False Obama Rumors Fly In Flag City USA

Washington Post: Voters In Findlay, Ohio, Represent Challenges Faced By Obama In Clarifying His Past

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Eli Saslow.

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On his corner of College Street, Jim Peterman stares at the four American flags planted in his front lawn and rubs his forehead. Peterman, 74, is a retired worker at Cooper Tire, a father of two, an Air Force veteran and a self-described patriot. He took one trip to Washington in 1989 -- best vacation of his life -- and bought a statue of the Washington Monument that he still displays in a glass case in his living room.

He believes a smart vote is an American's greatest responsibility. Which is why his confusion about Barack Obama continues to eat at him.

On the television in his living room, Peterman has watched enough news and campaign advertisements to hear the truth: Sen. Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, is a Christian family man with a track record of public service. But on the Internet, in his grocery store, at his neighbor's house, at his son's auto shop, Peterman has also absorbed another version of the Democratic candidate's background, one that is entirely false: Barack Obama, born in Africa, is a possibly gay Muslim racist who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

"It's like you're hearing about two different men with nothing in common," Peterman said. "It makes it impossible to figure out what's true, or what you can believe."

Here in Findlay, a Rust Belt town of 40,000, false rumors about Obama have built enough word-of-mouth credibility to harden into an alternative biography. Born on the Internet, the rumors now meander freely across the flatlands of northwest Ohio -- through bars and baseball fields, retirement homes and restaurants.

Faced with polling that shows about one in 10 Americans thinks Obama is Muslim, the candidate's campaign has launched an aggressive effort to discredit rumors and clarify Obama's past. It created a "Fight the Smears" Web site and a new television ad that reiterates Obama's Christian faith, patriotism and family background. Dozens of volunteers have been sent to Ohio five months in advance of the election so they can spend extra time educating voters.

But on Peterman's block in Findlay, the campaign's efforts may already be too late. A swing voter who entered this election leaning Democratic, Peterson faces a decision that is no longer so simple as a choice between Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain, he said. First, he must pick the version of Obama on which he will stake his vote.

Does he choose to trust a TV commercial in which Obama talks about his "love of country"? Or his neighbor of 40 years, Don LeMaster, a Navy veteran who heard from a friend in Toledo that Obama refuses to wear an American-flag pin?

Does he trust a local newspaper article that details Obama's Christian faith? Or his friend Leroy Pollard, a devoted family man so convinced Obama is a radical Muslim that he threatened to stop talking to his daughter when he heard she might vote for him?

"I'll admit that I probably don't follow all of the election news like maybe I should," Peterman said. "I haven't read his books or studied up more than a little bit. But it's hard to ignore what you hear when everybody you know is saying it. These are good people, smart people, so can they really all be wrong?"

Peterman bought his single-story house here in 1959, a few months after he left the Air Force and married. His wife, Mildred, had grown up in Findlay, and they never considered moving anywhere else. On College Street, the couple found all the hallmarks of America's heartland: a house for $9,000; a neighborhood where their two boys, one handicapped, could play outside after dark; a stady "pencil-pushing" job up the road for Jim at Cooper Tire headquarters.

The neighborhood built up around them. Leroy and Wanda Pollard came in 1962, drawn from southern Ohio by a booming auto industry that offered Leroy plenty of work as a mechanic. Mary Dunson bought the place next door in 1963. Don LeMaster, a police officer, moved in up the street with his wife, Margaret, in 1970.

Every newcomer to the block was white, working-class and Midwestern, and the neighborhood jelled easily. They babysat for one another. They complained to one another about their teenagers. They helped raise one another's grandkids. In all, seven different families have lived on the same block of College Street for at least 35 years.

"We all just found a great place at a great time," Leroy Pollard said.

Peterman hung the American flag on his porch first, in 1960, and the rest of College Street followed his example. By 1980, patriotic displays had grown into an unspoken contest of one-upmanship. Sixty flags planted in one yard on Memorial Day; a living-room window painted red, white and blue; a Buckeye tree decorated with Christmas ornaments celebrating Americana; a gigantic plastic unicorn perched on a front porch and draped in an American flag.

The entire block -- and, soon, the entire town -- shared in unabashed pride and gratefulness for the country that had given them this place. In 1968, a local congressman persuaded the House of Representatives to officially declare Findlay as Flag City, USA.

But with their pride came a nasty undercurrent, one that Obama's candidacy has exacerbated: On College Street, nobody wanted anything to change. As the years passed, Peterman and his neighbors approached one another to share in their skepticism about the unknown. What was the story behind the handful of African Americans who had moved into a town that is 93 percent white? Why were Japanese businessmen coming in to run the local manufacturing plants? Who in the world was this Obama character, running for president with that funny-sounding last name?

"People in Findlay are kind of funny about change," said Republican Mayor Pete Sehnert, a retired police officer who ran for the office on a whim last year. "They always want things the way they were, and any kind of development is always viewed as making things worse, a bad thing."

When people on College Street started hearing rumors about Obama -- who looked different from other politicians and often talked about change -- they easily believed the nasty stories about an outsider.

