WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama’s campaign says Michelle Obama never used the word “whitey” in a speech from the church pulpit.
The Democrat’s camp is responding to rumors on talk radio and the Internet that the candidate’s wife used the term in a speech at Obama’s former Chicago church. The rumor includes claims of a videotape of the speech.
On a Web site launched by the campaign to fight rumors about Obama, the campaign says Michelle Obama hasn’t spoken from the pulpit at the church and hasn’t used “that word.”
The Obamas recently resigned from the church where the Reverend Jeremiah Wright was the longtime pastor. Wright came under fire for controversial sermons.
The Web site fight-the-smears.com also seeks to debunk other rumors about Obama, including ones that claim he’s secretly a Muslim and wants to destroy America.
“Much if not most intolerance is at base a stupfying ignorance rather than a deeply rooted conviction.”