« The Fundraisers | Main | Fire in the Belly » The Antidote12 Jun 2008 10:18 am Obama campaign launches new Fight the Smears website dedicated to knocking down sundry lies (about the pledge of allegiance, about Obama being a Muslim, etc.) floating around in chain emails slash Fox News broadcasts. Karen Tumulty has the story. Will this work? I dunno. But it seems smart to get out in front of these things rather than pretending that they'll go away if decent people ignore them. Comments (18)
It'll be interesting to see if they can organize their supporters to ensure that the site is one of the first few links Google yields. That'll be one indication of its effectiveness. 
This is way better than isbarackobamaamuslim.com or whatever that shit was. The only thing to watch out is that it doesn't become too media-mattersy and fail to distinguish between silly little gaffes and serious smears. I like Media Matters just fine, but seeing as it sometimes strike me, a committed liberal democrat, as whiny, oversensitive, and too quick to make mountains out of molehills, I don't think it's a good model to follow. I also respectfully disagree with the commenter who calls for new slander laws--ask the British how that's working for them.
"decent people"
Jake (above) is right. The more links, the higher placement in Google, and the easier for folks to quickly answer concerns for themselves or others.
John Kerry should have worked much harder against the swiftboaters. I also think we need better slander laws. Agree. If we had, then most of the 2.3 million who served in the Vietnam Theater and were declared war criminals and atrocity committers by Kerry in formal testimony to Congress could have sued him for slander. He should also have been arrested under Federal law for meeting with North Vietnamese diplomats in Paris while still a serving commissioned officer. Face it, Bush was a bad President that would have been gone if any of a dozen Dems had been the candidate. Unfortunately, they picked up a guy who made his Vietnam tales his centerpiece "JOhn Kerry, reporting for duty as your President." while giving the rapturous Convention crowd a military salues. Unfortunately because he was regarded by most Vets as dishonorable. 1. His denunciations of GIs were global news and preserved word-for-word in the Congressional Record. Not a "swift boat lie". 2. The controversy about his medals, the nature of his original discharge, his PR of running around with a camera and having crew record recreations of his valor "for future career use" was an ongiong controversy for 30 yeas. The swift boat people did not originate the debate on those issues. 2. Vets generally abhored him putting POWs at risk of longer confinment with his presumptuous pledge that if the POWs were released, the US would agree to some things the NVA wanted. Some POW groups believe Kerry's ad hoc diplomacy delayed POW releases. Kerrys intinerary and what he said to the Communist Reps in Paris was documented by State Dept, his interviews in Euro papaers, and by the Vietnamese themselves...Nothing made up by "swiftboater" 3. His superior and peer officers, by majorities that include Navymen who were Democrats then and now, believed Kerry to be a treacherous, lying scumbag in so many words. Swiftboat Vets did not tell those officers what they should think about Kerry 35 years later.
The site itself suggests most of these smears are "right-wing", which is an unusual way to describe the Clinton campaign. The fact that the site is only now getting up is strange. Does the Obama campaign think that Hillary is not yet dead yet? What do they know that we don't?
This is probably just a short cut for the media to use since 1) they automatically report all smears, 2) they don't check to see if said smears are actually true and 3) even when said smears are shown to be untrue, they still repeat them because Obama hasn't explicitly said himself that they are untrue.
i think this is an excellent way to respond to the smears and shows how unusually effective a general campaign obama is going to run. these smears are spread by lazy and ignorant people because it's so easy to hit "forward." the obama team is making it equally easy to forward the truth as a response, with evidence (you know, actual links!). that's the best you can do. excellent!
The links thing is exactly what they should push - on specific keywords and phrases, they should try to get ahead and unless google does a 'handjob' on the results, they probably will.
I think that Kerry's mistake was letting the 2004 election become about the Vietnam war as opposed to the Iraq war. I rather doubt that's going to happen in this campaign (attempts by some pundits to declare that McCain should be annointed solely on the basis of his POW experience). That said, Obama is smart to have a team of people dedicated to quashing cyber-rumors and it's one of the reasons I favor him -- he understands the modern technological world in a way that I don't think that most of his peers do. The simple fact of his well-oiled internet insurgency against Hillary says to me that he's a person who has a fairly deep understanding of it.
