CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Obama Should Confront His Muslim Issue Head On

Hardly a day goes by when you don't see some reference to it -- the "smear" that Obama is a Muslim. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal posed the question, "It is inaccurate to call Barack Obama a Muslim. Is it a slur? On Tuesday, the New York Times headlined an article "Muslim Voters Detect a Snub From Obama." Wednesday, Ed Morrissey asked, "Obama running from Muslims?" Even the broadcast media interviews Mulsims about the issue.

I'll get back to those articles in a bit. First, I call on Obama to face his Muslim issue head on. Nothing else will make this "smear" rumor go away.

Like Romney did with the Mormon issue, and Obama himself did with the race issue, Obama must deal with these rumors head on. Obama should give a speech, in which he repeats that he is not Muslim, and goes on to explain why but it should be fine with Americans if Obama were Muslim.

Before the Obamatons launch the hate mail, let me say that I was raised to respect others and was taught that I should strive, like God, to be "no respecter of persons." I've always tried to do that. It does not matter to me what a person's religious beliefs are. What is important to me is that our leaders have some religious belief. And I am comforted by the recent Pew findings that most Americans agree with the statement that many religions – not just their own – can lead to eternal life.

In the 20 or so months since Obama caved and broke his word that he would not run for president in 2008, he has been unable to dispel the "smear" that he is Muslim. Like Hillary, I'm willing to take Obama's word that he is a Christian and has never been a Muslim. I am willing to do so despite the fact that Obama is more than willing to break his word when he finds it politically expedient to do so.

Notwithstanding my recognition of Obama being a Christian, and that he has never been a Muslim, the fact is that Obama's efforts to kill the Muslim rumor have failed. Recently, as reported by ABC News' Jake Tapper, The Jerusalem Post produced a story saying "Barack Obama's half brother Malik said Thursday that if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background:"

It ended up on Fox News, with anchor Brut Hume saying on June 16 that: "Barack Obama is a practicing Christian, married in a Christian church, whose children were also baptized in that church. His campaign has emphasized his faith in part to dispel what the campaign calls an online smear campaign which contends among other things that Obama was raised a Muslim.

There is even a statement on his official campaign website reading, quote, 'Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian.' But Obama's half brother is not so sure. Malik Obama tells The Jerusalem Post that, 'if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background.'"

The Jerusalem Post has since taken the story down of its website, which Fox reported Tuesday.

Then there was the incident at an Obama rally in Detroit last Monday, when two Muslim women in hijab, or traditional clothing, were asked to move when they sat behind the podium, where they would have appeared in photographs and on television with the candidate.

The Wall Street Journal's Amy Chozick, reports that "Obama Walks a Fine Line With Muslims." The article is subtittled, "Campaign's Efforts to Dispel Rumors Risk Offending a Base of Support." Chozick writes that the Obama campaign suggests it is inaccurate, and a slur, to call Obama a Muslim:

A new campaign Web site designed to air and rebut potentially damaging Internet rumors reads in one part: "Smear: Barack Obama is a Muslim... Truth: Sen. Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim and is a committed Christian."

The characterization highlights a tricky balance the campaign is trying to strike: to tamp down false rumors -- intended by some to link the Democratic presidential candidate to radical Islam -- without offending Muslims and harming his image of inclusiveness.

Muslim-Americans have made up one of Sen. Obama's most loyal bases of support since he announced his candidacy last year. But lately some Muslims, concentrated in several battleground states, say they are having second thoughts over his campaign's ardent defense of his religious background.

[. . .]

As for the "Fight the Smears" Web site, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor says it was designed to "dispel any and all misinformation," and the Muslim rumor is misinformation. The "smear," he wrote in an email, is that "most of these attacks allege that he is a radical Muslim who attended a madrassa."

Chozick goes on about how Muslim voters in swing states have noticed the disparity between Obama's outreach to them as opposed to other religions. Obama's obsessive avoidance of these American Muslims is alienationg them.

In the New York Times, Andrea Elliott reports that "as Senator Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa last December, Representative Keith Ellison, the country’s first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help:"

Mr. Ellison believed that Mr. Obama’s message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims. He volunteered to speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf at a mosque in Cedar Rapids, one of the nation’s oldest Muslim enclaves. But before the rally could take place, aides to Mr. Obama asked Mr. Ellison to cancel the trip because it might stir controversy. Another aide appeared at Mr. Ellison’s Washington office to explain.

