All This Is That National Affairs Editor
Earlier incarnations of the story were usually brushed aside as the ravings or deliberate disinformation of deranged bloggers. However--and how times have changed!--the Enquirer picking up the story almost grants their (rather dubious) imprimatur to the rest of the press. Or at least the rest of the press willing to go way out on a limb.
The story alleged that BHO was caught in a Washington, D.C. Hotel with a former campaign aide, Vera Baker. Baker was the Finance Director for Barack Obama's 2004 Illinois Senate campaign
The Enquirer writes: "A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old VERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions."
Interestingly, the Wikipedia has an article on her under consideration for deletion. There are numerous pictures floating around on websites and blogs that may or may not be Vera Baker. By all reports, she is a good looking woman, for whatever that's worth. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to track down--she was an Obama campaign official in 2004.
Investigators (not clear whose--Obamas? The National Enquierers?) are searching for a hotel surveillance videotape. According to The Enquirer, Baker has insisted in the past that "nothing happened" between them. The magazine also reports that top anti-Obama operatives (could that be you Ex-Gov. Palin, tossing around your $12 million in royalties?) are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.
Someone has apparently offered cash to a limo driver who says that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous in a Washington hotel where Obama was staying in 2004. "A reporter confirmed the limo driver's account of the secret 2004 rendezvous and has also learned that on-site hotel surveillance video camera footage could provide indisputable evidence to the investigation."
Sandrarose.com claims "the Hillary Clinton campaign dug up background information on Barack Obama’s mistress, Vera Baker, in 2008, but decided not to run with the scandal — probably because Hillary knew she would lose the campaign and might need a favor from Obama later on."
Another blogspot blogger writes that "the woman was purportedly sidelined from her duties after Senator Obama’s wife, Michelle, became convinced that he had developed a personal friendship with her."
Without any new, concrete evidence, it seems like this story is destined to fade away quickly, just as it has when it has appeared before in the fringe press, or, new media as they prefer to be called.
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