A centerpiece of the campaign to cast doubt upon Barack Obama by his political opponents arose early in the primary election contest with Sen. Hillary Clinton. It was the name Bill Ayers, a 1970's anti-Vietnam war radical and co-founder of the Weather Underground, who later grew into a respected university professor of education.

The projected fallout upon President Obama's public image was predicated upon the fact that both he an Ayers lived in the same Chicago neighborhood, both served on the Board of Directors of the same public charity organization, and Ayers had given minor support to Obama when he first ran for state office in the mid-1990's.

The campaign attack jingo ran something like this, "Can we trust a known associate of domestic terrorists to be President of the United States?"

Other than a few postings on his blog, Bill Ayers kept a low profile until after the general election on November 4, 2008.

In a November 14, 2008 interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Ayers told anchor Chris Cuomo that he doesn't know Obama any better than "thousands of other Chicagoans" and that "a secret link" between the two men is a "myth."

CNN: Ayers says 'secret link' with Obama is a 'myth'

" . . . . Since their thumpin' last week, the far-right has pushed the crazy to eleven and snapped the knob clean off -- an opening salvo of twisted hackery portending an insane four-to-eight years of attacks on the Obama administration. If the last seven days have been any indication, the far-right is shaping up to make the 1990s seem quaint -- even erudite by comparison. That which used to be your basic, off-the-shelf intellectual dishonesty has grown into, as Digby pointed out recently, full-on intellectual violence.

"Intellectual violence. While not a new term, it perfectly defines what we're seeing now: accusations and smears that so severely confound logic they literally attack -- violate -- reality and the human intellect. It's like a berzerker dervish of argumentative elbows and fists indiscriminately flailing around, thwacking anything in its orbit, so much so that constructing a counterpoint is literally painful, 'Why the hell am I trying to debunk this?! Ow! My head. Aw hell, I need a drink.' . . . . "

Bob Cesca - What Doesn't Kill The Far-Right Only Makes Them Crazier

1. During a debate in January, right before the South Carolina primary, Hillary Clinton tried to sting Obama for, "representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum-landlord business in inner-city Chicago."

False

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Obama went to work for the Chicago law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill, & Galland, as an associate. The firm represented three South Side Chicago community groups that were in partnership with ResMar to rehabilitate low-income residential housing. Tony Rezko was one of the partners in ResMar. Barack Obama did a total of five hours of legal work for the community groups that were doing business with Rezko, under the direct supervision of more experienced lawyers.

According to Salon.com, "If Clinton was trying to stick Rezko on Obama, that was the wrong line of attack."

Source: Salon.com - How close were Barack Obama and Tony Rezko? February 1, 2008

2. For over a year, anonymous emails have been circulating that falsely accuse Senator Barack Obama of being an undercover radical Muslim.

False

"No mainstream observer, right or left, questions Obama's story of his [Christian] faith."

Source: Politico.com 1/26/08 E-mail smear taxes Obama campaign.

Senator Obama's father was from Kenya, Africa. Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas, met Barack's father at the University of Hawaii, where they were both students. The two were married. Senator Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Senator Obama's mother and father divorced when Senator Obama was two years old.

Source: Snopes.com - Who is Barack Obama?
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3. In early February the Clinton campaign sent out a direct-mail piece that stated Senator Obama "wants to raise Social Security taxes by a trillion dollars."

False

Senator Obama has stated that one possible option for dealing with Social Security shortfalls would be to apply payroll taxes to incomes over $97,500 a year. This would affect only about 6.5 percent of workers.

Source: FactCheck.org - You've got mailers!
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4. In early February the Clinton campaign sent out a direct-mail piece that stated Senator Obama "voted for Dick Cheney's energy bill that gives huge tax breaks to oil companies."

Misleading

A. Twenty-six Democrat Senators voted for this bill, including:

Akaka (D-HI), Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Bingaman (D-NM), Bond (R-MO), Byrd (D-WV), Cantwell (D-WA), Conrad (D-ND), Dayton (D-MN), Dorgan (D-ND), Durbin (D-IL), Harkin (D-IA), Inouye (D-HI), Johnson (D-SD), Kohl (D-WI), Landrieu (D-LA), Levin (D-MI), Lieberman (D-CT), Lincoln (D-AR), Mikulski (D-MD), Nelson (D-NE), Pryor (D-AR), Rockefeller (D-WV), Salazar (D-CO), Stabenow (D-MI).

