Ignore the Alleged Obama Cheating Story

Drudge called attention to a National Inquirer story on Saturday.  According to the Inquirer, a limo driver is witness to President Obama having an affair with a campaign aid in 2004, and…

…reports reveal that top anti-Obama operatives are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.

From the reaction over at Twitter it appears a lot of people, some gleefully, believe this is the story that will politically disable Barack Obama.

Our first reaction is skepticism.  The Enquirer did scoop everyone else on the John Edwards affair.  And after years of denial, Edwards no longer disputes their reports.  But that was the rare exception.  Most of their stories are pure fantasy.  Space aliens and such.

And, why would it cost “more than $1 million” for the testimony of a witness?  And if that much were paid, wouldn’t it be convincing evidence of false testimony?

Even if the allegation is true, a final, undisputed conclusion to that effect is unlikely.  Instead, if the story “grows legs” the media will find all evidence and testimony to be tainted, most voters will become sick of hearing about it, and then it will fade away, unresolved.

We on the limited government side run the risk diminishing our own arguments, just when we’re starting to gain traction in popular opinion.  For example, government run health care is a bad idea, not because Obama had an affair – if he did – but because it forces us all to surrender individual liberty and autonomy and submit to bureaucratic intrusion in our lives, all in exchange for the promise of a health care Utopia that can not and will not be delivered.

We must convince a majority of voters that big government is Unconstitutional and that the founders tried to prevent this outcome for good reasons.  We won’t succeed in that effort if we appear to be more passionate about rumors of a sex scandal.

As tempting as it may be to some to pursue this story, we hope nobody does.  Let’s spend our energy promoting our principles, not chasing rumors about a six year old affair that likely didn’t even happen, can’t be proven if it did, and is irrelevant to the desperate struggle for liberty we are now engaged in.