Last week, it was The Washington Post putting all Republicans on notice that if they run for office, the media will hunt down every rumor of every bad thing they ever did, going all the way back to high school, and splash it across their front page. This week, it is The New York Times with a similar message for any conservative thinking of speaking out against President Obama: if you are even planning to spend money opposing Obama we will label you and your family racists, and will make sure every business you own and operate becomes the target of left-wing pressure groups.
Yesterday, The New York Times ran a front page above the fold story accusing “Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade” of commissioning a “$10 million plan” to “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,” meaning run commercials linking Obama to incendiary comments by his spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The Times was also sure to note that Ricketts “is also the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs.”
The response from the Obama campaign and the rest of the leftist noise machine was swift and unrelenting. At 5:42 AM Obama’s Communications Director David Axelrod tweeted out a link to the story adding, “Will Mitt stand up, as John McCain did? Or allow the purveyors of slime to operate on his behalf?” Minutes later Obama’s Super PAC director Bill Burton followed suit adding: “NYT on the hateful campaign being planned by GOP super PACs.” MSNBC then led everyone of their daytime “news” shows with the NYT story, making sure to portray Ricketts, and all conservatives, as bigots at every possible turn. Obama’s former Chief of Staff, and now Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel also made it known he was “livid” with the Ricketts family and was not returning any of their calls. And just in case people were having trouble connecting the dots, the Center for American Progress blasted out an email in the afternoon titled: “REVEALED: The Racist GOP Campaign To Smear The President.”
But The New York Times story was completely bogus. Yes, Ricketts is funding a Super PAC called Ending Spending Action Fund that plans to attack Obama’s fiscal record. Yes, media consultant Fred Davis did prepare a presentation about an ad campaign centered around Rev. Wright. But Ricketts never asked anybody, including Davis, for any proposal on Rev. Wright. He did not pay Davis to come up with the plan. He was not even at the meeting where Davis presented his plan. All Ricketts did was announce that he wanted to spend $10 million communicating about Obama’s record as president of the United States. And for that crime, The New York Times, and their liberal allies on cable TV and in the non-profit community, have labeled him, and every company he owns racist.
Campaign 2012
Romney: Team Romney released another of its “the 23 million” videos highlighting victims of the Obama economy yesterday. This video features non-union Delphi part manufacturer employees who did not get the same protections union workers did when Obama bailed out General Motors. Today, Romney released a video called “Day One” detailing what he would do on his first day in office.
Nebraska Senate: The Weekly Standard profiles Republican primary winner Deb Fischer.
Around the Bigs
Bloomberg, Consumer Confidence in U.S. Drops to Nearly a Four-Month Low: Consumer confidence dropped last week to the lowest level since the end of January as slower U.S. job growth contributed to pessimism about personal finances and spending.
The Hill, Boehner: Keeping any parts of Obama health law ‘unacceptable’: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reiterated Thursday that he wants to repeal all of President Obama’s healthcare law if the Supreme Court doesn’t toss out the entire statute. “We voted to fully repeal the president’s healthcare law as one of our first acts as a new House majority, and our plan remains to repeal the law in its entirety,” Boehner said to reporters. “Anything short of that is unacceptable.”
The Wall Street Journal, Defiant Message From Greece: The head of Greece’s radical left party said he sees little chance Europe will cut off funding to the country but that if it does, Athens will stop paying its debts.
The Washington Post, Greek euro exit would hit at home, but fallout could be global: The fallout from Greece leaving the euro would extend well beyond Europe. It could upend markets as the collapse of Lehman Brothers did in 2008.
The Wall Street Journal, European Stocks Slide: European stocks dropped Friday after Moody’s downgraded several Spanish banks and Fitch cut its credit rating on Greece.
Righty Playbook
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told The Washington Examiner yesterday that “There is no Plan B,” if Romney does not win in November. “Plan B is austerity.”
AEI‘s James Pethokoukis reports that the movement to break up big banks now gaining steam in Congress.
At The Weekly Standard, Adam White refutes Jeffrey Toobin’s latest attack on Chief Justice Roberts by citing Toobin’s own past reporting.
Lefty Playbook
Talking Points Memo reports that the White House is now claiming the budget the Senate rejected 99-0 on Wednesday was not Obama’s budget.
The Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein asks, “What do Republicans mean when they say ‘spending-driven debt’?”
In The American Prospect Jamelle Bouie reports that House and Senate Republicans will force Romney to govern as a conservative.
