About three weeks ago, far-right activists got pretty worked up about a video featuring the “Obama phone” woman. The gist of the clip was simple: an excited woman supports the president, she says, in large part because Obama helped her afford a cell phone.
The story quickly fizzled into irrelevance when we realized that Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were responsible for the phone program, and to suggest that Obama is somehow creating government dependency — or worse, bribing voters — is plainly absurd.
But as it turns out, the story hasn’t gone away. Dave Weigel reported yesterday that a new right-wing super PAC called the Tea Party Victory Fund edited the clip, turned it literally into black and white, lined up some financial backers, and created an ugly attack ad suggesting President Obama has “enslaved” Americans. From the super PAC’s fundraising appeal:
This is it — this is the October surprise. We just need to get this ad on television today. Will you help us?









