That is supposed to be a 24 year old Barack Obama on the left of the photo in the mans hand.

Was Obama ever a Muslim?  His campaign claims he “never was” a muslim; his half brother might not have received that press release as reported in IsraelInsider:

In a remarkable denial issued last November that still stands on the official campaign website, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs issued a statement explaining that “Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim, and is a committed Christian.”

Apparently Malik Obama, himself a Muslim, had not read the press release.

Melanie Phillips is the most recent commentator to draw attention to the massive body of evidence that leaves no doubt that Barak Hussein Obama was born a Muslim (Islam is patrilineal) and raised a Muslim (so registered in school, acknowledging attending Islamic classes, reported accompanying his step-father to the mosque, and able to recite the Koran in the original Arabic).

As the Jerusalem Post reports, “Barack Obama’s half brother Malik said Thursday that if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background. In an interview with Army Radio he expressed a special salutation from the Obamas of Kenya.”

Having a background as a Muslim would not be a problem, but lying about it and engaging in elaborate cover up today would be a problem.  This would not be “change we can believe in”.

I hope his campaign can provide more details to clear up the confusion.

From The Off-Color Coloring Book: The Political Circus

I mean, really, if you can’t get a little respect from a coloring book, what’s the rest of the world going to think?

“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama, an Illinois senator, said.

“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” he said.

 

In case you missed it, Barack Obama gave his speech about race and religion today. You can read the whole thing HERE. This is a little taste of it:

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way.

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. 

Good speech, as usual. Will it be enough?

Yes, it’s true, Mike Huckabee has finally dropped out of the race. It could be because McCain has all of the GOP delegates he needs to be the nominee.

Meanwhile, the Clinton Campaign is claiming wide spread voter disenfranchisement and assorted shenanigans in Texas:

The Clinton campaign called an “emergency” conference call with reporters that was interrupted by Obama’s chief counsel Bob Bauer, who called in and said the Clinton campaign only criticized the caucus process when it was losing.

With Clinton facing what many consider must-win scenarios in both Ohio and Texas and both races too-close-to-call, the Clinton campaign charged that the Obama campaign had shut the doors on Clinton supporters at some of the caucuses, among other things.

The campaign also said the Obama camp had hijacked some of the caucus packets at certain precincts, adding that in others Obama supporters were calling in caucus results before the polls had closed.

Ace Smith, Clinton’s Texas campaign director, said the state party’s election hotline was jammed, and the Clinton campaign was receiving “hundreds of complaints.”

I’m just waiting for someone to mention “Diebold.”

Presidential hopeful, Senator Barack Obama, went running for the door at the “toughest news conference of his campaign” after answering, “like, eight questions:”

The first question was about a private talk an Obama economic adviser had with a Canadian official - reportedly saying that the harshness of Obama’s criticisms of the North American Free Trade Agreement was for political show.

Last week, Obama denied an initial media report about the conversation. But after a Canadian government memo surfaced, he acknowledged yesterday there was a conversation.

“When I gave you that information, that was the information that I had at the time,” he said. His camp still disputes the memo’s account of the discussion.

The questioning then turned to Obama’s links to ex-fund-raiser Tony Rezko, who went on trial in Chicago Monday on corruption charges. A reporter asserted Obama hadn’t fully answered journalists’ questions on Rezko.

Obama insisted he had - during a past news conference with Chicago media. But another persisted that questions remain unanswered, such as ones about fund-raisers Rezko held for him.

The nerve of reporters asking “like, eight questions,” about the potentially sketchy activities of a guy who wants to be President of The United States. Didn’t they know he was “running late?”

UPDATE:

Dana Milbank, of the Washington Post, has essentially the same take on the news conference, with this fun insight into Obama’s future with the press, “The questioning, however, has only just begun.”

Well it’s about freakin time.

For those of you that would like to enjoy a Nestle’s Crunch visit this site, but for everyone else still having trouble distinguishing between Presidential candidates today, here’s some sources I used on the program today to identify major issues and positions of some of the candidates.

First the 2008 Presidential Calculator, it’s a poll that gives you twenty some questions to answer and it’ll pick the best candidate for you to vote for, if you can’t make up your own mind, why not allow a computer to do it for you? Heck, it worked for Matthew Broderick in War Games… Although that almost didn’t turn out that well…

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html

2Decide.com has a page devoted to the candidates on such issues as immigration and abortion with a simple “Support” or “Oppose” Check list:

http://www.2decide.com/table.htm

Selectstart.com has a cool contrast and compare page about the candidates and previous candidates where you can input two candidates and look at how they stand side by side, this one is particularly helpful and has more than just yes/no or plus/minus features:

http://selectsmart.com/president/2008/comparethem.html

Here’s a .pdf from AFA.net that is a quick one-sheet on the candidates with simple yes and no’s for the time and or comprehension impaired:

http://www.afa.net/pdfs/08vg.pdf

And lastly, the Media Matters “Myths about Obama” page I referenced towards the end of today’s radio show, with some interesting information regarding some misconceptions about Mr. Obama..

