Well, er, no.
Yes, Obama's prayer was indeed "pre-approved for publication". Pre-approved. Nice touch.
NOTE Hat tip, Cannonfire.
UPDATE I knew I never should have gotten involved in the snakepit of Israeli journalism. Jerusalem Post:
In response, a Ma'ariv spokesman said that "Barack Obama's note was approved for publication in the international media even before he put in the Kotel, a short time after he wrote it at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. In any case, since Obama is not a Jew, publishing the note does not constitute an infringement on his right to privacy."
Maariv's response: "Obama's note was published in Maariv and other international publications following his authorization to make the content of the note public. Obama submitted a copy of the note to media outlets when he left his hotel in Jerusalem. Moreover, since he is not Jewish, there is no violation of privacy as there would be for a Jewish person who places a note in the wall."
Commenters point to the ever-reliable TNR:
I just got off the phone with a Ma'ariv spokesman who says that the accusation is "completely false," and that he has no idea who these papers were quoting from Ma'ariv. "No official spokesman for Ma'ariv told this to any of the papers." I've got some calls in to these papers to find out where they got the quote. (I'll update here when I hear back.) He told me definitively that "the Obama campaign did not give us a copy of the letter or approve it for printing."
UPDATE 1: I just spoke with an editor at one of the four publications who quoted the alleged "Ma'ariv spokesman." This editor broached the possibility that Ma'ariv was trying to deflect criticims of it by releasing these spurious rumors about the Obama campaign, but upon realizing that they'll have to back up those accusations, is now disavowing them. This editor is going to look into this alleged "Ma'ariv spokesman" they quoted in his publication so we can try to ascertain if this is a Ma'ariv cover-up. I'll update here when I hear back from him and if I get anything interesting from the other publications who also quoted this alleged spokesman.
Two separate Israeli newspapers quoting the same spurious spokesman? It seems more likely to me that Maariv got the same treatment Nags did, or Ryan Lizza, and TNR is trying to help the Obama campaign put the toothpaste back in the tube.
It's also not clear, from the TNR post, what's "false"-- the story that Obama pre-released the note, or that Obama authorized publication after the note has been revealed.
Either way, the religious think that the note should have stayed private, since a candidate's religiosity shouldn't be used for as a prop for a political campaign, and I agree. So, we'll see how things shake out. Pray God we don't get an anti-Semitism thread to go along with the racism one.
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Your last link doesn't go to Cannonfire
...and that's too bad, because his version of the "prayer" is brilliant.
Fixed, thanks n/t
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Astroturf Axlerod Productions
First you use the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as props, then you use the Wailing Wall as a prop, then you try, but fail to use the Brandenburg Gate as a prop.
These guys are shameless.
The big "O" which replaced the American Flag on Obama's luxury airplane stands for eg"O".
Please, Lord...
I'm sending up a prayer to the Lord, myself. Let's just say it has to do with a request for patience and understanding this election season.
Really, his religion is a prop just like everything and everyone else. So, his religion can go under the bus with his typical, racist, white grandmother once he's done using it.
You know, if he'd come into this thing running as a politician, I'd have thought little of this, but when you come in to Jerusalem on the back of an Ass with your followers waving your with palm frons, well, I expect you to be something more than "just a politician."
My messiah better be able to perform as such when asked to. If he can't, he's a false prophet. lol
Really, D...
I don't think it's polite to call Keith Olbermann an ass.
Appropriate, yes. Polite, no.
Haw!
Good one. KO on all fours... Delicious!
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Is this American Idol?
I mean how many more auditions for the part of President is Obama going to subject me too before we actually get to November? God, its like an episode of The West Wing.
Why does Obama need to pray?
Isn't he God?
------------------------------------------------
“But hysteria is all the rage these days, I guess” - gqm
You still haven't corrected this?
Dude even little green muthereffin' footballs pulled this story this morning.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/...
See the "UPDATE"
Get treatment for your ODS soon. This was a stupid issue, you posted the first right-wing smearjob that came along and you didn't even follow up.
Anyone reading this blog that had concerns about their slide to oblivion. Please take note of this.
Speaking of the swarm...
The story isn't "pulled." It's still up (eew, LGF). They collect some quotes from a still evolving story.
Good to know that Axelrod's still got the list of his accounts here, though!
Dude.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
PS
Asshats
how predictibly lame from this blog...
click
Asshats
We've made it, guys.
Forgot to post the full ownage
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank...
Enjoy eating your hat, asshats.
Why, thank you
It's always a pleasure to be the target of a rapid-response operation. [lambert blushes modestly]
I imagine, now that these accounts have been wakened, Cinderella-like, from slumber by Axelrod, we'll be favored with more like this, along with the predictable cries of censorship...
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
DamonMI
Seriously, if you were a real liberal this would cause some serious soul searching. Why did you buy this BS in the first place?
Don't you have a single momentary pause about why you bought it? Really?!?
If I were you, I would be super freakin' embarrassed to even associate myself with this crap in retrospect. Are we really that different, you and me?
How cute!
They posted the exact same link and initially within 1 minute of one another. Sorry but rapid response trolling on this topic isn't making it look any less contrived. How odd that something so offensive to the religious minded (a violation of a man's prayer that prompts feelings of shame, sympathy, and guilt among many Jews and who of course would subsequently want to set things aright in whatever way they could) would happen at such a sacred space and at such a convenient time. One would think it would've happened before now and to much more important people than a nominee.
