Posted on 05/14/2009 1:45:52 PM PDT by NYer
.- The White House has responded to opposition to President Obama’s appearance at the University of Notre Dame, claiming that only "one group" is organizing a boycott and pointing to other groups who support the president’s commencement speech and reception of an honorary degree.
"I think there's one group organizing a boycott and, as best I can understand it, there are 23 groups that have formed in support of the president's invitation," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, according to ABC.
The "one group," ND Response, is a coalition of 11 pro-life groups including Notre Dame Right to Life, the Notre Dame Law St. Thomas More Society and the Notre Dame College Republicans.
Gibbs’ reference to 23 groups concerned a letter written to University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins by groups such as the African Student Association, the College Democrats, the Notre Dame Peace Fellowship and the Spanish Club.
The letter criticized "those who would rather divide than work together for common ground and for the common good."
"We are concerned that in narrowing the focus to one aspect of life that has often proven polarizing and divisive many have lost the ability to recognize the other aspects of President Obama’s work that continues to uphold the principles of justice and solidarity," their letter said, according to ABC.
Gibbs claimed that 97 percent of the students supported the decision. However, ABC reported that this claim misstated an Associated Press story which said that of the 95 Notre Dame seniors who wrote to the student newspaper The Observer, 97 percent were positive.
Gibbs also cited a Pew poll reporting that 50 percent of Catholics supported Notre Dame’s invitation to Obama, while only 28 percent opposed it.
However, that poll also reported that 45 percent of those who attend Mass at least weekly disapproved of the decision, while 37 percent approved.
"The president understands the right of anybody in this country to disagree and to exercise their disagreement in that way. I think it's important to understand it appears as if the vast majority of students and the majority of Catholics are supportive of the invitation the president accepted. And I know he's greatly looking forward to seeing them," Gibbs said, according to ABC.
More than 2,900 students will receive degrees on Sunday, of whom 2,001 are undergraduate seniors.
"There are no organized protests at ND ... only Catholics that love 0bama!"
LOL great post!
Why is the Whitehouse even responding to the issue? Hmmmm....
The New Math. Just right for the Pravda Media.
The Left’s default mode when they are criticized is to cite polling numbers.
EVERYTHING can be explained away and justified via a strategically quoted poll:
“Yes, but 64.7% of Americans now actually support child torture”.
Is he blaming the issue there? One could say all ethics, being concerned with good and evil, is polarizing, and when good insists on calling evil by its proper name, the good is "divisive." However you slice it, one side thinks it's okay to kill innocent babies, the other side thinks it isn't. I should say that's a bigger issue than the distastefulness of polarization or division.
If Obama had any class whatsoever, he would have agreed to speak but politely declined the honorary degree.
Fat chance.
resisit...resist...resist
“one group”
yeah. they are called “Catholics”
Giving honors to an illegal pretending to be president who has a disreputable past and doesn’t display any allegiance to our country is unconscionable.
“those who would rather divide than work together for common ground and for the common good.”
If only he would practice what he preached, what he was really saying was
those who would not go along with my evil works divide between what is good and evil and know we can not work together because you can’t serve two masters, you will either love one and hate the other.
Day after day the Obama admin is chipping away at the bulwark of democracy----all the solid enduring institutions that make us the nation we are, are being targeted for destruction. These people are not running a gov't; they are controlling a chaos-driven agenda.
Obama is being pushed and pulled by his cunning calculating COS---Rahm Emanuel. They see themselves as "The Wrecking Crew"-----anything remotely connected with the founders, with Christianity, with the Constituton MUST be destroyed..... crushed under the jackbooted heel of the Obamatons until it is dead and and buried.
Obama's calculating, conniving COS--Rahm Emanuel---trots out Obama in the plan to create chaos. Obedient Oba mechanically marches out on a round of public events, pressers, travels......always smiling and grinning.......then robotically reading speeches from a teleprompter.
Messiah of the Church of Whatever Works For Me.
Polls, eh?
“those who would rather divide than work together for common ground and for the common good.”
This is RACIST BS. We knew this was coming...On and On and On.
Obama, the perfect candidate to KILL AMERICA. No one will stop him.
Infanticide seems pretty demonic. Don’t really know how someone can fight for it, as Obama did, and not be kind of evil.
We may surmise that Jack the Ripper believed it was morally acceptable to exterminate prostitutes, and if you'd interrupted him in the act he might have objected to your objections, and lamented your divisiveness. Or Raskolnikov, while killing a pawnbroker (and a witness), might have been aggrieved by your polarizing of the issue, because his hatred of parasitic pawnbrokers is equally valid with your respect for life. Or Margaret Sanger, who thought certain races and classes needed to be winnowed out. Or Michael Schiavo for brain-damaged wives... Or Adolf Hitler for Jews... Or Barack 0bama for babies born alive when the abortionist botches their killing.
You call any of that evil, you're flunking sandbox, not getting along with others, rocking the boat, being divisive.
Damage control. Same tactic they used with the TEA parties.
Zero simply CAN’T STAND any criticism. I’m sure he threw the MOATT ( Mother of all temper tantrums) behind closed doors.
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