(MintPress) – President Barack Obama heard familiar attacks this week, most falling in the similar vein of his theorized alliance of radical Islamists and his association with the Muslim faith. It is a label that he has not been able shake away, with most recently Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich stoking the speculative fires set by the tea party years ago.
It is a strategy that has propelled Santorum in the polls, edging closer to rival Mitt Romney. Romney has shied away from the accusations, which has resulted in far less tea party support and advertisements dubbing him the “Massachusetts Moderate.” In Michigan, where the tea party presence has been strong, Santorum held a slight advantage over Romney.
On Thursday, Santorum and Gingrich both took shots at Obama’s foreign policy in the Muslim world. In response to American troops allegedly accidently burning copies of the Quran that were stored in a detainee facility, Obama apologized for the incident, saying the holy books were not intended to be burned.
“I think that the message that we’re trying to convey here is that this was inadvertent. We take it very seriously,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Gingrich spoke out against the apology, saying it is unnecessary to feel such remorse for a dangerous radical group and that Obama’s sympathy is misguided.
“There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama’s attention in a negative way and he is consistently apologizing to people who do not deserve the apology of the president of the United States period,” Gingrich said.
Carney said it was a sensitive issue and deemed the apology to be “appropriate.”
“His primary concern as commander in chief is the safety of the American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there,” Carney said. “And it was absolutely the right thing to do.”
Gingrich saw it differently, saying the president is catering to the United States’ enemy.
“This president has gone so far at appeasing radical Islamists that he is failing in his duty as commander in chief,” Gingrich said.
Criticism also came from the direction of Santorum on Thursday, when he railed against Obama for his handling of the situations in Iran and Syria. Santorum said his support for Egypt and Libya was spurred by his relation to the Muslim Brotherhood – one of the largest politically active social Muslim movements in the world.
“The main thing that has to be done is we need to do what President Obama was very willing to do in Egypt and Libya — but seems reticent to do in Syria and Iran, those two connected states — which is to support the pro-democracy movement in those countries,” Santorum said. “The president was willing to jump in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya and in Egypt, but actually sided with Syria in this struggle by recognizing them as a government for the first time in many, many years.”
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Familiar tones
Both criticisms of Obama from Gingrich and Santorum are similar to those brought forward on Tuesday by Tea Party Nation president, Marcia Wood. In an e-mail to tea party members, Wood wrote: “Without vetting it becomes quite apparent who he is, where he came from and what his business is in our United States. Remember that the Muslim Radicals believe it’s good to lie for a ‘greater cause.’” Wood also wrote that Obama is “aggressively destroying our Nation cutting back on our Military power and nuclear capabilities as he pursues a false ‘ideology.’”
The tea party has been an instrumental movement in keeping alive claims that Obama is secretly a Muslim and not the Christian that Obama is. In 2009, tea party leader Mark Williams stood by his claims that he believed Obama was an “an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief.”
In 2010, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that, nearly two years into Obama’s term as president, there was still a growing number of Americans (nearly 1 in 5) that incorrectly identified Obama as a Muslim. The poll concluded that “the belief that Obama is a Muslim has increased most sharply among Republicans, especially conservative Republicans.”
On Thursday, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President of BOND Action and the South Central L.A. Tea Party said in a statement that she knows for certain that Obama is not a Christian and called out Santorum for not standing next to his claim that Obama implements “phony theology.”
“I am certain without a doubt that Barack Hussein Obama is NOT a Christian,” Peterson said. “It’s unfortunate that Rev. Graham and Rick Santorum won’t be completely honest about Barack Obama even though his deeds are contrary to Christian values.”
Peterson continued by saying that Obama’s true religion has caused him to hate America and that his skin color intimidates white Christians from taking a stand against him. “Evil understands that most white Christians have been intimidated and are too afraid to stand up to it. Especially when it is operating in the form of an American hating Socialist black president who appears to be more in harmony with Muhammad than he is with Christ,” Peterson said.
In a letter to the editor on a Michigan news site, a writer, who did not claim to be a member of the tea party, concluded that Obama “has a funny name because he is Muslim.” The writer said this has made Obama deceitful and someone we cannot trust.
“Muslims who left Islam reveal that they were taught to lie and deceive unknowing people for the purposes of Islam. Perhaps that’s why Obama has established a long list of lies about his close friends, his voting record, his religion and political stands on moral issues among many others,” the writer claimed.
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Courting tea party voters
Much of the Republican presidential nominee race thus far has been a barrage of claims with candidates touting themselves as the most conservative out of the bunch. That might help explain why the tea party – one of the most conservative right-wing groups in America – has received so much attention from the candidates.
Recently in Michigan, tea party supporters became the focal point of Santorum’s campaign stops. Santorum has built his campaign around social conservative viewpoints and a faith-based rally cry.
Gaining confidence within the tea party is important for the candidates, especially in Michigan, pollster Steve Mitchell told The Detroit News. Mitchell said if a candidate does not win the support of the tea party, they do not stand a chance to win Michigan in the primary election.
“They are going to have a big impact on the primary,” he said. Mitchell estimated that 2 out of 3 primary voters would be tea party supporters.
That news doesn’t bode well for current Republican presidential candidate and poll leader Mitt Romney. While Romney currently leads second-place Santorum in delegates, states like Michigan could be tough for Romney to win.
Romney has been criticized for not falling in line with the far right’s conservative ideology. He has been skewered for being a “moderate” by his fellow nominees. Santorum has said Romney’s voting record is “not conservative” – referencing Romney’s overhaul of the Massachusetts health care system in 2007.
The moderate reputation has impacted Romney, as Santorum is surging closer to Romney in the polls, recently sweeping three primaries in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. Some believe Romney’s reputation will squeeze his campaign later in the election cycle.
“To the core constituencies [Romney] is trying to appeal to, it’s a dirty word,” said Thomas Whalen, a political historian at Boston College, of Romney’s “moderate” labeling. “It is something of an albatross to hang around him.”