This thread started out as a criticism of Obama’s campaign forming a team to respond to rumors on the internet quickly – a group that was described in another thread as Obama’s “thought police.”

In fact, what I think we’ve seen here has shown exactly why Obama’s campaign feels they need such a team.

The supposed “whitey” video has been thoroughly debunked (happy to link non-Obama sources, if anyone’s curious), yet rumors about it linger on in this thread, along with comments to the effect that “and well, wouldn’t that be awful if it WERE true.”

It’s not, and it wasn’t, and it doesn’t exist so (as someone pointed out) Obama can’t prove a negative.

But the discussion shows how powerful rumors can be, and how rumors – no matter the truth behind them – can affect votes.

I would submit to anyone still reading this discussion that the thread itself has proven the Obama campaign’s point.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any crap politicians in Germany. They just don’t get as much power as your President.

I don’t know much about either candidate but I am sure it is wise to be a little paranoid considering the power he will yield. But not to vote at all seems to me even worse.

To tell the truth, I do not thing that anyone can do politics without getting corrupted one way or the other (regardless of political party, country of origin and religion).

The question every voter in every country faces is if the person in question will be the best available for the job. And that is a question that everybody will have to decide on his/her own. To make a good decision it is important to be informed – so Holly’s pointing out the website (and mentioning her fears) is part of the process. After all Holly is not forcing anyone to see things the same way she does. She merely provides a platform for opinions.

I am but confused by two things:
1. Why is it so horrible to be “unpatriotic” (whatever that might mean). In Germany everybody who openly says that (s)he is proud to be German is labeled a fascist even if it’s not true. There has to be a way somewhere in the middle of both opinions, don’t you agree?
2. We live in a country where one of the major religions is the Islam because of countless Germans originating from Turkey or other Islamic lands. Of course this leads to conflict, seeing the different ways we perceive the world. That doesn’t mean that all Muslims are bad people. Regarding their goodness and badness they are no different from us. If only people all over the world would learn to tolerate people being different, not thinking the same way they do and to accept customs they don’t understand, the world would be a much better place. But the truth is: nobody will ever reach this goal by becoming a politican. All you can do is start small – teach your children, your grandchildren, your friends and theirs to be tolerant … and give the world a little hope.

If many small people in many small places to many small things they can change the face of the word (can’t remember who said that)
Cat
(Sorry, I didn’t mean to rant, I just though everybody was getting a bit too heated)

I’d like to suggest that people actually look at the website.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

It’s essentially a consolidated snopes.com type effort with a way to send a link to up to ten people of for things like Obama’s birth certificate.

I’d actually really like to talk to you about the process you’re going through to come over to the states. My girlfriend is in England and we’re planning for her to move here…so yeah.

Holly: Understood!

However, I will remark that I find it utterly abhorrent that anyone would attack an author’s livelihood because of an opinion they hold.

I, personally, will buy and read books I enjoy whether or not I “like” the author’s opinions. I struggled with this issue a few years ago about another author who wrote quite a long, hurtful (to me and others I know) essay about an issue that hit very close to home for me. For a while I would not buy his books because of it, but after a long internal struggle I decided that just because I do not agree with his opinions does not mean he doesn’t deserve to make a living. So now, I will buy his books if he ever comes out with another one that’s any good (haven’t cared for the recent ones, so right now I am not buying his books because they don’t appeal to me. But it’s not because of his opinions). And I frequently read and re-read his older books, four or five of which number among my favorite books from any author.