Obama Campaign Launches 'Truth Teams'
The Obama campaign is today beginning a new effort to enlist and educate at least 2 million supporters for a "grassroots communications team" they're calling the Truth Team.
"The goal is to ensure that when Republicans attack President Obama's record, grassroots supporters can take ownership of the campaign and share the facts with the undecided voters in their lives," the campaign said in a statement.
The teams will be first launched in 13 "swing states," including Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia.
The rollout also includes a social media blitz, directing supporters to three new websites: KeepingHisWord.com, which highlights Obama's record and "promises kept"; KeepingGOPHonest.com, which highlights GOP policy positions; and AttackWatch.com, which fact-checks claims made against Obama on the campaign trail.
"If the other guys are going to run a campaign based on misrepresenting the president's record - and their own - we have two options: sit back and let these lies go unchallenged, or fight back with the truth," deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said in an email. "We're fighting back."
So far, the "other guys" mentioned on the three websites are almost exclusively limited to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. There is one mention of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and one mention of Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit advocacy group.
Obama organized a similar grassroots effort in 2008 - Fight the Smears - that involved more than 1 million supporters, campaign aides said.
Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said the initiative reflects a desperate attempt to spin Obama's negative track record from his first term.
"The Obama campaign is organizing propaganda teams to deceive voters because Americans are catching onto the reality that Obama's record doesn't match his rhetoric," Kukowski said in an email. "How else will they mask the broken promises like introducing another trillion dollar deficit or the fact that the president continues to recycle the same proposals without ever seeing results?"