TPM: Is it finally time to stop listening to Robert Novak?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Novak's Hillary-Obama "Scandal" Story Turns Out To Be A Bust. So Should We Stop Listening To Him Now?
December 12, 2007

You may recall that last month, Robert Novak published a much-talked-about column reporting that the Hillary campaign was sitting on "scandalous" information about Barack Obama.

The sourcing of this was laughably thin -- it said that unnamed "agents of Hillary" were said to be telling this to unnamed "Democrats." Nonetheless, the political media went absolutely rip-roaring mad over the story, speculating for days about it and laboring with Talmudic intensity to divine its hidden meaning for Hillary, Obama, and the campaign in general.


Well -- surprise, surpise -- we now learn that there was really nothing to the Novak column at all. Ben Smith reports that tomorrow Novak will reveal the truth about this big revelation Hillary was supposedly sitting on:

Two sources tell me his column, which runs tomorrow, will report that the "scandalous information" in question arrived in the form of the attack on Obama's PAC as a "slush fund" for its contributions to early-state politicians.

This was a fairly sharp criticism of Obama's interpretation of election law, and was the subject of a couple pretty harsh Washington Post pieces. But I don't think many of Novak's reader had election law in mind. (snip)


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/060942.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/12/novaks_hillaryo.php

[TwilightZone]

1. Why did "we" EVER listen to him?

I find it astonishing how many people on the left were/are willing to accept him at face value if it furthers their agendas.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. Maybe it's his charming personality?

[TwilightZone]

5. That could be.

Or, perhaps, it is his overwhelmingly positive nature. His dry wit. His soothing voice.

[sandnsea]

2. Except they're launching attack after attack

Maybe the 'scandalous' information was Obama's kindergarten essay.

I don't listen to most of these idiots at all, but with all the slurring by the Clinton campaign, I'd say Novak was right in reporting the Clintons were ready to launch a smear campaign.

[Captain Hilts]

4. And the Obama campaign reacted as if on cue. nt

[Cameron27]

8. Yes, it was a sorry sight to see.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

10. ,

[laconicsax]

6. That time came and went a LONG time ago. nt.

[hedgehog]

7. Reading the article at the link, I come away with the impression that

Clinton's people actually did hint to Novak that there was a scandal brewing. They did their best to smear Obama. Can they help it if he didn't do anything illegal or immoral?

[Lord Helmet]

9. Novak's article has been rendered truthful in light of the Clinton Campaign's mud-slinging.

I guess they thought they had a humdinger of slime but it turns out Obama again beats them to the punch showing who is the pro and who is the naive wannabe.