Obama
Does Dobson Know Any Better?
By Mark Silk — June 24, 2008
In his radio broadcast today, James Dobson will unload on Barack Obama’s views on religion in the public square, according to a report by AP’s Eric Gorski, who has got hold of a copy. While we await the full text, here’s the most interesting of the reported portions: Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism […]
Not I
By Mark Silk — June 23, 2008
What should Obama do about the continuing ill-intended rumors that he is a Muslim? Probably just about what he’s doing. This is anything but a problem of his own making. The Wall Street Journal‘s Amy Chozick in on the case. Update: NYT weighs in.
The Dark Side
By Mark Silk — June 22, 2008
Eli Saslow’s WaPo piece on the bump Obama’s rise has given to white supremacist groups and websites is worth a read and a ponder. Naturally this is not anything for the non-white supremacists among us to feel happy about, but compared to underground anti-Catholicism in 1960 it doesn’t seem to amount to very much. Nowadays, […]
Don’t Islamize Obama
By Mark Silk — June 20, 2008
Another GOP Mike stands up for the presumptive Democratic nominee, this time NY Mayor Bloomberg, and not in a brief aside either, in a speech to Jews in Palm Beach. If McCain won’t tap the Bloomster for veep, how about post-partisan Barack? Fugedaboudit.
Head Scarf Ban
By Mark Silk — June 18, 2008
No, not in Turkey. But from the audience behind the podium at Obama’s speech in Detroit. I’m shocked, shocked.
As Reagan said…
By Mark Silk — June 18, 2008
In an interview with Brody, Barack Obama gives his version of the meeting he had with religious leaders in Chicago last week–who ran the gamut, he notes, from UCC president John H. Thomas to Franklin Graham. Obama says he began by quoting Ronald Reagan’s famous remark at the 1980 National Affairs Briefing in Dallas, to […]
Prolifers for Obama
By Mark Silk — June 16, 2008
As his op-ed in today’s Chicago Tribune makes clear, Douglas Kmiec has no intention of dialing back his support of Obama. By arguing, publicly and repeatedly, why a staunch opponent of abortion like himself can, as a matter of moral principle, vote for the presumptive Democratic nominee, he is becoming the most important national voice […]
Half Way Covenant
By Mark Silk — June 16, 2008
Reporting on Barack Obama’s sermon at Chicago’s Apostolic Church of God yesterday, the Chicago Tribune‘s Jeff Long and Christi Parsons write, “The theme of fatherly responsibility is important for Obama, especially now that he is the presumed Democratic nominee for the White House. While his dogma is decidedly liberal, his talk about personal responsibility crafts […]
Charismatic
By Mark Silk — June 14, 2008
Disarmed v. stiff-armed. At least I think “stiff-armed” is what the founder of Charisma magazine meant to write in characterizing evangelicals’ treatment thus far by John McCain. Anyway, color Steven Strang impressed and worried after participating in last week’s meeting with Obama.
Onward Obama Soldiers
By Mark Silk — June 11, 2008
The Obamaites are ramping up religious outreach for the general. Yesterday, in a Chicago law office, Obama met with a group of 30 religious leaders, featuring African-American denominational officials, the Catholic law professor Douglas Kmiec, and such evangelical luminaries as Franklin Graham and Richard Cizik. Oh and T.D. Jakes. This seems to have been a […]
Those Obama Catholics
By Mark Silk — June 10, 2008
What’s up with Obama’s National Catholic Advisory Council? From what I hear, the members believe it’s still on, but just a word to GOM from a campaign aide–certainly nothing like the pushback that we’ve come to expect from the control room when assaults are made. This only tends to strengthen the view that religion is […]
Catholic League Triumphant
By Mark Silk — June 9, 2008
Bill Donohue believes that he has single-handedly squashed Barack Obama’s National Catholic Advisory Council like a bug. That’s because, having called for the dissolution of the Council, he hasn’t been able to find any mention of it on the Obama website, and can’t get anyone from the campaign to say him aye or nay. Ergo, […]
Obama and Jerusalem, Take 3
By Mark Silk — June 9, 2008
So maybe Obama was not unadvised or guilty of “misspeaking” when he told AIPAC that he stands for an “undivided” Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Here’s Bernard Avishai’s interpretation of the comments: But even the most apparently contentious thing he said—contentious, at least, outside the room—was carefully worded. Obama said that in any two-state […]
Religion for the General
By Mark Silk — June 7, 2008
Brody has a good story on a forthcoming religious youth outreach effort by the Obama campaign called the Joshua Generation Project. (It’s Joshua who brought the Children of Israel into the Promised Land, get it?). Newsweek has a chatty little story on a weekly prayer phone call among Obama-supporting clergy–which Mark Stricherz over at GetReligion […]
Jerusalem, Not Off the Table
By Mark Silk — June 6, 2008
My mistake. Obama’s Jerusalem comment does not seem to have been vetted by his Middle East brains trust. All he meant to say, er, was, well, as the Jerusalem Post has it: But a campaign adviser clarified Thursday that Obama believes “Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between […]
