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WASHINGTON: Democrat Barack Obama has shown the stunning power of the Internet for political fundraising. Now he is fighting its darker side as a vehicle for "smears" against his bid for the White House.
Pausing from a war of words with Republican John McCain over taxes, the African-American senator on Thursday unveiled an interactive website to debunk false rumours peddled by email and right-wing media outlets.
The site at www.fightthesmears.com was created after one recent, and thus-far unfounded, assertion that Obama's wife Michelle had been caught on tape slurring white people.
"We created an interactive tool to allow our supporters to fight back against these smears in the same way that they received them – on the Internet," campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
"People can upload their address books and easily send fact-based emails to their friends and family," he said.
"Just knowing the truth isn't enough – you have to proactively tell people the truth to fight back."
Obama's main campaign website already has a fact-check section to refute rumours such as that the Christian candidate is a secret Muslim. But aides said the new site went further in inviting supporters to spread the word.
Political candidates have traditionally refused to acknowledge slanderous rumours for fear of giving them respectability.
But given the slew of attacks being spread by email against Obama, his campaign said it had to respond in kind by harnessing the "viral" power of the Internet to add to his impressive record of online fundraising.
By going back repeatedly to online donors who give little and often, the Illinois senator has set new records with a total take so far of more than 265 million dollars – three times the amount raised by McCain.
The new website was launched after reports by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, among others, said that a videotape existed showing Michelle Obama using the derogatory term "whitey" in the couple's former church.
No such tape has surfaced despite frenzied speculation by right-wing pundits and blogs, and Obama last week decried the mainstream media's attention to "dirt and lies".
The Democrat was back on the offensive a day after ditching Washington insider Jim Johnson, who was leading his search for a vice presidential nominee, over allegations of sweetened mortgage terms from a lender at the heart of the US "sub-prime" housing crisis.
Obama and McCain clashed afresh on policy as a CNN poll suggested that 50 percent of voters prefer the Democrat on the economy against 44 percent for the Republican. But McCain led by 54 percent to 43 on foreign policy.
Citing a new study by the non-partisan Tax Policy Centre, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill said one-quarter of the benefits under McCain's tax plan would go to people earning more than three million dollars a year.
"This is more of the same on steroids!" she told reporters, referring to President George W. Bush's hefty tax cuts and drawing a contrast with Obama's plan to reduce taxes for those on less than 250,000 dollars a year.
"The thinnest sliver of wealth in this country will be enriched under John McCain's tax policies while once again, the middle class will be looking around wondering what has happened to the American dream," McCaskill said.
McCain accuses Obama of advocating "the largest tax increase since the Second World War" and is touting his own plan to keep costs low for consumers and businesses amid mounting economic hardship.
McCain's campaign seized on remarks by Obama to the CNBC business channel this week, in which he suggested that higher oil prices could be beneficial if they curb demand, but that a "gradual adjustment" would have been better.
"These gas prices are truly taking a toll on working families across America and it's time for us to act," Virginia Representative Eric Cantor said.
"And I think what we heard yesterday was Senator Barack Obama indicate through his comments that he, frankly, is out of touch with what Americans are going through," he said.
Obama aides, however, again lashed out at McCain's plan for a summer suspension of federal gasoline taxes as a "gimmick" that has been derided by economists.
- AFP/so
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