The political world is a weird one, and it looks like it's gotten weirder. Wyatt Chesney, the friendly fellow running for the Reform Party nomination who was kind enough to
stop by the Atlas,
may not exist.
Evidently, the vast majority of the content created for the Wyatt Chesney site was created by a Reformer231, aka ABSite. If that name sounds familiar, it should;
ABSite posts here. Many other mentions are by Robert Stark -- another name that should
sound familiar.
I am generally a trusting guy. Mr. Chesney was never anything but kind in his responses to me. But as someone who has learned to deal with the seamier sides of the computer world, I also know when I smell something fishy. I worry that Mr. Chesney claims $1,500 in donations, yet has no FEC file. I worry that Mr. Chesney claims to be an accountant in good standing with his community, yet has not a single Google hit for anything other than his presidential run. I worry that, despite claiming to live in Arizona, Mr. Chesney's posts on forums originate from Austin, Texas. I worry that the FreeWebs extension for Mr. Chesney's site is ivotedcobb yet he claims to have voted Nader in 2000 and 2004. And most of all, I worry that there just isn't much of a chance that a man running for president would not have a single trace online, in the phone book, or on people search databases.
Again, I hate to think that we have been collectively hornswoggled, but other than ABASite (and to a lesser extent, Robert Stark), there doesn't seem to be even a tenuous connection between Mr. Chesney and the information world.
If Mr. Chesney, ABASite, or Mr. Stark would be kind enough as to address this, it would be appreciated. I know all visit this forum, and this would be the place to address the perceptions at hand before the "hoax" incident becomes out of control -- moreso than it already is.
EDIT: From what I read now, it's pretty clear that Robert Stark wasn't involved. My apologies, Robert.
