Meanwhile, The Next Morning...

Alright.

Obama's statement on Cordoba House last night was the morally right thing to do, but looking objectively at it after a night's sleep, I have to entertain the thought that while it was morally correct, politically Obama and the Democrats are going to pay a heavy price for this.

Example one is CNN quoting Pam "Atlas Shrugged" Gellar's response to Obama, when she happens to be one of the most xenophobic bigoted anti-Islamic beings on Earth currently.  It's one thing when I point out "Hey, look at this verbal fecal matter that Pammycakes threw at Obama.  She's crazy."  It's entirely another when CNN characterizes her as legitimate:

"Obama came out for the Islamic supremacist mosque at the hallowed ground of 911 attack," Pamela Geller, a leading foe of the Islamic center, wrote on her blog Friday night. "He has, in effect, sided with the Islamic jihadists."

Any thinking American realizes how idiotic that is, but then you realize that just back in March that a Harris Poll showed 57% of Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim.  I'm pretty sure that number has gone up after this, so as far as Gellar's insanity goes, her views really are legitimate and mainstream among Republicans.

Expect the Sunday shows this weekend to be all about how Democrats are now going to have to answer if they agree with Obama or not, and how Republicans are going to say "It's not a question of can they build Cordoba House there, but should they."

It's a false argument, as Digby reminds us.  We're at a point where Republicans have embraced the Party of No label so much that it now extends to all Muslims in America.  It's outright bigotry being justified under "Islam isn't a real religion" the way slavery and racism was justified because "Blacks aren't really human" and anti-Latino racism today is "they're not really Americans".  We should be appalled that this is happening at all.

But the ignorance is overpowering.  Our media has failed to even try to bother to educate.  Pam Gellar is given equal time as having a real argument instead of it being treated as spittle-flecked invective hurling forward from her mouth like a garden hose.

We're deep into the scariest time socially that many of us, at least in my relatively young 80's kids generation, have seen.  9/11 at least united us against those who perverted a religion into hatred.  Nine years later we have become the hatred.

Now things are going to get really ugly.  Democrats nationwide are going to have to go on record about this, and the hate merchants are going to get all new ammo to use this fall.  You will see commercials this fall with "And Bob Smith agrees with Obama that Muslims should build a mosque at Ground Zero in New York City.  Bob Smith...out of touch with the people" and exploding towers and people in turbans.  It's going to be hideous.

That's all they have is hate...but American history is full of examples where hate achieved political goals.

[UPDATE]  Via Memeorandum, FOX News actually defends Obama for standing up for the First Amendment here. Watch:



Here there be dragons.

[UPDATE 2] And now Obama is walking back his comments from last night?!?

President Obama expanded on his remarks about the mosque planned near ground zero during his trip to Florida Saturday.

Obama said that his statement on Friday didn't express support for the “wisdom” of building a mosque two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in Manhattan, but rather the right the group has to build it.

"My intention was simply to let people know what I thought. Which was that in this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion," Obama said.

“I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding,” Obama told reporters Saturday after delivering remarks in Panama City Beach, Fla. “That's what our country is about."

Are you kidding me? Obama, what the hell?

[UPDATE 3]  Josh Marshall puts Obama's statements today in badly needed perspective.

He's not getting into the identity of the builders or whether he agrees the exact placement. They have the right to build on private property. We're Americans. We'd don't discriminate on the basis of religion. Even the AP, more accurately, refers to the president "expanding" on his statement, though perhaps better to say 'countering willful distortion.' The CBS version of the AP story says he "expounded" on the issue. (ABC was a bit in Politico's direction, though nearly as egregious.) Even with the aim of selling copy and appealing to its core readership's biases, this stands out as a troubling example of organized lying on the part of Politico's editors. It will be interesting to see who else follows their line.


Late Update: Notably, whereas Politico writes that the White House had may no effort to suggest that the president's original statement referred to a equal right to build rather than support for this particular effort, the Times says that had indeed done just that. What stands out here is that there is nothing surprising about Obama's stance since I believe this is the stance of most people who take a 1st Amendment stance on this. Who the people behind the project are is beside the point. Getting drawn into the design of the building is irrelevant. We don't discriminate on the basis of religion. Call it the American values position. 

So this really is a case of the Village picking a fight, and once again it's Politico throwing the first punch.