State and national outlets spent more time on Perry’s inflammatory claim that Obama is waging “war on religion.” In the first Register post, reporter Jennifer Jacobs got comments from LGBT advocacy groups, but concluded the post with a long list of examples provided by the Perry campaign to support the “war” claim, including the Obama administration’s decision not to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act in court, without offering further context. The Register’s second post pushed further, introducing views from leaders of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.
On CNN, Blitzer challenged Perry’s rhetoric more directly, and got an illuminating answer: one front in the war, Perry said, is the Obama administration “clearly sending messages to people of faith and organizations of faith that we’re not going to support you with federal dollars” if the organizations don’t abide by federal regulations.
That sort of exchange can help voters decide whether they think the “war” rhetoric is well-founded. Meanwhile, Blitzer’s CNN colleague Anderson Cooper introduced another relevant point: at last week’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the White House, President Obama delivered a religious message about the birth of Christ.
Man, the things these clowns have to say in order to amuse the rabid, dittohead limbo living, primary voters. That's sort of the real story here, during the worst economic crisis in decades and during Perry's worst state environmental crisis in quite some time (drought, global warming) these clowns want to talk, and in some cases are compelled to talk, about nothing issues like religion in schools and gays in the military.
After which, the candidate has to walk in front of the general public and attempt to come up with a message that doesn't alienate the majority and appeals to the rabid dittohead minority. Like the proverbial pregnant virgin, that's a hard trick to pull off.
What I find hilarious is the free agent agitprop that's risen up to again appeal to the rabid group who will believe anything that's convenient and the lack of shame on display by the producers of this stuff.
http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/the-new-and-old-attack-on-elizabeth-warrens-congressional-oversight-panel/
"But yes, to recap. Back then Warren was on a mad campaign to demand too much accountability for the bailouts and a crazy crusade about household balance sheets that no respectable person would care about because she cares too much about working families. Now Rove funds attack ads saying Warren is a bailout queen who throws working families under the bus. Even though every respectable person has caught up and knows the consumer balance sheet is important topic of discussion in this recession. Amazing how shameless the Right’s attack machine is."
The question is, is the American public going to be as gullible as the right expects it to be? As gullible as the right's primary voters?
#1 Posted by Thimbles, CJR on Sat 10 Dec 2011 at 03:01 PM
Since when has the main stream media or this school of education rag known anything about faith.....
#2 Posted by Jimmy Kilpatrick, CJR on Mon 12 Dec 2011 at 07:17 AM
Andrew: I thought I would point out to you that I posted on the Perry ad last week on my blog (linked below) and noted that the Iowa Department of Education said school prayer is permissible, as long as it is not initiated by the school or interferes with class work. The post also pointed out that the U.S. Department of Education has issued guidance to schools allowing for school prayer under certain circumstances.
http://qctimes.com/blogs/campaign-trail/perry-s-new-ad-targets-social-conservatives-updated/article_a1f4d39c-2118-11e1-b7c1-0019bb2963f4.html
Ed Tibbetts
Quad-City Times
#3 Posted by Ed Tibbetts, CJR on Tue 13 Dec 2011 at 10:23 AM
Ed,
Thanks for the comments on your research, and for sending along the link to your blog.
#4 Posted by Andrew Duffelmeyer, CJR on Tue 13 Dec 2011 at 12:45 PM