I thought this opinion piece article from the Washington Post is worth reading–less for what it says about Walker and more for what it says about what people imply about President Obama.
Dana Milbank, Opinion writer, started his piece:
“I don’t know.”
“Thus proclaimed Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential hopeful, when asked by The Post’s Dan Balz and Robert Costa on Saturday whether President Obama is a Christian.”
(Dana Milbank writes about political theater in the nation’s capital. He joined the Post as a political reporter in 2000.)
“This is not a matter of conjecture. The correct answer is yes: Obama is Christian, and he frequently speaks about it in public. Balz and Costa presented Walker with this information to give him a second chance to answer.
“But even when prompted with the facts, Walker — in Washington for the National Governors Association meeting — persisted, saying, “I’ve actually never talked about it or I haven’t read about that,” and, “I’ve never asked him that,” and, “You’ve asked me to make statements about people that I haven’t had a conversation with about that.”
“This is an intriguing standard. I’ve never had a conversation with Walker about whether he’s a cannibal, a eunuch, a sleeper cell for the Islamic State, a sufferer of irritable bowel syndrome or a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. By Walker’s logic, it would be fair for me to let stand the possibility that he just might be any of those — simply because I have no personal and direct refutation from him.
I think the piece is worth reading: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-we-dont-know-about-scott-walker/2015/02/23/626e738a-bba8-11e4-bdfa-b8e8f594e6ee_story.html?wpisrc=nl_pdmost&wpmm=1
“This is insidious, and goes beyond last week’s questioning of Obama’s patriotism, because it allows Walker to wink and nod at the far-right fringe where people really believe that Obama is a Muslim from Kenya who hates America. The governor is flirting with a significant segment of the Republican primary electorate: those who have peddled the notion (accepted by 17 percent of Americans at the end of Obama’s first term) that Obama is a Muslim.
“Beyond that, Walker’s technique shuts down all debate, because there’s no way to have a constructive argument once you’ve disqualified your opponent as unpatriotic, un-Christian and anti-American.”
This seems insidious to me too. I’m not a Walker-hater, though I do disagree with him about many state issues. I respect his implied faith statements. What I abhor is when individuals seek to label Obama, and others, as un-American and un-Christian because of their tolerance for difference of opinion.
For the record, I love a lot of Republicans. I hate it when extremists slash and burn public people because they disagree with them, and they seek to cut them down to nothing.
Hopeful 