A controversy that wasn't
Posted: Friday, May 02, 2008 11:15 AM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
With the Indiana and North Carolina primaries less than 96 hours away, making its way around the pro-Obama blogosphere is a clip in this video of former prominent Clinton administration official Mickey Kantor appearing to call Indianans an expletive. It is an excerpt from the movie "The War Room" about the 1992 Clinton campaign. Kantor, James Carville and George Stephanopoulos are reading over results from various states, including Indiana, when Kantor says:
“Look at Indiana, wait, wait, look at Indiana: 42-40. It doesn’t matter if we win. Those people are [expletive]. Excuse me."
Kantor is a supporter of Hillary Clinton's, listed on the Clinton campaign Web site as one of several former Clinton administration officials backing her candidacy. He is also reported to be an informal adviser to her 2008 campaign.
*** UPDATE *** Huffington Post quotes Kantor on what he meant by the expletive: "Indiana was not even on our radar screen," he said, "And I was talking about the polling and not the people... If you look at The War Room, this is not the way Carville or George interpreted my statement. This is frankly libelous."
[EDITOR'S NOTE: We've adjusted the language in the first paragraph, because it's not clear Kantor is referring to Indianans.]
*** UPDATE 2*** The director of The War Room tells Ben Smith the film is doctored. One portion of another produced clip -- not included in this post -- making its rounds, is certainly doctored. We are in the process of checking the original film to see about the first expletive.
*** UPDATE 3 *** We've checked the original film, which we link to above. Quietly, you can hear an "-ing" on the end of the expletive. Then Kantor adds "...in the White House." He was NOT referring to the people of Indiana.
