The LuLac Edition #1267, Aug. 15th, 2010

PHOTO INDEX: FOOT IN MOUTH.

FOOT IN MOUTH-ON PURPOSE

President Barack Obama told CNN Saturday that in defending the right of Muslims to build a community center and mosque near ground zero in a speech on Friday night, he was "not commenting on the wisdom" of the project.
Instead, Obama said he was trying to uphold the broader principle that the government should treat "everyone equal, regardless" of religion.
His comments were seen as step back from the support he appeared to give the controversial project during a White House dinner on Friday, though a spokesman for the administration quickly moved to clarify the president's remarks.
Obama, speaking on Saturday after giving a speech on the Gulf Coast oil disaster in Panama City, Florida, told CNN he "was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there," referring to the area near ground zero.
"I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding," the president added. "In this country, we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion."
At a White House dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Obama seemed to throw his support behind a controversial proposal to build an Islamic center and mosque near New York's ground zero, saying Friday that "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country."
And that is very true. Muslims have the right to practice their religion wherever they want in America. I can’t argue the sentiment. But the wounds of 911 are still very raw. Surely there has to be some sensitivity to the families of the innocent, non provoked people who were slaughtered without warning.
Why the President decided to take a stand on this issue is mystifying to me. Why, after he took the stand he seemingly backed away from it. During the week his Press Secretary side stepped the issue saying it was for the local to decide. If that was in the daily White House briefing book and those remarks on Friday night were prepared, why didn’t someone on the White House staff flag the remarks, talk to the President. This just reinforces the perception that the Obama White House is not ready for prime time messaging. On Friday afternoon Rush Limbaugh was railing about the Friday night dinner at the White House. These remarks gave the right, the Tea Party and the GOP a banquet on a silver platter for the Fall Elections. In 1975 when New York was on the brink of bankruptcy, President Ford’s advisers refused to give the strapped town a bailout. The New York Daily News ran a headline that said: Ford to New York: DROP DEAD. Ford never said it but the perception was there that he did. However right the President thinks he is, however just and constitutional he wants to appear, the headline will be: IN YOUR FACE 911 VICS. And a navy blue state like New York just might turn red. CNN also reports that Obama’s remarks drew praise from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who announced his support for the Islamic center last week. Bloomberg compared Obama's speech to a letter former President George Washington wrote in support of a Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. To Mayor Bloomberg, that letter was more than 200 years ago and the Jews in America and in that congregation at that time didn’t have fellow members killing Americans.