Patent lies

I visit a sports-related message board more often than I'd care to admit, and a decent little virtual community has sprung up there. Besides sports, sometimes discussions stray to other topics: recently, there were some enlightening bits on 401k management and we even managed a civil discourse on politics.

Today, though, one guy posted an e-mail that he'd been forwarded, by way of important information for us as American voters. It was titled CAN MUSLIMS BE GOOD AMERICANS? Can you guess the answer that was offered? Citing the Qur'an occasionally and some other vague mischaracterizations, the overall message was that, no, Muslims cannot be good Americans, because their first loyalty is to their religion. This jingoist stuff is bad enough, but the kicker was at the end:

And Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim, wants to be our President? You have GOT to be kidding!
Wake up America !

Obama even says if he wins the election, he will be sworn in on the Quran---not a Bible!

Footnote: He was sworn in on the Quran for his current office and he refuses to pledge allegiance to the United States
or put his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is played!!! The Muslems have said they will destroy us from within.....Hello!!!! Having a Muslem president would seem to fit the bill! Would you trust this man with our national secrets?????

If most of what came before was a distortion, this was just outright lying. Obama is not, and never has been, a Muslim. He is a member of the United Church of Christ, a mainstream protestant denomination that traces its roots back to the Pilgrims (can you get more American than that?). Not surprisingly, he was not sworn in on a Qur'an and presumably doesn't plan to be if he wins the Presidency (though come to think of it, that might be a good joke if he did...), and presumably the stuff about not pledging allegiance or putting his hand over his heart with patriotic fervor at the appropriate moments are also fabrications--why would we have reason to believe them when everything else in this screed has been bull? 

Most people, I should think, can smell this even before it splats to the ground, but obviously a certain segment of America is willing or even eager to believe this. I suppose this gets some traction thanks to the report Fox made a year ago about Obama attending a Madrasah as a kid in Indonesia; Fox's "journalism" (I use the term loosely) was not only denied by Obama but conclusively disproven by CNN. Of course, the first lies stick in the memory more than the retraction (assuming Fox even made such a nod to integrity). Add to this Obama's middle-eastern name, and the most patent lies will be believed by some segments of the electorate.

I suppose it's no big loss, since anyone who would buy this stuff probably wouldn't vote for Obama (or Hilary or Edwards etc) because of all the other lies and distortions they've already uncritically accepted. On the positive side, after my initial debunking of this on the discussion board, several other people chimed in firmly but civilly put this to rest. One noted that he'd seen Obama discuss this e-mail in an interview, and he'd had a good laugh about it because it's so ridiculous. Perhaps that's a better response than my indignation.

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