The rise in the belief that Pres. Obama is a Muslim is due to a concerted effort from the right. Barack Obama and his team should have learned this lesson from the ’90s, but instead they were too busy running from that reality. It’s why conservatives have jumped on the Corboda House issue, and why the White House political team’s bungling of it is so deadly. Like health care last August, we’ve got another festering issue out there when the public’s mood is set on fume. Pamela Geller, Newt Gingrich 9/11 rally against the mosque planned for September is going to set the stage for an emotional engine that will drive November elections. Numbers on the economy make it worse, but the bonfire hasn’t begun to blaze.
I warned you about Ms. Geller’s summer plans in February, and what was coming. The Cordoba House simply provided a perfect platform. From the Post today:
Long before President Obama waded into the vociferous debate over a mosque near Ground Zero, a group of conservative writers and bloggers critical of Islam had seized on the issue and helped transform it into a national political spectacle.
While some have dismissed them as bigoted attention-seekers, their attacks on the proposed Islamic center in Lower Manhattan have gained currency in recent weeks among some Republican leaders. And their influence appears to be growing.
They are organizing a Sept. 11 rally against the mosque that will feature former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich. They advise the FBI and other government security agencies on the threats posed by Islamic radicalism, headline “tea party” events and attract millions of readers concerned or curious about Islam to Web sites with names such as Jihad Watch, Creeping Sharia and Stop Islamization of America. [...]
Back in 2006 I took on Pamela Geller, when John Bolton made her his favorite wingnut stenographer. The graphic at that link is a parody of Geller’s own, which the Washington Post mentions today.
This is how the right fights: dirty, relentlessly and they take no prisoners. Obama’s presidency could actually rest in the fact that Republicans go for broke, while Democrats turn the other cheek. The Democratic majority’s unwillingness to make an issue of Bush-Cheney malfeasance on foreign policy and many other matters once again illustrating that as much as Obama talked about bringing a gun to the fight, all the American people have seen so far is words and capitulation to conservatives that is not only dangerous, but to Obama’s presidency may prove deadly.
John Kerry slept while the swift-boaters worked one lazy August summer, because he doubted they could cement their message; now Pres. Obama goes on a 10-day vacation, while the right revs up their base, trusting the fortunes of his political future to the hot summer wind. No doubt he needs and has earned the vacation, but like Kerry it could come at a cost.
See, Newt, Geller and their gang would love to rev things up for the midterms, but they have a loftier target in their sights, which the Cordoba House issue simply allows them to amplify. They’re already plotting for 2012, hoping to plant their anti Obama hatred deep enough to wrench Jewish voters away from Democrats, a goal that has been on their minds from the start.
Whether the Cordoba House is moved or not hardly matters at this point. The rallying cry on 9/11 this year will be the funnel through which the right’s fury will be lit for the midterms. There isn’t a similar fire on the Democratic Left, which is no one’s fault but Pres. Obama, who chose to listen to a team of triangulating, concession fetishists, who believed that courting conservatives was more important than listening to his base and movement progressives who know how to wage a fight.
The Ides of August could fell the Democrats again.
“The Ides of August” – is that why the Grateful Dead played relatively few concerts during the month of August? Like Mr. Obama, Jerry was a Leo too…
I hate August…bad things happen in August.
It has occured to me that despite the fact that I don’t think Presidents should have to do this…Obama has not proven his Christian connection. Bush did not have this problem so when he called for tolerance both for Muslims and the Muslim faith and for ethnics via immigration reform he could not be accused of the same things Obama is being accused of now.
It might help if he went to church.
But he has expanded Bush’s “faith-based” thing in his administration. And he has a committee of advisers. The main person on this committee, who prays with Mr. O each day and provides him with “devotionals” on his blackberry, is a Pentecostal minister.
The democrats have blew it on this big time. The president should have stuck with what he said the first time. Even democrats who I would have thought would stuck up for freedom of religion has not. The republicans know how to play dirty and throw everything and the kitchen sink. They will cheat, lie, do anything they can to get more power. They are feeding their base and they are ready to vote in november. While Gibbs and others call the democratic base names.
