Astroturfing

The term astroturfing, as in "Republican astroturfing," has been thrown around in the health care debate. It's a play on words that suggests a campaign or advertising is more popular with the grassroots than it really is. Astroturf is of course a phony grass, not the real grassroots. Both sides have used it or would like to. See this as an example. And here a woman introduced herself as a doctor but was actually no doctor at all. She was an Obama delegate.