To Clarify - Barack Obama

[LouiseVargas]

With all the hoopla and media coverage today about Barack Obama in New Hampshire, it was reported by John Gibson on FOX that he is a Christian, not a Muslim. His father was a Muslim from Kenya and his mother was a white Christian from Kansas. He belongs to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

His parents divorced when he was two and the father went back to Kenya. His mother remarried.

*************
Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. His parents met while both were attending the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student. In his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama describes a nearly race-blind early childhood. He writes: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me –- that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk –- barely registered in my mind."
*****************

Does anyone besides me see a future President in Obama? Remember JFK was 46 when elected in 1961. Right now, Obama is 45 years old. The election is two years away.

I recommend this link to read about him. It has some rather startling information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

[Sam]

Louise, You bring so much to us.

I have admired Barack Obama here in Illinois but really never bothered to research him. I just took folks word for it that he was Muslim.

I really enjoyed reading about him in the link you provided. I like that he does not hide his past. Hopefully by continuing his honesty he will not have to deal with the sort of things Gary Hart and his family did.

[LouiseVargas]

Sam, thank you for your kind compliment.

I, too, would never have known he wasn't a Muslim if not for FOX news. I think he is squeaky clean, too. As long as he has confessed everything up front, there will not be any Gary Hart issues or surprises.

I look forward to electing this man. His charisma is almost unequaled. There was JFK and Bill Clinton. Now we have Obama.

[pdh3]

Barack Obama seems to be a decent man who has something to give to his country. I too like his honesty about his missteps. No one is perfect, and we all have made decisions we regret. It shows character to own up to his mistakes, and also says that he has self-confidence.
I'd have no problem voting for him based on his personal standards of behavior. I'd have to see where he stands on the issues we face at election time, and evaluate him against his opponent.

I like him much better than Hillary, anyway. I think she is very divisive, and we need a leader who can unite us again.

I'm glad to know we can put the issue of his religious beliefs aside. It's irrelevant now.

[Sam]

I just finished watching Barak Obama on Oprah. I seldom watch Oprah but had seen a blip that he was going to be on so I told Dh I wanted to see it.

I think my opinion of him just keeps growing. He talked some about his mother. He said one of the things she always taught him was "How would that make you feel?" To try to put his thoughts on other people. He said what he trys to teach his children is to be useful in life. Not to always be thinking ME but how to be useful to the world. Reminds me of JFKs speech " Ask not what your country can do for you but what can you do for your country."

He also said he loves his country, this country. Oprah asked him why she did not take him up on her offer to travel on her corparate jet to Africa. He said it would keep him from interacting with the average person and knowing there thoughts on things. He said he had used others corparate jets before but decided for himself it was not what he thought was really helpful to his cause.

I am definitley more impressed with him than Hillery and now John Edwards. JMHO

[LouiseVargas]

Dear Sam,

Thanks for your post. This man is going to be President of the United States of America. Mark my words. This is going to happen. Not today, not tomorrow but in the future.

[pdh3]

I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, but Oprah will use her money and clout to help him win the presidential election. That's why she had him on her show, and why she is keeping his name in the forefront.
If he is as sincere as he seems, then good for him. But I hope he is not as naive as Jimmy Carter. who was a good man, but not tough enough for the job.
If Obama does run, I hope he is protected well. There are elements of our society who would be willing to kill him due to the fact that he is African-American. That's one of the reasons Colin Powell did not run. His wife was afraid for his life. And she was right to be concerned.

We all say we want good men of great character to run for elected office, but look how everyone reacts when a few good men express interest in running for President.  

[Sam]

I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, but Oprah will use her money and clout to help him win the presidential election. That's why she had him on her show, and why she is keeping his name in the forefront.
If he is as sincere as he seems, then good for him. But I hope he is not as naive as Jimmy Carter. who was a good man, but not tough enough for the job.
If Obama does run, I hope he is protected well. There are elements of our society who would be willing to kill him due to the fact that he is African-American. That's one of the reasons Colin Powell did not run. His wife was afraid for his life. And she was right to be concerned.

We all say we want good men of great character to run for elected office, but look how everyone reacts when a few good men express interest in running for President.  

Oh I so hope you are wrong. I know there is alot of evil in this world but I hate the thought.

