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May 02, 2008

Ready. Set. Lets go to the Tape!

Rick Moran
Former Clinton era Trade Representative and political wiz Mickey Kantor is in trouble. We think. Well, probably not. Then again...

Back in 1992 during Bill's first run for the presidency, director Chris Hegedus made a very popular documentary film "The War Room" about the campaign. A clip has emerged from that film that appears to show Kantor saying the following to George Stephanopolous and James Carville about polling from Indiana:

"Those people are sh*t...how would you like to be a worthless white ni**er?"

As you can well imagine, controversy has erupted. But it's not over the words but rather whether Kantor made the comments at all and what did he really mean? Ben Smith at Politico has the juicy story:

I just spoke to D.A. Pennebaker, the director of "The War Room," who said his film had been doctored to produce a widely-viewed YouTube clip.

In a clip from his film on the 1992 Clinton campaign, posted to YouTube today, Clinton advisor Mickey Kantor is -- according to subtitles -- seen referring to Indianans with an expletive and to his colleague George Stephanopolous with a racial slur.

"He does not say that. He does not say that," said Pennebaker, after viewing the clip.
He said the initial expletive referred to the anticipated reaction in the Bush White House to the fact that Ross Perot's polling numbers were holding strong.

"What he says is he's surprised Perot's numbers are holding," said Pennebaker in a brief phone interview. "He says they must be shi**ing in the White House."

The second expletive, he said, appeared to have been entirely fabricated, with new audio dubbed onto the original movie.

Fabricated? Kantor has denied making the statement.  Indeed, a clip from the film itself buttresses Kantor's case. The word "ni**er" seems to have been added to the clip circulating the net.

Kantor is justifiably upset, saying "A thousand people saw that film in theaters and didn't think" the second expletive had been used." It's very clearly understandable. It's not like it was in Bulgarian.

Stay tuned as we figure out who created the fake tape. If it can be traced to the Obama campaign, it will probably severely damage him in Indiana and probably elsewhere.




Posted at 12:45 PM | Email | | Share Share
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