The New Yorker did one thing right, it has caused us to think and talk about the rumors. Unfortunately, we continue to fail in truly looking at the man as determined by his past instead of the man as promoted by his speech writers.
Look at his past voting record, look at his church, look at his family and friends, look at his business associates. Listen to what he has said. (there are 50 American States, and 57 Islamic states) Then ask yourself honestly, is this the man worthy of the rock star worship he has been getting from the media. If he didn???t consider himself in the same category as Spears and Hilton, then why did he change the convention site to a stadium worthy of a rock star?
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His father gave him the Muslim name Barack Hussein Obama.
True, but meaningless. Obama's father, whose name was also Barack Hussein Obama, was born to a Muslim family in Kenya but become an atheist long before he came to Hawaii in 1959, where he met Obama's mother.
He changed his first name to Barry, and when he got into politics, he changed it back to Barack Hussein Obama.
False. "Barry" was Obama's nickname growing up, and he asked his friends to call him "Barack" when he went to college, which was 15 years before he entered politics.
Barack's step-brother stated, "Barack is a Muslim."
Possible, but irrelevant. Obama has two half-sisters, Maya (on his mother's side) and Auma (on his father's), to whom he is close. He also has several African step-brothers (his father married several times), but he has met them only once or twice in his life.
And that's just Paul's questions on the Muslim stuff. He has a bunch of others, picked up from somewhere online, full of misinformation about Obama's relationship with Chicago lowlife Tony Rezko (which Obama admitted was "bone-headed"), his supposedly close relationship to the Daley organization (not close), his wife's comments (taken out of context) and so forth.
I'm under no illusions that the campaign, the press or anyone else can set these rumors to rest. Some have just enough truth in them to keep the stories circulating until the election and beyond. And even the completely bogus ones will always be with us.
Just ask Lesley Stahl and my cousin Paul.
© 2008
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