OMG they're all the same camera! Except they're not.

Conservative bloggers, acting on a tip from an anonymous viral email (seriously), have been running with a story accusing President Obama of "staging" his raucous meetings with US troops in Iraq. According to the chain email, and the bloggers, the troops' overwhelming support for their commander-in-chief was faked. You see, the Obama people hand-picked troops who only voted for Obama, the story goes, and then they gave them all very expensive $200 and $300 cameras in order to "take photos" of Obama, in a brilliantly coordinated stunt worthy of Capricorn One.

The proof? All the cameras in the photos of Obama with the troops are the same!

Except, of course, they're not.

I grabbed a photo off the White House Web site, counted around 30 cameras in the shot, and then took a look to see if they were all the same. I counted 15 different cameras, at least, among the 30 (including one guy with a pink one - Lindsey, is that you?). You can click on the photo above to get a larger copy, and count the cameras with me. Now, a lot of the cameras look like Canon cameras, but that's not a surprise since everyone I know has a Canon digital camera. Also, you have to wonder where the White House would get $200 and $300 cameras to give the troops, without anybody knowing. Why wouldn't they just buy disposable cameras and hand them out?

Because it's all a lie.

I don't write much about the conservative blogosphere because I don't enjoy the he-said-she-said nastiness that goes on between the right and left online. Also, I don't report on them because I don't find them newsworthy. But, when conservative blogs are pushing a smear against Obama - and a smear of our own troops - based on an anonymous chain email, it deserves a response.

But in all fairness to the conservative blogs, I understand they had a hard time translating the email from the original Nigerian.

PS I understand that John McCain was there too, with his favorite camera.