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BREAKING NEWS: RedState.com can read Obama's mind!

September 22, 2009 11:25 am ET by Eric Boehlert

Is there any supernatural power right-wing bloggers don't process?

Check out Erick Erickson's "exclusive" at RedState where he claims he can pretty much prove Obama was lying when he said over the weekend that he wasn't paying much attention to the right-wing's beloved ACORN caper. How does crack journalist Erickson go about proving that Obama has been paying attention? Easy, Erickson lists all the connections, real and imagined, between ACORN and Obama. Even more amazing, after rifling through the ACORN CEO's private contact list, he reports she has phone numbers for staffers who work at the White House! I mean, how many other people in Washington, D.C. can say that?

Well, actually hundreds if not thousands can say that, but you get the idea....

RedState's bottom line: It can just sense that Obama's been following the ACORN story closely. Of course, RedState doesn't have any actual proof. It can't quote anybody who's had detailed discussion with Obama about ACORN in recent days. It doesn't have access to White House memos which indicate a huge interest from Obama in the story. But RedState can just tell. It can feel that Obama is lying.

I knew Obama's dismissive comment regarding ACORN on Sunday would drive the right-wing to distraction. (i.e. “Frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.”) I just didn't think folks like Erickson would resort to using supernatural powers (and lifted contact list info) to crack the case. I didn't think right-wing bloggers would claim they could read Obama's mind and definitively claim that the POTUS has been following the ACORN story closely.

Then again, I always underestimate bloggers like Erickson.

UPDATED: RedState's whiff simply highlights how, without eye-catching hidden camera video to rally around, the conservative attempt to turn ACORN into a blockbuster story about a sprawling Evil Empire just isn't going  to have much staying power. Especially with crack "reporters" like Erickson flogging it. (Reminder: He took somebody's private phone/email contact list and posted it as an "exclusive." Disgraceful.)

UPDATED: RedState responds. Warning: It's almost too dumb for words.

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    • Author by political_left-religious_right (September 22, 2009 11:40 am ET)
      3  
      "... crack journalist Erickson..."

      Whoa, Eric, you forgot the "-pot".
      Report Abuse
      • Author by WorldViewer (September 22, 2009 11:57 am ET)
        3  
        I think you mean he forgot the "-head".
        Report Abuse
      • Author by pilotshark (September 22, 2009 12:27 pm ET)
        3  
        forgot the pipe
        Report Abuse
        • Author by themidnightreview.com (September 22, 2009 12:47 pm ET)
          4  
          His journalistic capabilities are on par with the rest, or should we forget ACORN filmmaker/conservative activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles. That duo has manufactured their own news stories and got the networks to carry them, but then fail to support their information to anyone except Breitbart and Fox...

          What the "liberal" media needs is a little distraction, to distract Fox News, so real work can get done.
          Report Abuse
    • Author by The_Cat (September 22, 2009 11:50 am ET)
      5  
      "I knew Obama's dismissive comment regarding ACORN on Sunday would drive the right-wing to distraction."

      Precisely. Because this is how you deal with whiny, petulant children: by ignoring them. By at the very least pretending not to notice the gigantic fuss they are making over nothing at all.

      That they would redouble their infantile tantrums, such as being able to read the mind of other people, just goes to show how little actual substance there is to this. Let it blow over. We are going to pass a public option!
      Report Abuse
    • Author by WorldViewer (September 22, 2009 11:57 am ET)
      2  
      They don't possess the supernatural power of intelligent argument, that's for sure. (Would "for certain" have also been grammatically acceptable?)
      Report Abuse
    • Author by randy99 (September 22, 2009 12:07 pm ET)
      1  
      remember the last time a President said:
      "Frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely"??

      It was Bush talking about Bin Laden. I sooooo remember how tight the panties of the Republicans were when they heard that!!

      I mean, shoot, he was only the mastermind who engineered the slaughter of 3000 Americans, not something really important like the shenanigans of a community organization.

