Florida Republican Candidate Runs Ad Against “Obama’s Mosque”
The debate over the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” has started showing up in political campaigns:
GOP candidate Rick Scott is running for Governor of Florida and he has a very solid shot of winning the nomination.
Now Scott has decided to weigh in on the local New York City issue regarding the Islamic Center near Ground Zero in a new campaign ad. Name of the ad? “Obama’s Mosque.”
“It’s about truth,” says Scott in the ad. “The truth – Muslim fanatics murdered thousands of innocent Americans on 9/11 just yards from the proposed mosque.” (“Just yards” is a new one.)
It closes addressing Pres. Barack Obama directly: “Mr. President, Ground Zero is the wrong place for a mosque.”
Here’s the video:
The amount of logical and factual error here is rather extraordinary, but what’s perhaps most outrageous is the title of the ad “Obama’s Mosque.” It’s one thing to call this proposed community center on the site of a former Burlington Coat Factory the “Ground Zero Mosque,” that is incorrect but at least geographically somewhat accurate. Referring to it, even obliquely, as “Obama’s Mosque” strikes me as way over the top and a none-too-subtle hint at the “Obama is a Muslim” myth that I wrote about yesterday. Scott himself never uses the phrase “Obama’s Mosque,” of course, and it’s unlikely that anyone who seeks this ad on the air in Florida will realize what the title of the ad actually is unless they hear the news reports. Nonetheless, this one strikes me a way beyond the pale.
As a Floridian, I can say I’m both very disappointed and not at all surprised. Scott is an opportunist, he backed our Arizona-style anti-immigrant legislation when it became a hot trend in the GOP, and he’ll do the same with anti-Muslim fears if it’ll help solidify his support.
This guy is an utter douche, and if I lived in Florida, I would be donating heavily to the competition if he really does have a solid shot at winning. (Even after this garbage, he has a solid shot?)
Reid, he is currently pretty well ahead of the closes primary challenger, and until recently was slightly ahead of the leading Democratic candidate, but Alex Sink (D) has, in a very recent poll, pulled slightly ahead (though within the poll’s margin of error).
At this point, there’s at least a 50/50 chance that he could become the next Governor of Florida.
I wonder if any of you lefties would be offended if someone built a whorehouse 10 feet from your mothers grave? There seems to be some disconnect between the idea Muslims flew airplanes into building killing almost 3000 people and the building of a Muslim house of worship at a place where parts of one of the planes involved (the landing gear) landed. It is a historical fact Muslims have traditionally built Mosques at the sites of their victories. Yet they claim this is not the case this time. This Mosque is being built to promote religious understanding. If you build something that pisses off 70% of lthe people you are trying to gain an understanding with. That might not be the best idea. No one is saying they do not have a right to build it. God knows there is some critical need for another Mosque in New York City which already has 100 of them. What is hard to understand is why the left is so anti-American they would promote the building of a monument to the 19 men who killed so many innocent people in a city that panics when Air Force One flys low over the city. I guess there is a little Phillip Nolan in many of you here.
@Zelsdorf:
I was all prepared to give yet another post tearing your arguments to shreds, when it suddenly occurred to me, I don’t really care anymore that you’re wrong.
Michael: Good luck there. I have to say, I’m somewhat depressed with the state of politics and our society these days. Were the liars, spinners, nuts, and haters less brazen 20 years ago, say? Where do creeps like this come from? I know that at some level it’s nothing new, but it feels so mainstream now. I think the internet, Fox, and talk radio must be reinforcing their views and radicalizing them. Part of the reason for my funk is seeing some friend-of-friend postings on facebook from some obvious wingnuts going on about Obama and rehashing the rationale for the Iraq war (same old: yeah, well, democrats went along, we did find WMD [sarin] or they were just moved, everyone had same access to intel, etc.).
Rant over….
Reid, let’s not forget that Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton over politics. I’d have to say that historically our politics has always been radical and brazen, sometimes much more so than today.
Michael,
Yep — and if anyone things rhetoric today is bad go back and read some of the stuff published during the Election of 1800
Michael: True, no argument there. But over the shorter scale of, say, my lifetime (post-Nixon roughly), it feels like things are getting worse. I could go on at length but I’ll spare everyone.
reid,
I think the media culture, and especially the cable news culture, have made the vitriol much more prevalent but the tone has been there for a long time. The things that were said about Lincoln, for example, make the stuff Rush Limbaugh says about Obama seem tame by comparison
I think it is just easier to see–because of the things that Doug notes as well as the net itself.
Doug, yes, I agree that the news and internet culture make it more prevalent. What disturbs me is the ease with which people spin or outright lie in the name of an agenda. And a selective interpretation of reality. Not exactly the actions of decent people.
Eh, I’m sure sociologists have had field days with these topics….
I do live in Florida, I would vote for this thief over my dead body, he has already cheated the government and paid the largest fine ever to the federal government, he is a fraud.
Zels is defending this scum of the Earth. Congrats on a new low.