It Won't Mean a Thing at the Ballot Box come November, but It Sure Saved a Sunday in August. Just when you think it will be a slim pickins kind of Sunday talk day, the President celebrates Ramadan Friday night
chiming in on plans to build a mosque on private property near Ground Zero in NYC.
Where to begin?
How about
New York Republican Rep. Peter King (opposed to the mosque site). King has the feeling the President's first comment,
followed by his clarification, followed by a White House clarification that there is no need for clarification may suggest the President is
"trying to have it both ways." Democrats clarifying the non-clarification clarification seemed to agree with what they think the President said.
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) seemed partially on board… boiling it down to recognizing that we are a "nation of tolerance who are fighting religious fanatics".
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) wouldn't say whether he's sorry the President ventured into the issue but he is agrees with the President that "the issue is important to the people of New York city."
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) wondered aloud why, if it's a local issue, the President got into it in the first place.
A recent CNN poll found that even when broken down by party, clear majorities of democrats, independents and republicans oppose building a mosque and Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero.
Still, it's difficult to make the case that a country with a 9.5 percent unemployment rate will head to the polls this November and cast a ballot driven by a mosque controversy.
But
Texas Senator John Cornyn (R), the republican in charge of winning GOP senate seats this year, thinks, the poll numbers and the President's position on the mosque underscore an election year theme in republican circles, "a dichotomy that people sense, that they're being lectured to, not listened to…"
A teensy editor's note: Pro or con, nobody suggested there was a legal avenue to stop the mosque from being built, making this an interesting, difficult, passionate issue to discuss as well as a moot point.
??? General David Petraeus, the man in Afghanistan began what looks like a media offense this week with a full hour on Meet the Press. At first blush, it sounds like a way to begin setting expectations and perhaps slowing down the Washington clock.
Explaining the Obama administration strategy, the general explained the US has been trying to (among other things) "get the inputs right" and build "concepts that didn't exist."
As we said, ???
Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, on NBC's "Meet the Press" PETRAEUS: I am not a politician and I will never be. I say that with absolute conviction.
GREGORY: ... does that mean that you are totally clear that you'll never run for president?
PETRAEUS: Yeah, I really am. And, you know I've said that I'll adopt what Sherman said, and go back and look at what has come to be know as a "Shermanesque" answer of that particular question.
GREGORY: No way, no how?
PETRAEUS: No way, no how.
Rep. Peter King (R) Ranking Member, Homeland Security Committee, on CNN's "State of the Union" "I think the president, by the way, is trying to have it both ways, because I don't know of anyone who was saying that Muslims do not have the right to practice their religion. But with rights go responsibilities, and that's the part of it the president did not comment on…If the president was going to get into this, he should have been much more clear, much more precise, and you can't be changing your position from day to day on an issue which does go to our Constitution, and it also goes to extreme sensitivity. So that's where I am critical of the president, for not being clear."
Sen. Jack Reed (D) Rhode Island, on "Fox News Sunday" "I think the president recognized that his position of trying to reinforce a principle that we all share, which is that this is a nation of tolerance who are fighting religious fanatics. That position automatically doesn't translate into a facility down there in lower Manhattan unless that facility is contributing to this tolerance, this communication between different religious groups."
Sen. John Cornyn (R) Texas, on "Fox News Sunday" "I do think it's unwise to build a mosque at the site where three thousand Americans lost their lives as a result of a terrorist attack...To me it demonstrates that Washington, the White House, the administration, the president himself seems to be disconnected from the mainstream of America and I think that's one of the reasons people are so frustrated. … This is sort of the dichotomy that people sense, that they're being lectured to-not listened to-and I think that's the reason why a lot of people are very upset with Washington."
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R) California, on CNN's "State of the Union" "The president…brought up the exact location and said he supported it…Build a mosque, build more than one mosque, but don't build it there. There are other places to build them."
Gov. Ed Rendell (D) Pennsylvania, on CBS' "Face the Nation" "…I can't imagine that any American -- given the challenges facing this country -- is going to vote based on what he said about the mosque. The mosque is an unfortunate situation, but we do have a right to practice our religion freely wherever we choose. Rights are not subject to the popular vote or majority vote."
Tim Kaine, Chairman, Democratic National Committee, on CBS' "Face the Nation" "This wouldn't be a controversy if it was a proposal to build a synagogue or a church. We don't prefer people and we don't punish people based on their religion. ... We can't stop people from doing something that others could do because of the religion they practice."
Additional SOTU information:
Missed any of the show? Check out the
Political Ticker Follow us on
Twitter,
http://www.facebook.com/CNNStateoftheUnion Email us feedback StateoftheUnion@CNN.com
