Yes, I'm leaving for the beach momentarily, and my daughter is in my lap and for the moment not crying, but I felt obliged to write a quick take on Obama and the lower Manhattan mosque.
Good for him for saying what he did. There were a hundred excellent reasons to duck it and stay out of it. But what the hell. He's the president. A president ought to lead sometimes. Say what he actually thinks about something. Hang the consequences.
This is going to be demagogued to death in the next few days. The important part is going forward. Hang tough. Stand by the position. Don't trim sails or add asterisks after Mitch McConnell or Dick Cheney or whomever says whatever hideous thing they're going to say. Say that McConnell or Cheney or whomever is the one being unAmerican, and there is absolutely no doubt that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would agree with me. Throw it back at them.
The people who think he's a Mooslem already think it. The vast majority of voters in the middle do not. And obviously liberal voters do not. Ignore the rightwing noise and aim words at the latter two groups and everything will be more or less fine. The economy is going to be the issue anyway.
