Obama
Not that there’s anything wrong with that
By Mark Silk — July 16, 2008
In responding to the viral charges that he’s some kind of Muslim, Barack Obama has caught some flak for, in his insistence that he is not and never has been, seeming to acknowledge that there might be something wrong with that. On Larry King last night, he took the occasion of commenting on the notorious […]
What Divide, NYT?
By Mark Silk — July 16, 2008
“Poll Finds Obama Candidacy Isn’t Closing Divide on Race” goes today’s NYT headline, but looking at the actual poll, I’d say Adam Nagourney and Megan Thee have missed the story. Sure, black Americans are big supporters of the first major party black candidate in history. And sure, his candidacy has not altered the way they, […]
Gaps
By Mark Silk — July 15, 2008
Over at MyDD, Todd Beeton surmises that the way to understand the Obama campaign is not in terms of lining up supporters ideologically (i.e. capturing the middle) but demographically (i.e. the young, the black, and the female). This makes sense to me. But what of the religious divide? As this blog has repeatedly emphasized, the […]
Satirical Imagery
By Mark Silk — July 14, 2008
As an editor who enjoys perpetrating satirical imagery, I can’t work up any outrage at the cover of the current New Yorker showing Barack and Michelle fistbumping. Nor can I understand Howie Kurtz’s judgment of it as “incendiary.” Provocative, of course, but so obviously over the top–especially considering the source–that it’s hard to imagine anyone […]
Obama’s Faith, Newsweek version
By Mark Silk — July 13, 2008
Lisa Miller and Richard Wollfe’s cover story on Barack Obama’s religion in this week’s Newsweek is a pretty disappointing performance. There’s little more than what you can find, better written, in Obama’s memoir, Dreams From My Father. The closest the authors got to the candidate seems to have been a brief interview last week on […]
Contextualizing Obama v. Dobson
By Mark Silk — July 11, 2008
John Schmalzbauer’s essay on today’s Social Science Research Council blog The Immanent Frame provides useful context for the Dobson-Obama kerfuffle. I do think it’s possible to get carried away by all the talk of diversity within the evangelical world. All such groupings–mainline Protestants and Jews, for example–embrace lots of differences. But often these appear a […]
10K and Counting
By Mark Silk — July 10, 2008
While the Obama campaign is trying to figure out what to rename its Joshua Generation, the Generation’s Catholic Wing has started up an organization called 10,000 Catholics for Obama. Brody’s got the story, which my own sources confirm: This is a genuine grassroots thing, started on Facebook by “apoliticos,” smiled upon by the Obama campaign. […]
Dobson Keeps It Up
By Mark Silk — July 10, 2008
James Dobson has evidently decided, at least for the moment, to assume the mantle of the prophet, for the purpose of warning evangelicals against the Seductions of Obama. Having become apprised of the Matthew 25 Network’s ad defending Obama against his criticism on his own Christian radio home turf, Dobson prefaced Monday’s broadcast with a […]
Run, Jesse, Run
By Mark Silk — July 10, 2008
It’s always perilous to take Fox News at its word, but whether or not Jesse Jackson was caught whispering about personally wanting to deprive Barack Obama of part of his anatomy, it’s clear that he is no fan of the Illinois senator’s “faith-based.” Why? In the taped remarks, he says he believes Obama was “talking […]
Hispanic Evangelicals
By Mark Silk — July 9, 2008
In the wake of yesterday’s LULAC meeting, the Obama campaign was on the phone with 30 Hispanic evangelical pastors this a.m., and Brody’s got the story. Hispanic evangelicals have been an interesting swing vote over the past few election cycles, going to the GOP in the early part of the decade and then edging back […]
To the Left
By Mark Silk — July 9, 2008
On NBC’s “Today,” Obama sought to counter charges that he is triangulating himself into the center by pointing out, among other things, that he has consistently supported faith-based initiatives. This may be an area, however, where he has made an adjustment to the left. In The Audacity of Hope, he writes: [O]ne can envision certain […]
Catholic Obama?
By Mark Silk — July 9, 2008
In a rather odd, presumably tongue-in-cheek post on WaPo’s On Faith, Tony Stevens-Arroyo proposes, in a positive sense, a “secret” connection between Barack Obama and Catholicism. He suggests that Obama may have been influenced by Catholic social thought when he was working as an organizer in Chicago–and although the influence is not so much as […]
Church and State, Chicago style
By Mark Silk — July 8, 2008
Obama, speaking to LULAC today: I was reminded of this a few years ago when I attended a naturalization workshop at St. Pius Church in Pilsen. As I was walking down the aisle, I saw people clutching small American flags, waiting for their turn to be called up so they could begin the long process […]
Obama on the Gap
By Mark Silk — July 8, 2008
Lest you think Obama is unaware of the religion gap, here’s a passage, from page 201 of his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope: The single biggest gap in party affiliation among white Americans is not between men and women, or between those who reside in so-called red states and those who reside in blue […]
Better Course of Valor
By Mark Silk — July 7, 2008
Besides the lawsuit, did the Obama really want its faith-based youth army to be marching under nearly the same banner as the Home-schooled Children’s Crusade? Not bloody likely. So the Joshua Generation is searching for a new name. “Obamolescents” seems like something the Catholic Church would just as soon forget. “The Young and the Faithful”? […]
