And The Swift-Boating Of Barack Obama Begins

So soon? He hasn't even won the nomination yet. Why would Republicans want to expend all this energy and money for what might turn out to be nothing?

A conservative group -– Citizens United -– that has produced a film now in distribution attacking Hillary Clinton called “Hillary, the Movie,” has its sights set on a new target: Barack Obama.

The group has budgeted about $1 million to produce a documentary film about Mr. Obama that is set to be distributed this summer. At the moment, Citizens United has its researchers poring over Mr. Obama’s records as a community organizer, state legislator and United States senator in the same way that it scoured Mrs. Clinton’s record with a highly critical eye and a sharply conservative point of view.

“Obama is a completely clean slate,” said David Bossie, president of the group. “We will develop the image that we want the people to see. We’re doing the hard work of the research right now. The American people don’t know much about Obama, except that they like his speaking style.”

If the Obama movie is anything like the one about Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama had better prepare himself. “Hillary, the Movie,” and promotional ads for it, present statements from Dick Morris, Ann Coulter, Robert Novak, Jeff Gerth (a former New York Times reporter), Newt Gingrich and others in which she is called everything from a liar, to a European socialist to being more devious than Richard Nixon.

“If you want to hear about the Clinton scandals of the past and present, you have it here,” said the movie’s promotional materials. “Hillary the Movie is the first and last word in what the Clintons want America to forget!”

The Obama movie would be the sixth long-form documentary film made by the group, which says it is dedicated to “restoring our government to citizen control.” While some of the movies have been in theatrical release, most are distributed as DVDs on-line and in bookstores.

One prominent Citizens United movie is “Celsius 41.11,” which says it tells the “truth behind the lies” of the Michael Moore movie “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Other Citizens United movies are critical of the United Nations, illegal immigration, and the American Civil Liberties Union, while one movie promotes Newt Gingrich and his ideas.