‘The republicans know how to play dirty and throw everything and the kitchen sink. They will cheat, lie, do anything they can to get more power.’
As do the democrats, in fact, they are better at the PLAY DIRTY game than the Republicans.
hahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahah!
I agree that both parties are aweful !! I am so glad I am a independent !!
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it just might be a duck….even if it proclaims to be an eagle. ACTIONS and WORDS are what are making people believe Obama is a muslim. It has nothing to do with the right.
Again it would be very useful if you could tell us what actions and words from Obama makes you believe that he is a Muslim. Going to the mosque? praying on Fridays? consulting an Imam as a spiritual guide? fasting during Ramadan? having wife and daughters dress in accordance with hijab and carry a veil? any issues with them wearing swimming suits in a public beach? refusing to be swear on the bible? was he raised in a Muslim family? Or maybe just having Hussein as a middle name is enough to make you a Muslim.
I thought you guys had major issues with him, the church he was going to and the pastor he was calling his friend. How do you reconcile that with his “secret” muslim faith? Is it that as long as Obama is smeared anything goes or have all you guys really lost the ability to notice your own contradictions?
First off, there’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim, except in the context of the Pamela Geller gang world.
As far as quacking ducks, Jesus H. Christ on a biscuit, what I’m reading here simply boggles the mind.
Sounds like a little bit of Sec has rubbed off on you
I hope he decides to get back in on the action because I miss his rants already.
STUPID REPUGNANTKKKLANERS! – Cracks me up every time.
Of course they are winning the Democrats never learn. They are gaping idiots.
As I have said on these pages time and time again, it’s ALL about messaging. You cannot control your presidency if you do not control your message.
And not only does Obama not have a clue, he does not seem even interested. They talk about the Obama brand, but they know nothing about marketing. At least they are doing a lousy job of advertising/marketing Obama. The proof is that just all “target audiences” are displeased with him. Their messaging is awful.
Richard Nixon surrounded himself with advertising men. Reagan had Michael Deaver & Hal Riney who stage crafted & managed everything that left the WH, George W Bush had Roger Ailes of Fox News and Rove/Cheney/Libby who managed Tim Russert & Judy Miller, and The NYT etc.
Obama on the other hand seems to expect the press to be “fair”, and to report the facts. When HE (Obama) was riding high and Murdoch was concerned about what he might do if and when he achieved power, Murdoch called to make peace. Such was his awe, all Obama wanted to know was: How did Murdoch become Murdoch?
Once in power, and with the nation behind him, he could have, & should have, destroyed (broken up) Murdoch’s franchise. Instead, he allowed Murdoch/Ailes to rally and to use all their resources to destroy him. The fool. He did not take the current when it served him.
Why does Obama to pander to people he can’t possibly succeed with? What makes him such a terrible panderer? Maybe it’s his ideology. He believes as a matter of faith that if he just panders long and hard enough, eventually “men of goodwill” on the other side will just have to see what a swell guy he is–even though such men do not actually exist. Verily, so strong is his faith that his pandering will single-handedly call them into being! And then they can sit down and make beautiful “grand bargain” music together.
But in truth Shakespeare says it best:
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in the shallows and in miseries. . .
And we must take the current when it serves,
or lose our ventures.
In other words, Had he struck when the iron was hot, he may NOT be experiencing some of these problems now. He made his bed.
Taylor, I agree with your analysis on Geller. However, I don’t think “Jewish voters” fleeing to the Right is ever going to happen. Yes, you have some kooks like Jews for Palin, but every single election cycle the Republican Jewish Committee predicts a mass Jewish exodus from the Democratic Party and each time, the GOP wakes up the next morning disappointed. Liberalism (social welfare, freedom of religion, pro-choice, anti-poverty programs) resonate deeply with Jews and Democrats are just as supportive of Israel and Israel’s quest for peace as Right Wingers, if not more so (see Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak, Ron Paul–each of them who are virulently anti-Israel).
Obama got nearly 80% of the Jewish vote in 2008; after mass predictions of a Jewish exodus to McCain.
