From the moment Barack Obama began his campaign for president, rumors have been circulating about his origins, religion and views on race.
Rather than follow the practice of most past candidates and ignore unflattering accusations, Obama this week started a Web site dedicated to combating what he believes are calumnies on his candidacy.
The site, fightthesmears.com, lists each “smear” and counters it with “the truth.”
The site features a number of links, including one that allows readers to “spread the word” to 10 e-mail addresses.
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said the Web site will operate through the general election in an effort to block rumors from spreading across the Internet and becoming accepted as fact.
In past presidential contests, candidates tended to avoid responding to rumors and innuendoes for fear of giving them even greater exposure.
Veteran Democratic strategist Peter Fenn recalls telling Al Gore during his 2000 presidential bid to aggressively and quickly bat down reports that he claimed to have invented the Internet. Gore did not follow his advice, and the rumors persist to this day.
“My argument was slam that stuff down right away,” Fenn said. “It’s an urban legend thing.”
Urban legends abound about Obama, who is unusual not only because he is the first black Democratic nominee for president but also because of his Kenyan roots, his middle name (Hussein), and his past association with radical black pastor Jeremiah Wright.
A quick Web search pulls up various sites, some of them months old, that erroneously claim that Obama is a Muslim.
The new Obama Web site already has tackled dozens of Internet references to a tape that supposedly shows Michelle Obama using the term “whitey.” The Obama site said the tape, which has yet to surface, does not exist.
The site includes a video link showing Obama leading the Pledge of Allegiance in the Senate to dispel reports that he refuses to take the pledge.
Vietor said the campaign recognizes that it needs to “be proactive and fight back” against the litany of potentially damaging rumors, some of which already have taken hold.
A March survey, for instance, found that 13 percent of respondents believed Obama is a Muslim.
In the last election, John Kerry’s campaign was badly hurt because it did not move quickly to rebut the “Swift Boat” attacks questioning his Vietnam War record.
“What this does is provide a way and a vehicle for him to set the record straight,” Fenn said.
