ABC News has a pretty good article and video from January 25th which details some of the origins of the fake Insight Magazine madrassa story — and the Obama camp’s response to it.
But, one section should make Obama supporters* just a little bit nervous. Even if the tone might be unfairly reinforcing the "Obama is too green" media narrative that has developed…
"About three or four months ago, something started surfing around the Web and it was a pretty scurrilous article suggesting not only that I had gone to a Madrassa, but that my family members were Muslim radicals," Obama said. "And we didn’t make much of it … you can’t control what’s on the Web. What was surprising was that it eventually bubbled up into the mainstream media."
Were Obama, and others in his campaign, really that surprised? I certainly hope not. While some commentators have expressed admiration for the way the Obama team responded to this smear attempt, others have wondered what took them so long…
"The Obama camp didn’t know whether to deny this, thereby making it a legitimate issue for every media organization, or whether to ignore it and hope that false rumor would simply go away," said Larry Sabato, Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. "They actually failed to make a decision promptly, which probably brought them the worst of both worlds."
Unfortunately, what we should all have learned from the numerous, unsubstantiated smears made against the Clintons, Al Gore, Howard Dean, John Kerry, and others, is that it doesn’t matter if it’s true.
As the close of ABC’s article suggests…
"Frankly, some of this will stick because no matter how thoroughly you debunk a story, the allegation is out there," Ornstein said.
Mark Twain once said that a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. With the presidential campaign season heating up so soon, those lies have already begun their travels.
So far, though, it seems to have been a few members of the netroots (particulary JHC at Obamarama.org) who’ve been handling Obama’s rapid response… um… rapidly.
*Disclosure: I’m one of them.
[While I was writing this, I did a little surfing and realized that the Carpetbagger is discussing the same issue.]