Obama: For the mosque … before he was agin’ it. UPDATE: Andrew McCarthy @ 9:35 am

Make no mistake, the young President is for the mosque being built near ground zero. I think. Well I’m pretty sure. Oh crap, I have no idea. I report … you decide.The firestorm began Friday night when the young President, speaking to Muslims (of course) to mark the begiining of Ramadan, Obama says just what the crowd wants to hear.

Speaking Friday night at a White House dinner to honor the holy month of Ramadan, the president said, “Muslims have the right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” an apparent show of support for the mosque.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QVZgya5FeQ

Then yesterday, the President is tracked down along the Gulf on his latest vacation, and when asked about the above statement of support for the mosque, he responds, “Support? What support.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q_gvOCCNic

That has led to a firestorm of response from Republicans who were stunned and predicted it could be an issue in November .

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khq_a1sP_QA

and from Democrats who tried desperately to spin back.

UPDATE: Andrew McCarthy, senior fellow at the National Review Institute, columnist and former Assistant United States Attorney who prosecuted the first World Trade Center Bombing will be joining us on this subject at 9:35 am today.

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

43 Comments

  1. winnie888 on August 15, 2010 at 5:21 pm

    Jim, this is a toughie…How does one get past the fact that this particular religion was, in no small part, responsible for the deaths of 3000+ innocent Americans and now, of all places to build a mosque, two blocks from ground zero seems like a good location?  And yet, there is the first amendment.  Truly, I just don't know where I land on this one.

    To further confuse, it does sound like Obama is giving it a thumbs up in the first video and then retracting that statement in the next video.  If noncommittal, perhaps his best move would be to remain silent on the topic.



  2. Dimsdale on August 15, 2010 at 5:43 pm

    They called Bush "stubborn" because he stood by his decisions.  What do we call Øbama, just the leftover jackass? (pun intended)



  3. TomL on August 16, 2010 at 3:47 am

    I just can't believe that barry is talking about "rights" when he has been kicking "rights" to the curb in order to pass his socialist agenda.

    Now I have a question for you all, Are the unalienable rights that we have as citizens of the United States of America granted to people who are not citizens after all someone commits a felony and goes to jail they lose they're rights.



  4. chris-os on August 16, 2010 at 5:20 am

    Did these American Muslims lead the 911 terrorist attack?

    Did Islam attack America?

    Are we at war with 1 billion Islamic people?



    • Steve McGough on August 16, 2010 at 5:59 am

      Q1: No, but I would think it perfectly acceptable to ask if the leaders who want to build this mosque have funded or are funding terrorist organizations. What are their backgrounds? What have they said/done in the past? Do they think Hamas is a terrorist organization? Where is the money coming from?

      Q2: Islam did not attack America, rather terrorists who are using Islam as an excuse clearly are at war with the west. They want to convert you or cut your head off.

      Q3: Not all of them, but certainly some of them seem to be at war with us.



    • Dimsdale on August 16, 2010 at 6:51 am

      As Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, a Muslim and the general manager of Arab news channel, Al-Arabiya has said it is a "fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims."

       

      How many terrorists does it take to blow up a building?  One?  Two?  We have to be successful every time, they only have to be successful once.  Why make it easier with a known supporter of terrorist groups like Hamas?

       



    • Wyndeward on August 17, 2010 at 8:30 am

      IIRC, Imam Rauf is already on the record as wanting a "more Shariah compliant United States" and accusing the United States of being "an accomplice" in the 9/11 attack.

      I mean, hey, if wanting Shariah and thinking that 9/11 was an inside job is "moderate…"

      He even lacks the honesty to acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist group.
      http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/opinion/16douth



    • TomL on August 16, 2010 at 7:58 am

      Chris you are assuming they're Americam Muslims



    • Dimsdale on August 17, 2010 at 3:18 am

      "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."  – Joseph Heller, Catch 22



  5. Lucinda on August 16, 2010 at 5:36 am

    The first amendment gives U.S. citizens the right to practice their religion, but it does not give the right to build a building wherever they please.