Independents are leaving him in droves !! I dont no about the jewish vote !! We will have to see who the jewish community votes for. But I don’t no if he wil have the same number of voters to support him in 2012 like he did in 2008. When you have people in your own administration bash your party base. Like example, republicans have not been friendly to the gay americans or a while, but there is the Log Cabin Republicans !! and there are jewish and gay and muslim and other people that cross over and vote sometimes against their own interests. I am a independent, so both parties especially now are not representing me !! It seems more and more people are feeling that way.
“No doubt he needs and has earned a vacation”……
It’s the fourth vacation this year.
Do not concern yourselves with any particular group abandoning this President. As the months drag by, things get worse and worse, and the Administration continues to show they have no answers to anything, this Preident will decide to NOT run for a second term.
As for his Christianity, it might help him if he would show up at Church consistently.
Well, the problem is that Obama never really dealt with the “Muslim issue” and it is coming back to haunt him. He should have just been honest about his background. He did attend a mosque when he was a child apparently due to having a Muslim stepfather. He actually could have turned that into a positive by saying that he “choose Christianity” as an adult and let the whole issue die there but every time somebody brought up his past, he squirmed and evaded so people are left to figure out exactly what his religious beliefs are for himself and having that crazy pastor didn’t help him one bit.
Who the hell are you trying to fool?
These comments about ‘he needs to go to church’ ‘walks like a duck’ and ‘did attend a mosque’ – I am absolutely dumbfounded!! are you people losing it or what?
Putting this whole mess on Obama is really pretty pathetic – and continuing to blog about his so-called flip flop (which was nothing of the sort-you all just refuse to listen to anything coming from him I’m afraid) is only fanning the fuel. Every single opinionator or newsperson, be it cable or network, is talking about this-unbelievable. It’s New York’s business – period.
And kris, your comment on his ‘fourth vacation’ doesn’t really add much to this – what is wrong with you?
Well, if it is New York’s business which I happen to agree with you on, then Obama should have no wallowed into this mess.
There is nothing wrong with Obama’s religious background in my mind. The problem is that he has been dishonest about it. He said that Rev. Wright was his “spiritual mentor” then said he had no idea what Rev. Wright had been saying in his sermons.
Since Obama has been dishonest about it, people are now going to believe all the rumors and innuendos.
What’s wrong with me? Where to begin……
Assuming this reply shows your sense of humor, I gotta say i love it! You made me chuckle and that’s always good.
So 53% of the country in 2008 was already willfully ignorant, stupid or bigoted, or a combination of the three.
And this is the President’s fault? I don’t get it it.
Here is apparently how it works: Republicans get fired up, go to protests and vote. Progressives bitch about their leaders, get their panties in a wad and stay home.
This is not Obama’s fight… this is your fight. What are you gonna do about it?
nothing
GaBuck says:
20 August 2010 at 4:48 pm
So 53% of the country in 2008 was already willfully ignorant, stupid or bigoted, or a combination of the three.
And this is the President’s fault? I don’t get it it.*****
Everything you say is true. But you play with the hand with which you’re dealt. Don’t bitch. Don’t complain. Don’t make excuses. Don’t blame. Overcome.
It is every Presidents DUTY to control the message of his Presidency. HE should define his Presidency rather than allow his enemies to define it for him. Obama surrounded himself with tyros and not people versed in image making and naively allowed his enemies at FOX NEWS to define him.
When GWB was elected President he bought a “ranch in Texas”. During his presidency there were always photo-ops of him chopping wood, riding his dirt bike, prancing around in his jeans, and doing other macho sports. He even landed on an aircraft carrier. As soon as his presidency was over and the “ranch” was no longer necessary for his image he dumped it. Clearly it was all for show. Ronald Reagan Before him had the master-craftsman Michael Deaver and he was always seen on horseback, as well as “sweating”. Who can forget GHWB moving at breakneck speeds in his cigarette boat with reporters and the Secret Service in his wake. None fortunately went as far as Putin. Republicans KNOW the importance of IMAGE. Democrats don’t.
They, like Obama believe that if they do a great job, the rest will take care of itself.
Consequently, Obama concentrates on chalking up merits by passing programs. He feels he will be rewarded for passing the stimulus, health-care reform, financial reform etc. Wrong. Thing is, as he concentrates on these things his enemies chip away at his image which is being neglected.