Sorry, no, that was Keith Ellison, from the People's Republic of Minnesota, I'm sorry to say.
Posted on 01/19/2007 7:52:42 PM PST by Torie
Obama 'was educated in madrassa'
Tim Reid and Tom Baldwin in Washington
# Senator hid time there, says article
# Clinton distances herself from claims
Barack Obama was given a rude awakening to the cut-throat world of presidential politics yesterday after being accused of hiding four years in which he was educated at a madrassa when a teenager.
The claim, made in the conservative Insight magazine, also revealed the Machiavellian scheming of political activists in a presidential race still nearly two years away.
It was aimed at tarnishing Mr Obama’s image in the week he announced himself as a White House contender. But the article also claimed that the madrassa allegations came from aides to Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama’s main opponent for the Democratic nomination.
This may be wishful thinking on behalf of Republicans. The Clinton camp is determined not to be accused of digging dirt on Mr Obama because they fear such tactics could backfire, given his popularity.
But the Insight allegations represent an exquisite double shot at the Democrats’ two leading White House contenders: it implies that Mr Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, is a closet Islamic extremist, and that Mrs Clinton is so rattled by his candidacy she is using underhand tactics to weaken him.
Mr Obama, who is expected to announce formally his candidacy on February 10, has never been subjected to the hardball tactics of the presidential arena — until yesterday. Last night an aide said that the campaign was working on a formal statement, but added that the claims were “not accurate”.
The online article begins: “Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?” It continues: “This is the question Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp is asking about Senator Barack Obama.”
Mr Obama’s mother was a white woman from Kansas; his father, a black Kenyan Muslim. He states in his recent biography that he attended a predominately Muslim school when he lived in Jakarta as a teenager.
But the article claims: “In Indonesia, the young Obama was enrolled in a madrassa and was raised and educated as a Muslim.” It says that Mr Obama omitted to say in his memoir, or at any other time, that he attended the school for four years.
Mr Obama, who has spent his adult life in Chicago, calls himself a Christian and says that he believes in God. He attends a local church.
A source close to the Clinton campaign told The Times, a day before the Insight article was published, that they do not want to be seen as attacking Mr Obama or digging for dirt, but that they would be happy for another Democrat contender to criticise him.
I thought it a bit odd as well.
I have heard him on that station a few times over the years, some of his comments during our recall here in 2003 left me a bit suspect of him too.
Is that true?
I knew that the Minnesota guy was sworn in on a Koran, but I dodn't know that about O'bama.
If obama converted from Muslim, isn't the penalty death. Will Muslims even support Obama?
Sorry, no, that was Keith Ellison, from the People's Republic of Minnesota, I'm sorry to say.
Gee, our fist moslem president can’t wait.
You're right, it was ellison? obama is still a bassturd though.
I can't paraphrase it very well probably but I think it was that it was years ago and he has gone another direction religion-wise since then.
also, because the main suspicion that this is coming out is due to Hillary behind the scenes doing whatever she has to do to knock him down a notch or to.
Guess he wasn't on the RADAR back in the 90s, so his FBI file wasn't handed over to Hill. I suppose this in Plan-B.
I was toying with him being the Muslamican Candidate
Perhaps the idea is to let Mrs. Clinton "go there." Going there will backfire -- big time -- in my little crystal ball, unless it can be demonstrated that Obama falsified his resume, rather than simply omitting this period of his life.
Claims were "not accurate" could mean he spend five years at the Madrassa, not four.
Maybe he meant we shouldn't go down this road...yet.
You're correct. As soon as I was corrected by jedidah, I wanted to take it back.
Too late. ;-)
The 2008 season is in full swing and has been since 2004, it seems
It's a win-win for us because it's a lose-lose for them...
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