Over the weekend we saw John McCain correcting a woman who said she didn't trust Obama because he's Arab. Some may have wondered where that came from. We'd heard all about horrendous emails claiming Obama is a secret Muslim (not true) but how did that morph into him being an Arab?
To some degree the conflation may result from the fact that many Americans simply believe being Arab and being Muslim are the same thing, even though most Muslims in the world are not Arab (and not all Arabs are Muslim). The fact that Obama's middle name is Hussein undoubtedly helped make the claim stick, as did the campaign's recent claim that Obama "pals around with terrorists" (since many Americans equate Arabs with terrorism).
But there's a simpler explanation for the sudden rise of the Obama-is-an-Arab idea: Rush Limbaugh. On his September 22 radio show, Limbaugh said:
"He's not black. Do you know he has not one shred of African-American blood? He doesn't have any African -- that's why when they asked whether he was authentic, whether he's down for the struggle. He's Arab. You know, he's from Africa. He's from Arab parts of Africa."
For the record, Obama's mother is a white from Kansas. His father is from Kenya, a part of central Africa that is not Arab.
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So are you defending Limbaugh, Kelly?
Kelly, we allow comments from all sides. As an overall site we're neutral in that we don't endorse anyone and strive to have a balance of different viewpoints. But we don't censor posters based on whether they support a particular candidate.
People have spent almost two years spreading smear about Obama, including high level Republican officials:
Listen to an interview with the woman that said Obama was an "Arab." There are two videos, the first one of her statement to McCain and the interview.
Gayle Quinnell: I still do. Yeah. I'm not alone. I go to Burnsville, the main Republican headquarters and I do a lot of work over there. A lot of sending out mail and talking to people. And all the people agree with what I'm saying to you about Obama.
She got a letter from someone at the Republican headquarters that contain "all kinds of bad things about him." She copied the letter and sent it to 400 in the telephone book.
http://tinyurl.com/4zmqgf
In McCain's Gainesville, Va., office, Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeff Frederick spoke to 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door. He gave them "talking points, "for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden."
Said Frederick: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," in a reference to Obama acquaintance William Ayers. "That is scary."
Added a woman: "And he won't salute the flag." male volunteer: "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born."
http://tinyurl.com/3v6o9c
Fraud is rampent in the states for the counting of votes as well as signing up illegal voters.
It doesn't matter if you are voting Republica or Democrat is not the issue the issue is the system leading to a fair election.
Many states you do not even need id to vote, so who are you and why should you beable to voice your opinion if we don't know who you are?
You can take action by calling all or at least the attorney general's office 202-514-2001 and request these two things:
1. Investigate ACORN fully!!!
2. Help America Vote Act. which enforces accuracy of ID to vote in each state.
the other two are the Dept. of justice- 202-456-1414 and Congressional district 202-224-3121.
Doing nothing will insure a total election mess!!!!
While on the surface the Arab line sounds like a smear, his father is listed on his birth certificate as Arab-African. His father is actually 12.5% African and 87.5% Arabic decent.
Limbaugh's claim that he has not one shred of African blood is false. Obama is of African decent. Although he is more caucasian and Arabic than he is African.
Obama is not legally allowed to claim he is black on forms since you have to be 1/8th black to claim black status, Obama is only 1/16th.
I believe Obama is hiding this, for now, because he wants the overwhelming support of the black vote (polls show blacks favor Obama 99% to 1% for McCain, whites are split 50% McCain, 47% Obama).
Obama's race does not matter to me. What matters is his integrity, and I question that if he isn't forward about his race. He continues to let the lie persist that he is black. The media is also reporting heavily that he is black which is creating the false impression in a vast majority of minds that Obama is black. In fact, most people wouldn't even question the statement that Obama is 50% black.
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