Kristof: Obama and the Bigots

[RamboLiberal]

The ugliest prejudices in this campaign season are not directly about race. Barack Obama’s skin color may cost him some working-class white voters, but it’s also winning some votes among blacks and among whites eager to signal their open-mindedness.

Sexism seems more of a factor. Americans have typically said in polls that they are less willing to vote for a woman than a black, and Shirley Chisholm (a black woman who ran for president in 1972) always said that she encountered more prejudice because of her sex than her race.

Yet the most monstrous bigotry in this election isn’t about either race or sex. It’s about religion.

The whispering campaigns allege that Mr. Obama is a secret Muslim planning to impose Islamic law on the country. Incredibly, he is even accused — in earnest! — of being the Antichrist.

Proponents of this theory offer detailed theological explanations for why he is the Antichrist, and the proof is that he claims to be Christian — after all, the Antichrist would say that, wouldn’t he? The rumors circulate enough that Glenn Beck of CNN asked the Rev. John Hagee, a conservative evangelical, what the odds are that Mr. Obama is the Antichrist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/opinion/09kristof.html?ref=opinion

[ingac70]

1. Hagee is a creep, but I was glad to see he refuted Beck's assertion. n.t

[dbmk]

5. Beck is a tool

But in all fairness it was not an assertion. It was pretty clear that he found the idea moronic. He was fishing for Hagee to say something outrageous, to get some Youtube time.
He is still a tool, though

[ladym55]

2. Can someone explain to me again

why Glenn Beck has a TV show and why he is quoted so often???? :shrug:

Just askin'. And he's getting the reasoned opinion of JOHN HAGEE??? :banghead:

There was a meeting of the minds. :sarcasm:

[RamboLiberal]

3. And why the hell he is under the banner of CNN?

I'd expect this from Faux - but CNN sure has plumbed the depths of the sewer for ratings! And I swear every time I flip through the channels past CNN Headline News there is Beck - how many damn times do they run this bigoted jerk?!

[Cassandra]

4. A "meeting of the minds"...

were they doing the Bump?