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Attack Watch Snitch Site a Focus of Internet Fun
yahoo ^ | 9/14/2011 | Mark Whittington
Posted on September 14, 2011 10:27:42 PM EDT by tobyhill
Back when the Obama administration was young, the White House set up what amounted to a snitch line, an email address where people were invited to report on other people bad-mouthing the president of the United States on health care.
The snitch line was soon taken down. However, it has now been resurrected in the form of a website called Attack Watch. People are invited to use the website to report on other people who are running down President Obama. In this way the Obama campaign for reelection would gather information to "fight smears."
According to the Washington Post, the reaction has not been as the Obama people have expected.
It seems Attack Watch has become the figure of fun for people on the Internet, particularly conservative bloggers who are flooding the website to turn themselves in. The site has backfired in a spectacular fashion, causing Obama to seem like a paranoid, Nixon-like figure on steroids.
The problem is one of the unstated job descriptions for president is to catch flack from people who don't like the executive. This can be galling, especially when the attacks get personal or are perceived to be unfair. Various presidents have reacted differently to the chatter of their enemies.
Nixon, for example, compiled an enemies list and plotted against unfriendly reporters. Clinton would constantly complain about the then-nascent talk radio sector, especially Rush Limbaugh, and had a war room-style operation during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
By contrast, Reagan and both Bushes dealt with attacks either with good humor in the former case or by ignoring them in the latter. One criticism of President George W. Bush is that he ignored attacks a little too much, allowing some of the accusations to take hold without a response.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
