Karen Tumulty details the Obama campaign's launch of a new website, fightthesmears.com, designed to debunk any and all myths and rumors about Barack and Michelle Obama that have, or potentially will be, flying around the Internet:

The rest of fightthesmears.com is designed to be a guided tour of other sensational rumors circulating on the Web about Obama and his family. Click on the claim that Obama attended a "radical madrasah," for instance, and it takes you to a CNN feature on the very ordinary-looking elementary school he actually went to as a child in Indonesia. The rumor that Obama was sworn in to the U.S. Senate with the Koran yields a photo of him with his hand on a family Bible. Also featured are videos of Obama saying the Pledge of Allegiance, to combat claims that he refuses to. And, yes, there is a pdf of his birth certificate. Near each rumor will be a fight-back button, offering suggestions as to where and how Obama supporters can call or e-mail to counter the rumors. The site will also have a spot where Obama supporters can alert the campaign to any new rumors they may be seeing on the Web or in their mailboxes or hearing on the telephone.

This strikes me as a smart, innovative strategy for Obama - yet another example of how he's willing to shed conventional thinking, and also to use the Internet as a strength to offset one of the vulnerabilities of his campaign (ie. the circulation of rumors and misinformation).

Tumulty writes that "trying to kill [rumors] with oxygen and openness is a risky approach." Perhaps. But the rumors are going to get out, and it's far better for Obama to try and take them on and knock them down than to hope they'll go away.

The true risk to Obama in taking this approach is if he and his campaign, in the process of trying to debunk a rumor, make some sort of declaration on the website that turns out to be misleading or untrue. Should a mistake like that occur, the entire thing will blow up in their faces and they'll wish they had stuck with the old way of dealing with rumors, which is to deny them oxygen.