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January 25, 2007

Obama Takes on Fox News

Barack Obama has come out swinging against Fox News's repeated assertions that he is a closet Muslim. Though CNN has already debunked the false rumors about his childhood education in a Muslim madrassa, Fox News has continued with their attack. Finally, Obama's staff today issued a memo calling the statements "malicious, irresponsible charges" that "are precisely the kind of politics the American people have grown tired of, and that Senator Obama is trying to change by focusing on bringing people together to solve our common problems."

Insight Magazine, which is owned by the Moonie Times, published an article last week erroneously claiming Obama had spent "at least four years" studying in a madrassa that espoused Wahhabism. Despite any sources for such assertions, Fox News picked up the story and ran with it, never even attempting to verify it independently. So much for "fair and balanced."

From Obama's press release:

To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago. Furthermore, the Indonesian school Obama attended in Jakarta is a public school that is not and never has been a Madrassa.

The article offers some great new links that help debunk the Fox News take.

So why is Fox News so focused on smearing Barack Obama? Obviously, it is because Republicans view a Hillary Clinton candidacy as their best hope for winning the White House in 2008. They are completely focused on ensuring Hillary Clinton is hated and, at the same time, nominated as the Democratic candidate because they know nobody can rile up the right and get them motivated to work for their candidate like Hillary. Honestly, why else would Rupert Murdoch be helping her?

Obama has begun to peel off financial support from Clinton, and though he hasn't yet managed to top Clinton in the polls, at least not according to TIME, he has a real shot at taking her out if he plays the game correctly.

[T]he survey found that Senator Clinton would beat him for the Democratic nomination by a margin of 40% to 21%. Senator John Edwards is a distant third with 11%. Obama clearly suffers a disadvantage in profile among likely voters, with only 51% indicating that they knew enough about him to form an opinion, compared with 94% saying the same of Hillary Clinton. In Obama's favor, however, is his far lower negative ratings. While 58% of voters familiar with Hillary Clinton have a positive view of her, 41% give her negative marks, for a net favorability score of +17. By contrast, Obama's net favorability score is +47. …

Clinton's popularity within her party does not translate as easily across party lines as Obama's does. Only 58% of the total sample of respondents had a very or somewhat favorable impression of her, compared with 82% for Giuliani (including 7 out of 10 Democratic voters), and 70% each for Obama and McCain — both of whom showed strongly among independents.

Note that this poll was conducted before a clear debunking of the madrassa story had occurred (and, of course, it has yet to occur on Fox News).

Posted by Becky at January 25, 2007 01:23 PM