BarackBook fact check

Posted on September 8, 2008 by Lessig

A tongue-in-cheek reply to my addition to GOP.com’s BarackBook.

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17 Responses to BarackBook fact check

  1. Percy Hatcherson says:
    September 9, 2008 at 12:59 am

    I just donated $30 to the Obama campaign, and as I have a ton of respect for you, I am happy to see you supporting Obama so enthusiastically. Keep it up. For what it’s worth, you are one of the primary people who turned me on to his campaign.

    By the way, it’s good being friends with you on the real unadulterated Web 2.0 site, Facebook.

  2. Richard says:
    September 9, 2008 at 4:17 am

    Well said and done Lawrence.

  3. lilalia says:
    September 9, 2008 at 6:50 am

    It would be interesting to know if they got any of the facts right? The presentation just supports my belief that so much of what we read and hear on this campaign is re-engineered. I know it is probably so on both sides, but I hope that it is considerably less on the side of the Democrats.

  4. Nony Mouse says:
    September 9, 2008 at 11:05 am

    Re: the cute “Obama kid” photo.

    Does nobody else find this kind of photo tasteless? Is the kid really an Obama supporter? He’s made an informed choice between Obama and McCain after gaining a thorough understanding of their foreign policy positions?

    Turning your kids into surrogate proponents of a political party is little worse than indoctrinating them with your religion of choice. c.f. Dawkins.

  5. Daniel Meyer says:
    September 9, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    Lawrence,
    I’m so sorry that this has happened. I generally vote Republican, but I don’t AT ALL endorse this low character assassination approach. I offer my apology for this.

    I read your blog regularly and I appreciate what you do! Please don’t be discouraged by the dogs. Keep up the good work!
    Sincerely,
    -Daniel-

  6. Bluebirch says:
    September 9, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    Please consider that not everybody has flash. When you put your videos on youtube I could “wget $url | grep embed” to find the video to then download via clive. As it seems impossible to get blip’s page url from the swf url would it be possible to link to the blip page. I am really currious to see this video. Thanks.

  7. lomlate says:
    September 9, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    I’m sorry, Lawrence. I looked through and… I just don’t see what they’ve done as horrific. I read through the bio and went ‘that sounds pretty much like the lessig I know. There were a couple of lies: particularly the one about abolition of copyright, but it wasn’t the GOP making up that lie, your beaf is with IBD.

    “There Are Reports That Lessig Has Ambitions For A Federal Judgeship Or Even The Supreme Court.” – how is that a lie! There ARE reports saying that. It’s not even spinning, not even saying “he only supports obama because…” just a statement of fact.

    Sure: this isn’t the way you would like to present yourself as but I don’t think their aim was to present you in a good light. The scandal sheet was reasonably well researched, it was negative and it had one lie. Some things were ‘misleading’ if you read into them too much, but you don’t always get to put your own sheen on the way you are presented by the opposition.

    I really hate to be doing this, I’m a huge fan of yours and I love the Obama campaign and hate the republicans with adamant fervour – but I just don’t think they have much of a case to answer here. I read the article thinking “yeah! Go lessig! You DID donate money to obama! you WERE an Obama colleague!”

  8. lessig says:
    September 9, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    @Nony: I’m usually particularly sensitive to this, but I’ve been struck this cycle (my first presidential cycle when kids were a central part of my life) with the extraordinary pride young kids have with what they do in this process. The test for me is whether the image seems to capture something genuine. This (favorite of mine) imho does.

    @Bluebirch: nice idea. I had been using blip.tv b/c it produces mp4 automatically, but I hadn’t thought about the fact the link isn’t available. I’ll add that.

    @lomlate: did you see the video yet? I’m confused by your response. I’ve not anywhere said anything is “horrible.” I’ve not said everything is false. As I say in the video, most is true, some is false, some is true but misleading. In particular, w/r/t to the judgeship claim: I don’t say what they say is a “lie”; I say it is not true. There’s a huge difference between the two.

  10. Steve Baba says:
    September 10, 2008 at 3:25 pm

    I am shocked, shocked that a political party would only present one side of the story.

    Not that Lessig’s defense, like most legal defenses, is any less one-sided.

    At least Obama foresaw this, and mentioned in his book, (unlike the trying to omit the full name of his mentor) that he would take a 10% hit if he had an opponent in his senate race use this information “out of context” against him. (p. 133) And guess what, Obama was right and Democrats just blew their 10% lead.

