The Obama campaign deleted my blog post!

A couple of days ago, as part of my experimenting with how political rumors get started online, I created a blog in the community section of barackobama.com, the official campaign web site, and added a post.  As background, there have been several dust-ups lately where commentators have--disingenuously, I think--singled out blog entries posted by the Obama site's users and tried to imply that these posts originated with the Obama campaign itself.

As in, just because someone posts a crazy blog on a web site (the blogs are published automatically--without an approval process), suddenly that blog represents the opinion of the site's owners.  By that logic, you could say that all of the comments on every political site represent the opinion of the site they're posted on -- and that's preposterous, especially with sites that allow tens of thousands of comments from users across the political spectrum.

At any rate, I wanted to see if the Obama campaign was actually reviewing and approving the posts being put up on its site.  So I put up a blog to see if it would get published without first getting approved.  It did.  Here's the Google cache of my post, which got 6 comments from people "LOLing" about my spurious and irresponsible assertion about Obama.

But today I saw that the post had been removed, and I can't possibly imagine why.  If you read the text of it, it's clear (I hope) that I was making a statement about the way outlandish rumors originate, and how they spread.  Here's what I wrote:

Obama is DEFINITELY a Martian, and therefore DEFINITELY NOT an American citizen.  I know because I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who said they were almost positive they'd heard someone say so.

Confused about their reason for taking it down without notice or warning, I consulted the Obama site's Terms of Service. The relevant passage is here (my emphasis):

We have the right, in our sole discretion, to edit, refuse to post or remove any material submitted to or posted on our Website including, but not limited to, material that is unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, graphic, or otherwise objectionable.

So my Martian joke was objectionable?  Or was it defamatory?  Geez, Martians really must have thin skins.

image by David Sarno

Comments

[McCain-OCrat]

They objected because Obama does not really qualify as an American citizen. His mother was 18 when she had Obambi and his father was not a citizen. Mom would have had to have 5 years of U.S. presence before his birth after her 18th birthday to qualify Bambi for citizenship. Let's tell Arnold.

[j]

If you think this is bad now, wait until this guy is President! Welcome COMRADES!

[McCain-OCrat]

I am retarded and do not realize that anyone born on US soil (which, incidentally, includes US states such as Hawaii...) is automatically a US citizen.

[??]

"Mom would have had to have 5 years of U.S. presence before his birth after her 18th birthday to qualify [Obama] for citizenship"

Where did you come up with that one? Every child born on american soil is an american citizen, regardless of the parents' age, nationality, citizenship, or immigration status.

[Ken]

The person who said "anyone born on US soil (which, incidentally, includes US states such as Hawaii...) is automatically a US citizen." is correct. That is one of the issues now with immigration. If a 15 years old illegal immigrant who came into the country recently has a baby while she is here, although the baby might have been conceived outside of the US, the baby is an American citizen.

There was a case featured on CNN last year where the US was going to deport a female illegal immigrant whose husband had already been deported and the complication that she was using to appeal the deportation decision was that her two young children, both born in the US, were American citizens and she needed to stay to take care of them. And there are a lot of cases involving minor children of illegals that are US citizes because they were born here.

[Adam Nedman]

Ever read "The Martian Chronicles" by Bradbury? You hit closer to the truth than you realized!!! (o o U o o)

[NoMoreBlatherDotCom]

-1 for stupidity. How about trying to post something fact-based and seeing if it sticks? For instance, a couple days ago I also signed up for a BHO account and, at post time, it's still there:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/nomoreblatherdotcom

[ecg3817]

You need to go into a nursing home and do some community service....you are wasting your life if this is how you use the skills that God gave you.

Obama '08

[ecg3817]

Obama is an United States Citizen...if he wasn't Hillary Clinton would have long ago dropped the bomb on him....

People around the world read American comments and realize just how NOTsmart many of us are...

[Jim]

McCain-Ocrat - Surely you jest with that blatant misstatement of the law. "??" is absolutely correct. Or is this your own experiment in scurrilous rumors?

[David Blane]

Maybe I'm missing something here. How can he be both an American citizen AND be born on Mars? Anyways I don't really see this as a problem. McCain was born in Panama and they're letting him run.

David Blane

[Mike]

It's okay to be born in Panama if you've been the sole cause of two or more divorces. It's a Republican Family Values Moral Rule.

[Jangles]

I think the owner of a presidential candidate web site should be held accountable for what is posted on the site by the campaign or anyone else. The Obama site is notorious for "anything goes". It has been a site filled with unbelievable garbage. It is a huge contrast with the Clinton web site which kept a very tight rein on what was allowed to show up on the site. It's called "rigor and discipline"; its called "presidential".

[CK]

1st, some people--believe me--do not know that "Mars" is a planet and that "Martians" aren't undesirable 'furriners'.

2nd, Hawai'i became a state very shortly before Obama was born. His mother's citizenship is not however in question, any more than it would be, for example, if she'd been living in Puerto Rico.

[Nod]

Funny your post got erased but the one from Jemaah Islamiyah stayed up for 10 weeks : up on March 31 2008 until it went viral on the news June 8th 2008....

[Steve]

That's ok, but what i thought was so much funnier is how bad Mccan't is doing in the polls right now, had me rolling on the floor. lol! Now THAT'S some funny stuff!

[skyligts]

I think the Obama site's policy of open posting is the right one. First, vetting every single post would be an enormous expenditure of time and money that could be spent elsewhere. Second, if something offensive slipped through, which is bound to happen, this could then be spotlighted as "Obama vetted it!" No, better to allow open posting and delete bad stuff as it is found, ala YouTube. They will always have the legitimate excuse that "we didn't know about it."

[Captain Future]

What a completely spurious post! Anyone can see that Obama is not a Martian. With those ears, he's clearly Vulcan.

[Ang]

John McCain was born in PANAMA in 1936. Was PANAMA part of the USA back then?

[Jen]

Obama's mother's citizenship status is irrelevant. The Constitution requires that presidents be natural born citizens and they must be born on American Soil. I have always wondered how this would affect someone born on a military base.

[C.D.]

The poles that show Obama doing so well will be the pole the Obama Campaign will hold up for all to see. The same go's for the Republican camp. Any one who's totally honest with himself or herself or others must admit this simple fact. With the technology thats available to pollsters, they can show what ever results the candidate and their supporters want. Which usually boils down to manipulation of the truth. Both National Parties are guilty of the same practices.

[Dee]

It's a disgrace for that Govenor Sarah Palin to cover up her daughters pregancy, why would she do that when she is against abortion? What else is she hiding. What type of person or mother is she? Would you want someone in office as Vice President or even President who covers up and who is malipultive. She already is under investigation for the same quote "Cover Up"
Sarah Palin is a Loser and needs to go back to Alaska and hunt Moose. Oh, by the way she is a memeber of ARA, so you know it will be a ShotGun Wedding.

Dee
From: Bowie, Maryland