Obama conspiracy theory messages flood key US election states
Conservative groups are behind a bizarre film that claims the US president is the secret love child of Communist agitator
A flood of strident and increasingly bizarre anti-Obama material is flooding key states as the White House race enters the home stretch, including a mail-out DVD that claims the US president is the secret lovechild of a Communist Party activist.
Along the highway that connects the beach towns of Florida's east coast, giant billboards show the president, whom some on the far right have falsely accused of being Muslim, bowing to a Saudi king. Another blares "Stop Obama!" and shows a nuclear warhead with "Iran" painted on it aimed at Israel, a particularly potent message with this area's many Jewish voters.
More notable is the DVD dropping into voters' mailboxes claiming that the president is the result of an illicit relationship between his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist Party loyalist. Its makers claim to have distributed four million copies.
The DVD offers the latest example of how secretive forces outside the presidential campaigns can sweep into battleground states days before the election.
This summer, a group of well-financed conservative activists went to the unusual length of arranging a focus group to test a variety of anti-Obama films. Conducted by Frank Luntz, the well-known Republican research analyst, a 30-person focus group looked at three choices: Dinesh D'Souza's 2016: Obama's America, which theorises that the president's political beliefs were shaped by the radical "anticolonial" views of his Kenyan father; The Hope and the Change, a softer critique of the president that features interviews with disaffected former Obama supporters; and Dreams From My Real Father, which posits the implausible theory that the president's real father is Davis, who indoctrinated him with Marxist views early on. Those who commissioned Luntz's research, according to people with firsthand knowledge of their motives, wanted to determine whether any of these films would be worth backing. Luntz declined to say who commissioned his research.
The Hope and the Change, directed by Stephen Bannon and produced by Citizens United, the conservative political advocacy group, tested highest with focus groups and is now running on local cable stations
Many conservatives also loved D'Souza's film and wanted it to have wider distribution. It tested poorly, however, and Luntz warned his clients that it could undermine the support of the independents they hoped to woo.