"I will never forget the quote," Mr. Ellison said, leaning forward in his chair as he recalled the aide’s words."He said, 'We have a very tightly wrapped message.'"

Ellison, and other Muslims are a little bitter at being snubbed by the Obama campaign:

While the senator has visited churches and synagogues, he has yet to appear at a single mosque. Muslim and Arab-American organizations have tried repeatedly to arrange meetings with Mr. Obama, but officials with those groups say their invitations — unlike those of their Jewish and Christian counterparts — have been ignored. Last week, two Muslim women wearing head scarves were barred by campaign volunteers from appearing behind Mr. Obama at a rally in Detroit.

In interviews, Muslim political and civic leaders said they understood that their support for Mr. Obama could be a problem for him at a time when some Americans are deeply suspicious of Muslims. Yet those leaders nonetheless expressed disappointment and even anger at the distance that Mr. Obama has kept from them.

"This is the 'hope campaign,' this is the ‘change campaign,'" said Mr. Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota. Muslims are frustrated, he added, that "they have not been fully engaged in it."

[. . .]

"A lot of us are waiting for him to say that there’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim, by the way," Mr. Ellison said.

Mr. Ellison, a first-term congressman, remains arguably the senator's most important Muslim supporter. He has attended Obama rallies in Minnesota and appears on the campaign’s Web site. But Mr. Ellison said he was also forced to cancel plans to campaign for Mr. Obama in North Carolina after an emissary for the senator told him the state was "too conservative." Mr. Ellison said he blamed Mr. Obama’s aides - not the candidate himself - for his campaign’s standoffishness.

Elliott, like Chozick, goes on about how Obama is alienating American Muslims, who notice Obama's fearful distancing efforts, and must wonder about Obama's claim to be the unity candidate.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council's Edina Lecovic, discusses Obama's Muslim issue with MSNBC's Monica Novotny in the following video report:

When I saw Morrissey's article, I knew he hit the nail on the head:

Fear lies at the heart of all bigotry, even the passive kind, and it’s clear that the Muslim rumor has Obama spooked.

We know Obama is afraid of his Muslim issue. It is one of the explanations he used to break his commitment to accept public financing.

But the cat is already out of the bag. The only way for Obama to overcome his fear, and his Muslim issue, is to go out and meet it head on.

Morrissey again:

However, we should be clear: there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim in America. Just as with being Jewish, Christian, Ba’hai, Buddhist, Hindu, or atheist, personal faith doesn’t matter as long as one isn’t seeking the overthrow of the government. It’s a matter of personal choice. In America, all but the fringe understand this.

Instead of so desperately trying to distance himself from American Muslims, Obama should give the speech, and welcome Muslims into American politics.

Obama's Padding

Padding A Resume Is Lying.

Obama has spent about $75 million on about 140,000 airings of ads so far. So of course last week he found it necessary to launch a new ad to introduce himself:

About 46 seconds into the ad, we are told that Obama “passed laws” that “extended healthcare for wounded troops who’d been neglected,” and in the usual manner of these political commercials we are given a little citation at the bottom. The citation reads “Public Law 110-181 1/28/08”. That law is the only federal legislation cited in the ad — the other two items mentioned were from the Illinois legislature and referred to other issues raised in the ad.

The problem is Senator Obama never voted for that legislation. Public Law 110-181 is part of the defense authorization bill which passed the Senate in January by a vote of 91 to three with six senators not voting. Obama was one of those six absent senators.

Some in the media overcame Obamamania and highlighted Obama’s false ad claims:

Chicago Tribune: “Obama ad cites bill he did not vote on.... While the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee authored provisions that ultimately made it into the law, he did not vote for its passage on Jan. 22, when he was busy campaigning in advance of the South Carolina primary.” (06/20/08)

New York Times: “Mr. Obama refers to three bills that passed during his time in the Illinois Senate and in the United States Senate, and he did have a hand in passing all three. But he did not actually vote on the third bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, which passed overwhelmingly in January.” (06/20/08)

Washington Post: “Obama sponsored or co-sponsored – but did not ‘pass’ – the welfare and tax measures but does not mention that these were in the Illinois legislature in 1997 and 2000. He sponsored congressional measures that helped hospitalized veterans, but in a relatively minor way: extending beyond 90 days the period in which they can receive free meals and free phone calls to family members. Obama may have turned down Wall Street jobs after graduating from Columbia University in 1983, but he spent a year working for Business International Corp. in New York before becoming a community organizer in Chicago, and he later joined a law firm there.” (06/20/08)

