Obama’s Christmas Diversion

 When a politician has bad news to release they usually do it on a Friday afternoon if possible because most people are geared up for the weekend and aren’t paying attention. By the time people are paying attention the issue is not in the news cycle any more.

 President-elect Obama has taken that standard to a new level. When it came time to release his “cough, cough” internal investigation he did so on the day before Christmas when everyone had Christmas shopping and Christmas plans on the mind and were not paying attention. As if that wasn’t enough political cover he also decided to vacation in Hawaii where he would be bereft of media scrutiny. (Other than that “oh so gorgeous” shirtless picture).

 The ultimate Christmas diversion.

 So in case you missed it, Obama released his “cough, cough” internal investigation into the Blagojevich scandal the day before Christmas and in it we learned that contrary to Obama’s previous claims, (the first was that nobody on his staff contacted Blagojevich, the second was that Emanuel did contact Blagojevich but only once), Rahm Emanuel had several conversations with Blagojevich.

 This can mean only one of two things; that Obama lied about his staff’s involvement with the corrupt Blagojevich, or that he didn’t know what Rahm Emanuel was up to. Which is worse?

 We also know that Obama gave Emanuel a list of possible replacements that he would approve of for his vacant seat. It sounds to me like he knew about Emanuel’s conversations with Blagojevich therefore he must have lied.

In later telephone conversations, Mr. Emanuel – also with the president-elect’s approval – presented other names of qualified candidates to Mr. Harris including Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Ms. Cheryle Jackson

 This is all coming from the man who claimed that he wanted an open an honest government. He isn’t off to a good start but it gets worse.

 Also conveniently hidden during the hectic Christmas season was the fact that Obama and his staff were interrogated by four FBI agents for more than two hours. While early reports are that Obama is accused of no wrong-doing and that he answered all of the questions willingly this would be a cloud over his head but nobody has heard about it because of the timing of the release. Any time a president is interrogated by the FBI it is news and in this case this has to be the first time a president-elect has been caught up in such a scandal however ancillary his role may have been.

 But wait, there is still more news that was released over this “holiday” season. The latest in this pre inauguration scandal is the fact that members of Obama’s staff may be subpoenaed to testify in the Blagojevich trial. This could be real interesting. Are they going to testify in defense of this man’s reprehensible actions or are they duplicitous in his actions?

 The more we learn about Blagojevich and his scheme to sell Barack Obama’s senate seat and the more we learn about Emanuel’s role in this scandal the more suspicious it becomes.

 Barack Obama has pulled off the ultimate deception. Not the scandal itself but the way the news was released to the public. By releasing all of this information just before Christmas while vacationing in Hawaii he has guaranteed that the least amount of people will ever hear of this. It will slide by the wayside, just as all of his other shady associations from Reverend Wright to William Ayers did. Don’t ask, don’t tell. The public remains blissfully ignorant.

 There is a storm gathering and most people don’t yet see it. Most likely it will pass without a second thought as the media does it’s best to provide cover for Obama. A cloud is hanging in the air and it is beginning to rain in Obamaland. But to quote Bill Murray in Caddyshack, “I don’t think the heavy stuff will come down for quite a while.”

 While the political winds had died down and nobody was paying attention Barack Obama pulled off the perfect Christmas diversion.