"pretending they'll go away"? Huh? you must be aware that the Obama campaign has been actively fighting these rumors and viral emails online since at least January, and in the background for many more months before that. Here are just two of the accounts from that time, from Wired and Politico: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/8109.html from Politico, 1/26/08 COLUMBIA, S.C. –For over a year, largely out of the media glare, Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign has been fighting a determined, low-intensity conflict against the viral e-mail that forwards the myth that Obama is a crypto-Muslim Manchurian candidate. Among the campaign’s first hires in January 2007 were two opposition researchers who didn't begin with the traditional round of research into their boss's past, or his rivals' records. Instead, they were immediately assigned to debunk the widely circulated anonymous set of e-mails. "We've been bird-dogging it from the beginning," said Devorah Adler, Obama's research director. "The first research document that I put together was a response to the 'Who is Barack Obama?' e-mail." There's just no way to characterize Obama's team as blithe or naive in their efforts on this subject.
I think that Kerry's mistake was letting the 2004 election become about the Vietnam war as opposed to the Iraq war. I rather doubt that's going to happen in this campaign (attempts by some pundits to declare that McCain should be annointed solely on the basis of his POW experience). That said, Obama is smart to have a team of people dedicated to quashing cyber-rumors and it's one of the reasons I favor him -- he understands the modern technological world in a way that I don't think that most of his peers do. The simple fact of his well-oiled internet insurgency against Hillary says to me that he's a person who has a fairly deep understanding of it.
The only problem I have is this: http://www.plunderbund.com/2008/06/11/racist-obama-doll/ http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/9671.html. They aren't going to put up posts that say "truth: Michelle and Barack are married, you fuckheads" or "truth: Barack only looks like a monkey to you if you're a Klansman." We also need a better public shaming mechanism. The blogs need to come up with some catchy nickname and start pushing this stuff into the news in the right way.
I think they need to reformat the entries. Even though there is "LIE" before each smear, the smear is there in the text. They should state the truth under each smear, not repeat the lie.
They aren't going to put up posts that say "truth: Michelle and Barack are married, you fuckheads" or "truth: Barack only looks like a monkey to you if you're a Klansman." I thought the shaming stuff was all worked out! Anyone who disagrees with Black Messiah is either racist like Bill Clinton & Geraldine Ferraro, a Tom like Charlie Rangel, or that group in Flyover Country. You know, people too stupid to make in into the Ivies and not living on the Coasts or a University Towm. Those embittered whites with less than 6-figure jobs who are losing out to better people in global competition, so they cling to their guns, religion, hatred of people who look different than they do, and who hate hard-working immigrants. Team Axelrod already has a "Shaming Team", and Barack and wife do their part...
The site misrepresents what people are saying about the pledge. They artfully say the "lie" is that Obama "won't put his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance." Yes, that's a lie. Obviously, he "will" and has. But there *is* the video of him not doing so during a (terrible) performance of the national them. See video: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/anthem.asp#pledge By misrepresenting the smear, this will for gullible people throw the credibility of the entire project into doubt.
Senator Obama is NOT a Dirty Muslim! "What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge," says Mr. Obama, while denouncing statements of him being a Muslim as a smear. Why is the presidential candidate who claims to be religiously inclusive is treating the word "Muslim" as an insult? Apparently, it is OK for Mr. Obama to be associated with terrorists like William Ayers or racists like Jeremiah Wright, but God forbid somebody would call him a Muslim! No, he won't stand for that kind of smear! We admit that most terrorists are Muslims, but most Muslims are not terrorists and the statement on Mr. Obama's website is insulting to hundreds of millions of people. How could a man who discards his family heritage in favor of political expediency be even considered for presidency of the United States? Where are all the so-called "Islamic civil rights groups" like CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, MAS, etc. who are quick to defend every Islamic terrorist, but are silent when Muslims in general are being denigrated? Would Mr. Obama have the same reaction if someone claimed that he was raised as a Jew? We sincerely doubt that. Muslims Against Sharia demand immediate removal of "SMEAR: Barack Obama is a Muslim" statement from the official Barack Obama's website as well as an apology for giving the word "Muslim" a negative connotation. http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2008/06/senator-obama-is-not-dirty-muslim.html
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Heads in the Sand
Exactly. John Kerry should have worked much harder against the swiftboaters. I also think we need better slander laws.
Posted by Beth in VA | June 12, 2008 10:23 AM