Ah, the Internet. 

There are so many chain emails circulating and recirculating it seems like a cottage industry. 

A lot of claims that get sent out and around focus on the political arena, and it would seem that the vast majority have a message that's critical of a person or persons.

One such claim was about the perception of President Barack Obama and the people who voted for him by a leader from a foreign country. Here's what the claim said:

"The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president."

PolitiFact decided to look into the claim and rated it PANTS ON FIRE false. Reporter Joshua Gillin said the email has been bouncing around the internet for several years.

"This is referring to Vaclav Klaus, who, at the time, was the President of the Czech Republic," Gillin said.  "Unfortunately, we can find absolutely no proof that he actually said that. This chain email goes back to 2009, five months after Barack Obama was inaugurated, and has been repeated over and over and over again."

Gillin said that this particular email claim has actually been modified around the world. "It's so popular on the Internet that, actually, other countries have started substituting the name Barack Obama for their own leaders and America for their own country, and that's going on in places like New Zealand and Australia and South Africa and more," Gillin said.

PolitiFact found no official record of Klaus ever saying this in public. And since the email claim has also appeared in several incarnations with different world leaders and countries, the PolitiFact staff rated it PANTS ON FIRE false.

 

SOURCES: The "Confederacy of Fools"