Well, he’s wrong, in large part because he established a false dichotomy.
He said he can either say nothing and let them bore away, or fight them, and make it look like being a Muslim is bad. (See Arab-Americans, Detroit, taken off camera at Obama rally.)
There’s a third option. It’s called calling out the Muslim comments as bigotry.
I touched on this in more depth in a recent op-ed column for my day job. In that column, I said Obama should say:
“I'm not a Muslim, but so what if I am? Did we have this same whispering campaign eight years ago against our first Jewish vice-presidential candidate? No. I implore Americans of all political stances to reject outright such political bigotry, especially as directed against our nation's second-largest organized religion.”
Why hasn’t he?
For such an allegedly creative thinker, Obama sure ISN’T on this issue.
He can even say this:
“American people are more tolerant and open minded than a lot of the pundits give them credit for”
And yet not think of a third option, like the one I proposed a month ago.
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