“50 Obama Lies and Counting” is 50 lies ABOUT Obama
If you’ve read the “50 Obama Lies and Counting” smear that’s been circulating around the Internet, or one of its variants, then you’re probably wondering whether there’s any truth to it. The fact is, it’s not 50 lies by Obama, it’s 50 lies about him. Read on to find out the truth.
This is a classic example of the type of smear described in “Ted Belman and the anti-Obama Smear Machine“. If you haven’t read that article, you might want to read it now before you continue. As noted in that article, a typical right-wing anti-Obama smear takes a gaggle of absurd accusations against Obama, combines them into a hastily written hodgepodge of rumor and innuendo, and throws them out into the blogosphere in the hope that ‘a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’”
The authors of this particular smear are hoping you won’t notice that none of their claims are attributed. They’re also hoping you won’t notice that the contents of the smear have very little to do with the actual issues that matter during this campaign.
Many of the claims in the smear are so absurd and outlandish that it’s impractical to disprove them; they bring to mind that old chestnut, “When did you stop beating your wife?” However, the majority of them can be shown trivially to be false. A cursory review of some of the more outlandish claims in the smear will make it perfectly clear how seriously you should take the rest of them.
Let’s lead off with the first lie, in the very first sentence of the smear (they don’t waste any time, do they?):
50 Lies and Counting: Posted on Political forum.com and many verified with truthorfiction.com and snopes.com - Elections and Campaigns.
If you look at http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/50lies.asp, you will see, as of the last update dated May 9, 2008, that this smear has been marked, “Research in progress,” and there is no further information about it there.
UPDATE: The Snopes article has since been populated with content which debunks essentially all of the claims in this smear.
1.) Selma Got Me Born - LIAR, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965.
This is discussed at length at http://www.voteyourintellect.com/2008/04/21/debunked-aohcom-list-1/. To summarize: “While one might accuse Barack Obama of using a ‘figure of speech’ while, uh, giving a speech, accusing him of lying would in fact be accusing the greatest speech-makers of our time of doing it as well.”
2.) Father Was A Goat Herder - LIAR, he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government.
Barack Obama’s father was, in fact, a goat herder. Proof is available at http://www.voteyourintellect.com/2008/04/22/debunked-aohcom-list-2/.
5.) My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian - LIAR, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. According to the New York Times: “‘I am a strong believer of the Islamic faith,’ Ms. Obama, 85, said in a recent interview in Kenya .” Not to mention, Christianity wouldn?t allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.
Perhaps Senator Obama was referring to his other grandmother? Like most people, he does have two of them.
6.) My Name is African Swahili - LIAR, your name is Arabic and “Baraka” (from which Barack came) means “blessed” in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
Obama’s last name is African Swahili.
7.) I Never Practiced Islam - LIAR, you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change, so you could run for office.
It’s funny that on the one hand the smear-mongers accuse Senator Obama of being a practicing Muslim for 31 years, i.e., at most 17 years ago (he is now 48), and on the other hand they criticize him for attending Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years. If they’re going to lie about him, they ought to at least make their lies consistent.
More about this:
http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2007/11/12/news_outlets_have_agreed_attac.php
http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2007/11/12/obama_is_a_practicing_christia.php
http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2007/11/12/obama_is_not_and_has_never_bee.php
http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2007/11/12/obama_has_never_been_a_muslim_1.php
8.) My School In Indonesia Was Christian - LIAR, you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic Studies for making faces (check your own book).
This is addressed at http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2007/11/12/obama_never_attended_a_muslim.php. In short, all schools in Indonesia are “Muslim” schools of one sort or another, and even non-Muslims study the koran in these schools, just as secular Jewish students in secular Jewish schools in Israel study the Jewish Bible.
9.) I Was Fluent In Indonesian - LIAR, not one teacher says you could speak the language.
I have no idea if Obama ever said this. I have no idea if it’s true. Who cares whether Obama can speak Indonesian?
11.) I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs - LIAR, except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.
This is addressed at length at http://www.obamapedia.org/page/Does+Barack+Obama+have+enough+experience+to+be+president%3F.
You seek to disarm America
Simply a lie. Obama in fact has a detailed plain for strengthening America’s military, which you can read on his Web site.
Top Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said the Hamas terrorist group “supports Obama’s foreign policy vision”.
As noted in “Ted Belman and the anti-Obama Smear Machine“, here’s what the smear-mongers are trying to make you to believe with this accusation:
You can’t trust a terrorist, except when it comes to presidential elections. Terrorists can’t be trusted to tell the truth or to keep their word. They are expert propagandists, effectively spreading their message of “Death to America!” through lies, sneakiness, and doublespeak. Their words are so dangerous that no right-minded person would consider talking with them. But when one of them makes an off-the cuff remark about the American presidential election, now that is something we should take seriously!
As Andrew Sullivan has said, “Honorable campaigns do not allow foreign agents, especially terrorist organizations, to insert themselves into American presidential politics. No respectable foreign governments do such a thing; and the gambits of al Qaeda, Hamas, or any other grouping to play one candidate against another should in general be ignored, not exploited.”
18.) I Was A Professor Of Law - LIAR, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
The University of Chicago has confirmed that he was and is a professor. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/28/university-of-chicago-ob_n_93896.html.
19.) I Was A Constitutional Lawyer - LIAR, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
In fact, Obama practiced in Chicago as a civil rights lawyer and member of the Illinois bar while teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago.
25.) My Economics Bill Will Help America - LIAR, your 111 economic policies were just combined into a proposal which lost 99-0, and even YOU voted against your own bill.
