Obama “my Muslim faith”

Townhall Blog | reasonmclucus | Sept. 10, 2008

Republicans have jumped all over Barack Obama’s statement in a George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” on ABC on September 7. “Let’s not play games,” he said. “What I was suggesting — you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith.”

The Main Stream Media have largely ignored the statement because members of the MSM believe it is there job as Good Democrats to make Barack Obama look good.

Even the Republican oriented Washington Times criticized Republican bloggers for their treatment of the subject. “But illustrating the difficulty of preventing false rumors about his faith from spreading, anti-Obama groups within one hour of the interview had sliced it out of context and were sending it around via email. They also were blogging about it.”

Israelinsider is more critical suggesting that Obama really meant what he said. “In one of the most astonishing gaffes in American political history, in a national televised interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulus, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama referred to ‘my muslim faith,’ confirming what researchers and political opponents have been claiming. While Stephanopoulus several seconds later tried to correct him, saying ‘Christian faith,’ it was too late. The damage was done. Obama clearly did not mean his Christian faith, since he was admitting that ‘John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith.’ The term ‘Christian faith’ would not make sense in that context.”

Both the Times and Israelinsider may be ignoring a more important issue than whether or not Obama is a Muslim. The MSM have been claiming that Obama is supposed to be more intelligent than other politicians. If that were the case, he would accidentally say “my Muslim faith”. If he did make a misstatement it indicates he isn’t much different from President Jerry Ford who made a misstatement about Poland and Eastern Europe in the 1976 presidential debate.

Obama might sound intelligent reciting a prepared speech, but the real test of intelligence is the ability to think and talk at the same time without making simple mistakes. If President George Bush had made a similar misstatement, the MSM would make it a headline or a soundbite. Comedians would have made jokes about it. If members of the MSM want to be considered as real journalists they need to report the mistakes made by all politicians, not just the ones in the other political party. Obama only seems to be smarter than Bush because the MSM are protecting him from his mistakes.

The following transcript is from Israelinsider to show the context of the Obama’s statement. . STEPHANOPOULOS: You mention your Christian faith. Yesterday you took off after the Republicans for suggesting you have Muslim connections. Just a few minutes ago, Rick Davis, John McCain’s campaign manager, said they’ve never done that. This is a false and cynical attempt to play victim. OBAMA: You know what? I mean, these guys love to throw a rock and hide their hand. The…

STEPHANOPOULOS: The McCain campaign has never suggested you have Muslim connections.

OBAMA: No, no, no. But the — I don’t think that when you look at what is being promulgated on Fox News, let’s say, and Republican commentators who are closely allied to these folks–

STEPHANOPOULOS: But John McCain said that’s wrong.

OBAMA: Now, well, look. Listen. You and I both know that the minute that Governor Palin was forced to talk about her daughter, I immediately said that’s off limits. And–

STEPHANOPOULOS: But John McCain said the same thing about questioning your faith.

OBAMA: And what was the first thing the McCain?s campaign went out and did? They said, look, these liberal blogs that support Obama are out there attacking Governor Palin.

Let’s not play games. What I was suggesting — you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you’re absolutely right that that has not come–

STEPHANOPOULOS: Christian faith.

OBAMA: — my Christian faith.

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