What About The Rumors of President Obama’s Affair?

In May of 2010, the National Enquirer ran a story claiming President Obama had an affair with his former aide, Vera Baker. They wrote:

A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old Vera Baker in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions.

While Baker has insisted in the past that “nothing happened” between them, reports reveal that top anti-Obama operatives are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.

Among those being offered money is a limo driver who says in 2004 that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous in a Washington hotel where Obama was staying.

An ENQUIRER reporter has confirmed the limo driver’s account of the secret 2004 rendezvous and has also learned that on-site hotel surveillance video camera footage could provide indisputable evidence to the investigation.

The scandalous tale of the tryst between Barack Obama and Vera Baker has been reported on by numerous gossip columnists and bloggers. However, the mainstream media managed to forgo the temptation to print anything in relation to the matter. To judge whether they based that decision on their loyalty to the president or the merits of the source, one must analyze their behavior in similar instances, with people whom they have a more hostile relationship. So let's do that, shall we?

Take for instance the ridiculous story the National Enquirer is currently running about Todd Palin supposedly having some "affair" with an Anchorage massage therapist. Given what we know about the Palin family, and their transparency in how they conduct themselves, this story is ludicrous on it's face. Also, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but if Todd Palin wanted to cheat on Governor Palin, he most certainly could do better than this. In the words of the governor, "have you seen Todd?" Beyond that, the details of National Enquirer's spread are marked with big red flags that those of us who are familiar with the antics of the left-wing goons in Alaska, recognize.

For starters, the "source" the National Enquirer cites is "an anonymous blogger from Alaska." Because everyone knows how credible anonymous bloggers from Alaska are, right? Secondly, the massage therapist (aka, prostitute) listed in the article is named Shailey Tripp... I'm sorry, but that just smacks of Google abuse. It appears as though someone went looking to create trouble, without any accountability, they went digging for dirt by mixing taboo subject matters with various Palin names in the search field. They settled on this troubled lady from Anchorage (a city where police reports and arrest records are available online), added some flare to sell it to the trash tabloid, and BAM! Instant scandal.

Theoretically, the process is supposed to end before the "BAM" part, but in this case it didn't. So let's get back to our "mainstream" friends shall we? Why exactly did the New York ("blood on her hands") Daily News find it necessary to report such gutter gossip? Even worse, why did a Yahoo News political writer pick up the story? I did some extensive research to write this blog, and I can tell you that neither Yahoo News nor the NY Daily News ever published an article about Vera Baker. Not one!

My earlier stated question about what motivated the lamestream media to withhold writing about Obama's alleged affair with a staffer, is irrelevant. It's actually just an example of the media using discretion in their reporting. A better question is what motivated them lose that discretion and report on the current trash directed at the Palin family? If they had the ability to see that the source for the Baker story was too dubious to cite, what makes the prostitute story any different? There is a double standard at work here, but it has more to do with the individual political figures at the center of each story, than it does with any shady witnesses.