Vanity Fair: Obama’s Love Affairs – OpEd

By Andrei Smirnov

Black PR in action: U.S. tabloids have revealed intimate details from the life of the incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama. The Vanity Fair magazine carries an article by Obama’s Australian-born ex-girlfriend Genevieve Cook. Pre-election mudslinging is being widely practiced far and wide in the modern world. The fantasy of black PR-makers knows no limits.

Genevieve Cook, who met Obama in New York in 1983, describes him as cold and hard in life but tender and loving in bed. According to the Vanity Fair, her revelations are included in a book by David Maraniss, “Obama: The Story”, due to come out soon.

Obama has never tried to conceal his loveable nature. Nothing changed when, in 1989, he met his future wife Michelle whom he married two years later.

Yeveny Minchenko, Director of the International Institute for Political Expertise, thinks that Obama’s affair with Genevieve Cook could hardly damage his reputation.

“This story will not do Obama any serious harm because it all happened before his marriage. And then, he was not insincere or lying, which is a key accusation for a U.S. politician. Recalling the Clinton story, the problem was not his sexual relationship with a White House intern but that he lied under oath.”

Mudslinging battles are raging among Obama’s Republican rivals as they seek to outdo each other at primaries. Veteran politician Newt Gingrich was the first to quit the race. One of the initiators of impeachment proceedings against Democrat President Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinski, Gingrich, who has been married three times, himself had a relationship with a Congressional intern while House of Representatives Speaker.

In another instance of sleaze and smear in politics, presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign staff was forced to sack a fellow Republican activist, Herman Cain, under pressure from conservative Christians after scandalous facts were leaked about his sexual orientation. Cain’s sacking put Romney between the devil and the deep blue sea: the Conservatives appeased, he risks facing strong criticism from same-sex love campaigners.

Across the Atlantic, passions are boiling high with French media mulling the story of Nicolas Sarkozy’s ties with former Libyan ruler Colonel Gaddafi who allegedly funded his previous presidential campaign. Sergei Mikheyev, Vice President of the Center for Political Technologies, says that no one cares whether it’s true or not.

“A certain story is cooked up and given a maximum spin-off. And then, even if you win a lawsuit and a refutation is published, the thing is already done – the black PR has hit its target.”

Black PR appeared at the dawn of mankind and, unfortunately, there are no limitations to this weapon, says IT expert Andrei Masalovich.

“Like in a nuclear war, the only way to counter black PR is to tear your enemy to shreds. But one should always be ready for a retaliatory blow, therefore black PR is carefully measured.”

Black PR tools range from fake assassination attempts to adultery to dubious deals. Negative political advertising normally takes up to 70% of total pre-election advertising.