by Jitendra Joshi
Pausing from a war of words with Republican John McCain over taxes, the African-American senator Thursday unveiled an interactive website to debunk false rumors peddled by email and right-wing media outlets.
The site at www.fightthesmears was created after one recent, and thus-far unfounded, assertion that Obama's wife Michelle had been caught on tape slurring white people.
"People can upload their address books and easily send fact-based emails to their friends and family," he said.
Obama's main campaign website already has a fact-check section to refute rumors such as that the Christian candidate is a secret Muslim. But aides said the new site went further in inviting supporters to spread the word.
Political candidates have traditionally refused to acknowledge slanderous rumors for fear of giving them respectability.
But given the slew of attacks being spread by email against Obama, his campaign said it had to respond in kind by harnessing the "viral" power of the Internet to add to his impressive record of online fundraising.
Another online political fund-raising phenomenon, Republican Congressman Ron Paul, announced Thursday he was bowing out of the presidential race.
The longshot libertarian-leaning candidate had harnessed the power of the web early on in the White House race by raising tens of millions of dollars online for his bid, and drew a huge grass-roots following.
Obama's new website was launched after reports, by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh among others, that a videotape existed showing Michelle Obama using the derogatory term "whitey" in the couple's former church.
No such tape has surfaced despite frenzied speculation by right-wing pundits and blogs, and Obama last week decried the mainstream media's attention to "dirt and lies."
The Democrat was back on the offensive a day after ditching Washington insider Jim Johnson, who was leading his search for a vice presidential nominee, over allegations of sweetened mortgage terms from a lender at the heart of the US "subprime" housing crisis.
Obama and McCain clashed afresh on policy as a CNN poll suggested that 50 percent of voters prefer the Democrat on the economy against 44 percent for the Republican. But McCain led by 54 percent to 43 on foreign policy.
Citing a new study by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill said one-quarter of the benefits under McCain's tax plan would go to people earning more than three million dollars a year.
Website refutes smears directed at Barack Obama
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