Exclusive: Obama's Anti-Rumor Plan

[underpants]

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1813663,00.html?cnn=yes

Obama is enlisting his millions of supporters to help him hunt down and quash these stories, just as those supporters helped him turn his insurgent campaign into a history-making juggernaut. Says Obama adviser Anita Dunn: "We will not allow Michelle — or, for that matter, Barack—to be defined by rumors."

For more than a year, Obama relied on conventional means to confront the blogosphere's superheated rumor mill—to little effect. The "fact-check" feature on his website, for instance, only seemed to spawn more, and wilder, rumors. A mention there of Obama's birth certificate spurred National Review Online to demand that he produce it to dispel groundless reports that Obama was actually born in Kenya and therefore would be constitutionally ineligible to be President; that his middle name is not Hussein but Muhammad; and that his mother actually named him Barry. That National Review article in turn became fodder for cable television.

According to campaign officials, what finally launched Obama into a full rumor counteroffensive was a story that apparently first made a big splash on the Internet in late May in a post by pro-Hillary Clinton blogger Larry Johnson. Quoting "someone in touch with a senior Republican," Johnson claimed that there was a video of Michelle Obama "blasting 'whitey' during a rant at Jeremiah Wright's church." (Later versions of the rumor had Michelle's "rant" happening at a Rainbow/push Coalition conference.) No such videotape has surfaced.

The rest of fightthesmears.com is designed to be a guided tour of other sensational rumors circulating on the Web about Obama and his family. Click on the claim that Obama attended a "radical madrasah," for instance, and it takes you to a CNN feature on the very ordinary-looking elementary school he actually went to as a child in Indonesia. The rumor that Obama was sworn in to the U.S. Senate with the Koran yields a photo of him with his hand on a family Bible. Also featured are videos of Obama saying the Pledge of Allegiance, to combat claims that he refuses to. And, yes, the campaign plans to post a .pdf of Obama's birth certificate. Near each rumor will be a fight-back button, offering suggestions as to where and how Obama supporters can call or e-mail to counter the rumors. The site will also have a spot where Obama supporters can alert the campaign to any new rumors they may be seeing on the Web or in their mailboxes or hearing on the telephone.

[slinkerwink]

1. kicking!

[myrna minx]

2. I just love his campaign.

This is pure genius. He employes his legion of netroots supporters to take action against these smears. He asks us to do what we do best (besides the infighting ;-)) and that is debunking this junk. :toast:

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Every day, Obama impresses me more,

both with his political acumen and with his generous and wise spirit. The guy is good in every sense of the word.

[Onlooker]

4. I wish the site would allow us to ask the Obama campaign about rumors

The birth certificate rumor is very annoying, and right wing sites like NewsMax and National Review are working hard at giving it traction. I have no doubt that Obama is an American citizen, and my only guess is that there's something marginally embarrassing on his birth certificate (for instance, maybe he changed his name from Barry to Barack). Sooner or later, he's going to be asked about it in a debate or an interview. But, he should respond to it now since the rumor plays directly into the hands of those who trying to portray Obama as unpatriotic, unAmerican, or even foreign.

[Connie_Corleone]

5. It says in the article that the campaign is releasing a pdf of his birth certificate.

[Onlooker]

6. That's great

I missed that in the article.

[mopinko]

7. it says right there that the barry thing was in the fact check

his name is really barack.

[ClassWarrior]

8. Thank you for your concern.

NGU.

[skids]

9. They really shouldn't since McCain was born off US soil... n/t

[Kukesa]

10. I sent them a defamatory email I received and

they've already debunked it; it's listed under "know the facts" on the website!

The Obama staff is on the mark.

[babylonsister]

11. Do you have an e-mail address we can use if we come across

something? Thanks!

[Kukesa]

13. Sure do. It's

[e-mail]

You can find it on Obama's website by clicking on "Learn" then on "Know the Facts."

Or, you can just go to

FactCheck.barackobama.com

and the address is listed.

[babylonsister]

14. Thanks so much! I've seen a few things I'd like them to address. nt

[moriah]

12. Signed up and sent one to my mom.

My mother always sends me tons of forwards. I delete most of them and never reply.

But this is a forward that should be sent, so I sent it to her. She's a Barack supporter. It should go viral shortly. *grin*

[KittyWampus]

15. Shouldn't Obama SUE National Review if they printed provably false information?

Seriously, aren't there laws?

[KittyWampus]

16. Can this forum get a stickie on this thread?

[wowimthere]

17. K&R

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

18. Here I am, doing my part!

:-)

[gcomeau]

19. His own personal snopes... genius. Rec this to the top of the Greatest!

Signed up! And everyone else should as well.

[Jester Messiah]

20. I can just see the Repub campaign machine's heads spinning

"Whaddya MEAN they're not just going to lie there and take it this time?!"