Obama campaign fires back at '2016'

President Barack Obama's campaign has apparently fired back at Dinesh D'Souza's surprisingly popular documentary "2016: Obama's America," calling it a "deliberate distortion" and "based on lies."

The entry on Obama's Website, listed in the "Truth Team" section, quotes from several negative reviews of the movie, including Newsday's. It also refers to an Associated Press article that fact-checked the film and found many of D'Souza's claims "not plausible."

The entry is dated Sept. 5, about seven weeks after the film's July opening, though today seems to be the first time that news outlets became aware that Obama's Website had responded to the movie at all. The Hollywood Reporter posted an article on the rebuttal earlier this morning.

"The facts show that “2016: Obama’s America” is nothing more than an insidious attempt to dishonestly smear the President," according to the Obama site. The entry also offers point-by-point rebuttals to several of D'Souza's claims. Some of the debate sticks to hard facts (oil exploration, bank bailouts) though it also addresses more subjective notions of Obama's supposed "anti-colonial" views and his belief in "American exceptionalism."

"2016: Obama's America" has earned just over $26 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo. It's the second highest-grossing political documentary of all-time behind "Fahrenheit 9/11," which earned a lifetime gross of $119 million. It's also the sixth highest-grossing documentary overall. (Fifth, if you don't count "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" as a documentary.)