"I think Obama would be a disaster, and there's a lot of reasons," said Pollard, explaining the rumors he had heard about the candidate from friends he goes camping with. "I understand he's from Africa, and that the first thing he's going to do if he gets into office is bring his family over here, illegally. He's got that racist [pastor] who practically raised him, and then there's the Muslim thing. He's just not presidential material, if you ask me."

Said Don LeMaster: "He's a good speaker, but you've got to dig deeper than that for the truth. Politicians tell you anything. You have look beyond the surface, and then there are some real lies."

Said Jeanette Collins, a 77-year-old who lives across the street: "All I know for sure about Obama is that we're not ready for him."

Only one man on College Street remains open-minded, and recently even Peterman has started to sway. Like most of his neighbors, he dislikes McCain for his stance on the Iraq war and would like to cast his vote for a president who will bring the troops home. But on a recent visit to his son's auto shop, Peterman overheard misinformed customers talking again about a Muslim in the White Huse.

"I don't know. The whole thing just scares me," Peterman said. "I'm almost starting to feel like the best choice is not voting at all."

So far, those who have pushed the truth in Findlay have been rewarded with little that resembles progress. Gerri Kish, a 66-year-old born in Hawaii, read both of Obama's autobiographies. She has close friends, she said, who still refuse to believe her when she swears Obama is Christian. Then she hands them the books, and they refuse to read them. "They just want to believe what they believe," she said. "Nothing gets through to them."

The new advertisement running in Findlay, in which Obama is pictured with his white mother and white grandparents as he talks about developing a "deep and abiding faith in the country I love" while growing up in the Kansas heartland, is dismissed by residents of College Street as the desperate lies of another dishonest Washington politician. And they say that Obama's moves to put distance between himself and the Muslim community, with his campaign declining invitations to visit mosques and Obama volunteers removing two women in head scarves from the camera range at a rally in Detroit earlier this month are just a too-late effort to disguise his true beliefs.

For the past month, two students from the University of Findlay have spent their Tuesday nights walking from door to door in the city to tell voters about Obama. Erik Cramer and Sarah Everly target Democrats and swing voters exclusively, but they've still experienced mixed results. Sometimes, at a front door, they mention their purpose only to have a dozen rumors thrown back at them and the door slammed. "People tell us that we're in the wrong town," Everly said.

Soon, on a Tuesday night, they'll walk down College Street -- past the American flags, past the LeMasters, past the Pollards -- and knock on Jim Peterman's front door. They will ask for two minutes of his time, and Peterman will give it to them. He will listen to their story, weighing facts against fiction. For a few minutes, he might even believe them.

Then he'll close his door and go inside, back to his life. Back to his grocery store, back to his son's auto shop, back to the gossip on College Street. Back to the rumors again.

[steeepe]

Those statements in the article remind me why America is slipping -- people are ignorant and incapable of critical thinking. Findlay needs a dose of some smart drugs.

[kansas1946]

No false rumor here.Obama wanted to pull out of Iraq as losers.Today the new free Iraq is taking control of their future.The new goverment is putting six Iraqi oil fields up for bids.Next year this will raise production 1.5 million barrels a day.Thanks to our commander and chief George W Bush and the BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN of our military for staying the course.Iraq is free.America is safer.


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Posted by mr2258 at 02:19 PM : Jul 01, 2008
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LMAO.

[zerato-2009]

Bat of 70

I know you would not be impressed with anything I would produced. They are facts and the republicans are allergic to them.

[mr2258]

No false rumor here.Obama wanted to pull out of Iraq as losers.Today the new free Iraq is taking control of their future.The new goverment is putting six Iraqi oil fields up for bids.Next year this will raise production 1.5 million barrels a day.Thanks to our commander and chief George W Bush and the BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN of our military for staying the course.Iraq is free.America is safer.

[zerato-2009]

Produce the film, or eat the lie Zero.

Posted by Beastof70
a b c d e f g Nowicki, Dan & Muller, Bill. "John McCain Report: Prisoner of War", Arizona Republic (2007-03-01). Retrieved 2007-11-10.

[beastof70]

Zero, I need to tell you....I poo poo any real Americans attempting to introduce false, or unproven claims about Sen. "OsamaObama", so I''m certainly not going to be impressed by anything like this one of you hyphenated-Americans try to offer about Sen. McCain.

[beastof70]

John McCain has been tested by fire,

by Beastof70

He was tested and ended up in a viet cong propaganda film. Is taht a passing grade.
Posted by Zerato at 12:55 PM : Jul 01, 2008
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Produce the film, or eat the lie Zero.

[beastof70]

Reckon why Matt Lauer, or even Bob Scheiffer didn''t ask Wesley Clark exact what that British General said when he refused Clark''s order the start WWIII by firing on Russia troops in Kosovo??

I can imagine what I would have told the little Napoleon.

[beastof70]

I know we real Americans have all these hyphenated-Americans pay lip service to John McCain being a flip flopper, and like me most of you likely don''t mind, so long as John keeps flipping to the right.