B. The bill raised taxes on the oil industry more than it decreased them. The legislation also contained billions in subsidies for energy-efficient buildings and vehicles and for alternative fuels research.

Sources:
U.S. Senate Legislative Record - A bill to ensure . . . reliable energy.
Wikipedia - Energy Policy Act of 2005
FactCheck.org - You've got mailers!
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5. In a 2006 article, The Chicago Business News suggested Michelle Obama's election to the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. was contrary to Senator Barack Obama's vocal support for an effort to get WalMart to treat its workers better.

Gross distortion

The only connection between TreeHouse Foods and Wal-Mart is that 12% of TreeHouse's annual sales are to Wal-Mart.

Source: The Learning Curve - Is this journalism?
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6. In an interview on February 11, 2008, with ABC's Washington, D.C., affiliate WJLA, Senator Hillary Clinton accused Senator Barack Obama of cutting "some deals behind closed doors to protect them [nuclear power companies] from full disclosure of the nuclear industry." See: ABC News.

Clinton's accusation relates to Senate Bill 2348, sponsored by Senator Obama in 2006.

False and misleading.

A. On Spetember 13, 2006 Senator Clinton issued a press release in which she "applauded the approval today by a key Senate committee of" Senate Bill 2348.

Source: Senator Clinton's official Senate website

B. On Spetember 26, 2006 Senator Clinton added her name as co-sponsor of Senate Bill 2348.

Source: U. S. Library of Congress - Thomas legislative record

See also: Washington Post - Fact Checker
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7. At a fund-raiser in Harlem, NY, on November 29, 2007, Senator Barack Obama made the following statement:

"I don't want to wake up four years from now and discover that we still have more young black men in prison than in college."

Michael Dobbs of the Washington Post has made an issue of this statement in his column, The Fact Checker - Most Revealing Fibs: Barack Obama

Ambigous.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Justice data for the year 2005, for the black male population age 18 to 24, 221,000 were enrolled in college and 106,000 were in prison with a sentence of more than one year.

However, for the black male population age 20 to 24, 72,000 were enrolled in college and 94,000 were in prison.

Sources:

U.S. Census Bureau - School Enrollment--Social and Economic Characteristics of Students: October 2005

U.S. Department of Justice - Statistics Bulletin - Prisoners in 2005
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8. Various sources have accused Senator Obama of backing out on a pledge to accept public financing of his general election campaign.

False.

See: The Learning Curve - Fact or opinion.
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9. Senator Clinton, Senator McCain, and the New York Times have each accused Senator Obama of reneging on a supposed "pledge" made in 2007 to use public financing in the general election.

Premature, at worst.

Senator Obama has consistently conditioned his use of public campaign funding in the general election upon negotiating an agreement with the Republican candidate to close various loopholes not covered by Federal Election Law. There will be no such negotiation or agreement until after Senator Obama secures the Democratic nomination.

See: The Learning Curve - Fact or Opinion
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10. The Obama photo
circulated February 24, 2008.

Matt Drudge, who first broke the story, wrote that this Obama photo was being circulated by the Clinton campaign in an apparent attempt at fear-mongering, playing on a previously discredited rumor that Senator Obama was a Moslem.

True.

Senator Obama did visit Kenya in Africa, and Senator Obama really did don that goofy tribal outfit over his western street cloths. It is fairly common for tourists and visiting dignitaries to don local costumes during a visit, even if I wouldn't do it myself.

This picture of Barack Obama in a tunic and turban was taken in Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya while he was visiting in 2006. Senator Obama's father was from Kenya.

See: U.S. News and World Report
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11. Senator Obama's middle name is 'Hussein'

True.

Yep. Senator Obama's full name is Barack Hussein Obama. That was also Senator Obama's father's name. Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., now deceased, was a native of the North East African country Kenya. Senator Obama does not use "Jr." as part of his name since Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. and the Senator's mother divorced when Barack was only two years old. There was no practical need to distinguish between Barack, Sr. and Barack Jr. since Obama's father returned to Kenya.

12. Fox News' Hannity & Colmes has reported that Senator Obama's wife, Michelle Obama, believes, "blacks must join in solidarity to combat a white oppressor."

