The Rumor

Ace deleted a post about a rumored Obama girlfriend because a commenter kept posting the (alleged) girlfriend's name. Is it the same 33-year-old woman discussed in this Daily Mail story? (H/T: JWF.)

A quick search reveals that speculation seems to have fixed on a woman named Vera Baker. I don't know why Ace was upset about people posting her name. All the Daily Mail story says is that Michelle Obama became jealous of this campaign staffer and banished her. But maybe Mrs. Obama's suspicions were groundless, and maybe the whole story is nothing but specious rumor.

Even if the story were all true, and next week the National Enquirer front-paged it, I don't think it would stop Obama from being elected. Didn't we learn 10 years ago that Democrats can get away with this stuff? Everybody pretty much assumes that they're all slimeballs anyway. Remember all the paeans to Ted Kennedy in Denver? If drowning a campaign aide doesn't discredit a Democrat, I don't know what could.

So any conservatives who think this rumor will derail Obama are probably mistaken.

UPDATE: No Quarter has background on Vera Baker, who is partners in a DC-based fundraising firm. NQ also suggests that Ms. Baker's British lawyers threatened the Daily Mail with a libel suit. British libel law heavily favors plaintiffs, whereas U.S. libel law favors defendants. I certainly can't be accused of malice against Ms. Baker, whom I've never met, and all I've done is to repeat what others have written which, as I say, may be nothing but specious rumor. And I'm not doing the Sully thing of demanding that somebody disprove the rumor.