2008 Election CoverUps

A tale of two scandals

August 2008

The implications of john edwards's "Love Child" are nothing compared to those of the communist poet who was one of barack obama's mentors

By Andrew Peterson
For CoverUps.com

Accuracy in Media has an interesting article comparing the relative importance of scandals involving two Democrat politicians: John Edwards and Barack Obama.

The Edwards “love child” scandal has been waiting in the wings of the American political stage since October 2007. To our mind, it has less to do with the duplicity and infidelity of John Edwards than with the readiness of the media to protect those politicians it favors, by withholding unflattering information about them from the public.

Obama’s scandal is something else altogether – it involves ideology, rather than money or sex. You won’t see it on the cover of The National Enquirer. But it’s ultimately something of much greater importance to the country than the Edwards case; it relates to the values and beliefs of a man who may be running the country less than a year from now. This man seeks power over us (all candidates for president do). We as voters have a right to know what it is this man thinks about government’s role in our lives.

Obama’s relationship with the communist poet Frank Marshall Davis – referred to merely as “Frank” in Obama’s book “Dreams From My Father” – has only now begun to gain traction in parts of the conservative media:

...Davis’s influence over [Obama] during his high-school years in Hawaii helps explain why he would later associate with terrorists, communists and socialists ... Controversy over the Obama-Davis relationship is growing, at least in the conservative- oriented media. Rush Limbaugh, who last Thursday commented on our exposure of the dishonest Associated Press story about Davis, put a link to the AIM column on this matter on his website. Investor’s Business Daily published an August 5 editorial, “Young Obama’s Red Mentor.” The paper noted that the “cryptic references” in Obama’s book to this communist mentor “were―and still are―designed to protect Obama’s background from the scrutiny it deserves.”

The mainstream media has yet to pick up on it. The story may require sustained and passionate attention from the conservative media before it breaks out nationally and reaches a critical mass of voters – at which point the MSM will be compelled to cover it, though even then the coverage will likely be dismissive and full of spin.

Our Take

We can see two main reasons why Obama’s ties with Frank Marshall Davis will never become the kind of cause célèbre conservatives wish it would be:

It Covers Old Ground

Although Frank Marshall Davis’s name is new, he comes to us as just the latest example of a well-established story – Barack Obama’s attraction to America-hating radicals. Supporters of Obama have already weathered the shocks of Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn – and they’ve stayed loyal to Obama.

We doubt another revelation of this sort will make any difference to those who are already committed to Obama. Perhaps it will have an impact among those who haven’t made up their minds yet, but people like that – nonpolitical people – probably aren’t going to feel that strongly about Davis either.

The mainstream media just doesn’t care

The MSMrs – or the “drive-bys”, as Rush likes to call them – don’t think that an Obama friendship with a communist poet is that big a deal. Politically, many in the news media have no basic disagreements with Marshall’s ideas.They will not be scandalized by the thought of a connection between the two men. Some might even look on it approvingly.

Link to article.