This one is so easy to debunk, I can’t believe I have to waste precious keystrokes on it. Via Drudge:

With a week to go until the Texas and Ohio primaries, stressed Clinton staffers circulated a photo over the weekend of a “dressed” Barack Obama.

The photo, taken in 2006, shows the Democrat frontrunner fitted as a Somali Elder, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya.

The senator was on a five-country tour of Africa.

“Wouldn’t we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?” questioned one campaign staffer, in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

 

Yes, wouldn’t we? I mean, it’s appalling that the representative of the United States would dress in the traditional garb of the country they are visiting! Surely no other American, and certainly not Mrs. Clinton, would ever have done such a thing!  Certainly neither she nor First Lady Laura Bush would ever dress in the head scarves so beloved by Muslim women:

Certainly her husband President Clinton would never have donned  any tribal garb!

And as we all know, President Bush is a secret Taoist.

Actually, that last outfit is pretty swank.  I wonder where I can get one.

I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.

Oh, Hillary. We’ve been over this. Once more, with feeling, then?

Obama worked for a charity group that partnered with Rezko. He did 5 hours of work for them as an associate, which means his bosses told him to do this here job.

William Miceli, Obama’s supervisor at the law firm, said the firm represented the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., a nonprofit group that redeveloped a run-down property on Chicago’s South Side with Rezko. He called Clinton’s assertion that Obama represented Rezko in a slum landlord business ‘categorically untrue. He was a very junior lawyer at the time, who was given responsibility for basic due diligence, document review,’ said Miceli, adding that Obama did what he was told by the firm.

And he did nothing for Rezko while a state senator

And a Tribune review of land and court documents and law firm files as well as correspondence and other records related to Obama’s eight years as an Illinois state lawmaker supports his contention that he did not directly represent Rezko’s development firm. Instead, the records show, he represented non-profit community groups that partnered with Rezko’s firm.

Oh… hey, who’s this guy in the middle? That wouldn’t be Tony Rezko, would it?

I don’t know the man. I wouldn’t know him if he walked in the door. I don’t have a 17-year relationship with him.

No doubt Senator Clinton had her picture taken with lots of people while serving as both First Lady and as a Senator. Perhaps she should keep that in mind the next time she wants to create the idea that merely associating with someone equals corruption.

The original news out of Nevada was Who Really Won? Clinton won the popular vote, Obama won the delegate vote, FIGHT. However, shortly after the caucuses word spread of serious irregularities.

One of the first reports to go out was this DailyKos diary from thereisnospoon, detailing lost registration lists, doors closing early, Clinton supporters turning away Obama supporters, etc. etc. etc.. Just after 6PM, Obama’s camp released this statement:

We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive, attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself.

It was accompanied by a phone number for people to call to report irregularities. The Clinton camp swiftly released their own statement alleging suppression by Obama supporters.

On Wednesday, January 23, The Obama campaign officially lodged a complaint with the Nevada Democratic Party. They included an image of a page from the Clinton campaign book that said “It’s not illegal unless they tell you so” and extolling readers to do everything they could.

As of this post, the only thing that is clear is that the Nevada Democratic Party sucks at running caucuses. We’ll keep you appraised of any further details as they emerge.

This isn’t a refutation of anything. This is a big round of applause to all of the Goons and non-Goon readers of this here blog. This is our time. One down, forty-nine to go.

This article is warped and horrible and the picture may either offend or scare you or both.

I can kind of agree with the perception that Smarty McSmart Guy tends to lose to the Straight Shooter I’d Wanna Have A Beer With, and thus the point of the article seems pretty decent, and painfully somewhat true, but then he tries to stretch his comparisons way too far. Bill Bradley? Paul Tsongas? Energizing the intellectual youth voters? The author is trying so hard to shoehorn Obama into a wholly concocted and inconsistent narrative of “nerdy, egghead candidates with no populist appeal who lose elections” and fails miserably. One of the major premises of it is that Obama hasn’t focused on low-income people’s issues at all- which is complete bullshit on the face of it, even if Edwards is supposedly the anti-poverty champion. The author is also completely wrong about Obama’s fundraising.

Further, Obama tends to be both Smarty McSmartpants and the guy you wanna have a beer with. He’s the guy who apologizes for cockblocking a reporter, who apparently has some b-ball skills, who jokes that he’s gone so often his wife is reffering to him as “my first husband.”

The awesome Goon Willa Rogers suggested:

What someone should do is buy up an url for something like obamatruth.com, use it as an FAQ to rebut the bullshit (like snopes.com) quickly in response to right-wing memes, have printable flyers and cards for supporters to download and hand out, and spread the word about the site.

OBAMATRUTH.ORG and THEREALOBAMA.COM are already being used for horrible right-wing obfuscation, and Eripsa is a shill for Blogger, so here we are.

Here is a gauntlet. It appears to have been thrown.