But, the below offers so much more than my claims....These are Sen. "OsamaObama''s" actual words.
==================

%u201CI have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms,
[[FLIP]]
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but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures.
[[FLOP]]
=========
The Supreme Court has now endorsed that view, and while it ruled that the D.C. gun ban went too far, Justice Scalia himself acknowledged that this right is not absolute and subject to reasonable regulations enacted by local communities to keep their streets safe.%u201D --Sen. Obama
[[Whatda...?????]]
=============

It also shows how this hyphenated-American can talk on both sides of any issue and when he finishes you discover he''s offered absolutely nothing to define him. Just something the teleprompter told this inexperienced liberal to excrete as written.

[beastof70]

Reckon this "false rumors" claim by the "OsamaObama" camp is nothing more than the typical "Red Herring" we are now getting so use to from them?

You know, like his claims that Geraldine was injecting race. Thus causing the Clinton''s to take the bait.

You know, like his orchestrated attacks on John McCain''s military record. Thus distracting from his "No Drilling, No Time, No Where" position.

Folks, we''ve got to quit jumping at these "Red Herrings" and stay on message.

This cat is the #1 most liberal member in all the US Senate. He has on his hands the blood of more partial birth aborted babies than any Democrat on the hill. He thinks today''s gas prices aren''t too high, just wish they would have waited until he got elected to get this high. A man who has already defined an Administration who will make Jimah Carter''s tax and spend administration look right wing.

Come on folks.

[beastof70]

I never have understood anyone thinking they need to spread any false rumors about Sen. "OsamaObama" given the fact he''s the #1 most liberal member of the whole US Senate. So liberal he makes the only "Socialist" in Congress look like a moderate.

Who needs to lie about a man claiming to be so experienced, yet can''t seem to offer anything in his voting records during his time as a Senator that supports such a claim??

Who needs to lie about a man who admits that his failure to support baby slaughtering would be to punish his daughter??

Who needs to lie about a man running for President has no problem in admitting the current price of fuel isn''t too high, he simply wish this increase would have waited until after he was elected??

Rumors?? We don''t need no stinking rumors!!

Just the facts Ma''ame.

[beastof70]

This lastest bashing of John McCain''s military record by the Democrats reveals exactly what we can expect from a Sen. "OsamaObama" Presidential administration.

His foreign intelligence and national defense departments will be headed by folks like this Wesley Clark character.

A wormy little Arky chicken molesting Gen. with a case of Napoleon Syndrome so dangerous that he would have started WWIII with the Russians in Kosovo, had a British Gen. not told this midget to take his "fire" orders and go get humped in his bung hole.

Wake up America...It''s not too late to save your country.

Run this bunch of libwads out of town on a rail.

[dnsallday]

www.muslimsforobama.com

NUFF said.

Posted by SinHater1
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Even though there isn''t actually a website, wouldn''t that be a good thing?? In your mind, do you somehow think it is better if our leaders and our country is hated around the world?

[dnsallday]

If Obama was honest and if the facts didn''''t reveal his radical ties and associations for his entire adulthood, then he wouldn''''t have to be trying to justify everything.

posted by SinHater1
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Is there anything that Republicons aren''t afraid of?

[dnsallday]

The Repbublicons have to constantly spread false rumors and outright lies against their opponents and count on their submissive supporters to keep the sewage alive.
If a Democrat and A Republicon stand side by side and voters are given straight up information about the candidates abilities and their judgement and how they have established their world view. We would never see another Republicon in office. It is well documented that they are well known for making up stories and spreading them around.

[dnsallday]

Larry Sinclair addresses reporters in DC concering the gay drug affair between he and Obama.
Posted by kmccliment

Yes, I recall that story. He showed up with his disbarred lawyer. It was right before he was arrested. Sinclair will say anything you want for 2 bucks, just ask the Republicons, this isn''t the first time they''ve used him.

[zerato-2009]

This birth cert. is of questionable authenticity. It shows no signatures.

Posted by kmccliment

Wow YOu are good . YOu can judge the authenticity of the document . YOu should go out and hire an attorney and stop his candidacy. Put your money behind your blathering mouth. YOu could be ahero to he neocons and racists. Spend your money on this thin rumor from a high radio talk show host trying to get a rating. In other words, thorow your money away.

[mr2258]

Most of the rumors are not false.His past speaks for itself.He is what he is.Open your eyes.It''s not that hard to see.

[johnmcsame]

Hillary must feel really cheated by the DNC. The had wanted Hussein to be the Democratic presidential nominee from the start and were just using Hillary as part of their charade. The left loose the left-wing media on the unsuspecting Hillary. Hillary was pilloried by the media and must have been taken aback by
the ferocity of their attacks.

Well it''s payback time. PUMA - Party Unity My *** - I am sure is gonna kick Obama''s @ss back to the senate.

[johnmcsame]

Obama is such so new to politics that 70 per cent of his supporters don''t know anything about him except what he tells them. The other 30 per cent admit that he is not qualified to be the next President but they just would like to see an African-American muslim as President. Sounds like the Dems are scrapping the bottom of the barrel to find a capable candidate.