The Obama campaign has hit back at an anti-Obama film by an Indian-American conservative author that has rocked the box office since last month's Republican National convention in Tampa, Florida.
In a new blog post on the campaign's Truth Team website, the campaign calls Mumbai-born Dinesh D'Souza's documentary '2016: Obama's America', purporting to show what will it be like should Barack Obama be re-elected as president, an "insidious" smear.
Based on D'Souza's book, 'The Roots of Obama's Rage', the documentary basically argues that Obama has a pro-third world view inherited from his Kenyan father, and he is actively and wilfully working to dilute America's primacy in the world.
"His writings and film are based on lies should not come as a surprise to anyone given D'Souza's long history of attempting to add a veneer of intellectual respectability to fringe theories, conspiratorial fear-mongering, and flat-out falsehoods," the campaign argued.
"It should say enough about D'Souza's credibility that a movie catering to the Tea Party attacks someone for allegedly "anti-colonial" views. His attempts to hide his lies behind a pseudo-scholarly presentation and glossy production values cannot withstand basic scrutiny," it said.
"The facts show that '2016: Obama's America' is nothing more than an insidious attempt to dishonestly smear the President by giving intellectual cover to the worst in subterranean conspiracy theories and false, partisan attacks," the campaign wrote.
"'2016' promises to show viewers what they 'don't know' about President Obama, but instead reveals what Newsday called a 'ranter' peddling conspiracy theories," it said.
"In place of an actual documentary, D'Souza employs "pseudo-scholarly leaps of logic" to invent an imaginary character who has inherited 'anti-colonial,' 'Third World' views from his father-whom he last saw when he was 10 years old," the campaign said.
The campaign cited four specific "falsehoods" in the film relating to American exceptionalism, Brazilian oil exploration, the release of a Libyan terrorist and the Troubled Asset Relief Programme.
Further, it accused D'Souza of holding "offensive and repugnant views" - such as blaming the left for 9/11.
Produced for roughly $2.1 million, the film with its catchphrase, 'Love Him. Hate Him. You Don't Know Him', has remained in the top ten for three weeks straight. It has collected $26.1 million, making it the sixth highest grossing documentary of all time.