Obama’s Mosque Stand: Again, Not Ready For PrimeTime ________________________
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In 2008, in both the Democrat nomination process as well as the general election, candidates that faced off against Barack Obama, time and again, stated that Obama was simply not ready for prime time. His inexperience was a major hindrance to being an effective President. Then Sen. Joe Biden (now Vice President Joseph Biden) stated the Presidency is not a position for ‘on the job training’.
How true that is.
Forget about the multiple foreign policy blunders. Forget about the inability to have any coherent economic policy other than tax-and-spend. Dismiss the fact that Obama doesn’t really care about securing the border, illegal immigration, or a multitude of other issues that the public is concerned about.
Let us simply look at the hard nosed politics involved.
And even in that arena, Obama falls far short.
The latest example is the mosque that is being considered for lower Manhattan, just blocks from the World Trade Center site.
Forget the argument over the mosque itself; many, if not most, bloggers have discussed the right of freedom of religion versus the common sense questioning of if the mosque location is appropriate. I will leave that argument to others.
But what is more interesting in the long term for the people of the United States, and Democrats in particular, is Obama’s tone deaf political nature.
For weeks, the White House actually took the smartest approach to the mosque controversy: “It is a local issue”. Honestly, I don’t think George W. Bush would have had a different policy. It is a local issue, ultimately, despite the constitutional repercussions. White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs, over and over, refused to respond to questions about the mosque, deferring to the city of New York.
And then, our President-in-training came out to play.
Obama, at a White House celebration for Ramadan, took what sounded like a firm stand in support of the mosque.
“Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” he said to applause from the largely Muslim crowd.
That would have been fine…but Obama took it a step further. The entire quote:
But let me be clear. As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are. The writ of the founders must endure.That was a far more reaching statement than simply defending the mosque supporters First Amendment rights. It appeared as a tacit approval of the site itself.
This is the part where the West Wing got spooked. Vulnerable Democrats, many moderates in risky seats, were outraged. Not so much for the Constitutional stand (which even right wingers have accepted), but for the blanket statement of support for the mosque at a time when many, if not most, Americans oppose the mosque site.
On Saturday, the president said, “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque” near Ground Zero, he told reporters during a visit to the Gulf Coast. “I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding.”
Except, sir, that you already commented on the wisdom and decision.
The irony is, between the time of the comments on Friday and the Saturday ‘revision’, many liberal outlets praised Obama’s courage under fire. One example, from Greg Sargent of the Washington Post:
Obama didn’t just stand up for the legal right of the group to build the Islamic center. He voiced powerful support for their moral right to do so as well, casting it as central to American identity. … Obama went much further than [to acknowledge the legal rights of the project's backers]. He asserted that we must “welcome” and “respect” those of other faiths, suggesting that the group behind the center deserves the same, and said flat out that anything less is un-American.Which was fine…until the President, and later the White House itself, quickly and abruptly backed away from this ‘moral stand’.
The whole thing is a joke. First, the President was stupid to involve himself in the debate in the first place. This is a local issue that should be decided by the people of New York City. Second, once he decided to wade into the debate, the least he could have done is actually take a principled stand. Mr. Obama’s stand, I believe, is incorrect in its blanket approval of the mosque site, simply because of the First Amendment; the issue is much more complicated than that. But as the Constitutional professor he thinks himself to be, for him it was a black and white issue…with no middle ground. That is an analysis that 70% of Americans disagree with, if you believe recent polling. Then, to compound the matter, he could not even stand up for those principles (and who of us don’t believe he was speaking the truth from his liberal, left-leaning heart when he spoke on Friday?). So, in the matter of 24 hours, he alienated the 70% of Americans against the mosque site, then alienated the Muslims he tried to reach out to, as well as much of the Democrat Party.
Pretty impressive.
It speaks volumes when most Democrats want no part of this. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand won’t touch the issue with a 10 foot pole. Harry Reid came out against the mosque site today, in stark contrast to the White House.
“The main reaction is ‘Why? Why now?’” said one House Democratic leadership aide. “It’s just another day off message. There have been a lot of days off message.”
The chief of staff to one politically vulnerable House Democrat said it “probably alienates a lot of independent voters” and “it’s not a good issue to be talking about right now.”
The answer, my Democrat brothers, is simple: when you pick a neophyte to be your leader…you get what you pay for.
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So, in the matter of 24 hours, he alienated the 70% of Americans against the mosque site, then alienated the Muslims he tried to reach out to, as well as much of the Democrat Party.Yet the libs call Palin dumb?