    Ground Zero is sacred ground.

    I believe Charles Krauthammer put it most eloquently. His article <a title="here" href="http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-krauthamme-column-0813-20100813,0,303481.column&quot; rel="nofollow">here



  6. David R on August 16, 2010 at 5:59 am

    Poor Obama, hasn't figured out what Reagan, FDR and JFK knew intuitively: that emotion trumps reason. Nowhere did he say that he favored building a community center (that includes a mosque) near ground zero, but even the venerable New York Times must have figured it makes better copy to say he backed the plan. In my mind, what he clearly said was that because we are a nation of laws, we don't mess with basic rights because of the mood of the times.  Certainly it is a message that the enemies of freedom need to hear. Certainly it is a message about the strength of our nation that we will not be intimidated by our enemies nor compromise our committment to law to satisfy a transient desire. I can't help but think that Reagan et.al. who I don't doubt believed the same would have  finessed it differently.



    • Dimsdale on August 16, 2010 at 6:54 am

      If these Muslims were tolerant and sympathetic, they would not insist on building here against the wishes of New Yorkers and the rest of the country.  They are clearly trying to make a point, and it isn't that America is the land of the free.

       

      I wonder if I would be allowed to use their bathroom if I was visiting NYC?…..



    • GdavidH on August 16, 2010 at 10:37 am

      Simple answer to your question…NO!

      However, if you were in Mecca… Oh yeah…



    • Dimsdale on August 17, 2010 at 3:20 am

      You'd just come out a foot shorter (by a head)!



  7. Anne-EH on August 16, 2010 at 6:03 am

    Well should the Japanesse build a Shinto temple near, next to, or even on the site of the sunken Arizona? Well the same thing in the case of the propose Mosque near the GZ area. That area became a bural ground for 3,000 people, many of whom their bodies were never found.

    Best to have a non-denominatiol chapel for prayer and meditation for people of all faiths, with no chief faith sponser. Also a Greek Orthodox Church was never rebuilt and there is talks about a mosque. PLEASE, let the Orthodox church be rebuilt first since it was there on that fateful day.

     



  8. sammy22 on August 16, 2010 at 6:12 am

    I am w/ David R. But then, others want to pick on the scab that seems to have been growing over the wound of this awful catastrophe. Otherwise how can the unending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan be justified? And by all means let's keep going back to WWII.



    • Dimsdale on August 16, 2010 at 6:58 am

      Maybe if they built the memorial before this mosque gets built the scab could heal….

       

      Staying with the scab motif, could you consider the mosque a site of MRSA, the flesh eating bacteria?

       



    • TomL on August 16, 2010 at 8:21 am

      Sammy this isn't a skinned knee it's major surgery, they wanted to cut the heart out of America and we shall not forget. Remember this was the 2nd time and I say "no not there"



    • chris-os on August 18, 2010 at 4:04 am

      Read an article that made it all so simple-the Repubs pick on the scab of 9/11 every election cycle-'02, '04, '06, '08 and now '10'.

      They want the country to forget the atrocious bush years-the 2 wars, the economic collapse, etc.

      Bin Ladan is now in his glory-the Repubs have proven his point that Americans hate all of Islam, even the Muslim -Americans that have been here for generations.

      We tout freedom and equality-the next minute slamming those that are"different" without any shame. Thanks, repubs for vindicating all the beliefs of the real terrorists.



  9. sammy22 on August 16, 2010 at 6:18 am

    And GZ has been proclaimed sacred by someone. So we need someone to prescribe a "safe distance" from it to do anything.



  10. TomL on August 16, 2010 at 8:04 am

    There is a Mosque located across the street from Electric Boat in Groton CT. Right across the street from where we build our nuclear subs for some reason I don't think that's a coincidence.



  11. sammy22 on August 16, 2010 at 8:35 am

    I seem to recall there was a time when there was a Communist cell on every block or so. We don't seem to have gone past that "fear point" as we keep blowing up Islamic countries.



    • TomL on August 16, 2010 at 8:59 am

      I remember someone saying "turnover Obama or we are going in". "You are with us or against us".