      Report Abuse
    • Author by phredicles (September 22, 2009 12:29 pm ET)
      3  
      Bah, they all seem able to read his mind: You can refute their latest paranoid theory about "death panels" or privileges for undocumented immigrants on the facts, and they'll turn around and insist the president has a "secret plan" to do whatever it is they're freaking out over, and never even mind how they came to know about it if it's a secret. Evidently Shrub's ability to peer into the Putin's soul has transferred over to his apologists.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by wookie (September 22, 2009 1:28 pm ET)
      2  
      Instead Obama is trying to distract us with silly trivia like the economy, healthcare, overhauling terrorism policy...
      Report Abuse
      • Author by mk3872 (September 22, 2009 1:31 pm ET)
        1  
        Conservatives are not serious about domestic issues or governing.

        They just wanna clear the way for the industrial war complex and big business by claiming all politicians are false prophets or corrupt.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by sonnyjames (September 22, 2009 2:16 pm ET)
         
      *Sighs*
      Report Abuse
      • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (September 22, 2009 3:56 pm ET)
           
        I skimmed over some of the ACORN-related threads here and at some other sites last night, mostly to see how many of the conservatives are still buying that it's a story, and what new angles they're trying to work.

        This topic is a very good illustration of the far-right wing mind that is the audience for Fox and talk radio, and why it's so difficult to have a conversation with them..

        The story here is that the media is all over a manufactured non-story they're using as a distraction, and that they're trying to link this non-story to Obama.

        The wingnut posters are all discussing the intricate details of the non-story.They really think ACORN is the story.

        Report Abuse
    • Author by abynorml294930 (September 22, 2009 3:14 pm ET)
      1  
      Since when do Conservatives need facts? Just look at FOX "News'" reports.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by highliter (September 22, 2009 4:30 pm ET)
        1
      No different than Carter reading the minds of the vast majority of people opposed to Obamas health care plan because he is black. Speaking of which has anyone seen Obamas mystery plan in writing yet. Has he even endorsed a bill yet. He talks about “my plan” a lot just haven’t actually seen it yet.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (September 22, 2009 5:54 pm ET)
        1  
        Who is Carter, and why do you think black people have mind-reading abilities?

        BTW, very smooth tactic there.First line- off topic, second line "speaking of which...".
        Report Abuse
        • Author by highliter (September 23, 2009 9:47 am ET)
            1
          Umm Jimmy Carter you know the former president. Where the heck did I say black people could read minds? Former president carter said the vast majority of people who oppose Obama care oppose it because he is black. How would Carter know that unless he is reading their minds?
          Report Abuse
          • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (September 23, 2009 12:58 pm ET)
               
            Oh , sorry, it looked like you were saying that somebody named Carter was able to read the minds of people opposed to Obama's health care plan because he was black.

            Former president carter said the vast majority of people who oppose Obama care oppose it because he is black.


            Carter never said that. The statements by Carter that you're talking about were made more than a week ago. I could understand conservatives being confused the first time they heard the comments. Carter doesn't speak at an elementary school level like Rush or Hannity, sometimes speaking in sentences that contain commas.

            There's no excuse for still being confused about this more than a week after the fact.
            Report Abuse
            • Author by highliter (September 23, 2009 1:31 pm ET)
                 
              "an overwhelming proportion of the intensely demonstrated animosity towards President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,"


              How am I getting that confused again?
              Report Abuse
              • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (September 23, 2009 2:38 pm ET)
                   
                Fortunately, I [url=<a href="http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f262/Captain_Dick/?action=view&current=graph-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f262/Captain_Dick/graph-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>]made a visual aid[/url] for a conservative friend who was also having trouble with this .

                Does A=B?

                Does A=C?

                To your credit, you did pick up on the "vast majority" part, so you're ahead of those who think Carter said "everybody" who opposes Obama is racist.

                Carter, however, used two levels of clarification to emphasize that his opinion wasn't about all opposition to Obama.

                1. The "intensely demonstrated animosity", which is the loudest, most hateful opposition, a portion of all opposition..

                2. The "overwhelming portion", yet another,smaller part of #1, which is a subset of all opposition.
                Report Abuse
    • Author by eweston8542983 (September 22, 2009 11:04 pm ET)
         
      Per Red States glee "This is going to be fun!" One wonders, as I don't have any mindreading powers, What kind of fun? Political destruction, guilt by association, a little blackmail?
      Report Abuse

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