Here are the craziest rumors people are spreading about the 2008 Presidential Candidates. It is amazing what you can find on the Internet!
1. Dennis Kucinich sees UFO
Dennis Kucinich had an "extremely moving" encounter with a UFO at the home of a close friend, actress Shirley MacLaine. The Cleveland Plain Dealer published the following passage from MacLaine's upcoming book, Sage-ing While Age-ing: "[Kucinich] had a close sighting over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn't comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind." The Dealer said representatives from Kucinich's presidential campaign did not respond to various requests for comment on the alien incident. (Possibly True)
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2. Mitt Romney is a Mexican
Christian Right Beware: Mitt Romney not only comes from a long line of Mormon polygamists, he also is the "son of a Mexican" - or so claimed a July column in the Salt Lake Tribune. Rather than go to prison, in 1884 Mitt's great-grandfather, Mile Park Romney, packed his five wives off to the Mexican colony of Chihuahua, the Mormon equivalent of "Plymouth Plantation" in the 19th century. Mitt's father and former Michigan governor George Romney was born in Colonia Dublan in 1907, five years before the Mexican Revolution flared up and forced the family back North for good. In the 1968 Michigan gubernatorial race Romney Sr. was criticized for not being a "natural-born citizen." (Possibly True)
3. Mitt Romney has a gay, albino son
The illegitimate, gay, albino son Mitt Romney allegedly conceived during a Mormon mission to France literally came out of the closet last September, with a public plea for his father's acceptance. According to the Blackdog Press blog, the Mormon presidential candidate's supposed son Raphael Romney, pledged to help the Republican millionaire shore up support among albino homosexuals if his father publicly acknowledged his existence. (Almost Certainly False)
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4. Hillary Clinton is a Lesbian
Despite Hillary Clinton's staunch anti-gay marriage stance, which she prefers to label "pro-civil union," and her new taste for décolletage, rumors about the former first lady's sexuality are once again circulating in the lead-up to the 2008 race. In his 2005 unauthorized biography, The Truth About Hillary, former New York Times editor Edward Klein repeats allegations of a relationship she had with fellow undergrad Nancy Pietrafesa when the two women were students at Wellesley. Clinton attempted to squash the rumor once and for all in a September interview with the Advocate magazine, where she assured voters, "I am not gay." (Almost Certainly False)
5. John McCain has an illegitimate African-American child
During the 2000 Republican primaries in South Carolina pollsters allegedly linked to opponent George W. Bush mounted a whisper campaign charging then front-runner John McCain with having conceived his adopted Bangladeshi daughter, Bridget, out of wedlock. Bob Jones University professor Richard Hand capped off the rumors with a mass e-mail to "fellow South Carolinians" lambasting the Vietnam veteran for choosing "to sire children without marriage." Despite the McCains' efforts to rally popular condemnation against perpetrators of the smear campaign, Bush won South Carolina by a wide margin. (False)
6. John McCain, a.k.a the Manchurian Candidate, is secretly a communist
Most Americans see John McCain as a war hero who withstood six years of torture in captivity after his plane was shot down in North Vietnam in 1969. But certain POW/MIA fringe groups, like Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, accuse the former Naval pilot of collaborating not only with his captors but also with Communists in Cuba and the Soviet Union. Some detractors have gone as far as dubbing McCain the "Manchurian Candidate," claiming he was brainwashed by the Reds when held hostage, then sent back to America to do their bidding--hence his support for a normalization of relations with Vietnam. McCain's camp has ignored the rumors. (Almost Certainly False)
7. Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are related
Dick Cheney and Kenyan-born Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama are eighth cousins, Lynne Cheney told MSNBC this month. Cheney stumbled across a common relative while doing genealogical research for her autobiography. "Every family has a black sheep," a representative for Obama said in response to the news. (Possibly True)
8. Barack Obama is secretly a radical Muslim Jihadist
In January, Insight magazine reported that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama had concealed his Muslim heritage. A background check on the Illinois senator conducted by his opponents within the Democratic party revealed that Obama not only was raised as a Muslim while living in Jakarta, Indonesia, with his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, but also was educated at "a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary" for at least four years. Insight was careful not to cry "jihadist," pointing out that the background check carried out by researchers "connected to Hillary Clinton" did not specify whether the "Madrassa" Obama attended espoused the militant ideology of Wahabism, but rumors that he was secretly a "radical, ideological Muslim" (snopes.com) hell-bent on winning the presidency to destroy the United States immediately began circulating in the blogosphere and right-wing media. CNN even sent a reporter to the Basuki school to debunk the"Madrassa" buzz. (The word means, simply, "place of study" or "school" in Arabic.) Clinton aides denied responsibility for the report, calling it "an obvious right wing-job", while Obama's camp labeled the Fox News Coverage of the story "appallingly irresponsible." (Probably False)
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9. John Edwards had an affair with a campaign staffer
"Which political candidate enjoys visiting New York because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he'll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture," read a September "Just Asking" column on Page Six of the New York Post. The answer would appear to be John Edwards, who allegedly had an affair with campaign staffer Rielle Hunter while his wife continued to battle breast cancer. The National Enquirer claims to have e-mail and phone records of Hunter discussing her relationship with the coiffed candidate. Meanwhile Huffington Post's Sam Stein questioned the nature of payments the Edwards campaign made to Hunter's video-production company. Edwards dismissed the allegations as "completely false." (Possibly True)
10. Rudy Giuliani married his cousin
Yet another secret from Rudy Giuliani's personal life is circulating that may further handicap his 2008 presidential bid: He married his second cousin, Regina Perrugi. Giuliani's first marriage to Perrugi was officially annulled by the Catholic Church after four years, according to realchange.org, clearing the way for him to marry Donna Hanover, whom he later divorced for Judith Nathan, who just admitted that Giuliani was her third, not second husband. (Possibly True)
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