So yesterday, the Drudge Report, the Daily Caller and Sean Hannity tease everyone, saying that they have a "bombshell video" of Obama in 2007 making racially-charged comments.
And then they revealed the video last night. It was a speech Obama delivered in 2007, as a presidential candidate, not at some secret fundraiser, but in front of a large audience at Hampton University.
It was hard to tell exactly what about the video was "bombshell". Obama criticized the government's response to Katrina. Maybe it was that. Drudge said that Obama used a cadence in his speech that was overtly racial, which — well, I don't know what that means. Also Obama mentioned his former pastor, Reverand Wright — an issue played out four years ago.
Rachel Maddow wondered what the purpose of the tape was, saying, "This is supposed to make you believe that in this tape from before he was president, Barack Obama is revealing his secret plan to be way more black than he seems to you now. This is how he snuck into the White House, right? People didn't know he was this black and if they would have known he was this black, they never would have elected. That's the idea here, right?"
But apart from all that, the video was shown five years ago. It's nothing new. Reporters covered the speech, which wasn't seen as especially controversial, and all the major networks told the public about Obama's remarks at the time.
Which leads to the quote of the day.
Tucker Carlson (who was with CNN back in 2007 and who has been plunging downhill ever since Jon Stewart beat him up) proudly boasted to Hannity on the air last night:
"People will say this has already been reported. Well, actually, it hasn't been reported. And I know because I reported on it the first time."
Um, that counts, Tucker.