Taken out of context and distorted

In her 1985 senior thesis, Michelle Obama wrote about the experience and attitudes of Black students at Princeton University during the 1970's. She wrote:

"As discussed earlier, most respondents [to an alumni questionaire] were attending Princeton during the 70's, at a time when the Black Power Movement was still influencing the attitudes of many Blacks. It is possible that Black individuals either chose to or felt pressure to come together with other Blacks on campus because of the belief that Blacks must join in solidarity to combat a White oppressor. As the few blacks in a white environment it is understandable that respondents might have felt a need to look out for one another . . . One can contrast the mood of the campus years ago and the level of attachment to Blacks to that of the present mood of the campus [in 1985] which is more pro-integrationist."

Source:Media Matters - Hannity repeatedly distorts passage in Michelle Obama's senior thesis to suggest alumni views on race are her own

13. Barack Obama is black.

Yes and No

Barack Obama's father was from Kenya, Africa, and he might have been black, but he was probably more on the brown side. Obama's mother was from Kansas, and from the look of her parents, she was definitely white. Looking at photos of Sen. Obama, I'd say he was brown, and not black, but the exact shade of brown is hard to pinpoint. It seems to change with the lighting.

Technically speaking, you could say that Obama was half white, but that raises the vexing question, "Is Barack black enough?" on the one hand, but it resolves the troubling question, "Is he too black?" on the other hand. As Goldilocks would say, "He's not too black and he's not too white. He's just right."

1. "Introducing" a Senate bill and having it "pass" out of one Senate committee is not the same as "passing" it into law.

In a question and answer session on campaign stop in Newton, Iowa, on December 30, 2007, regarding the safety of nuclear power generation, Senator Obama stated:

Blunder: "So the only nuclear legislation that I've passed has been to make sure that the nuclear industry has to disclose whatever they admit anything that might be considered radioactive and share that with local and state communities. I just did that last year."

Fact: Barack Obama introduced Senate Bill 2348 containing additional regulation of the nuclear industry in March 2006, but that Bill only passed out of one committee and it was not submitted to a vote of the whole Senate. Senator Obama again introduced the same nuclear safety bill in 2007, but it has not yet been acted upon.

Sources:

See item 6, above, in Urban legends, myths, and lies about Obama

New York Times, February 3, 2008, Nuclear Leaks and Response Tested Obama in Senate.

2. Tony Rezko

In 2005, after his election to the U.S. Senate, Barack and Michelle Obama wanted to buy this house on the South side of Chicago. The owner of the house also owned an adjoining vacant lot, and insisted upon selling the empty lot and the house at the same time. However, the combined price of the lot and the house was more expensive than the Obamas could afford.

A deal was negotiated with Tony Rezko, a well-known Chicago South side real estate developer, for Resko and his wife to purchase the empty lot at the same time that the Obamas bought the house.

Tony Resko is currently under indictment and on trial for various fraud charges, none of which have any connection to Senator Obama.

The Chicago Tribune stated in 2006:

"In normal circumstances, the two real estate transactions probably wouldn't have raised an eyebrow. There is, after all, nothing illegal or untoward about an aggressive developer buying hot property next door to a rising political star.

Blunder: Senator Obama has admitted this transaction was a "bonehead" thing to do. By 2005, Rezko's questionable business dealings were widely suspected. Barack should have known better.

In recent weeks an attempt has been made to cast doubt on Senator Obama's commitment to a woman's right to choose, while he was serving in the Illinois State Senate. Specifically, Obama's vote of "present," rather than "yes" or "no" on an abortion-related bill, was misleadingly used against him.

The fact of the matter is that Senator Obama's "present" vote was a legislative procedural move that was orchestrated by the Illinois Pro-Choice women's movement. Pam Sutherland, president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, stated, "The poor guy is getting all this heat for a strategy we, the pro-choice community, did."

Source: Chicago Sun-Times, December 4, 2007

As a direct result of this questionable campaign tactic a former president of the Chicago chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW), Lorna Brett Howard, switched her support from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama. Ms. Howard felt so strongly about the issue, she made a video stating her reasons for the switch.

Disclosure: I am generally a fiscal conservative with social liberal leanings. I am a Christian, but not a fundamentalist. My admittedly unconventional Christian beliefs inform a large part of my social thinking. For many years I was a registered Republican, but I switched my political party affiliation to the Democrat Party in 2003. I made this change as a protest of recent Republican excesses in general, and specifically as a protest to the invasion of Iraq that year.

Read my blog - The Learning Curve