Rusty at The Jawa Report has your mandatory reading assignment for the day. It’s the big bombshell that the media is unlikely to ever let see the light of day. A PR company linked to Obama and countless other big-name Democrats, as well as countless netroots operatives and Obama supporters, has been caught in an intentional smearing of Sarah Palin on YouTube. Some obvious astroturfing took place as well. All of this took place during company time, by the PR company’s employees, using sophisticated methods and the same voiceover person that is used by the Obama campaign. David Axelrod is also apparently involved with this. Go to Rusty’s site to see all the damning evidence. Here’s the bottom line:

While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:

* Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.

* The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.

* Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.

* Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.

* The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.

* This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod’s firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as “astroturfing.”

* David Axelrod is Barack Obama’s chief media strategist.

* The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.

This suggests that false rumors and outright lies about Sarah Palin and John McCain being spread on the internet are being orchestrated by political partisans and are not an organic grassroots phenomenon led by the left wing fringe.

Of course, the videos and accounts have been removed from YouTube within an hour of Rusty’s post going up. Shockingly enough.

Luckily, Rusty used precautions and saved the video. Here it is:

And compare the voices for yourself:

If you’re waiting for the mainstream media to start doing their own investigative work, or at the very least cover this, don’t hold your breath. It’s not going to happen. The most damning evidence of all is the frantic attempts at a cover-up so quickly after the story went live. Sure, it technically could be a coincidence. Just like Hillary Clinton technically could revive her run for the nomination before November. That’s how far-fetched this is, folks.

Stay tuned for more details as they emerge. I can’t wait to see what the Obama camp will have to say about this… if they comment at all.

UPDATE: Ethan Winner responds, and it’s exactly as we would expect. He takes all the credit (or blame). Nice, neat resolution. Right?

Statement of Ethan Winner
The following is in response to questions I have received regarding the post on the Jawa Report website.

I produced and posted on the Internet the video entitled “Sarah Palin: A Heartbeat Away.”

The idea for the video was mine. No one paid me to produce it. The only out-of-pocket cost will be the fee for the voice-over narrator, which I will pay personally when I receive an invoice. Contrary to the allegation in the Jawa Report, the voice-over artist has never done any work for the Obama campaign. I retained her through a talent agency based solely on the quality of her voice.

Neither the Obama campaign nor any independent political action committee has had a connection with the making and/or posting of this video. Just like the thousands of Americans who have posted videos on the Internet regarding the current Presidential campaign, I produced this video as an expression of my right to free speech, which is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

I believe the American people have a right and a need to know information about candidates for political office and their views. I made this video because I think it is important for the public to be aware of the association between Sarah and Todd Palin and the Alaskan Independence Party. The New York Times has reported that the Alaskan Independence Party website describes the party as seeking, in the words of the party, “a range of solutions to the conflicts between federal and local authority,” including “advocacy for state’s rights, through a return to territorial status, all the way to complete independence and nationhood status for Alaska.”

While a number of media outlets have said that reports that Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party may have been erroneous, her attendance at the party’s 1994 convention, her video speech to the 2008 convention and her husband’s membership in the Alaskan Independence Party have not been called into question.

Some people have asked why I have pulled the video from the Internet. The reason is simple. Following the posting of personal information about me by the Jawa Report, my family began to receive threatening and abusive phone calls and emails.

Uh, sorry. Not so easily sidestepped, but nice try.

It’s written like a lawyer, for one. And he goes on to address everything except the actual lie that took place in the video: Sarah Palin was never a member of any secessionist party of any kind. But I guess that’s just not important. And he just happened to pay for everything himself, just happened to find Obama’s narrator voice twin… oh, and he hasn’t actually paid for it yet. (The message is, don’t bother trying, he’s a step ahead of you.) As Rusty incredulously asks:

So, he produces the video. He pays for the video production — out of his own pocket.He then posts it to YouTube using multiple phony identities.

Then he gets his friends at one of the largest PR firms in the world to post it on the internet, to suggest to others that they pass it on, and spend company time defending the outright lies in the video — all for free?

And the multimillionaire who is President of the firm also spends his free time defending the lies on this “homemade” — yet professionally voiced over — video?

Nice try, buddy.

Oh, and did we mention that Ethan Winner is apparently a friend of senior Obama campaign adviser David Washington? Don’t bother checking, though, because it’s already been removed as soon as it was pointed out. Just another “coincidence”, I’m sure.

Also see:
Patterico
Michelle Malkin
Stop the ACLU
Ace of Spades
Dan Riehl
Melissa Clouthier
Hot Air
RedState