http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/obama_campaign_denies_collecting_oppo_research_on_progressive_bloggers.phpObama Campaign Denies Collecting "Oppo Research" On Progressive Bloggers
By Greg Sargent - December 10, 2007, 3:56PM
Over at Open Left, Chris Bowers dropped this surprising nugget in a post about the Obama campaign's ongoing battle over health care with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman:
Back during the Donnie McClurkin fiasco, it has been confirmed to me from multiple sources that the Obama campaign was preparing opposition research papers of this sort against some of the progressive bloggers who were speaking ill of him at the time.
The Obama campaign put together oppo docs against progressive bloggers hitting the campaign over the mess surrounding antigay folk singer McClurkin? That's a strong charge -- but the Obama camp is denying it. I checked in with a campaign spokesman, who told me: "This is absolutely not true."
Be that as it may, if you haven't tuned into it, the Obama camp's battle with Paul Krugman is one of the more surprising developments of recent days. When Krugman attacked Obama's health care plan in a recent column, the Obama campaign responded with an oppo-style document suggesting that Krugman was contradicting a past column about the plan. Krugman then counterattacked.
As I've noted here a bunch of times, one of the more interesting subplots of Campaign 2008 has been the extent to which the Dem candidates have made attacks on right-wing and mainstream media figures a de rigeur part of their courtship of Dem primary voters. Unlike attacks on other "MSM" figures, going after Krugman obviously seems more likely to turn off Dem primary voters than to win them over, since Krugman has become the closest thing to an establishment voice that the Dem activist base has.
At any rate,
the Obama camp is categorically denying drawing up research docs on lib bloggers, in case you were wondering.
Late Update: Bowers adds an update saying he only heard that oppo was being conducted by the Obama camp on one blogger:
I know two separate things, and conflating them is a bit of speculation on my part. First, I know that about a year ago, someone was conducting oppo research on most major progressive bloggers, but I don't know who. After I heard about oppo being prepared against one blogger a couple months ago, I speculated that meant the earlier oppo was conducted by the Obama campaign as well. That is purely speculation on my part. Take it for what it is worth.