PrintNovember 27, 2007
The Huma ruma is Hillary disinformation
So you're Hillary Clinton, and your past can't withstand examination. What do you do? Well, try a little Black PR operation.
Call it a pre-emptive self-inflicted smear. Because you know your shady past is bound to come up, and a lot of that stuff happens to be verifiable. (Who does Norman Hsu remind you of?)
So you need to discredit so-called "Swift Boating" -- which actually means telling the truth about you.
You plant in the London Times a truly outrageous and false rumor about your relationship with Huma, your young and beautiful Saudi aide. Along with a picture of you two walking side by side. Then you discredit the Huma Ruma. That's pretty easy, because it's false.
All this is very reminiscent of a standard Leftist tactic in response to criticism: You say you're "receiving death threats." This ole chestnut has been repeated literally thousands of times. The result is instant sympathy from the suckers. It kicks off reflexive tears from everybody. Any public Leftist practically needs a lifetime subscription to Death Threat Scribblers, Inc., to fuzz up the truth.
(The "death threat" meme has many interesting variations, including the Mystery Noose Outside My Door, It's a Hate Crime!, and Rape!)
The good thing is that the media love the charge, because it involves sex and mean-faced white guys (they are always there when needed, like in the movies), the cops are required to make a formal record, the trial lawyers start calling, and no proof is ever needed!
Payoffs:
1. You keep your followers loyal, because now they won't believe truthful charges either. Liberals come equipped with oversized mental filters anyway, and now they will just know not to believe anything bad about our gal.
2. When things get rough down the road, your aides will just remind the media mob about this flopped ruma. It's Old News all over again, they'll say. (Watch 'em).
3. You can now charge your fictional accusers with Islamaphobia, the new racism.
4. You get to play the victim for soap Oprah voters. Your spokespeople will go wild with phony outrage.
5. Everybody on the Left knows what kinds of people would spread those kinds of rumas, don't they? It's the homophobic, Islamophobic, woman-hating, racist, unreconstructed Kluxers of the Right.
6. You suddenly get a flood of money from Gay and Lesbian rich folk. With luck, also from the Saudis, funneled through US citizens.
7. The false ruma generates headlines that put Obama in the shadows for a couple of days at least. With a little luck, it will have a long run, like Bill's intern problem.
What's the down side? There isn't any.
Well, what should Rudy and Mitt and Fred do? They should be publicly outraged by the low level to which this campaign has fallen. If anything, their outrage should make bigger headlines than all the practiced fireworks on the Left. This is not easy, but it can be done.
And then they might remind everybody that sex is a private matter, whether the ruma is true or not!
Look for more Black PR down the road. Don't fall for it.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
