According to this story, a group called Catholics for Obama is calling Catholics and has a standard approach which includes the question:
“1. How can you support a ‘Mormon’ who does not believe in Jesus Christ?”
It is impossible to know how many such calls have been made. Still, I wonder how the media would have responded in 2000 if the Bush campaign had called Gore supporters asking them how they could support a VP candidate, Joe Lieberman, who did not believe in Jesus Christ.
Jerks.
I would suggest you may have reacted too quickly. The story you cite is from Catholic Online that has published numerous “Right Wing Myths” as fact.
One example is the “Obama phone”.
A program was started under Bill Clinton to help the poor by subsidizing a land line phone. George Bush expanded it to include a free cell phone and a limited number of minutes each month. The Obama administration continued the program. Though the Bush administration set up the program and got its funding, most people got their phones during the Obama Presidency, thus the term “The Obama Phone”\
Experts believe it costs about the same as a land line subsidy. The phone is a cheap talk and text and the free minutes are limited. After that you pay. Unfortunately some woman at a Romney Rally was cought on You Tube talking about a free phone from Obama.
People began to email one another, right wing blogs broadcast it, it became embellished and even more anti-Obama. Of course, These people, including Catholic Online, did not fact check and reported it as fact.
I would suggest that you shoul fact check this accustation with reutable sources and see if there is real verification. Don’t become part of the magnification of ignorance and prejudice that Catholic Online can be.
Interestlingly, there is a story that broke today about a Romney phone caller who accused Obama of wanting to kill medicare and stated that he was a Muslim. She apparently went off script and gave her own beliefs. The question is will the left now accuse the Romney campaign of doing this and create a “left Wing Myth.
I have worked on many campaigns and you do not write scripts like you suggest that trhis group did. Forget honesty for a minute, any political pro knows it will backfire on you. When the dirty stuff such as push polling is done, the group that does it and the donors who support it do not want to be identified.
For example, we still do not know who did the “McCain had a black baby” campaign in South Carolina (though there are suspects).
I remember how absolutely convinced some of my family was that Obama was going to stoke anti-Mormon prejudice as his primary campaign strategy (remember the supposed “Portray Romney as weird” story?). Turns out that never happened, but still, if this Catholics for Obama group is stooping to that it’s despicable. The article you cite has a bit of a
forwarded email feel in that the respondant’s replies seem too on-the-money. Is there anything on this from a less blatantly partisan source? I’m not sure I’d make insinuations about how the media is or should be reacting without more information.
LBK and Casey, part of the reason of linking to this report is to give it more attention so it can either be refuted or confirmed. It is a second-hand report. Nevertheless, it does have the ring of truth to me because the main subject of the article, if you read it, is abortion, not Mormonism, which is just mentioned in passing. If there is more information debunking this, I would be happy to report it.
LBK, I think the so-called Obama Phone video is a perfect illustration of people who become dependent on the government; these people are more likely than not, in my opinion, going to vote for the person who will continue the program. Granted, the program did not start under Obama, but Obama is a supporter of government run programs like these. I would think Obama and his supporters would be thrilled that this woman is calling it an Obama Phone. He has embraced Obamacare, right? Why not Obama Phone?
With respect, Geoff, I think when passing along rumors and heresay the burden of proof falls on the ones spreading it, not the debunkers, and I think this article warrants more skepticism than you give. Also, why wonder aloud what the media outcry would have been if the Bush administration had done something similar? I don’t see any accusations that the Obama campaign orchestrated these alleged calls, and even in the Super PAC era there’s a difference between official campaigns and outside groups. I can show you plenty of Romney supporters who publicly attack Obama’s Christianity if you want a better comparison. I’m a professed liberal who’s unlikely to vote for either guy, but I’m still ashamed whenever people on “my side” mock Romney’s religion, so while I increasingly doubt this story’s veracity I’d be the first to condemn it if a reliable source proves it…I know M* leans more libertarian than Republican, but I hope you feel the same when folks on “your side” say similarly terrible things, even if you don’t care for the person they’re saying it about.
Right Casey, and the MSM is totally fair to both candidates, there’s no biased reporting at all, and if we’d look around we’d see rainbows and candy corn everywhere…
Brian, Obama didn’t have much choice but to eventually accede to the use of Obamacare as the description for the ACA. But it originated as a term of derision, and was used hundreds of times more often by republicans than democrats over the years:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03/25/us/politics/fighting-to-control-the-meaning-of-obamacare.html
With respect, Casey, this is a Mormon blog that reports things of interest to Mormons. People like yourself are likely to dismiss this as rumor, not fit worth reporting, etc. Many other people are likely to see it as very likely indeed. Readers can make their own decisions, and it will be interesting to see if more attention is given to this in the days ahead.