I was very impressed with Colin Powell. I do not think he could have won the presidency after the United Nations fiasco. I feel so bad that he was misled and thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Now with that said, I do think Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction and they were moved. I also believe I am in the minorrity on that thinking. JMHO

[pdh3]

Sam - I've heard people express that opinion, but where are the weapons? It's not like the US hasn't been looking for them for 4 years. I do know that the surveillance photos taken by spy planes, etc. showed what looked like WMDs being movd from place to place, but we surely would have found them by now. I wish we would find them, and we could say we were right about Iraq.
 
Colin Powell is a great American, and was the best qualified man to be our President. It is a shame he didn't want the job, but after all the years he gave to serve his country, I really don't blame him for wanting time to spend with his wife and family. I admire and respect him immensely.

[LouiseVargas]

Hi pdh3 Honey,

What I heard regarding the reason Colin Powell did not run was because his wife had depression and took meds. He did not want her raked over the coals regarding her "mental health."

Do you really think there are people out there who want to assassinate a black candidate? I'm not saying this is not possible, I just never thought about it before.

[pdh3]

Hi Louise!
I saw an interview with Colin Powell just after he declined to run for office, and he was asked why he did not seek the Presidency when it was so obvious that he was qualified, and loved by most Americans. His answer was that Alma had made him promise to retire and spend time with her and the family because he had spent most of their married life away from his wife and children. She did not want to share him anymore, so he was going to honor the promise he made to her. Alma said she was afraid someone would kill him due to his ethnicity, and said she wanted him to be at home for a change. I would not be surprised to hear that Alma had suffered from depression - public life is very hard on spouses, as is the military life. She was essentially a single parent, and I'm sure they moved a lot. It's just a tough life. Anyone who would criticize a woman for getting treatment for a medical condition like depression after serving as a military wife is just showing ignorance. But I'm sure that his opponents would have made her life very difficult. She supported her ambitious husband for decades. I'm glad he chose to retire with her. She earned it.
As much as I hate to say it, I do believe that some extreme white supremecists and skin heads would feel that it was their duty to try to assasinate a black candidate, or any other ethnic politician running for President. They are proud of the hate they spew, and consider themselves  patriotic citizens who have a duty to keep Caucasians in the majority. I find these people very scary. They have large weapons caches, and can be very volatile. You should go to some of their websites. It's truly frightening to think that these people exist, but they do. It makes me sick, because most people think all these people live in the South, but most of them live in remote areas in Idaho and some are in Michigan and California, and other areas of the US.
May God have mercy on their souls, because that kind of hate is just indefensible.

[LouiseVargas]

Dear pdh3,

Thank you for your post filled with information about the Colin Powell story. Your insight was very enlightening to me ... that public life is hard on spouses and no wonder they could easily endure depression.

I was watching the funeral events of Gerald R. Ford tonight and the pundits were talking about Betty Ford's alcoholism. They showed an interview wherein President Ford said he felt responsible for Betty's problem with alcohol because he was gone most of the time doing politics and she was left to raise the four children alone. He said he was a social drinker and thought she was too. After he realized the drinking problem escalated for her, he stopped his social drinking immediately so that he could support her and not tempt her. What a good man.

[pdh3]

I admired Betty Ford for admitting her problem publically, because she helped move alcoholism from a dirty little secret into a treatable condition. The BFC has a pretty good track record. I read that she  started down the road to addiction due to lonliness and an injury that caused her tremendous pain, so she used prescription pain killers for relief. She did not have an easy life, but she did have wonderful family support when she realized she had to kick her addictions. I think her family had an intervention to make her face her demons.

[Tylergal]

According to my research of Barack Hussein Obama, Jr, his mother married an Indonesian after Sr decamped. Barack lived in Jakarta in that household until age 10, when he returned to Hawaii to his maternal grandparents.
Besides his Muslim beginnings, I am concerned about the ro-Palestinian-anti-Israeli, African-American-supremacy beliefs stated by the church he joined in Chicago.. Trinity United Church of Christ.  What is a Trinity United Church of Christ?  Is this a religion that endorses Muslims, Jews and Christians as one faith?

[LouiseVargas]

Tyler,

I don't know the answer to your question ... "What is a Trinity United Church of Christ? Is this a religion that endorses Muslims, Jews and Christians as one faith?"  If you know the answer to this one, please state it. I would greatly appreciate it.