The fact checkers don't approve either:

PolitiFact says that Obama’s “third claim on veterans health benefits is less clear… Obama was not a sponsor of the bill, and without more detail we can't confirm whether he contributed to the law…” (06/23/08)

FactCheck.org: “[F]or Obama to say that he ‘passed a law’ casts him as a legislative Lone Ranger, hogging credit that properly belongs to other parties as well.” (06/20/08)

In the human resources field, padding a resume is considered lying. Personnel types don't like it one bit. When a candidate is caught padding his resume, the candidate does not get the job. Voters could learn something from the human resource folks.

McCain: Government Must Lead Path To Green Energy

McCain wants the federal government to start buying flex-fuel and hybrid vehicles and leasing and building energy-efficient office space:

The Republican presidential nominee said Tuesday the federal government has 3.3 billion square feet of office space nationwide and buys 60,000 automobiles a year, and if elected in November he would encourage "green technologies."

Watch the following Associated Press video report:

Breaking His Word - Change That Works For Him

McCain's presidential campaign released a new web video, called "Words." Like my "Anatomy Of Obama's Betrayal Of His Public Financing Commitment To The American People" post, the new video focuses on Obama's broken commitments to accept public financing.

BARACK OBAMA (2/16/08): "Don't tell me words don't matter."

BARACK OBAMA (6/29/06): "I strongly support public financing."

BARACK OBAMA (2/26/08): "I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody."

BARACK OBAMA (4/27/08): "I have promised that I will sit down with John McCain and talk about can we preserve a public system."

BARACK OBAMA (6/19/08): "We've made the decision not to participate in the public-financing system for the general election."

CHYRON: "Mr. Obama is breaking his word." (The Washington Times, 6/20/08)

BARACK OBAMA (2/16/08): "Don't tell me words don't matter."

CHYRON: "His decision deals a body blow to his own reputation as a reform candidate." (The Boston Globe, 6/20/08)

BARACK OBAMA (2/16/08): "Don't tell me words don't matter."

CHYRON: "Opportunistic and cynical." (New Hampshire Union Leader, 6/20/08)

BARACK OBAMA (2/16/08): "Don't tell me words don't matter."

CHYRON: "A large and telling Obama flip-flop." (The Wall Street Journal, 6/20/08)

BARACK OBAMA (2/16/08): "Don't tell me words don't matter."

CHYRON: "As disappointing as it is disingenuous." (The Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/20/08)

CHYRON: CHANGE That Works For Him: Breaking His Word

Obama Gets The Communists

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948

It's one thing when Obama, the Democrats' standard bearer to be, is identified as the most liberal senator. It is something else, something quite extreme, when Obama is recognized as the darling of the Communist Party USA.

That's right, Joelle Fishman -- chair of the Communist Party USA Political Action Commission and the Connecticut Communist Party -- backs Obama.

Perhaps it is no surprise. After all, except for public financing of campaigns, Obama's positions are very similar to those of the Communist Party USA:

Among the points in the party's "Immediate Program" are a $12/hour minimum wage; for all workers, universal health care, and opposition to privatization of Social Security; economic measures such as increased taxes on "the rich and corporations," strong regulation of the financial industry, "regulation and public ownership of utilities," and increased federal aid to cities and states; opposition to the Iraq War and other military interventions; opposition to free trade treaties such as NAFTA; nuclear disarmament and a reduced military budget; various civil rights provisions; campaign finance reform including public financing of campaigns; and election law reform, including Instant Runoff Voting

This may not be a shock to the few who bother to do appropriate due diligence on Obama. Nevertheless, it is too much out of the mainstream -- too much progressivism liberalism socialism -- for me.

Jon Stewart On Obama Personalizing The Presidential Seal

Last week, Obama caught flack from the press for personalizing the presidential seal. Now, Jon Stewart sticks it to Obama for the presumptuous Obama Seal:

My esteemed RedState colleague, Dan McLaughlin, notes there is a serious side to this nonsense.

Charlie Black Steps In It

Charlie Black sat down with Fortune Magazine and when asked if McCain would stand to benefit from a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, Black stuck both of his feet in his mouth:

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December was an "unfortunate event," says Black. "But his knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who's ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us." As would, Black concedes with startling candor after we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. "Certainly it would be a big advantage to him," says Black.

