If you had asked me some time back, I would have said that it did not. However, the exposure of John Edwards’ affair and illegitimate child – and the close connection with his campaign apparatus – and the parallels with this supposed Obama affair makes a closer look imperative.

Barack Obama is the target of a shadowy smear campaign designed to derail his bid for the US Presidency by falsely claiming he had a close friendship with an attractive African-American female employee.

The whispers focus on a young woman who in 2004 was hired to work on his team for his bid to become a senator.

The woman was purportedly sidelined from her duties after Senator Obama’s wife, Michelle, became convinced that he had developed a personal friendship with her.

The allegations were initially circulated in August, just two weeks before the convention at which Obama finally beat his opponent for the Democratic Party nomination, Hillary Clinton.

The woman, now 33, vigorously denies the vicious and unsubstantiated gossip.

Now excuse me, but isn’t this the same template that was played by the MSM prior to Jophn Edwards being caught visiting his mistress and love child in an LA hotel? The media tried to down-play that story until Edwards was forcibly outed. Shouldn’t they actually do their job this time, three weeks prior to the election?

Now some might say that there is no evidence to support this story. Funny, that didn’t stop the “Sarah Palin isn’t her baby’s mama” some weeks back – or the New York Times article alleging a McCain affair with a lobbyist last spring on the basis of a couple of anonymous sources. Let’s just apply the same standard to Barack Obama that would be applied if he were a Republican, and let the chips fall where they may.

H/T Newsbusters, Ace Hill Buzz