[darleenofalabama]

To Clarify:  Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim; leopards, and politicians, do not change their spots.  Hopefully, the majority of the American voters are not delusional, nor subject to his propaganda.

[nonesuche]

Tyler,

I don't know the answer to your question ... "What is a Trinity United Church of Christ? Is this a religion that endorses Muslims, Jews and Christians as one faith?"  If you know the answer to this one, please state it. I would greatly appreciate it.

Louise,

If nothing else ponder this, our country was founded upon a separation of church and state. In Barack's own speech at Trinity he speaks of bringing religion to the Senate floor to build a consensus for morality and values?

No, that isn't the method I would choose, differences within religious doctrine has driven every major war upon our planet. If consensus were so easy to achieve, our forefathers might have not separated church and state.

So in essence Bafack feels entitled to drive foundational change to our own constitution, that I cannot endorse.

[LouiseVargas]

Nonesy,

I love you from the top and bottom of my heart. In fact, I often refer to what happened to your husband as my sole reason for wanting this damn war to end. You have brought it home to me what happens to our soldiers even after they have been released from the service. I wonder how many other men have died like Rick. When the news reports that hundreds of soldiers have died today, it's more than I can comprehend. But when it boils down to the single soldier I knew about, it's Rick. And he went through hell with the after effects of the first gulf war.

Yet, while I do not agree with you about Barack Obama, I still love you and care for you.

[LouiseVargas]

"Right Wing Hit Job"
Posted Jan 22nd 2007 7:46PM by David Knowles
Filed under: Media, Dirty Tricks, Barack Obama

No real surprise here, but Fox News, Insight magazine, and Glenn Beck were all wrong. Barack Obama did not attend an America-hating madrassa during his elementary school time in Indonesia. Kudos to CNN for actually calling these people on their idiocy.

"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for an Islamic madrassa... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause [CNN's reporter] said on the "Situation Room" Monday. "I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan... this school is nothing like that."

In fact, the kids at the school don preppy uniforms, and the teachers wear Western-style clothes. Christians, Buddhists, Confucians, and Muslims seem to happily coexist there. So where did this nonsense, fear-mongering rumor start? The Fox boys are quick to point fingers at Insight. Insight, blames "Hillary Rodham Clinton's camp." But even if that were true (any takers on that wager?), Insight hasn't bothered to remove the slander from its website. The first sentence of their muckraking reads:

Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a Madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim Heritage?

Not that the good people at Insight, or Glenn Beck's show, or Fox News really believes any of it, mind you. They're just reporting. You decide. Is Mr. Obama really a one-man sleeper cell, come to wreak havoc on our precious nation?

The sentence I love the most is this one:  Is Mr. Obama really a one-man sleeper cell, come to wreak havoc on our precious nation?

Reader Comments:
Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry: inappropriate or purely promotional comments may be removed.

1. this comment is politically and racially motivated. Barack is a Christian who attends a church on the South Side of Chicago and lives out his principles of Judeo-Christianity by love and compassion. this is a shame that the right wing would engage in this pathetic ploy to discredit him. It is going to be interesting to see what kind of mudslinging will take place. Will they do Barack like Ford from TN with malicious slander? However, the right wing claim a love for God but it is not demonstrated through their actions of lies and hate. I don't think Jesus would identify with these people (right wing conservatives.)

Robert at 8:39PM on Jan 22nd 2007

2. NO SURPRISE HERE. THIS IS A TYPICAL REPUBLICAN RIGHT WING SMEAR. THEY ARE SHAMELESS, WILLING TO SAY ANYTHING THEY FEEL WILL HELP THEIR CANDIDATES WHO ARE OFTEN EQUALLY BRAZEN IN THEIR WILLINGNESS TO CONTAMINATE THE AIRWAYS WITH AN ENDLESS STREAM OF FALSE ACCUSATIONS AND LIES.

JD WILSON at 8:39PM on Jan 22nd 2007

3. I think it's ironic that Senator Clinton's staff would be behind this specific "rumor" that Fox News et al were reporting. As much as she was against the "right-wing conspiracy" against her husband, she's not afraid to stoop to their level in the political battle to the Democratic nomination. I wish I could say it surprised me. Senator Obama will have my vote in the primary should he choose to run. Thank you, Senator Clinton for helping me make that decision!

