Glad you believe Obama's not Muslim and is an American. But a couple things in your blog merit questioning, over and above your persistent use of Rasmussen as a source.
1. I honestly couldn't believe that 35% of Democrats believed Bush had specific knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. Did he have some knowledge something would happen? Yes.
http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/strategist/2009/08/a_quick_lesson_how_to_misinter.phpThere are two different ways that a survey respondent could interpret the Rasmussen question about Bush’s possible “advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks” – one of which is entirely rational and, in fact, undeniably true.
Gee whiz, come on. Doesn’t everyone still remember the warnings Bush received about the potential use of airplanes as terrorist weapons in the summer of 2001 – warnings Condi Rice admitted slipped her mind? Don’t we all remember the CIA memos saying that “something big” was in the works in September? Don’t we all remember the 9/11 Commission and Richard Clarkes’ dramatic statement that “We failed the American people”
These were not hallucinations or the product of fevered, paranoid Democratic brains. They were component elements of the undeniable fact that there were indeed significant advance warnings that a terrorist attack was in the works for the fall of 2001 – a fact that was the central subject of the 9/11 commission hearings, 10 or 15 books and hundreds of articles.
One would have to throw out every single academic study of the past 30 or 40 years about the effects of question wording on survey response not to recognize that, for many survey respondents who remembered the 9/11 Commission Report and other media coverage, the phrase “advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks” could be cognitively processed as meaning “The Bush administration had substantial advance knowledge from U.S. intelligence sources that a terrorist attack on the U.S. was being predicted as imminent in the fall of 2001” rather than “The Bush Administration had specific and detailed advanced knowledge about a particular group of 19 Saudi Arabian terrorists armed with box cutters and trained to fly commercial jet aircraft who planned to hijack four U.S. airliners at 9:45 in the morning on September 11th 2001 and attempt to crash two of them into the New York World Trade Center”
That's kinda my train of thought on this...
2. Your comments regarding Obama and Trinity United. I've never really pictured Trinity United when thinking of Obama's faith, I think he has faith. More...
The Trinity United Church of Christ that Obama attended in Chicago preached a strain of Christianity that most American Christians don’t recognize. It’s Christianity of conspiracy theory, anti Semitism and anti Americanism. I think when many Americans hear Obama say he’s a Christian, they are picturing Trinty United.
I wouldn't say that's entirely accurate, either. This article gave me a better understanding of Obama and his faith:
http://www.newsweek.com/2008/07/11/finding-his-faith.htmlThe cross under which Obama went to Jesus was at the controversial Trinity United Church of Christ. It was a good fit. "That community of faith suited me," Obama says. For one thing, Trinity insisted on social activism as a part of Christian life. It was also a family place. Members refer to the sections in the massive sanctuary as neighborhoods; churchgoers go to the same neighborhood each Sunday and they get to know the people who sit near them. They know when someone's sick or got a promotion at work.
At the time, Obama was a young man who'd been through a spiritual journey, not uncommon for someone with his background. If anything, the Trinity United Church of Christ (which, btw, is a part of the much larger and mainstream United Church of Christ) afforded him an outlet to become a part of the black community and do what his heart's desire was: to organize, teach and help those in the community become better people.
Granted, Wright was a bit of a crazy guy, but Obama's mission wasn't to pray before Wright, it was to lay the foundation of a political future. Which he did quite well. As you admit:
He respects religion because he responds to the people who believe, and he seems oriented toward leveraging the religious beliefs of the people for worldly, political ends.
