Considering that everybody else has already conceded their right to build a mosque but has been questioning the wisdom of this location (particularly after an offer from Gov. Patterson to relocate was decline), what the hell else could 0 have meant other than an endorsement because he certainly wasn’t saying anything else that anybody didn’t already know!
Exactly right! Obama’s comments were idiotic as he said how Muslims have the right to practice their religion, etc. This issue is not about freedom of religion or the right of people to practice their faith. The issue is precisely about why Muslims want to build a mosque at Ground Zero, not whether they have freedom of religion in America.
And there are about 100 mosques in New York City. There is no shortage of places of worship, and no persecution of anyone worshipping at those mosques. Obama set up a straw man about freedom of religion and knocked it down. Why? To make liberals happy? To make Bin Laden and his boys happy?
Why in the heck did Obama bring up the subject of the mosque, if not as an endorsement of the plan? Today he’s backtracking and saying that he wasn’t commenting on the wisdom of putting a mosque there. I think that Axelrod, Rahm Emmanuel, etc. and him had a meeting to go over the overnight polling on the issue and realized this is very bad news for him.