If I'm wrong about this, I'll (unhappily) eat my words. But I don't think I'm wrong. I think the "Michelle Obama whitey tape" story is a smear spread by people who want Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination, and are trying to keep superdelegates on the fence by exploiting fears of "more shoes to drop." The Wright and Pfleger tapes have stoked that fear, so the smearsters have got a little credibility when they work the phones and spread the stories.
So: Larry Johnson's 9 a.m. update convinces me that the story is a smear. At worst, there might be a video along the lines of what Booman suggests, a video of Michelle Obama sounding like she's attacking "whitey" when she's actually saying "why'd he." But Johnson claims:
It features Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan. They are sitting on a panel at Jeremiah Wright’s Church when Michelle makes her intemperate remarks.
This is odd.
1.) How often does Louis Farrakhan speak at Trinity? The closest anyone has put him to the pews at Trinity was on November 2, 2007, when he received the "Trumpeter" award from the Church. And that was at a hotel, not the church itself.
2.) How often does Farrakhan appear on panels with the likes of a University of Chicago Hospitals community and external affairs director, which is what Obama was from 2002 to this campaign? Panels? Farrakhan? It's too small for him.
3.) When was this supposed to take place? After all, the Obamas were under the national radar (but in Chicago politics) from 1992 to 2004, but very much in it since his convention speech. And from late 2002 to 2004, Obama was running for U.S. Senate. He really would have signed off on his wife making a co-appearance with Louis Farrakhan?
4.) One of the other rumors going around is that Michelle "blames whitey" for Katrina, or even Jena. Katrina was in 2005; Jena was in 2007. There is simply no way that Michelle Obama made an appearance with Farrakhan in the heat of this presidential campaign. There's as much of a chance as Cindy McCain meeting with Ted Haggard.
Admittedly I'm only saying what I think is logical. I don't have travel records or tapes. But neither does Larry Johnson.