Obama backers launch Minnesota "Truth Team"

Some incumbent presidents get to run their reelection campaigns from the White House Rose Garden. But before the Obama 2012 campaign can run on its record, supporters say they need to debunk a bunch of forwarded emails about birth certificates. Enter the Truth Team, a nationwide initiative rolled out today by Obama For America. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and a slate of local politicians and volunteers met at the state Capitol Monday afternoon and pledged to spend the rest of this election cycle myth-busting. "We are not going to allow any lie to go unanswered," said DFL Chairman Ken Martin. "We're not going to take any baloney," Rybak agreed, adding that the Truth Teams – mobilized through websites like KeepingHisWord.com, KeepingGOPHonest.com and AttackWatch.com – are necessary to counter "millions of dollars in slimy ads" from Republican contenders for the White House. The plan is to get at least 2 million volunteers mobilized nationwide, talking, tweeting and posting online.It echoes a similar drive during the 2008 campaign, known then as "Fight The Smears." The Republican National Committee dismissed the rebooted initiative as propaganda. "The Obama campaign is organizing propaganda teams to deceive voters because Americans are catching onto the reality that Obama's record doesn't match his rhetoric," RNC Spokesman Ryan Mahoney said in a statement Monday. "How else will they mask the broken promises like introducing another trillion dollar deficit or the fact that the president continues to recycle the same proposals without ever seeing results?" Grassroots activist and Civil Rights icon Josie Johnson said she's volunteering for the campaign because "I am so disappointed that the truth does not get out." "You have to understand the basis for these anti-Obama attacks," she said. "I've never seen anything like it in my life. The things that were said that were untrue, and these things were said over and over… Unless we correct people, they won't know what is the truth."