This was a clever tactic by the Republicans, wouldn’t you say? Obama has said that as President he’ll balance the budget. When asked how he would afford to enact all of his programs, he responded that if he couldn’t find the money in a balanced budget, then he wouldn’t enact the programs. The bill the Republicans put together earlier this year to force Obama to supposedly vote on his own policies didn’t fund the programs, so Obama voted against it. This is wrong why, exactly?
28.) No One Contacted Canada About NAFTA - LIAR, the Canadian Government issued the names and a memo of the conversation your campaign had with them.
In short, the Obama campaign never told the Canadian government not to worry about what he was saying about NAFTA, and the Canadian government has confirmed this. You can read more about it at http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200802/POL20080228b.html.
You state you will open friendly communication with the Leader of Iran who is attempting to develop nuclear weapons to destroy us, but refuse to speak to FOX news.
Obama has stated that he would talk to Iran. He certainly never said that those talks would be “friendly” The point of talking to Iran, by the way, would be to try to find a way to get them to stop developing nuclear weapons, something which George W. Bush, with his policy of not talking to Iran, has been unable to accomplish.
Anyone who has watched the coverage of this campaign on FOX News has a pretty good idea of why Obama would refuse to talk to them. Having said that, the claim that Obama won’t talk to them is a lie. Here he is doing interviews with them in February and April.
You are against provisions of the Patriot act which would all wiretapping of the phones of suspected terrorists in the USA .
Obama is in favor of reversing some of the astounding damage that the Bush administration has done to our civil rights. He believes, and the majority of the country agrees with him, that our civil rights can be restored without compromising our security.
32.) I Won Michigan - LIAR, no you didn’t.
Obama has never said he won Michigan. It would be absurd for him to say that, considering that his name wasn’t on the ballot, because he followed DNC rules and removed his name from the ballot after Michigan scheduled its primary too early.
39.) I Don’t Take PAC Money - LIAR, you take loads of it.
Obama’s presidential campaign has not received a single penny from PACs, and no Republican smear-monger has been able to prove otherwise, even though every donation to the Obama campaign is on record with the Federal Election Commission.
48.) I Am As Patriotic As Anyone - LIAR, you won’t wear a flag pin
The claim that politicians who don’t wear flag pins are not patriotic is so astoundingly asinine that it’s mind-boggling that people are still repeating it.
McCain hasn’t wearing one one recently either. Dees that mean that he isn’t patriotic?
Next time you’re walking around outside, take a look at how many of the people around you are missing their required flag pins. Do they all hate America?
and you don’t put your hand over your heart during the Anthem.
A lie.
There is a Cuban Flag with Che Guevara displayed at Barack Obama Campaign Office which you allow to be displayed.
It wasn’t an official campaign office and Obama had no control over what was displayed there. See http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2008/02/12/on_reports_of_an_inappropriate.php.
49.) My Wife Didn’t Mean What She Said About Pride In Country - LIAR, your wife’s words follow lock-step in the vain of Rev. Wright and Louis Farrahkan, in relation to their contempt and hatred of America.
Jeremiah Wright volunteered to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served as a medical technician for a surgery for President Lyndon Johnson, received a commendation for it, and was honorably discharged from the service. To claim that Wright hates America is an insult to all the veterans who have served our nation faithfully.
What Michelle Obama said was that for the first time, she was really proud of America. When FOX News replayed the quote, they edited the audio to remove the word “really” from it, and those who have attacked Obama and his wife over this quote have repeated this distortion.
Anyone who doesn’t understand the difference in meaning between saying that one is proud for the first time and saying that one is really proud for the first time is an illiterate buffoon. Anyone who doesn’t understand why this might be a legitimate sentiment for a black woman in this country is either ignorance of recent American history or wearing blinders.
50.) Wal-Mart Is A Company I Wouldn’t Support - LIAR, your wife has received nearly a quarter of a million dollars through Treehouse, which is connected to Wal-Mart.
What Obama said was that he wouldn’t shop at Wal-Mart. What that has to do with the fact that his wife served on the Board of Directors of a Wal-Mart vendor is anybody’s guess.
It should be obvious by now that the accusations debunked above are absurd, and the ones we haven’t bothered to address here are equally ridiculous.
By now you’ve probably figured out that the smear-mongers would rather you didn’t think too much about what they have to say, because if you think about it, you might just come to realize that it’s nothing but irrelevant trash. If you’d rather make up your own mind, then here’s what you can do to help restore civility to the political debate…
Take the time to do your own research. Learn the real facts about our presidential candidates and the real distinctions between them. Whether you decide to vote for Barack Obama or John McCain, your decision should be based on the truth rather than on the warped delusions of people who fear it.
The smear-mongers represent the worst of American political thought. Spend some time reading, instead, George F. Will, David Brooks, and other conservative commentators who present cogent arguments and understand that people can disagree without being disagreeable. For the liberal point of view, Thomas L. Friedman and Bob Herbert are a good place to start.
Visit www.johnmccain.com and www.barackobama.com and learn about the candidates’ views, stances and policies in their own words. Obama’s stance on Israel is clearly laid out on his site (McCain’s doesn’t seem to be, for some reason).
Jewish, pro-Israel supporters of Barack Obama have spent many hours examining Obama’s background, experience, qualifications, record, and policy proposals. They deeply believe that Obama is the right leader for America. Read what they have to say.
Most importantly, don’t be party to the dumbing down of our political process. Don’t pass on the smears. Tell the people who send them to you that you expect better. Stand up for the Jewish value (even if you’re not Jewish — this is a good one!) which regards lashon hara (”evil speech”) as a grave sin, one which harms not only its target but also those who repeat it and those who hear it.
Join with other well-intentioned people as we reclaim our legacy as the world’s oldest democracy and live up to the democratic ideals envisioned by our Founding Fathers over 200 years ago. We are on the cusp of a new era of civility and engagement in American politics. Be a part of it!