Fight the Smears
This presidential campaign is a historic one, but not only because of the Democrat's nominee being a bi-racial man. Its historic because of the prevalence of the web and email's influence on basic knowledge of the candidates. The web played a roll in the Kerry v Bush election, but in the last 4 years the number of people using the web has grown considerably, as it will continue to do.
I've noticed from my own experience that when people are forwarded email, odds are they will believe what they read. I'm forwarded a lot of stuff from family and friends, which are well intended, but usually the email forwards are alarmist in tone. People believe things they read in email forwards that they would never believe if a stranger told them the same thing in person. Anything can be written and forwarded along without any source citations or facts to back them up, yet people still give these forwards credence.
This has become an issue with Barack Obama's campaign. I've received many email forwards questioning Obama's integrity, mostly from people saying 'can you believe people believe this crap?' but I can see from the body of the email that its been forwarded around, a lot. Usually I just roll my eyes and hit 'delete' but now that this is a general campaign, the Obama campaign is becoming concerned, and rightly so. 13% of voters believe that Obama is Muslim. I've gotten several email forwards based on that very notion, even though it was highly covered that Obama's Christian pastor said controversial remarks that were broadcast 24/7 on the cable news networks. While Obama's religion does not matter to me, I would support him whether he was Muslim or Christian, that does scare a lot of people who are still being scared by Bush Co. with 9/11. I've also received email forwards with excerpts from his book taken out of context. Many of the supposedly controversial remarks he made in his books were reflections by other people, or were so butchered they don't look anything like what he wrote. I've read both of his books, and neither of them lead me to believe there was anything about him to be concerned about. It was actually the opposite, I became a believer and supporter of him after reading his books.
His campaign has (smartly) created a new website, FightTheSmears.com to clear up rumors and smears against him, his family and his campaign. If/when you receive an email that makes claims about Obama, check the website and forward the truth to the person you received it from and the people they forwarded the message to. Get the word out.
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2 comments:
I was visiting my grandparents last weekend. They're in their 80s and have been lifelong Republicans. My grandmother at one point said that she was worried that Obama might be a secret Muslim, and that she'd read that the Muslims have been infiltrating our country for years, putting kids in our schools and raising them just for this purpose - to get one of them in power to ruin our country.
I thought Red-scare tactics died out a while ago. I guess not.
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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