Many on the right are claiming that the "Together We Thrive" theme of the memorial service at the University of Arizona is the new campaign slogan of President Barack Obama.
The Truth?
It's not. But I'm taking odds on how often we'll hear the lie, that it was an Obama White House creation, repeated over and over again for years to come.
I first heard this lie on the radio on Thursday morning.
And despite corrections from listeners calling in, the resident rightwinger would not let it go. He insisted that the White House must have had some impact. He insisted that the White House wouldn't have allowed the university to control, manage and plan this event - that somehow, it was Obama's event.
But it wasn't.
He was a guest speaker. But it wasn't "his" event.
It was an event planned by the University of Arizona.
President Barack Obama was an invited speaker.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have accepted the University of Arizona's invitation to visit Tucson in response to the tragic shooting that occurred on Saturday.
President Obama will speak at a memorial event at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12 to support and remember victims of the mass shooting in Tucson, and to lift the spirits of those who have been personally affected by this tragedy.
"Together We Thrive: Tucson and America," will take place at McKale Center and is free and open to the campus and greater Tucson community.
In addition to President Obama, UA President Robert N. Shelton, state and federal officials and members of the Associated Students of the UA will give brief remarks. The event will include a Native American blessing, a moment of silence, a poetry reading and the presentation of a chain featuring messages from members of the public.
But what conclusion did Michelle Malkin leap to without any evidence?
In her opinion piece, she said
But tonight at the memorial for the Tucson massacre victims, it will be a sea of blue as the White House unveils the "Together We Thrive" logo and slogan.
Despite an absolute dearth of evidence that the Obama White House was involved in any way, many on the right leapt to this conclusion - that it must have been a planned campaign slogan by the Obama team.
See, that's the way they would have behaved. Yet another example of projection at its finest - they'd politicize an event like this, and so they automatically assume that everyone else would behave dishonesty too!
Politifact gave her statement a "False" label. I think it should have been a "Pants on Fire" label, since there was no evidence to support her contention, and it was her partisan bias and preconceived notions that led her to assert that it was an Obama campaign effort! The intent behind the statement and the reason behind her belief should matter in the designation the falsehood receives.
There are others who are alleging that Obama's Organizing for America was the originator of the slogan. Nope. "Together we Thrive" has been used for decades by different groups. It's not copyrighted by nor originated by OFA.
But even that allegation has been disproven by Mediaite in an update to their original post.
The post links to a blog on MyBarackObama.com (now called Organizing for America) that uses "Together We Thrive" as its headline. At the bottom of that blog, of course, is the tidbit that makes this entire premise a lie:
Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.
Mediaite debunked this rumor yesterday.
This type of smear is nothing new, and despite the apparent absurdity of the claim, I checked with the White House, anyway. A senior administration official confirmed the widely-reported fact that the administration had nothing to do with the shirts.
University of Arizona spokesperson Jennifer Fitzenberger told me that the shirts were, indeed, provided by the University. "The University wanted to give people something to remember that symbolized community spirit and continued the event’s positive energy into the future," she said.
According to Fitzenberger, the shirts were designed by a University of Arizona student, and they cost about $60,000. "The University will pay for them," she noted. "No tuition, state allocations, tax dollars or student fees will be used."
Even Hot Air debunked it!
People are blaming the White House for the "Together We Thrive" t-shirts that were distributed last night, but that appears to have been a local effort by students at the college, who chose the University of Arizona’s color. The college students created the logo, and passed out t-shirts for the event.
Yet Michelle Malkin couldn't stop herself from running with the unfair and untrue smear.