New Mexico Independent
N.M. GOP leader calls Obama a ‘Muslim socialist’
A New Mexico Republican leader is under fire today for writing a letter to the editor of theAlamogordo Daily News in which she called Barack Obama a “Muslim socialist.” Oh, but it gets worse. Marcia Stirman, the leader of a group called the Republican Women of Otero County, defended herself to the AP by saying something far, far more offensive and embarrassing:
Asked for a response to Awad’s concerns, she said of Muslims: ”I don’t trust them at all. They’ve sworn across the world that they are our enemies. Why we’re trying to elect one is beside me.”
Stirman is now getting her 15 minutes of fame. She’s made an appearance on a Wall Street Journal blog, but she probably won’t be too happy about what it says:
One of the most striking parts of Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama was his accusation that Republicans have helped spread the rumor that Sen. Obama is Muslim, and turned the word into a smear. “I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion he’s Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists,” he said.
Some Republicans took umbrage at the comment, saying John McCain and Republicans haven’t directly made such an accusation. Jonah Goldberg, a writer for The National Review, said it was a “low and dishonest blow,” and asked: “Is there really much evidence that the GOP or the McCain campaign have had anything to do with the stories that Obama is a Muslim?”
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | 2008 election cycle, islamophobic, New Mexico, socialist, symbolic racism
