers who transmitted the smear to the mainstream without getting a transcript or checking the provenance of the YouTube! Ain’t this new kind of politics grand?
on 02 May 2008 at 11:52 pm8HeywoodR

An Obama supporter has admitted to altering the video.

Oh how cute.

The second version of the video was posted, as far as I know, by an Obama supporter not affiliated with the campaign.
on 03 May 2008 at 3:47 am9Macjazz

” [clip] featuring Clinton supporters Carville and Kantor … gets propagated (somehow) onto the A list, who should have known better.”

Yes. They most certainly should have known better. I’m surprised anyone would think this clip was significant enough to post to begin with. There’s no “there” there.

Never mind the subtitles, it’s clear that there’s a word, or words, in between the phrase “Those people are …” and the word “… shit”. Sounds to me like, “Those people are gonna shit!” Not sure who “those people are” … maybe Clinton’s opponents at the time, who are “gonna shit” when they see the numbers from Indiana?

No “nigger” in there anywhere. Extremely lame vid to try and hit Clinton with. This is even lamer than the “Obama gives Hillary the finger” vid, which was already a pretty ridiculous attempt at stretchiing something to mean something it doesn’t.

I don’t know that this subtitled War Room vid can be attributed to the Obama campaign itself - these connections are always murky, but this one is so amateurish that it has the flavor of some yahoo with an old War Room DVD, a YouTube membership, and an axe to grind. So I don’t know one way or another about that … I do know that Kantor doesn’t say what the subtitles say, that much is clear.
on 03 May 2008 at 3:49 am10ask Tapper

The Trail blog at the WaPo says Eric Schmeltzer, who they identify
as an independent public relations consultant who favors Barack Obama, sent the clip to political reporters. Mr. Schmeltzer also happens to be a former press secretary for Howard Dean and a current blogger for the Huffington Post. The same Huffington Post that pushed the story at the beginning of the day.
on 03 May 2008 at 9:04 am11steveeboy

it’s just a good thing that kantor never scratched his face with his two middle fingers, THEN we would have a REAL issue.
on 03 May 2008 at 9:44 am12Joe

“”"However, the damage is done, the story has now gone viral, will be endlessly discussed in the OFB fever swamps, along with who killed Vince Foster….”"”

And how did the “Foster Issue” actually get any attention over the last few months??? Maybe hrc’s french-kiss meeting with scaiff??? The person soley responsible for pushing the insane “Foster Murder” idea….i only see this viral video being discussed on hrc-leaning fever swamps. most OB swamps see it for the ridiculousness it is…those blogs tend to talk about reality (delegate, vote, primary, caucus wins and coming NC victory and potential upset in IN).

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Ratfuck

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