A new kind of politics: Muslims barred from photo @ Obama event

and you really think the volunteers just randomly got this idea in their head to do this? it was TWO separate instances. i guess i can clarify the "on his part" by saying i mean on his campaign's part which ultimately i link back to obama. i'm glad he tried to make up for it the next day by taking a pic with someone who was wearing a hajib but that still doesn't mean the campaign hasn't been trying avoid anything with muslim around obama.

 

it was 2 separate instances.

 

I agree, but the statement I quoted was you saying "poor decision making on his [Obama's] part." You made the assumption that it was Obama's decision when the article does not support that assumption.

 

Sorry, poor decision making on the part of the volunteers.

 

We also can't definitively rule out the Flying Spaghetti Monster or an affair between Bush and Gannon or Vince Foster's 'murder.' Or that Obama is secretly a Muslim Manchurian candidate.

Nor can we "definitively" say that McCain wasn't in charge of the racist campaign buttons at the Texas GOP convention, but it would be silly to call those buttons "very poor decision making on [McCain's] part."

If we're going to attribute the acts of any and all campaign volunteers (not staffers even, mind you, but volunteers) to the candidates for whom they work -- even after said candidates and campaigns have disavowed such actions and apologized for them -- then we really and truly are in the silly season.

 

By the way, just so we're clear, what's the complaint these days? Too Muslim friendly or not Muslim friendly enough?

This whole flap reminds me of a couple months ago when Obama was simultaneously too black/not black enough.

 

How is this any different from Dubya's crew hand-picking his audiences for the last 8 years?

 

Approximately 20% of Americans believe Obama is Muslim, even though he is Christian, has never been Muslim and has never considered being Muslim, because of lies spread in giddyup-style email campaigns by lying liar Republicans. It's not exactly surprising to me that his campaign volunteers might be sensitive on the topic.

Also, please answer the question in my previous post.

Is Obama too Muslim friendly today or not Muslim friendly enough? It's very important to me that my candidate meets the standard of the opposition party's smear machine so TIA for your answer.

 

i think that is kind of naive to believe 2 separate volunteers concocted this idea to engineer a stage that was removed of anything that looked muslim. read what i highlighted in that quote above.

you and i both know there are dumb americans who believe obama is muslim at heart and his campaign doesn't want that belief to spread or for the republicans to have any ammo. the republican slime machine would be licking their chops if more and more photos of obama with people who look muslim started becoming more prominent.

 

Which is exactly why it is native to

If I was volunteering for Obama I'd have the same concerns the volunteers in those two (good lord! two!) situations did. That doesn't mean there was a secret edict from the campaign.

 

In campaigns, volunteers generally get their orders from other volunteers, and sometimes from paid staffers. If a candidate for President is giving orders to volunteers, then he's going to lose. At the national level, the only time volunteers see the candidate is for rah-rah sessions.

 

i'm not going to totally blow it off, its disappointing it came from his camp. i think it will be an issue if it happens again. they should put out a very strong memo not to pull stunts like this, it only causes bad press.

and then john mccain should plant a bunch of headscarved women at the rest of his events

 

i can also think of it from the other perspective that his campaign volunteers wouldn't even think about the idea unless told to. most obama supporters are promoting the idea of positivity and unity would think it would be good to show all types of americans supporting obama. i'm not saying this was some sort of directive sent down by obama but i can see campaign directors emphasizing certain races over others. it's sad but it's america. that was more of what i was trying to comment on but clearly i failed like t-mac in the playoffs. sorry i didn't express my point well. i am trying to do about 5 things at once right now.

lol @ you thinking i am republican obama can be whatever the hell religion he wants to be. he could be a muslim transvestite married to his sister and i would still like him just fine. he is a good guy but i can't agree with his platform. he and mccain are going to keep driving this country into the ground.

 

i know one of the guys who worked on the obama campaign in austin. i'll ask him how it works when i see him this weekend. he <3's obama!

 

So, you prefer to assume that there was some secret edict from the Obama staff to keep anything Muslim out of the camera?

Personally, I assume that two volunteers had heard enough of the "dumb [A]mericans" who had bought into the "slime machine" you mentioned and took it upon themselves to try to keep Muslim headgear out of the camera.

Obama apologized to these women when he heard what had happened and nobody, not the author of the article, not the women involved, nobody has claimed that it was anyone on Obama's paid staff, much less Obama himself, who told these volunteers to do this.

Again, you can assume what you like, but it is nothing more than conjecture on your part.

 

Obama may be trying to bring a new kind of politics to Washington, but he's not stupid enough to think he's already changed it.

He's just playing by the rules and standards that Republicans have set over the past 8 years.

Good job, boys.

 

I sure as hell hope obama is nothing like W. Its the same argument that TJ makes about terrorists. We should be able to torture the terrorist because they torture our people. Obama needs to hold himself to a higher standard.

 

this is true and i guess we will agree to disagree. however, i don't think there is any doubt obama has had to work hard to construct his racial image in the eyes of the american public. maybe you do disagree on this point as well but to me it's the political state of america today. things certainly aren't as bad as they used to be but being a black candidate he still has to ensure that he isn't just couched in as the "black" candidate or somehow not "american" due to his muslim roots. it's a fine line to walk without alienating people but i think he has done an excellent job of it so far.

so do you think his campaign really hasn't done any demographic engineering at his speeches?

 

I thought I'd remember you saying you voted for Bush. If I got that wrong, my apologies. The last sentence above reveals your politics to be of an even freakier variety.

 

Good post. And it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that his campaign had done some demographic engineering, but it would surprise me if Obama himself was anywhere near that decision. There are still unpleasant realities in our politics; as someone said in a recent post in this thread (DonnyMost?), Obama calls for a new politics but he's not stupid enough to think we're already achieved them.

But, as noted in the thread I started on Obama's management style, he dislikes that stuff and tends to stay away from it. He didn't like the "change we can believe in" slogan and he felt the campaign's logo was too corporate, for example, but he deferred to the people who were good at thinking about that stuff so he could focus on more substantive stuff. "Demographic engineering" and image stuff is likely also left to the campaign, if it happens. But there's still no reason at all to believe that Obama himself had anything at all to do with this story, which is why it was so silly to call it a "very poor decision on his part."