Rumors increasing in last days of campaigns

October 28, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Barack Obama is not a member of a socialist party. John McCain is not a foreigner. Sarah Palin is not Trig’s grandmother. And Joe Biden is not dropping out of the race.

Oh, and they’re not all having sordid affairs.

But it’s Rumor Season again in this country, and with just days to go before the election, both campaigns are frantically knocking down these rumors.

One thing you can believe: It’ll only get worse between now and Election Day.

The trouble with rumors, as representatives at both campaigns said, is that even refuting them means they are repeated. Nonetheless, they said sometimes you have just to talk about it, explain why it’s false, and move on.

Recent rumors, mostly floated online and on conservative radio and television talk shows, have lately intensified about Obama and usually come in the form of questions.

“Who wrote Obama’s autobiography, ‘Dreams From My Father?”’ asked conservative Web site and talk show hosts last week, hinting that the writing was so sophisticated and used similar styles, including “water metaphors,” that radical William Ayers must have been the true author. He wasn’t. Obama was.

The phenomenon of whisper campaigns, misinformation and smears is as much a part of our nation’s roots as elections themselves. Thomas Jefferson was accused of being anti-Christian; his opponents warned that he would destroy the religious fabric and values of the country and promote an orgy of rape, incest, and adultery. John Adams, opponents said, was pro-monarchy and was planning on marrying his son to the daughter of King George III.

Eight years ago, McCain lost a strong lead in the South Carolina GOP primary, and possibly even the presidency, when Republican opponents spread the false rumor that his adopted Bangladeshi-born daughter was actually his illegitimate black child. That lie was enough, observers said, to lose South Carolina.

For the past two years, Obama faced the vast majority of false rumors in this long election season. But when Alaska’s Gov. Sarah Palin was tapped to be McCain’s running mate, a deluge of rumors began about this little-known Republican from a remote state.

Three days after her selection, reporters from a dozen national media organizations including the AP lined up at a Palmer, Alaska, courthouse counter and, one after another, paged through a divorce settlement of a friend of Palin’s to see if she was named as the cause of their strife. She was not.