The problem is he had stayed out of it for some time. But, both sides kept putting pressure on him. His response is absolutely the correct and best response he could have given - both US law and the principles this country was founded on are the only things he can address. To offer any other opinion would have been a no win situation
Ian
You are quite correct, Ian.
IF Bee-OH were going to give the pundits any response, he had to give a response indicating he supported the values on which this country was founded, which he did. It didn't take long for the those who adhere to the conservative agenda to inject the implication that Bee-OH's response was a support for the Mosque, itself, rather than the right to build it there.
Don't believe that? Take a look at the way Pete titled this thread, then read the Yahoo news article he quoted in the original post......now, Pete, you know we all love you around here, it's not any sort of indictment other than to point out that you (who has admitted in past threads to subscribing to conservative values) did in fact, unintentionally I have no doubt, change the gist of the article, which was titled "
Obama supports 'the right' for ground zero mosque" (my underlining), to indicate that Obama supported the mosque, itself. Quite a natural act if one has a conservative orientation and, as I said, probably done in a totally unintentional manner.
IMHO, though, Bee-OH needed not respond to the pointed questioning from the political pundits at all. He is the POTUS and ergo is without question going to defend the
rights of those who want to commit this despicable (IMHO) act. It's easy to latch onto the assertions that Bee-OH is a supporter of Islam (I'm not disputing that) and for that to taint one's interpretation of what he really said. Should he have said anything at all? Not IMHO...any more than Bill Clinton should have answered questions related to private acts between two consenting adults. There are some questions that should not be asked (something the political pundits should learn) and when those questions are asked, they should not be answered. Bee-OH was wrong on only one count, IMHO, and that was in even answering the question to which the answer had to be obvious....he
IS supportive of the
rights of all citizens of the U.S.
Just my $.02 worth.....
Cheers from Doug