Last night Frank Luntz from Fox News gathered a focus group of Iowa's GOP caucus to discuss President Obama's reaction to the protests in Egypt, but the most revealing part of the discussion involved Obama's religion. In the middle of discussing, one focus group member expressed her opinion that the President is a Muslim. Having one member of the group of twenty-five express this viewpoint is not a surprise. However, in the video to the left, when Luntz asks the group how many believe President Obama is a Muslim, 40% (10 out of 25) raise their hand. Even many of those who disagree with the statement have other suspicions that the President's religion is "liberalism" or some other ideology.
President Obama has always said that he is a practicing Christian. During the 2008 campaign, he gave his personal testimony to Pastor Rick Warren, in which he described his personal story of salvation. The President has frequently quoted the Bible in his speeches and attended church more than other presidents, like Ronald Reagan, who never attended church during his presidency. George Washington did attend church every Sunday while President, but never publicly professed Christ as his personal Lord and Savior the way Obama has. Despite these facts, as the focus group demonstrates, a large part of the population still believes the President is a Muslim.
Some may attribute the numbers to Luntz's focus group selection process, but polls actually show that Luntz's group is fairly representative of the GOP population as a whole. One Pew poll from last year found that 46% of Republicans believe President Obama is a Muslim, though a much smaller percentage of the overall population takes such a view.
The results from Luntz's focus group present a scary prospect for the 2012 election. The Iowa caucuses will be extremely important in determining the next Republican candidate for president. What this practically means is that people like Mitt Romney are going to have to pander to a large crowd who believe the President is a Muslim, and many more who likely subscribe to the birther conspiracy theory.
The larger question is why the Muslim rumors persist. Some say that the President's name "Barack Hussein Obama" explains it all. While the name likely plays a role, it would not explain why the percentage of people who believe the Muslim myth has grown over the last two years (as most polls show). The myth has also been spread by chain-email. Factcheck.org has debunked many emails which purportedly "prove" the President is a Muslim, but the people who get these emails likely do not read, or do not believe Factcheck.org. Then there is Fox News. The "fair and balanced" network frequently mentions the fact that the Obama family has not found one permanent church to attend in Washington D.C. Many weekends the First Family is not even in Washington D.C. to attend church, but this fact is conveniently ignored. Glenn Beck of Fox News has also openly questioned the President's faith, and still maintains that stance to this day. The results of the Luntz focus group may very well simply be the result of the network, which put the focus group together.
Comments
He may not BE a Muslim but he certainly has some sort of alliance with them. Radical and others as well.
You are all a bunch of slow-witted psychos.
Naw, he's not muslim, he's just a racist. After 20 years in that anti-American, anti-white hate church ... the one that Oprah could ONLY stomach for two days, saying she couldn't go back to that racist church.
The "God damned white America" church is missing it's favorite racist though.
Nice regurgitation of Fox news/talk radio propaganda and garbage. Learn to think for yourself, weak-minded psycho.
Shut your ass up. Spread your inbred racism elsewhere.
"Shut yer ass up," you redneck psycho. Go to school.
Stupid is as stupid does. Iowa is stupid.
40% of fox viewers believe the earth is 6 thousand years old....10% of fox viewers believe the earth is flat.
97% of all that read the comments of walrus agree, he is a man in need of a brain.
Let's not be too harsh, like FOX viewers Walrus too is entitled to his opinion, right or wrong. I am just surprised Ryan did not do a piece about the President's speech to the Chamber of Commerce which I thought was very good even though i did disagree on a few things. High speed rail...a complete joke.
dude, no one said walrus shouldn't have his say! Where'd you get that?
Walrus: The more you prove facts to Fox news viewers, the more they cling to the misinformation. They have invested so much anger and identity into the false narratives. They wouldn't recognize themselves without it. They'd rather deny and bury their heads in the sand and blame "liberal scum" for all that ails them. They are basically brain dead.
I might further add that in fact walrus is the best thing that has happened to this blog.
I saw a good part of the speech MickNY. Everyday there are about 10 stories I wish I could write but I do not get to because there are only 24 hours in a day and I must sleep for six of them. I thought the speech was OK. Disagree with you on light speed rail of course. I also believe he could sell it as a national security issue. Right now our transportation is far too dependent on air travel and the interstates. If either was shut down by terrorists attacks there would be serious issues. Rail travel would give us more flexibility. Also would decrease price of travel between many cities and potentially spur economic growth. Have you ever traveled on Europe's light speed rail system? It is so much easier to get around that continent and it definitely encourages tourism. China clearly believes light speed rail is good idea...
I love high speed rail!
Can't say that I have been on high speed rail, my last trip to Ireland was through the midlands to Dublin. Even though it was an older traditional train, service was good, far more enjoyable than any MTA train I have been on.
I guess my doubts about HSR is that government backed Amtrak is a loser, I am just not too confident that they could run HSR and make it work.
One of the problems that we face is we can not take care of the infrastructure we have now so I don't see how adding another big thing to take care of can work. I have serious reservations on just what government can do with out serious reforms first.
I have traveled on the high speed rail in Europe. Man o man! at 360 kilometers that ICE train really moves. As smooth as a fine Kentucky bourbon it's great. When you get into the big cities like Munich they got multiple levels of Ubahn trains going all over the place cheap you don't have to worry about parking your car it's easy once you get the hang of it it is on the honor system and it is fun. There are interesting people there is fun advertisements on the Kiosks. LOts of boys and girls going out doing things. It is all very stimulating and when you get drunk on German beer not to worry about a DUI. There is no crime they keeep the place clean and no bums sleeping on the benches. The Polezei puts them in the hoose gow.
klatoo loves high speed rail.
Honestly, people... who cares? It really doesn't matter what his spiritual beliefs are in order to represent the country. I could name a few others who have done a much worse job and a
few who have done a much better job, and nobody made a big deal about their religions. Why don't people focus on the important things and stop being like gossipping old bitties!
AMEN! These people will be the end of us with all of this division. You'd think they believe there would not be any but Republicans and whites elected to higher office. Let's assure them there will be other whites and other Republicans in the future. Stop being so afraid.
Regarding diversity. There are lots of talented people that are in positions of responsiblilty however for the sake of diversity there are those who are going to have to step down so others can take their place.
So what if he is Muslim? Why would that matter in a country as diverse as America. We do practice freedom of religion here. As far as I can tell, one is not better than any other. Or worse. Organized religion is the source of most problems the world has right now. In my view, organized religion is evil. Spirituality should be a personal thing, best kept to oneself.
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