    But for more “newsworthy” mindless political entertainment to go with lipstick stories, some reporter should find that kid or other Obama kids and find if they now support the cool mom party.

  11. Mary Jones says:
    September 10, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    Calling Sarah Palin a “Pig with Lipstick”, is what Obama did.

    See here for yourself and ask, why is a man doing this to a woman, when he host on his own campaign website, “stop the smears”?

    http://e1.video.blip.tv/1030005345462/JohnMcCain-Lipstick918.flv

    O-bomb-a = Osama, and Biden = Bin Laden

  12. Wes says:
    September 11, 2008 at 3:27 am

    Modern Republicans are not exactly known for factual accuracy but, in the last couple weeks, they’ve just gone crazy. It’s like a party that suddenly surges totally out of control. There is absolutely no restraint. None at all. They are making claims that make alien abduction of Elvis look entirely plausible by comparison. How will it end? There are plenty of example of national delusions ending very very badly. I hope this time is different.

  13. Berni says:
    September 12, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    Obama is the pied piper. He is nothing but a threat, he has done nothing to preserve his right to run for president and true to form he slipped the other day and said “his Muslim Faith” instead of Christian faith. ABC are asses for grilling the republicans but I have not heard much from Obama at all. One small speech that reiterated what the Republicans had suggested only using different words. I challange anyone to give commentary on why Obama would make a good President and without the tiresome change angle. Every decent President we have had has been for the change of the betterment of the USA.

  14. M. David Peterson says:
    September 12, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    @Berni

    >> and true to form he slipped the other day and said “his Muslim Faith” instead of Christian faith.

    Did you watch and listen to the *entire* interview or /just/ the portion of the interview that you felt you needed to hear to make your determination?

    Here’s the entire presentation > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVn59TC2QqM&NR=1

    His slip? He was reciting the McCain campaign’s reiteration that he has a “Muslim faith”.

    His statement: “You’re absolutely right that John McCain hasn’t talked about my Muslim Faith”… which was then followed-up with “Your Christian faith?” by George Stephanopoulos … “which was then followed up with “well, my Christian faith.. well what I’m saying is that he hasn’t suggested is that I am a Muslim” which was followed by “right.” by George Stephanopoulos.

    Okay, so we have the breakdown. But here’s the thing: This country is not a “Christian” country. I’m a Christian. yes. I believe in Jesus Christ. But I — /more/ importantly — believe in a country that allows Muslims to believe in what they believe in and have that be okay. You know that Jews don’t believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, right? Are you willing to suggest that a Jew — who /does not/ believe that Jesus Christ is his/her Savior — is therefore a terrorist? Jews are terrorists because they don’t believe in what you and I believe in?

    Are you serious?

    Are you fucking serious?

    @Berni: Maybe you forgot: This country isn’t built upon Christianity. It’s built upon Freedom. To choose. And to believe.

    Whatever the fuck you want to believe.

    Do you find that offensive?

    Yeah, you probably do.

    Or do you?

  15. M. David Peterson says:
    September 12, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    @Mary Jones:

    You: Calling Sarah Palin a “Pig with Lipstick”, is what Obama did.

    Sarah Palin: Do you know what they say the difference between a “Hockey Mom” and “Pit Bull”? Lipstick.

    Barack Obama: You know you can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.

    The truth?

    Sarah Palin compared Pit Bulls and Hockey Mom’s, saying the difference was “lipstick”.

    Barack Obama suggested that you can put lipstick on a pig and it’s still a pig.

    Do you know when both of them said these things?

    Not in the last week. Not even in the last month. Two separate statements said at two separate times, neither of which had anything to do with one another.

    And yet you still believe that “Calling Sarah Palin a “Pig with Lipstick”, is what Obama did.”, don’t you?

    Thank you for providing a shining example of why a Republican like me is voting for a Democrat like Barack Obama:

    Ignorance. And a refusal to let common sense detour that ignorance.

  16. Bob says:
    October 7, 2008 at 2:00 pm

    Why do you feel the need to distance yourself from Obama? TBM…what a windbag.

  17. Flug says:
    October 27, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    Well said, Mr. Peterson. I really appreciate that you try to convince people via logical aspects. Unfortunately those are the most ineffective in a election campaign as exactly this blogpost and the subsequent discussion reveals once more.

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