In the news:
Originally published February 12, 2012 at 9:00 PM | Page modified February 13, 2012 at 7:14 AM
Obama 'truth' sites: just the facts — and dirt
With his decision to embrace an independent super PAC last week, President Obama issued a plea for deep-pocketed allies to help his campaign...
The Washington Post
On the campaign trail
Santorum attacks: A day after Mitt Romney regained some momentum in the Republican presidential contest by winning caucuses in Maine and the endorsement of the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, his rival Rick Santorum promised to compete aggressively to win the primary in Michigan, where Romney grew up and his father served as governor. The Midwestern state and Arizona host Republican presidential-nominating contests on Feb. 28. "We're going to spend a lot of time in Michigan and Arizona," Santorum told ABC's "This Week." He suggested that a strong showing in those contests would make the GOP contest "a two-man race," dismissing rivals Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.Romney's win: Maine GOP officials said Romney captured 39 percent of Saturday's caucus vote, narrowly defeating Paul at 36 percent. Santorum and Gingrich, who didn't actively campaign in Maine, won 18 percent and 6 percent respectively. Romney won 11 delegates and Paul 10, according to an Associated Press analysis of the Maine results. Santorum and Gingrich were shut out. That brings the count to 123 for Romney, 72 for Santorum, 32 for Gingrich and 19 for Paul, with 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination.
Seattle Times news services
With his decision to embrace an independent super PAC last week, President Obama issued a plea for deep-pocketed allies to help his campaign fight back against Republican rivals in the increasingly expensive and sophisticated arena of television attack ads.
Now, the Obama campaign is putting out a call for its grass-roots network to join the battle for free.
On Monday, the president's re-election team will unveil a trio of websites providing information on the president's record — and more than a little dirt on his Republican rivals. The campaign has named it Obama's "Truth Team," and the goal is to arm millions of surrogates with the facts, figures and talking points to engage in ground-level political combat — on their Twitter and Facebook feeds and in conversations.
"We believe that our grass-roots supporters persuading their networks to support the president will provide us with the decisive edge in November," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said. "We're providing them with the tools they need to amplify the president's record, fact-check the Republicans' attacks and prevent the Republicans from rewriting the history of their records."
The strategy is an adaptation of the rapid-response teams that Bill Clinton pioneered in his 1992 war room, where aides monitored televisions to respond as quickly as possible to GOP attacks. But it also reflects an acknowledgment by the Obama campaign that the re-election bid promises to be as bruising as his 2008 effort was uplifting — and that the war must be waged at even the day-to-day, micro-level.
"As technology has developed, this process has developed," said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. "I remember some years ago when it was avant-garde to fax talking points to a list of party people who had given you their fax numbers. Now, it's much faster, but it's the same basic principle."
LaBolt cast the approach as a way for ordinary Americans to level the playing field in the face of the television ads funded by super PACs that are raising tens of millions for Republican candidates, including Restore Our Future, backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; and Winning Our Future, supporting former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The websites, however, are more likely to accelerate the already bitter, ideological migration of the fight for the White House on the Web.
Of the three Truth Team portals, just one, KeepingHisWord.com, could be described as positive in tone, listing Obama's accomplishments. A sample page has the headline "Fighting for the U.S. Auto Industry," and explains that Obama extended "emergency loans" to Chrysler and GM in 2009. Now, the Detroit auto companies "are creating jobs."
The other two sites are far more negative. AttackWatch.com aims to rebut political attacks against Obama. A sample page deconstructs Romney's contention that January's upbeat jobs report was a byproduct of private-sector innovation, not Obama's policies.
"Governor Romney implies that his job creation record in Massachusetts is something to brag about," the text reads. "In fact, the state ranked a dismal 47th out of 50 in job creation during his tenure."
The third Web site, KeepingGOPHonest.com, allows Obama supporters to play offense, providing damaging material about his rivals. A sample page ridicules Romney's comment during a debate in South Carolina that he has lived on the "real streets of America" and lists his connections to Washington lobbyists.
The Obama campaign has arranged for surrogates, including members of Congress and state politicians, to lead the Truth Teams in battleground states. In Arizona, which Obama lost in 2008 but the campaign sees as a potential win because of the growing Hispanic population, state Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, said he fights back when he hears people say that Obama caused the mortgage meltdown and that his administration lost more jobs than any in history.
"On the loonier side, when I talk to Republicans in the state Legislature I have to remind them he's an American citizen," Gallego said.
