Obama: "There's no tape but, if there was ..."

Another interesting bit of news from Larry Johnson over at No Quarter USA on the Michelle Obama 'whitey' tape.

The Obama campaign is telling reporters from major news organizations that the videotape of Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at a panel alongside Nation of Islam maximum leader Louis Farrakhan is nothing but a “scurrilous lie,” according to one of those reporters who called for an answer.

But at the same time the Obama campaign has disseminated either a doctored or concocted transcript of the supposedly nonexistent videotape. Major Obama donors went to the campaign demanding explanations after the posting of my story on No Quarter about the contents of the videotape confirmed to me by several reliable sources, all Republicans with access to knowledge but who do not know each other.

So the campaign created a would-be transcript of the video it says doesn’t exist. In the Obama campaign produced transcript Michelle says "why’d he" instead of "whitey." Very clever. Then the campaign sent this transcript to key Obamaton bloggers to circulate. And the campaign sent it to the donors to prevent them from having a nervous breakdown.

And, No Quarter's story about what seems to be a 'disseminated transcript' checks out. Obamaniac blogs this morning are all publishing what appear to be the campaign 'talking points' that first hit the web on the Booman Tribune, and covered by National Review Online.

A really interesting theory about the alleged Michelle Obama tape, which could explain a lot, from the liberal blog Booman Tribune. Michelle, offering a speech critical of President Bush, offers a refrain of "why'd he" — the words "why did he" mushed together — that sounds like "whitey" on the tape.

Apparently, if the tape ever comes to light, her words will sound something like:

Whitey cut folks off Medicaid?
Whitey let New Orleans drown?
Whitey do nothing about Jena?
Whitey put us in Iraq for no reason?*

...when the intended message is,

Why'd he cut folks off Medicaid?
Why'd he let New Orleans drown?
Why'd he do nothing about Jena?
Why'd he put us in Iraq for no reason?

Or so we will be told. The irony is, if the latter interpretation is accurate, we still have a potential first lady accusing her husband's predecessor of "letting" New Orleans drown.

In other words, the Obama campaign is basically, "Listen, there's no tape. It didn't happen. But, if it did, here's the transcript of what she really said. You're just hearing it as 'whitey' because you're typical white people. Nothing racist goes on at Trinity United. It's a black thing, you wouldn't understand ..."

Unfortunately, that doesn't fit with what has been reported over at MyTownTalks.com as the actual transcript:

"Once again, the white man keeps us down. What’s up with Whitey? Why’d he attack Iraq? Why’d he let Katrina happen? Why’d he leave millions of children behind? This is the legacy the white man gives us."

In order to buy the Booman Tribune's 'spin', we'd have to hear that as 'Once again, the [why'd] man keeps us down. What's up with [why'd he]? Why'd he attack Iraq? Why'd he let Katrina happen? Why'd he leave millions of children behind? This is the legacy the [why'd] man gives us."

Part of their spin fits. It could be that she's actually saying 'Why'd he ... ?' rather than 'whitey' in a few of those sentences. There are a few, however, where it clearly doesn't work.

Amazing. Truly, truly amazing.