    • Dimsdale on August 17, 2010 at 3:21 am

      I remember someone saying "Peace in our time!" too…



  12. leeve on August 16, 2010 at 9:46 am

    "After then showing up very late for dinner with Netanyahu, Biden issued a statement condemning the new Israeli move and declaring that it undermined trust just as U.S.-brokered talks were about to resume after a 14-month hiatus.

    The Obama administration decided to use the word condemn — the strongest kind of diplomatic language — after a 90-minute debate among the Biden party in Israel, the National Security Council and the State Department."  http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2010/03/

    But it is ok to build a mega mosque on sacred ground in the US in a place that was attacked by muslims in the name of allah.  This guy is wacked.  Who needs al-queda, we have Obama.



  13. leeve on August 16, 2010 at 9:56 am

    nd remember this?  "

    But then, as is his habit , Obama turned the concept around. “Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. 

    “And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.  And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.”  http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/995



    • winnie888 on August 17, 2010 at 1:57 am

      leeve:  I also recall Obama saying that we should all learn to speak Spanish.  Now he's saying we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam?  Look, I am not getting any younger here and I try to keep an open mind, but I'm NOT going to read or quote from the Koran in Spanish ever in my lifetime…I know my limits!



    • winnie888 on August 17, 2010 at 1:58 am

      or is that Quran?  I never know which spelling is the correct spelling.



  14. Anne-EH on August 16, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    How IRONIC, at a time when there is this RUSH to build a mosque a few blocks from Ground Zero, a Greek Orthodox Church, which was in the very area where the WTC Towers were, was the only church to have been distroyed on September 11, 2001. Yet it has NOT been rebuit. Here is the website of the church:
    http://www.stnicholasnyc.com/



  15. David R on August 16, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    I am not as upset by a community center with a mosque located around the corner as I am having those B*st*rds on Wall Street so close by the site. They almost drove the world economy into another great depression, and I can safely say the drying up of capital that resulted has led to many more deaths among the poor of many nations (all, one at a time) than were taken on 9-11. 



    • Dimsdale on August 17, 2010 at 3:25 am

      I think Wall Street and our economy was the target of the 9/11 killers.  The WTC was a symbol of that.



  16. April Lynn on August 16, 2010 at 2:02 pm

    The first amendment doesn't say that any religious dwelling can or cannot be built in certain locations.  Obviously this is bad judgement, bad taste, purposely hurtful and provoking to many, especially the families of 9/11.  The fact is that Muslin Extremists killed 3000+ Americans of all religions that day.  That fact cannot be distorted or forgotten nor should a mosque of the same religion be built purposely to provoke heartache and hate.  Its funny, liberals shout tolerance, but when there is a difference in opinion towards them, tolerance doesn't exist.

    If the mosque gets built, I think Greg Gutfeld said it best, a gay bar should be built next to the mosque.  Lets see how that tolerance works out.



    • Dimsdale on August 17, 2010 at 3:26 am

      We are all so overwrought about their sensibilities.  Well, what about ours?



  17. April Lynn on August 16, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    And as far as O-Dumbo goes, this is another fine example of lack of leadership and acting "Stupidly", the Police Officer and The Professor, Shirley Sherrod, etc… on and on.  By the way, you can keep your healthcare too, I think……….



  18. leeve on August 16, 2010 at 11:36 pm


    <a href="
    http://www.faithfreedom.org/” target=”_blank”>http://www.faithfreedom.org/

    Learn the truth.  And Jim the Islamic holy texts does sayFight them until they are Muslim.  http://www.faithfreedom.org/features/verbatim/fig



  19. PatRiot on August 18, 2010 at 7:23 am

    Who is the shortsighted, money hungery realtor that sold this property?

    Hey  – Gov. Patterson, don't give ANYONE and state (read: taspayer paid for) property.  Next thing you know the Feds will be giving Utah to the Chinese to pay off outstanding debt.

    If I am not mistaken, there's an Arizona rancher, on the Mexican border, willing to make a land deal. 



Obama mosque

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