"Is Obama Awakening To The "Muslim World?"

[Greta M.]

"Is Obama Awakening To The "Muslim World?"

Last week, Barack Obama made some extraordinary statements. And some of them were not made from behind “the Podium of the President-elect.”

In a not-so-widely publicized interview with journalists from the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Obama answered questions on a wide range of issues, most notably, how he intends to deal with what he calls “the Muslim world.”

Early on, Mr. Obama was asked “do you anticipate being sworn in as Barack Obama, or Barack Hussein Obama?” This is an interesting question on a variety of levels.

Over the past two years, I have uttered Mr. Obama’s obviously Arab-sounding middle name on talk radio only a handful of times. I have recited the words “Barack Husein Obama” about as many times as I have said the words “John Sidney McCain.”

I have done this a time or two on my own local radio talk show in Washington, D.C., as well as on other radio talk shows where I have guest hosted, in Los Angeles, Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago, and on nationally syndicated programs.

Without fail, my rare references to the name “Hussein” drew nasty phone calls and email messages each time. The comments were presumably from partisan Obama supporters, calling me a “bigot,” “fear-monger,” and “racist,” and insisting that I was only saying Mr. Obama’s middle name so as to embarrass him.

Of course, the reaction from these talk radio listeners implied that there is indeed something embarrassing about Obama’s middle name And it’s interesting that American journalists would raise this issue to Obama directly, even if in a somewhat back-handed way. In response, Obama stated “I think the tradition is that they (the former Presidents) use all three names. And I will follow the tradition, not trying to make a statement one way or the other. I'll do what everybody else does..”

Now, for the record, there is no clear, concise tradition at stake here. When reciting the Oath of Office, President Dwight David Eisenhower said “I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, do solemnly swear…” And when it was Ronald Wilson Reagan’s turn in 1981, he stated “I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear..,” without reference to either his middle name or middle initial.

So does Obama feel it necessary to justify the uttering of his own middle name, by fabricating the notion that he’s just “doing it the way all the other President’s did it?” Is he uncomfortable with his middle name? Is he embarrassed by it? The name itself is not so important. It’s the reaction to the name, from Obama, as well as from his partisan “supporters,” that is noteworthy.

More importantly, Obama was asked whether he still intends to “give a speech in an Islamic capitol,” something he promised to do while he was a candidate. To this, Obama replied:

“This is something that I talked about doing in the campaign and it's something that I intend to follow through on. What the time frame is, how we structure that, you know, is something that I will determine with my national security team in the coming weeks and months. But I think we've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular. So, we need to take advantage of that and the message I want to send is that we will be unyielding in stamping out the kind of terrorist extremism that we saw in Mumbai…”

Throughout his campaign, Mr. Obama reiterated the popular liberal notions that America is hated throughout the world, and this hatred is all because of President Bush, and once Bush is out of the White House the world will love America again. In his famous speech from Berlin last summer, Obama claimed that both Americans and Europeans need to follow the example set by “the vast majority of Muslims” who seek peace throughout the world. And his campaign promise to deliver a speech in an Islamic capitol was thought to be the ultimate gesture of tolerance and acceptance, the ultimate celebration of diversity, that would finally bridge the gap between the Muslim world and civilized society.

Yet now, as the soon-to-be 44th President of the United States, Obama is making his proposed speech at an Islamic capitol contingent on national security concerns. In discussing his promises to “reach out” to the Muslim world, he can’t avoid mentioning the murderous attack on the economic epicenter of Mumbai by Muslim extremists. He equivocates over a simple question about his own middle name. In short, Mr. Obama is, in a variety of ways, acknowledging, however hesitantly, that there are things about the Muslim world that are absolutely uncivilized, and are not to be tolerated.

Our President-elect may be, for the first time, awakening to some harsh realities about the world. He may also be implicitly acknowledging what he has always known, and the pacifist campaign rhetoric was nothing more than that - - rhetoric.

Regardless, one can only hope that an extremely liberal Congress, and the social and political left, generally, will experience a similar “awakening.”

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (L), U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful Barack Obama and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley smile during a rally in Chicago in this April 16, 2007 file photo. Blagojevich, was arrested on December 9, 2008 on "staggering" corruption charges that alleged he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by fellow Democrat, President-elect Barack Obama. REUTERS/John Gress/Files (UNITED STATES)

In this June 20, 2005 file photo, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., speaks as Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., listens during a news conference in St. Louis. Federal authorities arrested Blagojevich Tuesday Dec. 9, 2008 on charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder. (AP Photo/James A. Finley, File)

In this March 21, 2006, file photo Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, left, celebrates with his wife, Patti, in Chicago after winning the Democratic nomination for governor. Federal authorities arrested Blagojevich Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008. A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democratic governor was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama for personal benefits for himself and his wife. (AP Photo/Brian Kersey, File)

In this Aug. 17, 2005, file photo Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, left, laughs with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich during Governor's Day at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Ill. Blagojevich was roused from bed and arrested Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008, after prosecutors said he was caught on wiretaps audaciously scheming to sell now President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a plum job for himself in the new administration. (AP Photo/Randy Squires, File)

In this Dec. 2, 2008 file photo, President-elect Barack Obama, right, greets Illinois Gov. Rob Blagojevich, left, at the Bipartisan meeting of the National Governor's Association in Philadelphia. Federal authorities in Chicago have arrested Blagojevich, and they've accused him of attempting to benefit financially from his position to appoint a Barack Obama's Senate replacement. Looking on are Gov. of Indiana., Mitch Daniels, left center, and Gov. of Ohio, Ted Strickland, right center.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

[JJ]

Irrelevant--his name is Barry Soetoro, he never had it changed legally, and this should come out when he is prosecuted for fraud obtaining the Senate seat and the POTUS position.

I don't believe the story that he went to a lawyer in Hawaii and had it changed holds water--we'll see.