Shedding A Little Light

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer does a little sleuthing on one of President Obama's more ardent supporters...

A well-traveled letter writer who has used dozens of different addresses to publish a pro-Obama letter-to-the-editor in at least 40 newspapers around the country in recent weeks denies allegations that she's secretly a White House official or is part of an organized propaganda campaign.

But the Internet has been buzzing about Ellie Light since The Plain Dealer posted a story Thursday to cleveland.com that revealed her prolific letter-writing credits in newspapers ranging from the Philadelphia Daily News (which said she lived in Philadelphia) to the San Francisco Examiner (which said she lived in Daly City, Calif.).
In comments, online readers speculated on her identity and hypothesized that she's part of an organized astroturf campaign designed to artificially boost the president's standing around the country.

Bloggers began compiling a complete list of her publication credits. A Who is Ellie Light fan page formed on Facebook and a Wikipedia page was drafted about her.

...The letters Light published throughout the country were virtually identical. Nearly all of them listed her residence in towns that are in the newspaper's circulation area, though versions of the letter published in USA Today and the Washington Times cited her residence as Long Beach, Calif.

Other papers listed her as living elsewhere in California, as well as in Ohio, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

"Today, the president is being attacked as if he were a salesman who promised us that our problems would wash off in the morning," said a version of Light's letter that ran in Ohio's Chillicothe Gazette, claiming a Chillicothe residence. "He never made such a promise. Its time for Americans to realize governing is hard work and that a president can't just wave a magic wand and fix everything."

...In a Sunday morning e-mail to The Plain Dealer, Light denied speculation that she's actually President Obama, his wife, Michelle, or National Security Council member Samantha Power.

"I'm flattered, and I must give the Tea Partiers credit for even knowing who [Power] is," Light's e-mail said. "But what I want to point out is that, if I were a person trying to imply this huge groundswell of support for our beleaguered president, then I would have signed the letter with different names. However, as you may have noticed, my main point is that absence of support for the president.

What's hilarious is that Light's email fails to address the fundamental question of why the same letter was sent to so many publications (see the count thus far here) and claimed to be from so many different locales. Light tries to refute the idea that she's trying to deceive anyone by noting that she could have signed the letter with different names if she wanted to do so, but barring the possibility that she's a real estate mogul, she was trying to deceive people working for the local papers who printed her missives.

I have no idea if this is being orchestrated by people who work for the White House. I tend to think not, because it's incompetent, arrogant, and one would hope they have better things to do. And we all know this White House is competent, humble, and focused on important issues.

Um, yeah.

The John Kerry Post of the Day

My latest discovery about my favorite cheese-eating surrendermonkey-looking Ketchup King cum Presidential candidate:

Apparently, the DNC minions are stealing a page from the Harvard law professors -- they're cutting and pasting with the best of them. Check out this tale from Kerry Spot...

Richard Roeper is no fan of Bush, but he is proof that the DNC/MoveOn.org and various lefties' efforts to influence the pre- and post-debate spin has gone too far and is now looking clumsy and phony.

Last Thursday's presidential debate was still in progress when the e-mails started trickling in from citizens around the country. At 8:28 p.m. CST, Catie Tierney of Douglas, Ga., wrote: "John Kerry did an AMAZING job tonight. His arguments were valid and very well-said. I sincerely hope he wins the election this fall. He will make a far better president than Bush."

Harvey Jones chimed in: "Have you noticed Bush's body language? He seems to be blinking an awful lot. I hear this is one of the usual signs of lying."

Next up, Anne Horton Wood of Knoxville, Tenn.: "John Kerry showed the voters why he should be president, while Bush looked and sounded like a whiny little boy who has grown old, but has never grown up."

At 9:31 p.m., the trickle of e-mails turned into a hurricane.

"I am an undecided voter in Florida," wrote Andrew Monaco, "and I wanted to let you know that I think John Kerry won the debate.... Kerry was more in command of the issues and looked more presidential. The president was flustered and distracted."
Joyce Mulazzi of Suwannee, Ga.: "John Kerry proved he is a LEADER by discussing his plans for our country and discrediting President Bush's claims. George Bush proved that he is a CHEER-LEADER by . . . stating over and over again about the hard work he's done. It's not hard work lying to us, alienating us from the rest of the world, ruining our environment, and making the rich richer."

Pam Gordon, Orchard Lake, Mich.: "Kerry was the clear winner. He was poised, knowledgeable and outlined his points clearly."

Kristine Serrano, Westminster, Co.: "I am a registered independent who has decided to vote for John Kerry. President Bush looked very unprepared for the debate. Sen. Kerry . . . possessed excellent command of every issue."

The flood of "Kerry won!" messages continued all Thursday night and well into Friday — more than 500 in all.

And not one supported Bush.

Even most Bushies concede the debate was not the president's finest moment — but come on, 500 to 0? These e-mails seemed about as authentic as the missives I get from Congo dictator Mobuto Sese-Seko, asking my help in transferring his secret stash of millions.

Well, it turns out other people noticed. James Taranto at Best of the Web noted how the Bergen Record managed to print two letters employing the same phrasing as the sample letters on the DNC website. The Chicago Tribune even printed an editorial about it. Gotta love those dedicated flying monkeys of the left.

Speaking of stupidity... here's Teresa Heinz Kerry on Sunday in Pittsburgh...

The war in Iraq has cost America the respect of her allies and the United States is losing the war in Afghanistan, Heinz Kerry said at a dinner at the Sheraton Four Points in Greensburg.

"On 9/12 every single newspaper in the world said 'We are all Americans.' Today it is not the case," she said.

By sending American troops to Iraq instead of to Afghanistan, Bush permitted Osama bin Laden to escape, Heinz Kerry said.

"Osama bin Laden is Osama been lost," she said.

"The Taliban is back running Afghanistan," Heinz Kerry said.

One last time -- I DON'T CARE THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD FELT SORRY FOR US WHEN WE WERE ATTACKED. I DON'T WANT TO BE ATTACKED AGAIN. If we can do both, fine. If we can't, screw their feelings. In case you don't understand, nothing aggravates me more than this idiotic drivel by the left.

Next, the Taliban is in charge of Afghanistan? Even the left-wing dishrag is predicting a successful election on Saturday in Afghanistan. Maybe THK has her head buried in a bottle of ketchup. If she somehow becomes First Lady, I guess I'll be guaranteed some entertainment.