<p>So yesterday Obama’s volunteers asked 2 girls in a Muslim headscarf to move from the photo shot. I understand his desire to try to get away from the unfounded claims that he is a Muslim, but now the families are speaking out on they are disappointed that he stands for change and unity, but did this for political purposes which smacks of non-unity.</p>
<p>I do feel for Obama, he has had to fight the Muslim issue saying he isn’t one, fight about why he belonged to his church and now he is going to have to explain this one.</p>
<p>I also read on Drudge, reporters will now have less access to him then they had before, which the reporters were already complaining about.</p>
<p>It was two volunteers… he can’t control what every little minion volunteer does (nor can any other candidate). The campaign was quick to disapprove of the action and point the press to lots of photos from the archive showing those in head scarves sitting in prominent locations at events and with Obama in lots of photos.</p>
<p>By the minions doing this, and the campaign showing archived footage makes no difference, the fact is it will be fodder for those who believe he is a Manchurian Candidate…I am sure if I called my MIL today, she would say see he is a Muslim, otherwise why would he try to hide them…he just wants us to believe he isn’t! Add that on top of the fact that he said he would try Osama in American Courts doesn’t help any either</p>
<p>Let’s remember there are many conspiracy theorists out there, such as we never landed on the moon, pearl harbor, WTC, and Kennedy…this is just one more conspiracy to add onto the list. BTW I do not belong to any of these theories, but there are people who do</p>
<p>“I understand his desire to try to get away from the unfounded claims that he is a Muslim, but now the families are speaking out on they are disappointed that he stands for change and unity, but did this for political purposes which smacks of non-unity.”</p>
<p>It’s true that the fact that this was done by minions and that the campaign apologized will make no difference, if people do what you did in the quoted passage: ascribe this action to Obama personally. You know it isn’t fair, so why did you phrase it that way?</p>
<p>Some people will believe what they want to believe no matter what the evidence. Hiding women wearing head-scarves may have seemed to the low-level volunteers as a way to avoid giving credence to rumors; but to the conspiracy theorists, it is evidence that the rumors are right. If the volunteers had let the women into the picture, that, too, would have been evidence to support their beliefs. There’s no way Obama can fight this because it’s irrational, not evidence based.</p>
<p>There are still people who believe the earth is flat.</p>
<p>That the last part of the statement was actually from the brother of the girl removed…I guess I should have quoted him. Her brother this morning on news channels stated what they would like to occur and it has not occurred and that is why they feel this way.</p>
<p>What they want is for him to invite them back and allow his sister on stage. She attended the rally with her brother, she was approached while her brother was not and told that they would like to move her because of racial sensitivity.</p>
<p>They have yet to hear from the campaign…so one side is lieing, now I tend to believe the brother, especially since he said he was a supporter for Obama because he believed in his message, and currently is unsure of whether he will still support him. There is nothing to gain for him, unlike his campaign. The campaign needed to acknowledge how they handled it, by saying they spoke and apologized, doesn’t mean that the apology was accepted</p>
<p>I don’t necessarily think this is irrational at all. I think it’s entirely possible that the Obama campaign has created a climate in which its “minions” are overly sensitive to this issue. In fact, I think that’s likely, and they have a responsibility to address that. Any campaign can and will make mistakes, but Senator Obama has a habit of blaming underlings for errors, and I don’t particularly respect that. The appropriate response was an apology from the campaign and a promise to make sure that its messages is communicated fully from the top advisors all the way to the “minions.” They made a mistake, not a big one or a fatal one, but accepting responsibility is a positive attribute for a national campaign, and even for its supporters.</p>
<p>That’s what the campaign did. But think, how could they do other than blame minions for this? This almost certainly wasn’t a policy of the campaign, but NOT to blame the minions for the mistake would have seemed like an admission that it was a campaign policy.</p>
<p>I need to clarify, that the brother of one sated his sister has not heard anything, The other girl who was offended approached the staff member and she was called by a staff member.</p>
<p>As far as how they felt this is the direct quote from the one called by Obama’s staff
</p>
