Obama launches website against 'smears'

Barack Obama has fought rumors for months now -- that he's a secret Muslim, that he won't say the Pledge of Allegiance, and some so scurrilous or ridiculous that they shouldn't be dignified with being repeated.

The presumptive Democratic nominee apparently has had enough -- especially after a rumor that says a video exists of his wife Michelle excoriating "whitey."

It is the top item in a new website his campaign has launched, fightthesmears.com, that tries to debunk the rumors.

"The truth: No such tape exists," it says on the website, whose existence was first reported by Time magazine. The "whitey" rumor first circulated on conservative blogs just before the final Democratic primaries on June 3. Obama was asked about it on his campaign plane last week, and it has since been mentioned in places as diverse as Rush Limbaugh's radio show and Maureen Dowd's column in the New York Times.

“The Obama campaign isn’t going to let dishonest smears spread across the internet unanswered. Whenever challenged with these lies we will aggressively push back with the truth and help our supporters debunk the false rumors floating around the internet. This website is an action center that allows supporters to upload their address books and send emails to all of their friends. It’s not enough to just know the truth, we have to be proactive and fight back,” campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement this morning.

When asked about the "whitey" rumor last week, Obama told reporters, "It is a destructive aspect of our politics right now. And simply because something appears in an e-mail, that should lend it no more credence than if you heard it on the corner. And you know, presumably the job of the press is to not go around and spread scurrilous rumors like this until there's actually anything, one iota of substance or evidence that would substantiate it."

The website also addresses the Muslim and pledge rumors, and one that his books contain racially incendiary remarks.

UPDATE: Late this afternoon, the campaign posted on the new website a copy of Obama's birth certificate from Hawaii, to disprove claims by conservative bloggers that he was hiding something about his name or place of birth.