Charlie Black knows a lot better. Black has apologized, saying he "deeply regrets" his comments:

"They were inappropriate," Black told reporters at a fund-raising event in California. "I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire life to protecting his country."

I bet he does. So does Senator McCain, saying he "cannot imagine" why Black would say something like that:

"It's not true," McCain said. "I've worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America. My record is very clear."

McCain cited his work on the Senate Armed Services Committee and his role in creating the 9/11 Commission in describing his efforts to stop terrorist attacks on American soil.

"If he said that, and I do not know the context, I strenuously disagree," McCain said.

Charlie ought to, and I'm sure he does, know a lot better. Black needs to resign from the McCain campaign.

NBC's Andrea Mitchell covers Black's hoof and mouth disease in the following video report:

Quick, Someone Tell Obama Congress Already Closed The 'Enron Loophole'

Yesterday, Obama announced he was targeting the so-called "Enron loophole."

It's safe to say that everyone, at least everyone that counts, now seems to agree that the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which contained the so-called "Enron loophole," went too far. The "Enron loophole" limited regulators' oversight of electronic trading of contracts for future delivery of oil.

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in December 2000. That legislation was not controversial. In fact, when it was approved by the House, only four members voted against it.

Nevertheless, Congress addressed the problem in May, when it passed the farm bill. According to McClatchy's Kevin G. Hall, when Congress overrode President Bush's veto of the farm bill, it allowed a provision in the legislation to take effect that closed the "Enron Loophole." In addition, last week federal regulators announced stricter regulation on foreign exchanges that trade U.S. oil.

In yet another whopper, Camp Obama tries to tag McCain with the now closed loophole by blaming the loophole on former Senator Phil Gramm. Gramm serves as McCain's co-chairman and economic advisor. Like many of the attacks spewing from Obama's new politics, this one doesn't hold water either.

According to the Los Angeles Times, McCain's campaign supplied a copy of a letter Gramm wrote to Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) in which Gramm denied that the provision was a "secret maneuver" and said he had "nothing to do with the writing of the provision" on regulating energy trading.

Will this help lower the price of oil? The New York Times reports that the role speculative investment plays in pushing up oil and other commodity prices is not entirely clear:

While some analysts believe that large flows of money into largely unregulated exchanges have distorted markets and pushed up prices, most energy experts see no support for that theory. They point out that traditional market forces, like growing demand from emerging countries, and limited growth in oil supplies, can easily account for the increase in prices.

Speculation may be part of the problem. The real culprit is increasing demand from China and India as well as our failure to increase production when and where we can. Watch the following video:

McCain Pushes Lower Auto Emissions

Senator John McCain proposes incentives to move American vehicles away from oil.

McCain's proposals include a $300 million prize to encourage the development of an automobile battery that delivers power at 30 percent of current costs and has "the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars."

McCain is also proposing stiffer fines for automakers who skirt existing fuel-efficiency standards, as well as incentives to increase use of domestic and foreign alcohol-based fuels such as ethanol:

According to excerpts of his speech obtained by Reuters, the Republican presidential candidate will call for auto manufacturers to speed the process of making engines that can use alcohol-based fuels.

[. . .]

"For every automaker who can sell a zero-emissions car, we will commit a $5,000 tax credit for each and every customer who buys that car," he will say.

"For other vehicles, whatever type they may be, the lower the carbon emissions, the higher the tax credit."

Car makers have argued in the past that consumers do not always favor fuel-efficient cars and that government incentives would help encourage people to buy them.

All good ideas. With gas prices passing $4 per gallon, consumers will favor fuel-efficient cars now.

Obama's Fear

Did this ad, "run in South Dakota," scare Obama into breaking his commitment to accept public financing for the general election?

The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray reported Obama claimed he opted out of public financing to be able to compete with independent conservative groups, although no such well-funded national organizations have materialized:

When a reporter pointed to the dearth of well-heeled, GOP-aligned independent groups emerging, Obama responded by asserting that they could "pop up pretty quickly and have enormous influence," adding: "And we've already seen them -- and there was an ad run in South Dakota . . . where it took a speech that I had made, extolling faith, and made it seem as if I had said that America was a Muslim nation."

Camp Obama must have some nightmarish polling data on this ad if it is indeed the reason Obama subjected himself to the criticism he received for his monumental flip flop.

Hat tip to Extreme Mortman via Instapundit.