Well Thinking (and I like that user name)

Unfortunately, here in WV that sort of non-thinking is pretty much prevalent. What causes it? IMHO, the small but larger owned conservative bases newspapers, Fox News, and the undercurrent which has come to the surface because of Obama, of racism. I have had people who I consider to be somewhat open-minded tell me that they will vote for Obama because they believe that this country is headed in the wrong direction and they don't want another Bush term BUT (and this is a big one), they know that Obama will be for "his people" (meaning, of course, blacks).
Now anyone ever seen the movie "Crash"
[url=http://www.imdb.com/title/t...

Well Thinking (and I like that user name)

Unfortunately, here in WV that sort of non-thinking is pretty much prevalent. What causes it? IMHO, the small but larger owned conservative bases newspapers, Fox News, and the undercurrent which has come to the surface because of Obama, of racism. I have had people who I consider to be somewhat open-minded tell me that they will vote for Obama because they believe that this country is headed in the wrong direction and they don't want another Bush term BUT (and this is a big one), they know that Obama will be for "his people" (meaning, of course, blacks).
Now anyone ever seen the movie "Crash"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375679/
knows that racism exists among us all and we must be ever so diligent to watch for it's subtleties. But it's much more than ignorance at play in Obama's case isn't it? I think it's a well-planned attempt at those who are in power to stay in power.

This from Crooks and Liars:

Are we still on the Muslim thing?

Posted: 11 Jul 2008 05:30 PM CDT

For quite a while, there was considerable public confusion over Barack Obama’s Christian faith. Thanks to an email chain and right-wing whispers, a few too many people were led to believe Obama is, or was, some kind of secret Muslim.

In the ensuing months, there’s been an aggressive push to help people hear the truth. The Jeremiah Wright flap, which received blanket media coverage for weeks, proved that Obama attends a Christian church. Obama frequently emphasizes his Christian faith, and there are even ads on Christian radio stations about Obama’s Christian witness.

So, given thes...

This from Crooks and Liars:

Are we still on the Muslim thing?

Posted: 11 Jul 2008 05:30 PM CDT

For quite a while, there was considerable public confusion over Barack Obama’s Christian faith. Thanks to an email chain and right-wing whispers, a few too many people were led to believe Obama is, or was, some kind of secret Muslim.

In the ensuing months, there’s been an aggressive push to help people hear the truth. The Jeremiah Wright flap, which received blanket media coverage for weeks, proved that Obama attends a Christian church. Obama frequently emphasizes his Christian faith, and there are even ads on Christian radio stations about Obama’s Christian witness.

So, given these efforts, public confusion is bound to dissipate, right? Wrong. It’s actually getting worse.

From the latest national survey (.pdf) from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press:

“Now, thinking about Barack Obama’s religious beliefs… Do you happen to know what Barack Obama’s religion is? Is he Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, or something else?”

Christian 57%
Muslim 12%
Jewish 1%
Something else 2%
Don’t know - Heard different things 10%
Don’t know - Haven’t heard enough 15%
Refused 3%

The number who mistakenly identified Obama as a Muslim was 12%. The number who made the same mistake in March was 10%. That’s obviously a very small increase, but isn’t it about time that number started going down?