Guide Note
The presidential campaign of Barack Obama has built a website for the express purpose of rebutting blog-based attacks from opponents. "Fight the Smears" was developed in reaction to rumors about a Michelle Obama "Whitey Tape" purported to show the candidate's wife making racially charged statements.1 According to reports, the incident prompted Obama to instruct his aides that a bolder approach was needed to rebut such claims.1
Fast Facts
- URL: FighttheSmears.com
- Site launched on June 12, 2008
- Users can sign up and participate in the effort
- Built in response to rumors of a Michelle Obama "Whitey Tape"1
- More than 20,000 people registered at the site on the first day2
The Rumors
- Michelle Obama is alleged to have been caught on tape blaming "Whitey" for the Iraq War, the Hurricane Katrina disaster and other events
- Some claim that Obama is "secretly" Muslim despite his professed Christianity
- Rumors persist that Obama attended a radical Islamic school while living in Indonesia as a young child. An Indonesian government spokesman says the school is "a public primary school that is open to people of all faiths."3
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