Who is Martin Eisenstadt? A Ghost, That's Who.

Yes, the whole thing of leaks from senior officials of the McCain campaign staff turns out to be a hoax according to the New York Times. Someone posing as Martin Eisenstadt, an alleged McCain campaign senior official, is the person responsible for the "leaks." His excuse is he claims the news media and the whole Internet blogosphere are too quick to seize in on any story that even looks like it's newsworthy without first checking out its validity. He pulled this prank by "leaking" false claims against Gov. Palin about how she miss took Africa as a country rather than a continent and some other "allegations." He reasoned the whole Internet community and the broadcast media would take the bait "hook, line and sinker." He was right, but I could have guessed that, no problem.

So what's his point? That the media and the Internet are too information hungry for their own good? That's true, but big hairy deal. This kind of prank does not belong in our political discourse for a number of reasons. The poser represented himself as an official of a campaign staff for a candidate running for the highest office in the land. I don't know, but shouldn't this be the equivalent of impersonating a government official? People should not be able to get away with impersonating any officers of any organization without paying a severe penalty. Releasing false information while posing as an official should also be severely penalized. This whole "prank" is a fraud put upon the trust of the American people. The People trusted this source as factual and caused us to form our opinions of Gov. Palin's competence on misleading information. This "prank" is dangerous even beyond Gov. Palin's demonstrated lack of constitutional knowledge. At least she can correct her errors through study. This "prank" did lasting damage to our due process of elections by violating the trust of the American people. I hope the persons responsible will be brought before a court of law for their due justice and be made an example that We shall not tolerate those who violate our sacred trust in our institutions.