Posted by Orin Kerr:
Jim's Possible Error in What Obama Said:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_07-2008_12_13.shtml#1228979580
In [1]his post below, my co-blogger Jim Lindgren wonders if Barack
Obama was telling the truth when he said he had had no contact with
Blagojevich. In fact, Jim notes, there was a picture taken of the two
of them shaking hands. So they must have had some kind of contact. Jim
offers a pretty harsh assessment of Obama:
Apparently, �contact� does not include a private meeting with
governors in Philadelphia, or a public shaking of hands in front of
the cameras.
It is not really plausible that Obama was interested in who was
replacing him in the Senate, and that Blagojevich was desperately
interested in shaking down Obama for money or favors, and that
Obama�s refusal to yield to Blagojevich�s bribery/extortion attempt
was conveyed to Blagojevich � but somehow in over a month there was
no contact between the Obama camp and the Governor�s team.
All this leads me to wonder if Obama is becoming like Clinton?
When Obama says that �I had no contact,� does he mean that I DID
have contact, but it was indirect so I don't have to admit it to
you? . . . As with Clinton, should we presume that Obama is saying
something that is technically not a lie, but that the full truth is
closer to the opposite of what he is trying to make us think?
I suppose "It depends on what the meaning of the word [�contact�]
is" and "what the meaning of the word [�aware�] is."
I'm not sure, but I think Jim may be making a simple error. If you
follow Jim's links to the source for what Obama said, you end up back
at [2]this ABCNews post which puts the matter this way:
Asked what contact he'd had with the governor's office about his
replacement in the Senate, President-elect Obama today said "I had
no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I
was not aware of what was happening."
Note the modifier in the story that Jim has dropped: Obama wasn't
just talking about whether he had contacts with Blagojevich generally.
Rather, it seems that he was talking specifically about whether he had
contacts with Blagojevich "about his [Obama's] replacement in the
Senate."
You can watch the video [3]here, and the question is asked at the
3:12 question. Unfortunately you can't hear the question, as it was
after the brief press statement was over and everyone was making noise
getting up and leaving. Instead, you hear Obama calling back the crowd
to order so he can respond to one question. He says: "Hold on, hold on
a second guys, I'll just answer this one question." Assuming the
question was whether he had had contact about Obama's replacement, the
comment is much narrower than Jim suggests and is not at all
consistent with Obama's shaking hands in public.
I'll keep comments open, but I'll watch them closely: Uncivil
comments will be deleted, and I'll close it up if things get too
unruly.
References
1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_07-2008_12_13.shtml#1228972243
2. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/12/questions-arise.html
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c5Cspu1KnE
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