The Political Chase

Beware of the AFP

AFP is an acronym for Agence France-Presse or on days like today it could be April Fool’s Press or April Fool’s People. I just read a post at Booman Tribune titled "Breaking News: Clinton to Suspend Campaign". Well, its definitely is not the Agence France-Presse, but I didn’t know that at first. I haven’t been suckered into an April Fool’s Joke to that extent in a long time (childhood maybe). I have to hand it Steven — he did a heckuva job.

Here’s how he begins the captive story:

April 1, 2008 Washington, D. C. Senator Clinton is set to suspend her campaign tomorrow morning, according to senior campaign advisers.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two prominent campaign officials stated today that Senator Clinton, after consultations with officials at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other party leaders, has agreed to suspend her campaign in exchange for an agreement to seat both the Michigan and Florida delegations, whose primaries were held in violation of party rules.

Senator Clinton has made it a point to state recently her strong desire to seat these delegations, both of which awarded her the lion’s share of the delegates at stake. Senator Obama’s campaign has consistently maintained that it agrees with the sanctions imposed by the DNC which stripped both Michigan and Florida of their delegates. It is believed that Clinton’s proposal to suspend her campaign was accepted by Senator Obama’s campaign late last night, according to a sources at the DNC, who spoke on condition that their identities not be disclosed, as they were not authorized to discuss the matter on the record. No one contacted within Senator Obama’s campaign would comment with regard to whether he had agreed to such a proposal from the Clinton camp. [...]

After reading through the second paragraph, and with my heart pounding, I clicked the source link which leads back to the post. OK, well that could have been an error in his post, so I went to the NYT, WaPo, and finally AFP’s corporate site — nothing there. It was not until then that I remembered what today is.

Great job. The Booman Tribune had me incredibly suckered for a few minutes. What’s amazing to me is the rush it generated. When I read the headline, I immediately thought about my post from last night about Clinton’s finances; the two just naturally and immediately meshed.