(Posted similar comments at dailykos.com)

Let's be careful, folks. I grinned when I saw the ad on YouTube, but upon reflection I think we need to ask: "Who benefits?"

I tried to track down the identity of "ParkRidge47," who posted the clip on YouTube, but had no luck. As Hillary Clinton was born in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1947. whoever chose "ParkRidge47" as a pseudonym did not do so randomly.

The clip is extremely well done. Note the Obama logo on the hammer-thrower's jersey. Note that in the final morphed, rainbow-colored "O" (for Obama) logo reminiscent of the classic Apple logo, there is no blue bottom layer, as there is in the Apple original. The color range begins at purple. Is this a subtle, subliminal effort to show disrespect to the "Blue" Party, i.e., the Democratic Party?

No one remotely connected to the Obama campaign, and no sentient being sympathetic to Obama, would be stupid enough to stamp BarackObama.com at the end of this viral video, clever and effective as it may seem at first glance.

Hillary Clinton and her staff may have sharp elbows, but what would they gain by floating this video?

John Edwards? I doubt it.

The video is smelling to me more and more like a typical Rovian ploy. What is Swift Boat fundmeister Bob Perry doing with his money these days?

Remember the forged National Guard documents which ultimately destroyed the credibility of Dan Rather, who failed to exercise due diligence in scrutinizing them?

Remember the forged documents about Iraqi purchases of uranium "yellowcake" from Niger and W.'s use of them as one of the pretexts for invading Iraq?

Remember the flooding of Democratic GOTV phone banks in New Hampshire and the misidirection robo-calling campaigns intended to irritate Democratic voters in several other states?

Remember Republican voter-suppression efforts in Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, and elsewhere?

Oh, and remember the Watergate break-in of Democratic Party offices?

And what about the firings U.S. Attorneys and continuing coverup of perjury and obstruction of justice?

Dirty tricks are what top Republicans have grown up learning to do and what they continue to do. And this video has that certain stench to it.

So who benefits? Think strategically, as the Republicans did by slipping into the 2006 Patriot Act a measure to bypass Senate approval of interim U.S. Attorney appointments and by by firing U.S. Attorney Carol Lam to short-circuit her increasingly threatening (to them) corruption investigations in California.

Initially, this 1984 video may take some steam out of Hillary's sails. It may even generate a little extra enthusiasm among Obama's supporters. But it will also likely generate added hostility between the two camps. Whoever comes out on top for the Democratic nomination will find it just a little harder to win over the supporters of the opposing camp. Hillary's party establishment pols will sneer at Obama's "upstarts" who would dare applaud such a video and will be less inclined to reach out to the "upstarts" if Hillary wins or to work with them if Obama wins. Obama's supporters will find their instinctive distrust of the party establishment to be reinforced and will be less inclined to work with Hillary's people if she wins and less able to tap into the party establishment's organized precinct base if Obama wins.

For the Rovian disinformers, it looks like win-win.

Are Democratic campaign staffers smart enough to avoid being manipulated by such disinformation?