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Barack Obama recruits staff to fight web smears
By Sally Peck
Last Updated: 12:50PM BST 11/06/2008
Barack Obama is recruiting senior staff to fight internet smear campaigns that could damage his chances against John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.
The Clinton campaign did not deny sending the photograph to Drudge
The new unit will combat online rumour campaigns, including allegations that he is neither a Christian nor a patriotic American.
Since he launched his presidential campaign, the Illinois senator has faced inaccurate claims that he attended a madrassa, or religious school, as a child when his family lived in Indonesia.
His Kenyan father, who left the family when he was two years old, was a non-practising Muslim. But Mr Obama began worshipping at the Trinity United Church in Chicago more than 20 years ago.
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Nonetheless, he has endured repeated smears by Right-wing bloggers and in December a Clinton volunteer stepped down after forwarding an email falsely stating that Mr Obama is Muslim.
In April, he accused his Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton of using "shameful" smear tactics after a picture of the Illinois senator wearing tribal robes in a Muslim region of Kenya was circulated on the internet.
The photograph, which was taken in 2006 during an official trip, appeared on the front page of the Drudge Report, where rival campaigns typically try to place damaging material.
The senator’s patriotism has also been the subject of fierce online debate, with bloggers vilifying his decision not to wear the American flag lapel pin beloved of US politicians. (He has recently started wearing one occasionally.)
The senator’s patriotism was further called into question in February, when a tape surfaced of his wife telling supporters that the success of her husband's campaign meant that "for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country".
Extracts from her university thesis, in which she expressed a sense of racial alienation, sparked further rows over the couple’s patriotism.
While polls indicate that race will not be a decisive factor for the majority of voters, patriotism and background count in the US, and as he focuses his attention on November, the senator will fight misconceptions of his background with a series of biographical speeches and advertisements as he embarks on a three-week tour of swing states.
But the Democratic candidate for president has also benefited from positive internet exposure, with videos of the "Obama Girls" and the celebrity-filled "Yes We Can" song becoming online sensations.
The latest Gallup poll puts Mr Obama in the lead with 48 per cent to Mr McCain's 41 per cent. A CBS News poll gives Mr Obama 48 per cent against the Republican candidate’s 42 per cent.
telegraph.co.uk |
