Obama and His Astroturfing Smears
By Matthew Weaver on September 26, 2008 at 12:01 AM in Barack Obama, Current Affairs, David Axelrod, Democratic Party, Sarah Palin
Obama’s campaign is drowning in the filth of its own making: lies, smears, and calls for supporters to take the gloves off in their political activity. The result is vile, hate-filled hysteria that discredits not only Barack Obama, but also the Democratic Party, or what is left of it.
In the past few days reports have surfaced directly linking Barack Obama and his campaign to the smears against Governor Palin.
The JAWA Report (a must read), offered up on Monday a damning trail of smears leading back to Barack Obama, David Axelrod, and Barack’s campaign. Since then, Publicus Groupe’s Winner & Associates, who are known associates of David Axelrod, admit they were, as accused, the source of at least one of the original video smears: “Sarah Palin: A Heartbeat Away.”
“This one ranks as one of the most outlandish conspiracy theories in a campaign that has had its share of them. Neither our campaign nor any of our consultants had any involvement with this YouTube video, and the McCain campaign should provide a shred of believable evidence before advancing false allegations and misleading voters yet another time.”—Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor as quoted by Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic.
Marc Ambinder, who shared Obama’s campaign statement, offers an interesting analysis prefaced with his admission that he was not interested in whether the accusation was true or not. Marc then goes on to offer why he would suspect it is not: basically that he thinks the campaign was smarter than the evidence would otherwise suggest.
Dr. Shackleford and his colleagues at The Jawa Report in a new article, now offer frustration at the apparent disinterest in tracking down the source of the smears. Senator McCain’s campaign won’t help or comment, nor the mainstream media. The recurring theme seems to be disbelief that anyone, especially the Obama campaign, could be so stupid. As Shackleford writes:
Sure, the VP of a PR firm could have produced the video on his own, personally paid for the voice talent, got the agency to bill him, asked his multimillionaire President of a well known Democratically connected PR firm of a father to legitimize its false attacks, created multiple sock puppet accounts, and asked his buddies at the PR firm which specializes in “grassroots organization” to spread it around the internet claiming it was from “A Group of Concerned Citizens” — on company time. It’s possible.
He goes on to say, “It’s also possible that we have a case of astroturfing, plain and simple. Which, by definition, is a paid political campaign run by parties unknown, who wish to remain unknown, and who wish the whole thing to appear as if it’s bottom up and grassroots.”
Media Matters yawns and says “Even if the Obama team was involved, so what?” Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, on the other hand, offers a noteworthy assessment:
If all of this is true and the Obama campaign can be connected to it, it would represent a massive set of FEC violations, as well as the ultimate repudiation of “hope and change” and “New Politics”. In fact, it would be a massive demonstration of Chicago Politics on a national scale.
As Less pointed out at NoQuarterUSA Tuesday, this isn’t the first time Obama has been accused of astroturfing. Last year, Neural Gourmet reported they were tied to an anti-Clinton viral ad “1984″ through their Web creator:
Andrea Mitchell and Alex Johnson at MSNBC reveal though that the creator of the “1984″ parody ad is none other than Philip de Vellis of marketing firm Blue State Digital which specializes in advising Democratic candidates and liberal groups. Blue State Digital was also responsible for the design and implementation of Barack Obama’s official campagin website whose URL appears at the end of the Clinton smear ad and one of the founding members of the company, Joe Rospars, is employed as the Obama campaign’s Director of New Media.
Athy and Chris also offer additional links that further substantiate Obama’s ties to smear campaigns through David Axelrod, his two companies, and advertisers and campaigns he’s worked on.
David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s chief strategist, is a master of astroturf campaigns. It should come as no surprise then that Axelrod and the Obama campaign appear to be behind anonymous attacks against Sarah Palin surfacing on the internet.”—Erik Erickson at Human Events (See also Who is David Axelrod)
Business Week discussed Axelrod’s astroturfing and his second company ASK Public Strategies in their March 2008 article by Howard Wolinksy, The Secret Side of David Axelrod, The master of “Astroturfing” has a second firm that shapes public opinion for corporations.
Yes, as Ray Robinson, concludes:
The connection between Winner and Axelrod calls into question the matter of the Obama campaign’s culpability in the smear video tactic.
Again, if you have not already read The JAWA Report, please do. As well, see my original post on the topic: Obama, Axelrod, and Smears.
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