At any rate, whatever is truly going on, nothing that has been said or reported here warrants your quite rude allegations and comments. We all must rely on the information before us and the original post links to legitimate sources of news. If a mistake has been made, it's not on Lambert's part and since it appears it's your job to do damage control on this story allow me to suggest not being such jackasses. Being jackasses doesn't help Sen. Obama and in fact turns people off.
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
And just as miraculously,
the same link appears in the comments at Cannonfire's post.
what an amazing coincidence!
And what a nice touch to derive general conclusions about the entire blog, its writers and commenters based on this ONE post... and from the OFB
, the big peddlers of lies, it's a bit rich.
Another Miracle
Why it looks like comment #46 "Obama Vindicated" repeats a similar message and links to the TNR post.
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
And another... it's a swarm!
Here... google it, it's fun for the whole family!
Boy, that's some damage control operation at work! I wonder how the division of labor is organized.
Impressive
...too bad the attitude undermines all the work. It does reveal how worried they are about this story. I figured it would have reverberations. The problem though is that this story feels contrived beyond belief and has from the start. Even if we're hearing the truth now, it doesn't sound that way.
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
This is an interesting...
... set of data points.
And look, I'm sure that the phone call the TNR staffer made wasn't connected with the blogswarm at all.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
To add
Both the Obama campaign and Ma'ariv would have a keen interest in denying involvement in something so egregious. And, leaks in politics are very rarely ever accidential.
How Christians have been instructed to pray
Matthew Ch 6, verses 5-7
What the hell?
Shut the hell up.
I had already seen this thrashed out and debunked on fark. Checked my way too large rss feeds and saw this retarded story pop up here at the festering blog you call Correntewire.
Google my alias and you can see I'm a real person who spends most of my commenting time on non-political sites. I haven't even donated to Obama as I think he'll probably win by a large margin and my money is better spent elsewhere. I have no delusions, I just think he's a much less sucky candidate than we've had in a while.
You get a couple blokes pop up and interrupt your fabulists tea party and suddenly "It's A CONSPIRACY!". We're surrounded by sock puppets! EEK!
Did you read the TNR link? That was the same guy who previously PROMOTED the false story who wrote another article backtracking it after he found out how bogus it was. Now he's a part of the Obama media mafia?
Seriously people, wake up and look at what you have become.
why isn't it ok to recognize he's just a sleazy pol like
the Clintons and all the others?
why this shit from you?
Would you have reacted this way if it was Hillary?
He doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt--no politician does--ever.
Classic
Actual sock puppetry data points prompt indignant denial, with no actual on-point response.
Dude.
It is is cute, really.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
It always amazes me
that people would bother to register at a site for no other purpose than show up in comments and yell "YOU SUCK!"
You came from FARK. Willingly.
That says all we need to hear, doesn't it?
released for publication--that 's the entire campaign
in a nutshell.
And the Wall is not sacred or anything--it's just become a fetish object/icon since Israel was created--prayers to God are not written down on paper and stuck in a wall--that's not how it works. This is the equivalent of going to a house where Jesus' face appeared on a window.
And the wall is controlled by the Orthodox who segregate it by sex--women and men can't even go up to it together.
Who the hell is Axelrod anyways?
nt
The same with Clinton? Yes I would.
You throw a dart at the "Democrats" that represent us and you'd be much more likely to wind up with a turd worse than Obama or Clinton.
Most of the sorry lot are overly frightened capitulating Republican appeasers. We have only just recently seen them start to change... a little. You want a great progressive presidential candidate, dude? You're going to have to turn the whole effin' ship around. It'll never start at the top.
Put your money and energy into kicking out the worst of the worst blue dogs with ActBlue and the like and THEN maybe we'll have a shot.
Just don't embarrass yourself by buying into tripe from the right wing nutjobs just because the current situation is TEH SUCK. Okay?
Tripe comes in many flavors--that's the point--
why isn't Obama here talking domestic issues? that's the point.
why is he pretending to be president already?
why did he even go on that trip? (psst--mccain taunted him into it, and he did what mccain wanted)
Actual data about what?
Are you high?
Yawn!
No. But thanks for asking.
Bye.
UPDATE The saga will follow the usual predictable course to a sad conclusion. I just don't have the energy to invest in such, right now.
Can't see how it matters
whether the leak was *authorized* or *whatever* or not - it would entail remarkably poor foresight to write something on a piece of paper, stick it in a crack in a wall, and walk away from it, without awareness it might come into public domain. Therefore, Obama knew he was writing something that might be publicized from the gitgo, and would have carefully considered what to write accordingly.
The part that frosted my Jewish gonads was using the Western Wall as a photo op prop, which gives me better insight into how Angela Merkel et al must think about the use of the German victory column as a photo op prop. Particularly since Obama does not come across, IMO, as a sincerely devout sort of person.
Horselover Fat
frosted mine, too--but prayers stuck in that wall
have never ever been released to the media or to the public----ever.
they are supposed to stay there til they crumble into dust from what i understand.
he used every single stop as a Photo Op--
it was a joke altogether.
Forgive Them Father
Is anyone keeping count of how many ass-kisses we owe to the Messi-uh? Wow many triple-kowtows? Finally, does anyone know which way is Mecca, again?