Ohio Voter On 60 Minutes: I Hear Obama Is Muslim, Doesn't Know National Anthem

CBS 60 Minutes reporter traveled to Ohio to speak with voters ahead of Tuesday's crucial primary. Kroft found that one of the more malicious smear campaigns about Obama had reached voters in southern Ohio:

Comments

[Theron]

Just goes to show how the uninformed can be easily manipulated.

[monkfish]

I'm don't think someone Muslim qualifies as a smear.

[dora rice]

no but he shouldn't be president of a 99% christian country.

[rmetz74]

And on what planet is America a 99% Christian country? Do you live in a convent?

Click on these and educate yourself:

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/743/united-states-religion

http://religions.pewforum.org/affiliations

http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions

Seriously, the more you post, the more you demonstrate your ignorance.

[jhm5th]

Where'd you get that statistic--from your Auntie Condi?

[zadzi]

The only part of the US that is 99% Christian is the little bedroom community you are writing from.

[JNagarya]

Now there's a relevant campaign issue: Not knowing the national anthem.

"Bushit can't run the gov't, let alone foreign pollicy, but he probably knows the national anthem, so he should be president. Sure, he's habitually AWOL, as he was leading up to and on and after 9/11, in which latter instance he shredded the oath of office. But he says 'God bless 'Murica' as often as he can, so even though he's lying he's got my vote.

"Is that crazy? Certainly. But it's PATRIOTIC."

And another: "He has his own beliefs" -- First Amendment, dude.

Oh, right, that's not actually what you meant; you were on camera so were being coyly polite. He's "black," so you're seeking any exuse, regardless how absurd and nonsensical, and regardless whether true, to vote as you were all along intending to vote: Republican't.

Another one of those who "Supports the troops" by keeping himself from being among them.

[sansego2000]

The ignorance of the U.S. is astounding. This is a real big problem in the U.S. Everyone wants someone to tell them what to do and what to think. From religion to politics, no one thinks for themselves and checks up on things for themselves. They act like sheep being led to slaughter.

[hiriumi]

I totally agree with you.

[JNagarya]

"frappe

". . . . If only John Kerry had fought back the Swiftboaters by raising the specter of George W. Bush's pathetic military record during the campaign, he'd be running for reelection right now."

Kerry couldn't do that, because Bushit has never had a "military record," let alone a "pathetic":

Kerry fought in Viet Nam. Bushit fought in a Senate campaign in Alabama.
Kerry got wounded. Bushit got under-the-table plastered.
Kerry was awarded medals. Bushit went AWOL.

[JackSlappyNotYourPappy]

Not surprising given it's Ohio!

[gsmminor]

WILL WE LET EVIL WIN?
Is it always evil that wins? Is it the dirty, lying, mudslinging, integrity-lacking dogs with the loudest bark that Triumphs? In this case, it is Hillary "the wicked witch of the DNC" Clinton. I have never, ever been more disappointed in my party then I am today.

Because Hillary Clinton could not stand the idea of not winning the presidency in a fair, clean contest, she has resorted to the old, familiar tactics Americans have said time and time again we are not happy with. And before she'd accept defeat in a fair contest, she'd rather destroy the party and destroy her opponent. Look out super delegates for Obama. After the election, her mean spirit will be coming after you.

This is exactly why good, honest, decent folks don't run for political office. It is painfully hard to compete in such a mean, unproductive, spirit damaging, environment. Only ghouls, goblins, Republican and Clintons can live in such a Hell-filled pit.

Great literature always has Good triumphing over Evil. But there are always a lot of casualties along the way. Many great men do not make it to the end of the story to enjoy the rewards.

So what of real life. Can good beat evil. Will good beat evil. Or is it as the Clinton's have proposed...false hope, a fairytale.

It is so hard to get to the place where one can make a difference. The path to the Presidency is stained with the blood of a many of folk lost in the battles along the way...their names drug through the mud...their reputations shattered by lies, innuendo and half-truths. To accept this challenge is a fate worse then death. For to lose could mean your demise in more ways then one. The longer you last in the battle, the more dangerous it becomes and the more you have to lose. No wonder so many would-be leaders have asked "is it really worth it" and then walked away.

As Hilliary Clinton holds yet another press conference to beat down her opponent and kill the enthusiasm of Americans who'd hoped for a new day in American Government, let us all pray that Senator Barack Obama is the Good that will this time beat evil and show us a better day in our country.

[Roshi98]

Nice collection of gross overgeneralizations and pop psychology. You better write back to the Cracker Jax people, because that diploma that fell out of the box seemed to trick you into thinking you could read minds.

[jjim]

Thank you for all your hard work. We have two people from California working in Beaumont Texas who have been informed by Obama supporters from the local headquarters, that Obama campaign workers are registering out of state students as caucus leaders. They are telling them that this will not be verified until too late and the goal is to win the Caucus. Similar problems happened in Hawaii. Many people are saying this-not just a few. Hopefully this is misinformation. Hopefully you can act to insure it is not correct. We do not know how else to let someone high up know about this threat other than to send it through you so please forward as appropriate.

by Caucus Hardball at 3/2/2008 6:35:35 PM

[oliviasmommi]

Ugh...this is my home town...how embarrassing...

