RNC Distances Itself From New Media Director Todd Herman's Obama-Muslim Tweet

The Republican National Committee is distancing itself from a personal tweet sent by one of its directors that suggested President Barack Obama had once admitted his Muslim heritage.

Late last week, the committee's new media director, Todd Herman, posted an item asking whether the president was among the 20 percent of the public who thinks he was a Muslim. The tweet linked to an old interview Obama gave in which he stumbled, verbally, in trying to explain why people were confused about his religion.

Asked whether the tweet was RNC sanctioned, spokesman Doug Heye replied, "no," before offering perhaps the fullest distancing yet of any Republican entity from the Obama-is-a-Muslim rumors.

"An errant, or sarcastically-intended tweet aside, the RNC has never spoken about the President's Christianity because it is both crystal clear and a non-issue. What is an issue, and remains foremost in the minds of voters is the failed efforts of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to grow jobs. Today, it was announced that existing home sales plunged by 27%; discussing this issue will serve the voters far better than any nonsense that won't employ a single American."

Politico's Ben Smith, who was first to notice Herman's tweet, suggested that the GOP had "concluded that poking at the allegation that Obama is a Muslim is less likely to blow up in their faces than they used to think." And, indeed, later in the day yet another GOP official seemed to offer a dog whistle of sorts when asked about the topic.

"I take the president at his word that he's a Christian," Republican gubernatorial hopeful Terry Branstad told the Des Moines Register.

But not everyone seems willing to poke around at the myth. Heye's statement was clear and direct in putting to bed the Muslim rumors. And by Tuesday afternoon, Herman's tweet had been removed from the page, replaced with a note that the page no longer existed.

Comments

[bibimimi]

12:45 PM on 08/26/2010

They can't govern, only work the 'smear and fear' for all it's worth.

[Khirad]

11:30 AM on 08/26/2010

What can you expect when the leader of the party does this?

Rush: Obama, Muslim, Obama, Muslim, Obama, Muslim
http://mediamatters.org/limbaughwire/2010/08/19#0045

And of course there's that cute game they play. Rush will ask how this country could be Islamophobic when it elected Barack HUSSEIN Obama. When confronted they'll pounce and ask why you think there's something wrong with that. As if that weren't their implication in the first place. They're too clever by half, and fooling nobody.

It's also like the cute game when it is said this doesn't matter (and of course, it shouldn't). But puh-leaze. As if the GOP haven't seen the polls where self-identified Republicans view Islam negatively 2-1. Like they aren't playing patty cake with these dog whistles.

[thepoliticalcat]

09:27 PM on 08/25/2010

Let's hope this fine young Republican finds himself looking for work soon.

[libwithaclue]

05:05 PM on 08/25/2010

Distance my a@@; they probably gave him a raise.

[StopMakingSense2]

02:58 PM on 08/25/2010

Republicans have a long history of confusing their rhetoric with reality.
Regardless it's unAmerican to pick on any one religion. They all should be picked on equally.
The republicans had problems with Romney and the magic underpants crowd too.
But don't accuse the republicans of being bigots?

[Candide33]

11:47 PM on 08/26/2010

Teeheehee, magic underpants :)

[krummlaw]

02:54 PM on 08/25/2010

The RNC should fire her.

It's not enough to "distance" the RNC from her. She should be banished.

[deirdreflanagan6]

01:33 PM on 08/25/2010

I hear NOTHING!........ twee-t

[walkawayfrombanks]

11:41 AM on 08/25/2010

like the gopers are qualified to judge the quality of anyone's christianity, LOL.

but more importantly, the quality of anyone's faith is nobody else's freaking business

because what matters is one's deed, on whatever basis it may be done.

[jamw]

11:06 AM on 08/25/2010

Stuff like this happens almost on a daily basis....it's their way of gaining attention and we keep falling for it. There is that old adage about coincidences!!!! Bait and switch, bait and switch...no solutions, no ideas, no dignity from these repugs! If you have some ideas could you please let us in on them instead of all the promises of "future unveilings"...well how about NOW.

[schildpad]

10:54 AM on 08/25/2010

Oh please, the reason why the RNC has never spoken about the issue is because they don't have to. Their brainwashed foot soldiers over on fox noise and the poor little baggies they're using, do it for them. That way they can make the occasional statement saying "we don't support that" or "we didn't approve that statement" and maintain the bubble of their hypocrisy.

[jokerdanny]

09:51 AM on 08/25/2010

Glenn Beck keeps saying he wants to restore the feeling of unity that Americans shared on 9-12-01. Well he and his Republican buddies can start by quitting this non-sense. Apparently that "Country First" campaign slogan they ran on in 2008 was just a big sad joke.

[SkelDaddy]

12:21 PM on 08/25/2010

This is the guy who by 2005 was publicly stating that he hated families of 9/11 victims.

[Max T]

09:51 AM on 08/25/2010

Hey! What a clever way to get your talking points reported? Have an underling make a slip up, and then release a clarification. Bravo, RNC!

Now why did news organizations bother to print the talking point, instead of focusing on the slip up?

[thetruthmustbetold]

09:50 AM on 08/25/2010

Mr. Obama’s only known connection to Christianity is his twenty-year membership in the Rev. Wright’s Black Liberation church. There are no YouTube videos of Rev. Wright preaching Christianity, although there are plenty in which Wright is preaching Black Liberation and the Black Nationalist dogma shared by ACORN, the Black Panthers and Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, all of whom were at home in Rev. Wright’s pew.

Those who have experienced Rev. Wright’s sermons via YouTube know that there was nothing Christ-like about his sermons. They were aimed at inciting black hatred towards white Americans and spewing socialist, rather than American ideals. The fact that Wright did so in the name of Christ falls in the category of blasphemy.

[icu2b1]

10:29 AM on 08/25/2010

Your hate and ignorance should be boxed and sold for feed to those who thrive on the sickness.

[thetruthmustbetold]

10:56 AM on 08/25/2010

I'm trying to lead you out of the darkness and you're going further back in the cave.

[Ashley Anderson Isadore]

10:36 AM on 08/25/2010

Wow!!!! He MUST be a Muslim, I guess he really Was Born in Kenya...

Quick...grab your teabag and follow me to Never Never land...our home land...

[thetruthmustbetold]

11:02 AM on 08/25/2010

I don't know if President Obama is a Moslem or not; don’t really care.
Do know he acts like a Moslem, and is totally insensitive to most of America.

[MidRoaderTurnedLeft]

09:49 AM on 08/25/2010

Next, the RNC needs to clarify that because the State of Hawaii has said Obama was born there, and Article IV of the Constitution has a "full faith and credit" provision: Obama was born in Hawaii.

Wonder when we'll see that one.

[leftyrock]

09:47 AM on 08/25/2010

I think the point that everyone is missing is that the President's religious beliefs are his business. Just like its no ones business about mine or yours. Everyone has the rights of freedom of religion

[bcarb]

09:51 AM on 08/25/2010

I don't think anyone is missing it, it's just that the RNC is ignoring it to their advantage.

[Enroh Mot]

11:40 AM on 08/25/2010

The RNC is ignorant, I just wish the Dems would realize that perpetual war isn't very smart, or that corporate globalized imperialism isn't a good idea either.