Here is a good start to a campaign..True???

[pozniceguy]

I received this in an email  wonder if  it is really accurate...will be a real issue if true??

Nick

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[Matty the Damned]

Given Barack lectured in US Constitutional Law for 12 years, I'm thinking he (and the DNCs laywerbots) may have considered this possibility.

MtD

[pozniceguy]

I am sure this will at least be a discussion   or at least one of those rumors that wont go away..

Nick

[pozniceguy]

I must be on somebodys list ..just got another "Obama"  e-mail

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[Dachshund]

Interesting article in the Washington post as to how this type of email gets started. Sorry I don't have a 30 second video or something shorter than a paragraph, but learnin' stuff is hard.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062703781.html?hpid=topnews

[Peter Staley]

Nick -- since you took the time to post these malicious emails about Obama, please take the time to read the article Hal just posted.

These emails are part of an organized political campaign to "swift-boat" Barack Obama.  They are called "viral emails," because when folks read them, they are always encouraged to forward them to their friends, so the emails spread like a virus. 

It really distresses me that these viral emails are now being posted to our site for an even larger audience.  But you didn't violate any rules here, so this thread shall stay open.

I hope everyone will take the time to learn about the darker side of our political election process, so that we don't end up wondering about, believing in, and/or peddling false rumours.

Peter

[Cliff]

Obama was born in Hawaii, which makes him a natural-born citizen.  Why do people fall for this crap and worse, spread it for others to fall for it? 

Cliff

P.S. McCain was born in Panama, if anything why aren't people more focused on his legal right to be President?

[GSOgymrat]

All email is crap unless it is personal from someone I know. Even then if it says anything about politics, amber alerts, scams, virus, etc it gets deleted without being read. I have a friend who sends me political stuff every week. I told her I don't read her emails anymore because it is not useful information it is propaganda.

If I mistakenly read the email you described I would think "Hmmm... how many millions of dollars have been spent on this candidate, how many analyst make their money by picking apart these people, yet no one noticed that he didn't meet the basic qualifications."

[pozniceguy]

Good comments guys .. great article from Washington Post..I am very aware of the political campaign "strategies" to degrade candidates.... I thought this one was particularly pointed......wondered if any one else was getting this stuff....I kind of regret "forwarding" it   I do not want to endorse or spread it..but I hoped it would start a discussion.....the real campaign will post many more of the "discussion" items .

Nick

[libvet]

I've always found the best thing to do with ANY email that claims something about a political candidate is to check snopes.com on the matter.

They usually do a very decent job of getting to the facts and even explaining away half-truths that are meant to smear someone.  At current count they have 23 articles concerning rumors and emails about about Obama.  A breakdown of that is of the various emails and rumors, 2 are true, 14 are completely false, 5 are truth mixed with fictions/half-truths, and 2 are undetermined. Just based on that breakdown, if you get something in your email about something that would impugn the character of or disqualify him, the odds are it's untrue.

Most of the time the emails are so laughably funny and far-fetched that one need not go there, but they usually do a good job of summing things up well enough to paste as a reply to all, which I do whenever anyone sends me that kind of stuff. 

Still, I am of the opinion that for everyone involved in discussing a subject, there are plenty of thread lurkers that might learn something as well by having a chance to hold the rumors to the light and see how poorly they hold up.

On a related note, I am reminded of my first face to face encounter with one of these rumors.  A friend of mine was talking with me on the phone and she said I shouldn't vote for Obama in the primaries because "he's a muslim".  I very nicely pointed out that he is a christian and we visited a couple of websites that confirmed it (even though I am indifferent to his religious beliefs unless he tries to force them on me).  She conceded he was a christian. Then in the next breath sprang the "he won't say the pledge of allegiance" thing.  Show her the video of him LEADING the pledge. Then she finally muttered something to the effect of "I just don't think America is ready for a black president".   That last was like a kick in the gut because it was a tacit admission that it was really about race with her.

I pretty much gave her the benefit of the doubt until I was visiting a couple of months later (we live on opposite coasts of the country from one another now, but have been friends for 25 years).   Somehow the conversation turned to politics and she told me that I shouldn't vote for Obama because "he's a muslim".   

The mind reels.    I guess I can understand she forgot the conversation she had with me because she had just suffered a terrible loss in her life, but it was eyeopening for me.

[weasel]

The mind reels.    I guess I can understand she forgot the conversation she had with me because she had just suffered a terrible loss in her life, but it was eyeopening for me.
[/quote]

Oh MY ! was the loss her BRAIN ?

 this whole topic is a bad omen to what is to come .

 The party's are so unbelievable to start with ,then they add junk to distract all of us .

 Why would anyone CARE about where a GOOD candidate is going to church ?

 And what is up with the black issue ?

 Not to change subjects , anyone see the BLACK lady from HARLEM  a dancer and very pretty ! and the  POPLAR BLUFF ,MO. COW farmer, NOT so pretty !

 I like to see my town on "60 Minutes " , POPLAR BLUFF !,
 BUT this show has been aired  at least  EIGHT TIMES ! maybe more !

 It's PURPOSE  to let us know WE may be related to a black person !

 WELL , HELLO! , what part of MELTING POT  did we NOT learn in first grade !

I find the whole topic  deplorable .

                                                                 have a nice informative day ,   Karl

[Dachshund]

Couldn't say it any better myself.

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_gay_muslim_chronicles/


The problem is, of course, that even when they’re “corrected”, the correction is simply another story they’re being told about Obama, one they then weigh against the story they’re being told by their friends and neighbors, and one that they’re allowed to approach as if they’re simply equivalent narratives given weight by their fetishized status as “Middle Americans”.

[libvet]

Oh MY ! was the loss her BRAIN ?

Well, in this case the loss was actually her 17 year old child in a car accident a few days earlier.  It hardly seemed the proper time to press the issue, so I didn't.

It did however underscore why I moved away from where I grew up.  I can only handle the provincialism of that area in small doses with very large gaps between visits.