Ninety-four percent of adult Americans have heard at least one of the ridiculous and false rumors chasing John McCain and Barack Obama on the campaign trail, according to a Scripps poll.
Have you heard that John McCain was brainwashed while a prisoner of war in Vietnam? Or that he’s become senile, or fathered a black baby?
And how about that Barack Obama secretly is a Muslim? Or he is the anti-Christ from the Book of Revelation? Or that he refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance?
About 19 of every 20 adult Americans have heard at least one of these six obviously false rumors about the major presidential candidates, according to a first-of-its kind national survey of 1,015 adults conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.
“Rumors are a very powerful form of communication. They resonate our fears,” said rumor expert Michael Kamins, a marketing professor at New York’s Stoneybrook University.
“The good news is that they are only going to influence people who are indifferent or undecided in the presidential race. Since there aren’t many people like that right now, rumors aren’t going to make much difference,” he said.
The pervasiveness of ugly rumors this year is remarkable. Only 6 percent of the adults in the poll said they hadn’t heard any of the six rumors included in the study. These six rumors were chosen for the poll because they have been widely acknowledged and refuted by the campaigns and independent experts.
Not surprisingly, Republicans were more likely than other voters to hear false things about Obama, while Democrats disproportionately heard the worst about McCain.
The poll found that anti-Obama rumors were more pervasive than attacks on McCain. Ninety-two percent said they had heard at least one anti-Obama rumor compared to 53 percent who had heard at least one slander against McCain.
Obama launched a “Stop the Smears” campaign on the Internet to refute rumors. Obama strategists did not want a repeat of the 2004 election when Democrat John Kerry was slow to respond to “swift boat” attacks that his service during the Vietnam War was dishonorable.
“So we made a concerted effort this time to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” said Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro, vowing to not let “smears and false attacks go unchallenged.”
McCain’s campaign had to announce that running mate Sarah Palin’s unmarried daughter, Bristol, was pregnant after rumors arose that Palin’s fifth child actually belonged to her daughter.
“Smears and rumors have no place in this election, because the issues and challenges are just too important,” said McCain campaign senior spokesman Tucker Bounds after seeing the survey results.
The most commonly repeated rumors, according to the poll, were questions about Obama’s religious faith. Eight-nine percent said they had heard Obama is a Muslim. Nearly two-thirds said they believed that it was “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that this rumor would be believed.
Fifty-seven percent had heard that Obama refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance or to display the American flag.
The most dismissed of all six rumors included in the study was the claim that Obama is the anti-Christ. Only about a quarter of the people in the study had heard this rumor, and two thirds said it’s “very unlikely” that it would be believed.
The most prominent rumor against McCain is that he was brainwashed during the Vietnam War. One third of the people had heard this and nearly half said it’s “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that it would be believed.
Fewer people had heard that McCain fathered a black child (a rumor that helped cost McCain the 2000 presidential campaign in the critical South Carolina primary), or that he’s senile.
Overall, adults in the study were doubtful that these rumors would influence the outcome of the election.
Only 8 percent said they think rumors would have “a great deal of influence” over how people will vote, while 33 percent said they might have “some influence” and 58 percent predicted they would have little or no influence. One percent were undecided.
The survey of 1,015 adult residents of the United States was conducted from Sept. 15 through Oct. 2 by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University.
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