The Obama Girlfriend Story: It's Real

Having now spoken to someone tracking the story, I can say:

1) It's not just a silly little rumor.

2) It will break in some form shortly. The question is how prestigious an outlet breaks it. (PS, at best, it won't be that prestigious, at least at first, but there's a lot here so when someone finally touches, there is a good chance of an Edwards-like "Oh yeah, we were working on that too" pile-on.) Fire is being held as those who know the story try to get someone of import to break it; if they pass, it will be flooded out through secondary channels.

3) The story has a Fred Baron. Not The Fred Baron. But actually-- an even better Fred Baron. The woman is "working" in the Caribbean drawing a salary from.... uhhh... let's say from someone who is a big, shiny part of the dirty Chicago political machine. And it makes no sense that she's doing her supposed "job," for which she seems unqualified anyway, in the Caribbean, of all places. It's unclear how she could possibly do this job at all, never mind from the Caribbean. And she's been there for at least a year. (At least.) This isn't some sabbatical or few months' of "work" on an island paradise.

4) This woman was a major, big-time fundraiser. She raised x millions of dollars for various Democratic interests (connected to Obama) and then opened her own shop in DC. Since she was (as any fundraiser does) getting a cut of the take, this was a lucrative job. But she, for reasons unfathomable, suddenly shut the shop down and decamped to a little Caribbean island. And somewhere along the line got a "job" from her own Fred Baron. Which conveniently put her far away from Obama, Michelle, and the media.

5) Within hours of the Daily Mail article breaking, she called the Illinois hq of the Obama campaign. They wouldn't talk to her.

Incidentally, didn't Obama vacation in the Caribbean after he won the primaries...? Oh that's right, he did. I raised this with my source who, alas, hadn't even made that connection.