Chen, you have to know that the person who kicked off the rumor on Fox was also a Democrat, Bob Beckel.

Yea I'll concede that Obama's people could have mentioned Beckel on the "smears" site, sure.

If Obama’s site was interested in truth, it would have mentioned Johnson’s prominent Democratic connections as quickly as it mentioned the “GOP”. Of course, the politics of the situation and the chance to pin the smears on conservatives is jsut to tasty to pass up, truth be damned.

Well, I dunno. The only blogs they linked to were those of Hillary supporters. In fact, I could just as easily make the argument that the Obama site leaves out the Rush and the "conservative blogs", unlike those stories in the media (who made no mention of Johnson).

So, bottom line I think is that I agree with you on what the media has done here and I'll say that the Obama campaign did what he had to do to address this particular rumor in relatively minimalist fashion. They could have mentioned everyone who even mentioned the tape (including Hannity, Beckel, and any other blogger, including myself I suppose), but to me it looks like the idea was to flatly state that the tape doesn't exist; mission accomplished and move on.

It's a simple thing to report that Larry Johson, who has been a vocal Hilary Clinton supporter, started and fed the rumor, that it was broken on national television by a Democratic pundit and that conservative bloggers and Rush Limbaugh were openly skeptical and/or dismissive of the rumor. Heck, several of the biggest conservative bloggers didn't even mention the rumor until it was already being widely discussed in the MSM. Michelle Malkin is one of those. Ditto Charles Johnson.

If Obama's site was interested in truth, it would have mentioned Johnson's prominent Democratic connections as quickly as it mentioned the "GOP". Of course, the politics of the situation and the chance to pin the smears on conservatives is jsut to tasty to pass up, truth be damned.

Chen, you notice how the only party mentioned there is the GOP and how Larry Johnson is a “blogger” as opposed to, say, a former high-ranking Clinton Administration official or a noted Democratic blogger and Clinton supporter. Talk about a sleazemeister.

Oh c'mon Jimmie. They link to the post, and anyone with a pair of firing synapses can click the "about the author" tab.

How, exactly, did it “circulate”? You really have to stretch your offense-o-meter to say that “Here is the rumor which is being pushed by a Democratic opponent of Barack Obama. It looks to be without basis and I don’t believe it is true” is a “smear”.

Just go with the simpler answer: Obama wants to pin this on conservatives because it wouldn’t do to tell the truth about it.

Like I said, the rumor could have stayed in the confines of the No Quarter blog or Hillbuzz (which they also link to), but once it his the airwaves of EIB and Fox it got massive exposure. One group is responsible for the rumor starting, the other is responsible for it spreading and ultimately culminating in some reporter giving it credence by asking him about it. The "smears" website addresses both.

The idea of the site is to debunk the rumor, not to give a play-by-play of how it got to where it is IMO.

Just go with the simpler answer: Obama wants to pin this on conservatives because it wouldn't do to tell the truth about it.