The most pressing question in this presidential campaign has become: Why isn’t the Obama campaign (or their surrogates and sympathizers) spreading insidious rumors about John McCain to counterbalance all the junk out there about Obama?

Now, I subscribe to plenty of liberal/lefty e-mail lists — so I feel fairly in touch with the viral pulse out there.  And I know plenty of Obama sympathizers will say that they’re working very hard at getting out the unknown stuff about John McCain.

But my response to them would be that you’re still hampered by this ridiculous need to stay in the realm of truth.

For example, Brave New Films has done a great job of exposing “The Real John McCain.”  In their latest salvo, they reveal that McCain, in fact, is the true elitist.  He and his wife own, among other things, ten mansions:

Others are exposing McCain’s elitism as well.  Isabel Wilkinson over at Huffington Post has noted that McCain has been wearing $520 Ferragamo loafers while campaigning this summer, which, in turn, has produced more fodder for BagnewsNotes, who continues to show how contrasting visual images of an angry and out-of-touch McCain and a genial and engaged Obama tell the true story of each man.

Unfortunately, though McCain’s elitist hypocrisy might scandalize many of us, it doesn’t come across as a threat to the American way of life.  That’s because old, rich white men have always held power in this country.  Strangely, it’s not news — both to the man in the street and the Man in the media.

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This election year, instead of dreaded “swiftboating,” the chief Republican campaign tactic is rather old-fashioned: rumors. Granted, rumors take on a whole new meaning in the digital age, but they work by the same word-of-mouth method they always have.

I was heartened by the fact that the Obama campaign saw this new/old reality and decided to enter the fray, instead of hoping it all goes away. They created a website — Fight the Smears — that attempts to counter every “smear” with “the truth.”

Unfortunately, the site is rather lame. It should be a daily blog that acts as a watchdog of the media coverage, but instead, its static feel and lack of updated content gives interested readers no reason to return.

Better to rely on independent sources such as Michelle Obama Watch — which has the grassroots type of energy that the Obama campaign has, until now, displayed itself.

Or, maybe take the satirical advice of Christopher Beam at Slate, who lists a series of alternative rumors that he thinks the Obama campaign should actively encourage. Here’s some of my favorites from the fairly long list:

Barack Obama goes to church every morning. He goes to church every afternoon. He goes to church every evening. He is IN CHURCH RIGHT NOW [...]

Barack Obama’s skin is the color of AMERICAN SOIL.

Barack Obama buys AMERICAN STUFF. He owns a FORD, a BASEBALL TEAM, and a COMPUTER HE BUILT HIMSELF FROM AMERICAN PARTS. He travels mostly by FORKLIFT.

Barack Obama says that Americans cling to GUNS and RELIGION because they are AWESOME.