You are absolutely right, dgroundhog, I am, indeed, speculating about things that weren't in the article - that's because the article (like most) is poorly written, or at least because the article leaves a lot of important things out, chief among them: Just how reputable and reliable is Mr. Gheit? How seriously should we take his claim? Was Mr. Gheit perhaps a little tipsy at the time of the conversation? Does Mr. Gheit perhaps have a secret agenda? Is Mr. Gheit thinking of promoting a book? Is Mr. Gheit a liar? Did anyone think to cross-examine Mr. Gheit, telling him just how serious/controversial his allegation is? Did, upon hearing that Obama publicly claims to be Christian, Mr. Gheit admit that, in his private conversation, Obama in fact might have phrased himself a little differently?
Simply put: Most if not all newspaper articles nowadays are hopelessly incomplete. Sources are quoted who claim that someone else "said" something, without offering those sources' credentials. This amounts to hearsay evidence.
dgroundhog, rest assured that I have no high opinion of Obama. But I don't think that we Conservatives need to stoop to taking seriously every off-the-cuff remark some corrupt Middle Eastern bureaucrat makes to gullible reporters.
Regards,
I understand that there is usually more to a story than what is reported, especially in a ‘he said/ he said’ article like this. Sometimes things get misconstrued - I can see that.
There are a few other articles about this particular story, but all the comments are pretty descriptive and really don’t leave much room for debate about what Ghait claims Obama told him.
I would hope that this question gets asked of Obama - or at least is put to Gibbs. Obama needs to clarify this for the entire world and refute these claims if they are innaccurate.
I realize some of the points you made were more ‘Devil’s Advocate’ sort of thinking - but even if he was a drunk or did have a book coming out that wouldn’t autmotically mean that these comments weren’t made by Obama. Just saying some of the points seem moot.
Just as you think we shouldn’t automatically accept the story as truth I don’t think it is wise to leap to some grand re-interpretation of the comments based on what we know at this point.
Besides, if you start accusing some muslim Egyptian official of being a corrupt drunk having an agenda and willfully lying you are opening yourself up to allegations of racism, aren’t you? (not my personal opinion of your comments - but that is SOP for the left)
At this point it seems safest to just accept the story and ask for verification from Obama.
Granted, I am not one who thinks Conservatives need to somehow rise above the tactics of the left. I am more than happy to throw their tactics right back in their faces. Turnabout is fair play IMO - and the past has such a way of coming back to bite them in the butt.
Katrina? Deepwater Horizon. Stolen elections? Birth certificate! Bush talks to God? Obama is a secret muslim. We are racist for calling Obama inexperienced? They are racist for saying Alvin Greene is inexperienced. It’s all good to me.
The general public is dumb. They want sound bytes - not facts. At the moment we have a sound byte. I say use it to it’s fullest extent. You know the left would.