Joe D. at 8:42PM on Jan 22nd 2007

4. Joe, thanks for commenting, though to believe Insight in its claim that it was Hillary's people who started this rumor is not what I would deem a smart move. Consider the Insight strategy for a moment. How to kill two democratic birds with one stone? Smear Obama and make it look like Hillary really did it.

david knowles at 8:43PM on Jan 22nd 2007

5. joe d.

if you don't believe the facts in the insight report, why do you believe insight when they say hillary was behind them? seems like the whole thing is garbage.

pbdotc at 8:45PM on Jan 22nd 2007

6. it is a shame that a man who will not speak of his muslim faith may possibly be elected remember people do you honestly think gorbachev was a communist he was a sleeper cell for the usa. god help us all if he is elected. i personally want a president that has been educated in the us with christian morals. rather you like it or not the muslim faith believes we are all infidels and we should be put to death. you decide now we have muslims in are congress.

william jynella at 8:46PM on Jan 22nd 2007

7. Anything that looks and smells dirty wil always come from Comrade Hillarys camp. Not sure why people are threatened by her, last poll showed that 12% of Americans would vote for Satan vs. Ms. Libo. She is not a threat for Obama or Repubs.

Kevin at 8:49PM on Jan 22nd 2007

8. NO ONE KNOWS WHO STARTED THE RUMOR. THE POINT IS
IT'S NOT TRUE. IT'S BEEN CHECKED OUT. PEOPLE WILL
STUMP TO ANY LEVEL.

keta at 8:50PM on Jan 22nd 2007

9. FUNNY HOW FAST THIS REPORTING WAS "DEBUNKED" AND INVESTIGATED AND HOW LONG DAN RATHERS INVESTIGATING WENT ON BEFORE IT WAS "DEBUNKED". THE LIBERAL MEDIA BY ITS REPORTING AND HOW FAST IT COMES TO THE AID OF LIBERALS AND DEMOCRATS SHOULD MAKE SOME QUESTION WITH ALL THE NEGATIVE CONSTANT SLAMMING OF PRESIDENT BUSH AND REPUBLICANS IF YOU CAN REALLY TRUST THEIR REPORTING AS BEING FAIR AND WITHOUT BIAS.LIKE THERE EVER HAS BEEN A DOUBT AS TO WHO THE MEDIA REALLY SUPPORTS AND PULLS FOR. IN DANGEROUS TIMES A NOT SO TRUSTWORTHY MEDIA ONLY COMPOUNDS THE PROBLEMS.

J. Harshberger at 8:51PM on Jan 22nd 2007

10. So do we get their heads served up on a silver platter for their phony report? Or is that just a rule that applies to Dan Rather? Can we expect all who reported this to be fired? Or does the right wing media not need to follow the rules they demand the rest of the media does?

Joe at 8:52PM on Jan 22nd 2007

11. He is a threat to the status quo,being a minority I expected this,shame on you America.

Henry Coger at 8:56PM on Jan 22nd 2007

12. Barak HUSSEIN Obama

George at 8:59PM on Jan 22nd 2007

13. It's the first time in the history of this country that a candidiate to the highest has a middle name

HUSSEIN.....next will be OSAMA

George at 9:07PM on Jan 22nd 2007

14. Hillary SOCIALIST Clinton

Kevin at 9:07PM on Jan 22nd 2007

15. Duh? Have any of you dummies (who want to believe Obama is a Muslim) read his biography? He spent most of his childhood in Wash. State & had very little contact with his non-Muslim African father. His white Christian mother later married a Muslim Indonesian man. Obama lived with them in Indonesia for a few years, then Obama spent his high school years with his white Protestant Christian grandparents in Hawaii, where he was called "Barry," attended an exclusive prep-school & played HS basketball. Obama & his African-American wife are church-going Christians.

Haven't we all heard just about enough lies from the Right Wing-nut rumor mill? Karl Rove where are you? Not far from this story I'll bet.

Sherry at 9:13PM on Jan 22nd 2007

Next 15 Comments

[Tylergal]

We get the governance we deserve, the ones we voted for.  We elect them and we live with them and it is none of my business whom anyone wishes to vote for.  I just hope all who vote get the governance they deserve.