Anti-Obama text ads cause a stir

Hundreds of people reported receiving strident, unsolicited anti-Obama text messages in an unusual spamming incident that had Twitter and Facebook users in an uproar.

“Voting for Obama means voting for same-sex marriage,” one message read. Others included “Obama stole $716 Billion in Medicare. We cant [sic] trust Obama to protect our seniors,” “Obama is using your tax dollars to fund Planned Parenthood and abortions. Is that right” and “VP Biden mocks a fallen Navy Seal during memorial. Our military deserves better.” While several people on social media sites angrily posted that the messages were coming from Republican Mitt Romney, there is no indication that the messages were sanctioned or produced by his campaign. The messages do not carry the customary notations of who approved or paid for political ads. The messages did not appear to be sent to particularly strategic targets — several hardcore Democrats were among the known recipients, as were children and people in non-battleground regions — but they came from several email addresses, including republicanett.com, votegopett.com, aiccomett.com and informedett.com. That suggests they were sent from the Internet rather than from other phones. Every domain checked by POLITICO was masked so Internet users could not trace their origins. It’s not known how many people received these messages.