Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Rethug Smear Machine in Overdrive
Well, by now, last week's bogus story about Sen. Obama attending a madrassah school in Indonesia as a young boy has been debunked (by CNN, most prominently), along with the claim that Sen. Clinton's camp was responsible for planting the smear. The smear first appeared in an online Moonie operation, Insight, which is related to the TP substitute known as the Washington Times. Citing "unnamed" sources (yeah, riiight; sources in the Rethuglican oppo research operation is more like it), the smear piece attempted to imply that Obama is a Manchurian Candidate - style Muslim "terrist", who can't be trusted. Of course, right wing outlets Faux News, the New York Post, and Glenn Dreck ran with the smear, eager as they are to throw dirt on a rising Democratic star. What is surprising, though, is the clumsiness of the smear, which any competent news organization could independently check out quickly. What is not surprising is that they've already started, and Democrats need to be armed and ready to respond.