Funny how Hamas endorsed a Muslim apostate, huh?

He's simultaneously an empty suit, an angry black man, a follower of Rev. Wright, a Muslim, too willing to talk to bad guys, too willing to attack Pakistan, too elite, too weak, unelectable, a media darling, and finding it too easy because he's black.

Now wait a minute, Obama was born and raised in Hawaii, so doesn't that make him subject to Hawaiian law? Technically, Obama owes his fealty to King Kamehameh! Beware the tiki, it is tabu!

I assume that Luttwak has some credible authority (albeit one not disclosed in the article) for his claim that Muslims consider Obama a Muslim apostate. For what it's worth, I've never met a Muslim who thinks that. As I understand it, he polls very well among American Muslims.

My alternative hypothesis is that Luttwak's op-ed is a crock of doo-doo contrived as a way to get the "He's a Muslim!" scare into the New York Times. This op-ed offers a polite way for McCain to raise the "Muslim" issue to scare the bejesus out of Muslim-fearing ignoramuses without actually claiming that Obama is a secret Muslim ...

Can't wait for tomorrow's letters to the editor.

I hope it doesn't get any play, but with some people looking for any way to sow the seed of doubt in the minds of undecided voters, they may use this.

This isn't that new. Daniel Pipes was pushing this meme a couple of months ago. A very conservative relative of mine was trying to push it as well, on the strength of Pipes' claims.

I'd be shocked that the NYT gave it credibility, but then I remember Bill Kristol.

You'd think, but after this primary campaign nothing shocks anymore.

How can Obama possibly "renounce Islam" when he had never embraced it for a single minute of his life? Nor, in point of fact, had his father.

My husband was Iranian, and the worst Muslim the world has ever known. He ate pork, drank alcohol, never said prayers, etc. He didn't denounce Islam verbally, but did so quite eloquently, by his behaviors. Yet the clerics would regard our daughter as a Muslim. So? That doesn't make her one. If any Muslim tried to tell her that it did, she'd laugh in their face.

Oh, the Muslims may confer "embrasure" of Islam merely by being born to a Muslim, and merely because they consider his mother's beliefs beneath their dignity to consider, but how in the world does that obligate OBAMA? As a seed, inside his mother, should he have rejected fertilization by his father, so he wouldn't have to be a Muslim? If there was an apostate, it was Obama's father. He rejected the Islam conferred on him by his own dad. Can one be born a Muslim, even if it requires skipping a generaton? Wouldn't surprise me.

Hate to tell ya, folks, but Islam is irrational. If that offends any Muslims, that's unfortunate. But the irrationality of Islam is real - and abundant. It confers Islam just by being born, yet it says you aren't a Muslim unless you say the right words about Allah as the only God and Muhammad as his last prophet, and belief in the Final Day. Obama has not done that. So if they can't make him a Muslim by personal choice, they'll try to make him one by default.

As I said, irrational. For anyone in the West to hold him to Islam because Islam would want to do so, is equally irrational.

And the neocons eat it up.

Apparently what Obama thinks of any of this doesn't seem to count at all. How many times does he have to prove to idiots that he is anything BUT a Muslim, and never was one? You cannot leave a religion you never belonged to. And no Muslim on earth can make anyone a Muslim who never wanted to be one. They try, though. Oh, they try.

And, just FYI, Muslims do convert by the sword. They have, ever since Muhammad himself did it the first time. That "zeroed out" that quote that "there shall be no compulsion in religion." It's in the Quran, but obligates no Muslim. Their own prophet changed it - by example. The sword is entirely acceptable for converting. They've done it ever since, and still do it that way - often. If Muslims don't like that I said it, that's unfortunate. Maybe American Muslims don't subscribe to forced conversions, but Islam in general does. It doesn't change the truth of it. American Muslims are not at ALL like Middle Eastern Muslims. They've tried to mix two things that don't really mix at all: Islam and democracy. But I credit them for wanting to.

And I'd like to see someone TRY to tell Obama that respecting his mother's values was unrighteous!

He had ample opportunity to yell "Allah Ackhbar" with a lot of people to cheer him on in Indonesia, but didn't. He's hardly likely to do so now.

Nor do I think that, as a child of 8, he kept his Muslim leanings secret so that he could one day become President of the U.S. and set about turning it into another Islamic State - with only the valiant GOP as the protectors of America against his evil ambitions.

Yet some Americans believe it. Dohhh. Their real reason, though, for "believing" it is that they don't want a "N" as president. Their racism is showing.

If he's the candidate, the GOP will go after him like a fox after a goose about any smear they've been able to conjure up. Because they have nothing of substance. Their tactics will backfire, just as they did when Hillary tried to use them on him. Just as they should.

America (I hope) is wising up to this kind of trickery and slimy tactics. Those who use them only hurt themselves.

It's actually a compliment to Obama that they would use these tactics; it shows us all how bankrupt the GOP's OWN policies and values are. And how little there is to justify them. Other than propaganda, of course.

John Kerry has been vindicated, too. He kept telling us that re-electing Bush would be "more of the same." We got it. Are we having fun yet?

Hamas can endorse Obama if they want to. His response should be: "TRY to imagine how LITTLE I CARE."

And if Hamas supports him because they think he'd be soft on them, I think they'd find there's a lot more steel in the man than they ever dreamed of. These are people who don't know what "quiet" strength and courage are. With Obama, they'd find it out soon enough - to their dismay. What's really stupid is that any American can think Obama is weak, on any oppressive group. WE should know better by now.

So what if Obama would be persona non grata in the Islamic states because they view him as an apostate? Tough rocks. You can't "renounce" a religion you never embraced. To say that you're a Muslim because you were born to the son of one is saying that Islam can OWN people. There are folks who hold a different view of that sort of stinking attitude.

Without having to go to war to prove it, Obama will be capable of giving lots of despots a big comeuppance. They don't know what they're in for. I'm almost looking forward to seeing Hugo Chavez gibbering about Obama one day soon. It'll be fun to watch that loudmouth stick his foot in his mouth - again and again. He shames indigenous people everywhere.

Everything about Obama - just everything - is about humanitarianism, freedom, compassion, civilized behaviors, eliminating our hate and bigotry, and living up to our highest abilities and attributes. Nobody can tear him down, because there's no place on him for their claws to sink in.

They might try campaigning purely on the issues, but they'd lose heavily there, too. So I guess they might as well leap into the sewer and smear their opponent, since there's nothing to lose.

I'm SO glad I'm a Democrat!