[KaAp]

Do not please do not be embarrassed by your home town I am from Florida want to compare?
It is a sad situation indeed, but it cannot be generalized to you or other people in your town

[aj4321]

People deserve the leaders they elect. If the "sobbing insurance-less unemployed individual" in Ohio thinks that he will do better with some "flag-thumping" person who will not provide him with a health insurance plan or a job, he simply deserves it. (Stop trying to save the world, fellow Liberals!!!)

[slow2]

aj4321 I am a fellow liberal, and, nobody is trying to save the world.

I'd just like to see an election where the supreme court didn't give it away. And it would be great if the winner could be a Democrat, either Hillary or Obama.

The last couple of "winners" -- bush/cheney -- ARE NOT DESERVED by anyone. They are criminal, they should be in jail, the elections that they "won" were not won, but awarded to them. We have been screwed and we have been vilified and we have been deemed unpatriotic because we opposed bush/cheney and their neocon cohorts.

I hope we can beat the system this year.

[iPolitics]

Welcome to the world of the Clintons. Ready for another 4 years of this? Didn't think so.

[Roshi98]

Where do you get the idea that these misconceptions have been disseminated by the Clinton campaign? This is right-wingnut propaganda that has nothing to do with Hillary! If you don't see that, then you're doomed in how to respond in the general.

[rmetz74]

It didn't come from her. But she knows he's not a Muslim (you'll recall her thwarted attempt to discredit his church in the Ohio debate), and she could easily have said so. Instead, she chose to respond in a way that leaves room for this nonsense to continue, because she hopes it wil help her tomorrow.

[chagedorn]

Never underestimate the ignorance of the American people...look at who our President is now, and for two terms.

[oscarp]

Well said chagedorn. Unfortunately ignorance can make people fall for the first person who has the best smile, the best speeches or the best promises, but they can't research and look for the truth beyond the media. They conform with what they have been fed all these years, and you see people referring to Clinton with talways the same arguments, your taxes, the war, etc, etc. But they have never taken the time to go after Obama's record, what for? the guy speaks well, says what people want and need to hear, and the press, for whatever misterious reason, hates Hillary so much that they 'd rather elevate someone unknown who can do more damage than anybody else in the history of this great country. Sometimes I am ashamed of saying this, but the election process has become the same as American Idol, where the good singers are voted off because someone is pretty, young, thin, has a beautiful smile but can not sing ! and what amazes me is that America votes in millions!!! Well, at least the AI who does not sell records does not impact our country, a selected president or candidate who can not respond when the moment comes, represents a shame for those who elected him.

[Airborne2]

What a sick bunch of people in the HRC camp, my god I expect this kind of bull shit from a thieve and crook like Karl and shit head Bush. But from the Clintons, I guess it is to be expected from these type of low class assholes. I am so glad she is going to fall on her ass bug time. We won't have much of party left when the Clintons get done screwing us..............................what a sick, sick bunch

Go Obama..............................

[vanessa04]

And your evidence that the Clinton campaign is the source of this (and not the GOP) is....

...what, exactly?

Your gullibility and Hillary-hatred is apparently boundless. Hillary is not Obama's only opposition.

It becomes clearer and clearer to me how George W. Bush got elected to a second term.

[rmetz74]

The claim is not that the Clinton campaign is the source of this garbage.

It's that she is choosing to allow it to continue by responding with an ambiguous answer, instead of either saying that a person's religion should not be a factor in an election, or that she knows him to be a lifelong Christian, which is the truth.

[SILVANUS]

And what.... ? I haven't seen much evidence of true, real Christianity in the oval office in the last decade. Just lies, greed and the rape of the American middle and lower classes, who should've known better, but didn't, because they always get suckered into voting for the Prom King/Frat Boy, even though they know deep inside he has contempt for them.

[surfcitysteven]

This kind of innuendo-leaving crap is exactly why I will not vote for Hillary, EVER! If she wins, I am done with the "democrat" party.

[zreeb]

Me too!

[GalaxieGal]

Even though this was rumor was started years ago by his GOP senate opponent?

Contrary to popular belief, the Clinton's aren't responsible for everything that happens in the US.

BTW, it's "Democratic" party

[combatveteran]

As I raise my children I am shocked at what my parents "permitted" me to do, actually I just did them. At the age of 17 I was exploring Peru, Bolivia, Chile, sleeping in abandoned houses, riding waves in dangerous places; like many of you I later was hitching across the states, working odd jobs, surrounded by a culture of drugs, rubbaging through the overripe fruit thrown in the garbage at the Piggly Wiggly.
I asked my parents the other day, weren't you afraid. I had to laugh, they said the only time we were afraid was when you got hooked up with the Christian group in Salinas. Mom and dad are Lutherans.
I ain't moooslim or anything, but I find it a little scarey that Obama prays to Jesus every night.
But fuck it , I'm going to vote for him. I guess Jesus would too.

[FirstShirt]

Hang in there. With a democrat in the White House we'll be eating out of garbage cans again before you know it.

[slow2]

You're silly, combatveteran. But pretty funny and one wonders if you really were in those places...bet you would be fun to have an adult beverage with. But do vote for Obama, we need him.