Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?

I don't know who really said it, but there is truly a sucker born every minute. So desperate are the foot soldiers of the right fringe smear machine to find anything that might seize up Obama's momentum, they spent the day mercilessly flogging a bogus interview allegedly called in by Michelle Obama to some Kenyan website.

Jake Tapper is amused.

This morning my inbox is filled with the "WHY ARENT YOU COVERING THIS?" emails on the subject. The answer is: because it doesn't appear to be in any way real.

Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs says the interview is a complete and utter fabrication. "It's bogus, she didn't call, it's all a lie," he says.

And I have to say -- I find their pushback quite believable. The Obama campaign does not tend to directly engage fringe websites making wild charges, and if they were to do so they certainly wouldn't have Michelle Obama make the call.

Even Powerslime is snickering at the bloggers running with this glorified spam. As Tapper reminds them, "I don't know if you know this, but not everything that appears on the internet is true." I do hope they remember that before they call the number provided by the website to "confirm" the story. I've heard those addtional internal connection charges can be pretty steep...

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]