Jan 23, 2008 6:00 am US/Eastern
Obama Speaks Out About Nasty E-Mails
Candidate Calls Campaign Alleging He's A Muslim Radical "Scurrilous"
ORANGEBURG, S.C. (CBS) ―
-
-
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is joined by singer Usher and actress Kerry Washington in Orangeburg, S.C., Jan. 22, 2008.
Getty Images
Poll
Who will win the Democratic nomination?
You need the latest Flash player to view our Poll.
Click here to download.
Click here to
bypass this detection if you already
have the latest Flash Player.
Sen. Barack Obama began responding publicly for the first time Tuesday to what he calls a "scurrilous" e-mail campaign. It falsely portrays the presidential candidate as a radical Muslim who might be working secretly to destroy America.
CBS station WBBM-TV Political Editor Mike Flannery reports that Obama's first comments on those e-mails came while he was campaigning in South Carolina.
The e-mails are not new. They've been circulated in Illinois and all across the country with new intensity since Obama won in Iowa.
The impact might be significant in South Carolina, where church-going Christians of all races are an important voting bloc.
South Carolina State University was Barack Obama's third college campus stop of the day. Hours before he spoke, hundreds were standing in line. Actors Chris Tucker and Carrie Washington were among the warm up acts, as well as performing artist Usher, before the main attraction took the stage.
Unlike his rivals, Obama is a relative newcomer to national politics and, as he explained to these southern voters who he is, Obama stressed that like most of them he's a church-goer, too.
"I am a proud Christian," Obama said.
Ignoring Obama's two decades of membership in the South Side's Trinity United Church of Christ, there is an ugly e-mail campaign to the contrary, filled with false assertions. CBS 2 viewers have sent us versions of it, headlined: "Who is Barack Hussein Obama?" claiming "Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that he is not a radical."
The e-mails also state: "Barack Hussein Obama will not recite the pledge of allegiance ...(was) sworn into office (using) the Koran ... the Muslims have said they plan on destroying the U.S. ... what better way to start than at the highest level -- through the president -- one of their own!"
"This has been a classic dirty trick. The same thing was done to John McCain in 2000. They just flood people's inboxes with these scurrilous e-mails that claim that I'm Muslim, that claim that I used the Koran to take the oath of office or that I don't take the Pledge of Allegiance. All of these are completely false. I have been the same member of my Christian church for the past 20 years, I have used my family Bible to take the oath of office and I not only have pledged allegiance since I was 3, but actually sometimes open up and preside over the Senate by pledging allegiance," Obama said.
The e-mails make a point of the fact that Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., was born a Muslim. Flannery has actually been to his father's home in Africa and Obama Sr. spent most of his life as a fallen-away Muslim according to his family and others.
Obama's stepfather in Indonesia was an employee of a U.S. oil company and was about as far away from being a jihadist or radical Muslim as anyone could possibly be in that society.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
CBS News Interactive: Campaign 2008
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments