Obama campaign linked to 'Astroturf' McCain-Palin smears

Ace of Spades and the Jawa Report have been digging into the Obama campaign's undercover "Astroturfing" smears on McCain-Palin and caught them red-handed.

Extensive documentation at the Jawa Report suggests an Obama-connected PR firm was responsible for a video that falsely suggested Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaska Independent Party.

Ace broke out his famous flaming skull for this headline at 12:42 a.m. this morning:
Obama Connected PR Firm Uploads, Publicizes Lying Anti-Palin Ad on YouTube, Then Pushes it Virally as "Grassroots" Effort; PR Exec Sockpuppets Praise Video for "Getting the Truth Out;" Company Employee Uploads it to Obama Smear Clearinghouse Daily Kos and Urges Readers to Send it Out to Ten People Each

Then at 4:38 a.m., Ace reported Obama's astroturfer got spooked by the flaming skull and skedaddled after trying to destroy all the evidence.

"eswinner's" YouTube Account Officially Closed 15 Minutes Ago;
No Defamation Without Representation!

Trouble is, boys, we got copies. Of everyfuckingthing.

You goddamned rats.

Short version: Obama campaign manager David Axlerod, DNC, Kos, Moveon.org and the whole gang of leftwing nutroots caught red-handed. Ace explains.

David Axelrod is known as "the Master of Astroturfing," and this is just his sloppiest and most brazen effort (thus far detected). You know what also doesn't get fact checked? The tens of thousands of coordinated comments smearing McCain and Palin posted every day on media and blog threads, many of which are being written by "concerned Christian conservative commenters" who are in fact agents of David Axelrod and the DNC -- either directly, as in on-the-payroll sockpuppets, or indirectly, as in big internet groups determined to do "the dirty stuff Obama can't do himsef."

Obama can't cast doubt on Palin's fitness as a mother without risking electoral debacle.

But his legions of busy, busy, busy internet sockpuppets can. He gets the benefit of the smear without having to accept any of the responsibility for it.

Nasty work, digging through the muck and mire spread by the wizard behind the curtian, but Ace and Jawa are up to the task. Somebody's got to do it and if you think the mainstream media is up to the task, how about sending me some of that stuff you're smoking. Never mind, I quit 30 years ago.

Day by Day: See today's toon above.

The Washington Examiner reports:

A series of videos designed to spread lies about the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin has been connected to a professional Public Relations firm. Those videos also share production qualities used in pro-Obama videos produced by Obama media campaign strategist David Axelrod.

Axelrod is considered by many to be a master of planting campaign messages on the internet to look like they did not originate from an organized campaign, a practice know as “astroturfing” (because of the fake grass-roots nature of the message). The smear videos have been connected to a professional PR firm, the kind of firm Axelrod would turn to in order to disseminate his message. No direct evidence of such a link has been established but to do so would be very difficult for any outside investigation.

Company employees and family members of Winner & Associates have been connected to the placement of these videos on Youtube. In addition, they have been shown to have sent notice of these videos to the fringe left-wing websites, the Democratic Underground and Daily Kos. Those smear machine websites then urged their readers - hundreds of thousands of them - to spread word about the smear videos.