SpreadingRomney seeks to redefine "Romney" into a verb meaning "to defecate in terror," which the dog apparently did before Romney washed him off and put him back in a crate on the vehicle's roof.
The site is a riff on "SpreadingSantorum.com," which was built by Dan Savage in 2003 as a response to anti-gay comments made by then-Sen. Rick Santorum. That website seeks to redefine Santorum as a "frothy mixture," which is the result of a certain type of sexual activity.
SpreadingRomney was set up by Jack Shepler, an Indianapolis, Ind.-based web designer and DJ. Why?
"I was inspired both by Savage's Santorum site as well as the story about Romney putting his dog on the roof of his van," says Shepler. "I couldn't imagine doing that to a pet, especially for a 12 hour drive on the highway."
Shepler launched the website Jan. 10, and he "immediately" saw the site picked up on social networks. Two days later, Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, mentioned the site on her show. Afterward, the site saw a dramatic spike in traffic -- about 14,000 views in two days.
After that, Shepler says, traffic was relatively slow. But on Feb. 10, SearchEngineLand, a popular Search Engine Optimization (SEO) blog, posted about the site after noticing it was near the first page of Google results for "Romney." Since that post, the site's been seeing an abundance of traffic and sits second only to Romney's official site.
As of Thursday afternoon, the site had received 142,000 pageviews, according to Shepler.
"I'm not sure if the site will have the same impact as Savage's Santorum site, but that would be pretty incredible," says Shepler. "My only hope is that it raises awareness."
A similar site, "SpreadingGingrich.com," is currently asking visitors to submit their input for redefining Newt Gingrich's last name.
What do you think of SpreadingRomney? Is it too silly, or does it bring attention to a legitimate issue? Let us know in the comments below.