<p>I am pretty sure it was the fact that Politico contacted Obama’s people about the issue, and not the girl. I just don’t think that the staff doesn’t have enough time in the day to contact everyone, especially if they felt the staff handled it correctly.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I do not think that the campaign is “overly” sensitive to the issue. Rumors continue to circulate to the effect that Obama is Muslim.<br>
The story would not be making headlines if there were no rumors about Obama’s religion.It’s the way of handling the issue that has been clumsy; it’s not the fault of the campaign which has no policy, but of overzealous volunteers. I’m sure that after this, no volunteer will make the same mistake. They’ll make others.</p>
<p>b&p: What is meant by “the campaign?” To whom exactly did they complain?</p>
<p>So if Obama can’t be responsible for his campaign staffers are you going to hold him to the same, low standard if he is president? For some reason anything that happens gets heaped on the President and everyone expects him to know and be responsible for everything people in the government do. You all are already excusing him in the campaign. Hold him to the same standard you hold the President to and then we’ll be getting somewhere.</p>
<p>I recall an incident a few months back, here locally, where a radio talk show host was the opening act for a McCain rally. The guy went off the deep end and McCain got p***ed. He came out with strong language repudiating what the host had said, so on and so forth. There were no prepared apologies from a staffer or the campaign. Straight of the candidates mouth with emotion. Gotta like that.</p>
<p>On the other hand, McCain let Rev. Hagee’s anti-Catholic slurs slide until things got too hot. Nether candidate is going to fall on his sword every time a campaign volunteer makes a mistake.</p>
<p>Maybe. I still think that the concern about Senator Obama being viewed as Muslim came from on high, but in the context of this board, we can acknowledge that it likely was the case that the overzealous “minions” were getting a message from somewhere, whether implicit or explicit. As far as the campaign is concerned, though, they do have to take responsibility for doing a better job of getting their priorities to all the members, and to stop the habit of blaming underlings.</p>
<p>Yes that’s right. The campaign will make others and hopefully acknowledge responsibility and move on. I’m really talking about our CC community here, though, rather than the actual campaign. I guess I’d have personally liked to see the Obama supporters acknowledge a gaffe without making it about anyone or anything else.</p>
<p>I found myself trying to convince a family member this weekend that Obama was not Muslim. I didn’t succeed. She acted like I was the one who was uninformed and that everyone knows he’s muslim. Then I heard about how there are pockets of muslims living throughout the country arming themselves and getting ready for the over throw - I guess led by Obama. There is no underestimating the paranoia that exists with regard to him. I have had plenty of disagreements about political issues in the past but I have never found myself in discussions in which people believe that electing Obama is the culmination of some plan of destruction for the United States. There are people who believe this. Seeing muslims anywhere in the picture with him will be seen as proof. I actually believe that the fear puts his life in danger. I am sorry it was handled this way but I am more sorry that otherwise good people believe the things they do about him.</p>
<p>The girl who was with her friends found the volunteer staffer who refused to give her the special seating after the rally and did not like her response. </p>
<p>The problem for Obama this is the second time he has had issues about who the volunteers put behind him…I think it was in NC that the media made a joke about him doing an Abercrombie Ad…there were a bunch of kids all wearing different Abecrombie and Fitch tees standing behind him.</p>
<p>I am not naive every politician wants to portray an image…he is not the 1st and will not be the last to do so, but then don’t sit there and say I will not do the politics as usual routine. He is a very smart politician. He now is even getting the media ticked, especially after he put them all on a plane to Chicago and he ditched them to meet Hillary…or last week when he did not allow the media in for a meeting with religious leaders at a hotel, saying it was a private meeting, but when the reporters were at the hotel it was announced on the daily hotel agenda what room it was being held at. It was a convention, not as if he had the meeting with a select few that he invited to speak with.</p>
<p>I do remember McCain taking flack for that by the conservatives, but he did get my respect for saying it was wrong and I will not stand for that,</p>
<p>Sure it was a gaffe by the staffers. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do, since the bad press is far outweighing the potential harm from a couple of people in headscarfs being in the picture.</p>