And Your Point Would Be...?

Former Reagan official Frank Gaffney told a panel at Phyllis Schafly's "How To Take Back America" clambake that Barack Obama is our first Muslim president.

If Bill Clinton, on the basis of special interest pandering and identity politics, was properly called the first Black American President, on that same basis, Barack Obama should be called the first Muslim American President.

Another panelist, Bill Federer, chimed in:

In Islam, if your father is a Muslim, you’re automatically a Muslim. Since Barack’s father, stepfather, and grandfather were all Muslim, the Muslim world views him as Muslim.

To quote Colin Powell, so what if he was? What difference would it make? Why shouldn't America elect a Muslim as president? Why can't a kid growing up in Toledo or Miami or Phoenix or Denver or Seattle who happens to be Muslim aspire to follow in the footsteps of the forty-three men who have been elected president?

It's very simple: because bigots like Gaffney and Federer are what pass for reasonable and respectable members of the Republican party, that's why.

Crossposted.