Redstate

Presidential contenders exposed as pawns in a more important competition!

By blackhedd Posted in 2008 — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Well, it's been a delight watching Barack Obama try to squirm away from the big bear hug that David Geffen appears to be putting on him. You may have read Maureen Dowd's big get with Geffen recently. (I didn't. I'd rather read toilet paper than Maureen Dowd.)

Geffen was once close to the Clintons, Bill and Hillary. No more. "Everyone in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it's troubling," Geffen told Dowd.

There's a lot more to this, but before I continue, note carefully the newspaper whose story I linked above: the Chicago Sun-Times.

Keep reading...

When Hillary found out about MoDo's column, she released the hounds. Right on cue.

Clinton's chief spokesman, Howard Wolfson, read Dowd's column and zapped out a demand that Obama "disavow personal attacks" Geffen delivered in Wolfson's morning paper.

"While Senator Obama was denouncing slash-and-burn politics yesterday, his campaign's finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Senator Clinton and her husband," Wolfson said.

"If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money."

Obama, stung by the sudden storm raging far above his head, showed his thin skin, yet again, but even more delectably, played the race card:

Obama's response came from his chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs. "We aren't going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina state Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because 'he's black.'"

Now David Geffen is a very interesting guy. To date, he has the very best take on Hillary's Presidential ambitions bar none: Personal ambition is not a good enough reason for her to want to be President.

But he's also a billionaire and a music-industry mogul. A few months ago, he sold a large Jackson Pollack for the extremely interesting price of $140 million. Why? Well, rampant speculation at the time had it that he was interested in buying the Los Angeles Times from Chicago's Tribune Company (see now why I linked the Sun-Times?)

And indeed, Geffen later put a $2 billion-plus offer on the table.

So let's give a moment's thought to Mr. Geffen's career move. He wants to vary music-moguldom with a little media power. Or perhaps a lot of media power. So, if you're like me, the very next question you will ask is: who's the competition?

Sumner Redstone of Viacom, and Rupert Murdoch of the News Corporation. Redstone is a long-standing supporter of the hard left-wing, having contributed to Kerry's Presidential campaign, Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, and on and on. Murdoch is more interesting.

Sir Rupert's mother didn't raise any dummies. He knows that Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States. He moved early on to support her campaign and cozy up to her personally. The last thing he needs is to have his style cramped by a POTUS who is making a lot of noise about clipping the wings of successful businesses, and a long history of action to make the threats credible.

That leaves Geffen without a differentiator against Murdoch and Redstone, in a competition that matters far more to him than who will sit in the White House. Of course he's going to support Obama.

QED.