Obama, Axelrod, and Smears

Barack Obama is responsible for the viral hysteria against Governor Sarah Palin. Upstaged, surprised, and embarrassed by McCain’s pick after snubbing Clinton, Obama, his nutroots gangs, and the mainstream media freaked out. Rumors and wild accusations flew. Obama spoke once on this hysteria denying any campaign involvement and saying he’d fire anyone involved.

But contrary to his single statement, not only did Obama’s campaign start the viral hate, over the next few weeks, the rumors and lies continued unabated. Now, thanks to research by Dr. Rusty Shackleford at The Jawa Report, we now know that Obama’s campaign was not only involved, but very likely the initial source of the viral hate directed at Governor Palin.

Last week, Obama escalated the viral hate by calling on his supporters to take the gloves off in their attacks. As Jake Tapper notes at ABC, this is at least the fourth time Obama has made this call to engage in gutter politics.

Obama’s gutter campaign makes clear that:

• Hope and Change is a lie, and that
• Claims of innocence are a deceptive smoke screen.

If you haven’t read it already, I highly recommend you take a few minutes to read The Jawa Report in full. It is convincing and damning. Shackleford and his colleagues conclude:

Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.

It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:

Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.

The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.

Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.

Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.

The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.

This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod’s firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as “astroturfing.”

David Axelrod is Barack Obama’s chief media strategist.

The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.

This suggests that false rumors and outright lies about Sarah Palin and John McCain being spread on the internet are being orchestrated by political partisans and are not an organic grassroots phenomenon led by the left wing fringe.

Additionally, they raise important questions that demand answers from Obama and Axelrod. In particular,

Senator Obama, did you direct, fund, or know who did, these smear ads by your advertising group Publicis or Winner & Associates? Have you or will you take steps to stop these ads? Will you fire those involved, including Axelrod?