The "Mystery" Man

Politico ran a story a couple of days ago headlined, "'Mystery' man lends support to Obama." I thought it was a bizarre story.

Here's a summary: There's a police officer in suburban Chicago named Michael Signator. He met Obama when he volunteered in the 2004 senatorial campaign, and was eventually hired as a driver and aide for Obama. He and Obama became friends.

For security reasons , Obama's presidential campaign refuses to reveal the details of Signator's role, but [Obama campaign spokesman Ben] LaBolt said it brings Signator into frequent, close contact with the Obamas.

"Barack and Michelle Obama regularly confer with Mike, as do senior campaign officials. Sen. Obama has met with Signator both at the Obamas' home and at Mike's," LaBolt said in a statement.

Later, the article says,

Reached by telephone, [Signator] declined to comment on his relationship with Obama and his family, and asked how Politico obtained his telephone number. He directed inquiries to the Obama campaign press office and explained, "I can't do any type of interview at all. I apologize. I'm sorry, and please just disregard this phone number, because I can't take any calls."

The campaign press staff — which at first denied that Signator worked for the campaign, then discouraged Politico from writing about him — declined to set up an interview.

Then there was salary information:

According to Federal Election Commission records, Obama's campaign through the end of August had paid Signator $47,600. The payments, which began in March 2007 at $2,900 a month, dwindled to less than $800 a month in May of this year — a full year after the Secret Service began protecting Obama.

Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign paid nearly $50,000 to Signator, who had a cameo in Obama's 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream."

That's about it. My reaction upon reading it was, "Huh? What was that all about?" The article made my skin crawl because its headline seemed to imply something the article didn't deliver.

Well, call me naive, but I was shocked to see this comment by Digby, at Hullabaloo:

Call me crazy, but I think the Politico just published a story implying that Obama is gay.

The talk radio gasbags will have a field day with this one. Now he is not only a black, foreign, Muslim, socialist terrorist, he's a gay black, foreign, Muslim, socialist terrorist.

What's left? Child molester?

Huh?

So I wrote Kenneth P. Vogel, the article's reporter:

Excuse me, but what, exactly was that "Mystery man" column about? Digby at Hullabaloo says, "Call me crazy, but I think the Politico just published a story implying that Obama is gay."

Is that what you're doing? Because, really, if it's not, it was hard to see what was worth writing about here. And if it is, why didn't you say so?

It reads like you thought there might be something interesting going on here, but you really couldn't find anything, and it resulted in one of the creepiest columns I've ever read.

And Vogel responded:

I wasn't implying anything.

Just reporting on the confidants of the man who may well be the next president. Would you prefer not to know anything about them?

And he's right, of course.