Tom Emmer’s Tracker, Abby Michaud’s Racist Blogging History
One of Tom Emmer’s trackers (the people who stalk Emmer’s opponents on the campaign trail with video cameras), Abby Michaud, seems like quite a character. Here’s her LinkedIn history:
On her Twitter account, she mentions that she’s a “professional stalker”:
Which does seem like a more accurate description than Research Analyst.
She also maintains a second Twitter account, where she linked to her Tumblr blog:
(She doesn’t use her name on her Tumblr site, but she did link to it from her Twitter account where she did use her real name.)
I can’t say for sure whether the following post was written by Abby, since it sounds like she shares the blog with at least one other author. However, at the very least, she’s let is stand since January:
Perhaps they should take their “never say this shit outloud” advice and apply it to writing on the web as well?
I asked Abby via Twitter whether she was the self-described clinical stalker author who wrote that racist comment.
Coincidentally, Abby Michaud’s blog disappeared less than 15 minutes after I questioned her about that.
Since she doesn’t seem to be comfortable standing behind her own words, she deleted the blog entirely. So here’s something fun. Guess who runs mildredslaundry.tumblr.com now? I do. My first post is up with the screenshot of Abby’s racist comment.
Seriously people, take Abby’s advice on this one: “never say this shit outloud”. Better yet, be a better person.
So now we know a bit more about who the Minnesota GOP hires to hassle Emmer’s opponents on the campaign trail. I hope Tony Sutton realizes that he has a problem when his trackers are becoming the story rather than his candidate. Unless, of course, his candidate actually benefits from not being in the news. Considering how often Tom Emmer has already managed to put his foot in his mouth, that may actually be the case.
August 17th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
This is my most favorite thing of the week.
August 17th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
wow. just…wow. I’m glad you’re paying attention Ed!
August 17th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
It looked to me like a summary of things that weren’t really news. I’m trying to make her comment seem racist but I must be missing something?
August 17th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
I’m with Joey on this one. While the comment isn’t as PC as it could be, it wasn’t anything that shocked me or even made me raise an eyebrow. Maybe I’m too desensitized.
August 17th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Though, she deleted the blog rather than defend anything she said, so that tells you something.
August 17th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Karl Pearson-Cater and Ed Kohler, The Deets Blog Posts. The Deets Blog Posts said: New Post: @TomEmmer’s Tracker, Abby Michaud’s Racist Blogging History http://bit.ly/9bxxNL [...]
August 17th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
At a minimum, her comment implies that there’s a legitimate possibility or reason that Obama wouldn’t still be in office (and the only way I can imagine he wouldn’t be would involve violence) and that eventuality is somehow unsurprising. I find that a little disturbing, even if it’s “normal” in today’s political discourse.
And then there’s the part where she decided to refer to him as “our first black president” instead of, you know, “President Obama” or “the Democrat” or something along those lines. That’s a deliberate choice of words.
That’s my interpretation.
Nice catch, Ed.
August 17th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Her blog can still be seen in Google’s cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mildredslaundry.tumblr.com/
August 17th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Oh SNAP!
August 17th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Ed,
You have been and always will be my favorite evil genius.
August 18th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
I fall on the left side of the spectrum and i think the tracking is over the top but I don’t see a whole lot of racism in there anywhere.
I read it more as “nothing’s changed”
August 19th, 2010 at 7:42 am
Reminds me of a certain intern at The UpTake who made a Twitter joke about editing her stories to make people say what she wanted. Only this is dumber, with worse spelling, and she is involved with a campaign.
August 19th, 2010 at 9:45 am
And she works for FOX News (one of the greatest oxymorons of our time). Nuff said.
August 19th, 2010 at 10:28 am
@Eric:
Thanks for the link. The Jan 28th Mildred’s Laundrey post is less politically charged but far more amusing but makes me wonder if you can trust the declarations anyone who suggests that Jay is better than Conan.
August 19th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
What makes it racist? Tone.
It’s the same reason Republicans say “Barack Hussein Obama” and then say “Oh, but that’s his name.” They are fear baiting people and that’s their goal. There is an inference because of how it’s said and who is saying it. It’s passive aggressive. MN Nice at it’s finest.
If no negativity was intended, perhaps the person should have replied to Ed’s tweet instead of deleting their entire blog.
August 19th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
@Ren, well said. The same exact words written by a black Obama supporter would likely be meant as a celebration of a significant racial milestone in US history that’s important to them. When a 20-something white Republican says it, I get the impression that our president’s race is important to her, in a bad way.
Two days later, she’s done nothing to clarify what she wrote, which makes me believe that I wasn’t wrong in my characterization of her writing, and that she, too, is a bit embarrassed (hopefully) by her own words.