White House edits history to insert Obama

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White House edits history to insert Obama

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

The White House has found a new way to tout President Obama's actions on issues ranging from Medicare and Social Security to energy, trade, taxes, veterans and civil rights -- by adding to the biographies of former presidents on the White House web site.

Click on almost any president since Calvin Coolidge, scroll to the bottom of his official bio, and you'll find one or two references to something Obama has done to carry on that president's achievements.

The additions -- first noted in a tweet from the conservative Heritage Foundation, then picked up by the neoconservative magazine Commentary and given broader attention by ABC's Jake Tapper -- already have spurred a reaction from the Republican National Committee.

On its Tumblr account, the RNC has pictured Obama in "world-changing events you didn't know Obama played a part in." Here you can see Obama landing in the New World with Christopher Columbus, attention Napolean's coronation, guest-lecturing with Albert Einstein and hanging out with Elvis and the Beatles.

Some of the historical references are innocuous. For instance, after Coolidge's bio, the White House added this:

On Feb. 22, 1924, Calvin Coolidge became the first president to make a public radio address to the American people. President Coolidge later helped create the Federal Radio Commission, which has now evolved to become the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). President Obama became the first president to hold virtual gatherings and town halls using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.

Jump all the way to George W. Bush, and you get another reference to social media:

In 2002, President George W. Bush's State of the Union was the first to be live broadcast on the Internet. In 2011 and 2012, President Obama's State of the Union speeches were available in an enhanced live stream version that featured infographics, charts and data side-by-side in real time with the President's speech.

But in between, the references to Obama -- complete with hyperlinks that take you elsewhere on the White House web site -- clearly highlight efforts his re-election campaign would like noted, such as fighting to protect Medicare and Social Security or expanding the rights of gays and veterans.

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...insert-obama/1