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703200011

If you’re reading this after you’ve voted, heck, bone up, maybe it’ll help you in November, assuming that the candidates positions don’t change that much between now and then.. What do you mean by “Not a Prayer” –

Ah forget it, “How About A Nice Game of Chess?”

No, this isn’t a line for Hanna Montana tickets, this is the line of people waiting to see Michelle Obama, the wife of Democrat Presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

The line outside was long and everyone was anxiously anticipating the words of Michelle Obama, wife of Barack Obama. I spoke with the first people in line, mostly because I’m always intrigued by the first people in line, and they were fired up:

“Yes we can.” - Ed Money AUDIO

“I’m proud to be here…it is time for a change, we need to get out of the past and into the new.” - Melvin Collier AUDIO

“America is able to put aside all of it’s biases and all and vote for a man of worth and not take color as an excuse” - Anna Hammond Carter AUDIO

Inside, people were energized, and when Michelle Obama came out, the crowd went wild. She spoke with deliberation, and in some cases, a little interesting imagination:

“Barack has more legislative experience than anyone currently in this race.” - Michelle Obama AUDIO

Michelle Obama at Delaware State University.

She also took the time to totally mischaracterize the background of most of the candidates in the Presidential race, namely Mike Gravel, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, and even Republican frontrunner John McCain, none of whom are lawyers:

“Barack’s a lawyer I’m a lawyer…but everybody in this race is a lawyer. And most of them made their millions before they decided to help the people, but not Barack.” - Michelle Obama AUDIO

Incidentally, that second part about making “their millions before they decided to help the people…” just isn’t really true. (Even Mitt Romney did a 30 month stint as a missionary when he got out of college and most likely wasn’t worth “millions” at that point, and Hillary Clinton, did some “help the people” stuff before she and Bill made their fortune).

And, frankly, I’m not buying into the whole candidate class warfare thingie coming from a Princeton educated lawyer married to a Harvard law school graduate. But Michelle Obama was very inspiring if you weren’t all wrapped up in ridiculous stuff like lapses in accuracy and irony.

You can listen to her entire speech unedited: AUDIO Part One and AUDIO Part Two.

Steve Forbes won the Delaware Republican Primary in 1996. .

“You know the old joke, when Bill Gates goes into a bar, the average net worth of a patron goes up 2 billion dollars,” quipped Steve Forbes in a speech he delivered to the Delaware Republican Party Saturday night at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner. And while other sites may have flashy video of his speech, all I have is AUDIO of it, and my own interview with Steve Forbes. (And yeah, I ask him if Rudy is broke).

Forbes spoke about his relationship to Rudy Guiliani’s presidential campaign, “I’m one of the co-chairs of his campaign and senior policy advisor and saw first hand what he did in New York City and was very impressed with the major things he did there.” AUDIO

I asked Forbes if Giuliani supported his idea of a flat tax for Americans and he told me a little about where Giuliani stands on taxation. “He’s a backer of radical simplification of the tax codes,” according to Forbes and he went on to say that Giuliani is “proposing the biggest tax cut in American history.” AUDIO

We talked about the race between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Forbes said the race would be a “fierce one,” but predicted that Obama would win South Carolina. AUDIO

And finally, is the Guiliani presidential campaign in financial trouble? Well, not according to Forbes, “No, they’re focusing resources on Florida…They have over $7 million on hand.” AUDIO

Congresman Mike Castle introduces 1996 and 2000 Republican Presidential candidate Steve Forbes.

The Delaware Republican Party held it’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday night in Dover and I was lucky enough to go, and to get a few interviews. Let’s start with Congressman Mike Castle. I asked him about the event that brought him and his wife to Dover.

“I wouldn’t miss this dinner, it’s become the biggest Republican dinner of the year. AUDIO

We also talked about the upcoming Presidential election. Castle has endorsed Senator John McCain from Arizona, who like Castle, is considered a “moderate.”

I’ve endorsed Senator McCain. I felt going into it that he was the person most qualified to lead the country…He is the absolute right person to lead the country. AUDIO

I also asked him about Senator Joe Biden’s run for president, and Castle said that a lack of media coverage may have contributed to the end of Biden’s bid. AUDIO

And he had this to say about Biden’s experience compared to the rest of the democratic field:

His campaign achieved a lot more than showed in the results…I give Joe credit for running a good campaign. At least he has some achievements in the United States Senate, too. AUDIO

Was that a shot at Senators Obama, Clinton and Edwards? Well, yes.

I think the Republican candidates are a collection of individuals who are good leaders, as opposed to the Democrats who essentially are members of the United States Senate, none of whom have much in the way of achievement. AUDIO

Ouch.