OPINION:
The silly season arrives early. The world’s on fire, and here we are, arguing over whether Barack Obama loves America, or loves it enough, and the political correspondents are parsing Scott Walker’s answer to a question posed by the armchair theologians at The Washington Post, whether the president is a Christian.
Rudy Giuliani’s speculation about why the president sent such a cheap box of Valentine’s candy to Miss America has already been well and thoroughly ventilated, and now come the inevitable polls. Rasmussen Reports (“if it’s in the news, it’s in our polls”), one of the most reliable of the pollsters, finds that half of America either doesn’t know if Mr. Obama loves America or isn’t sure enough to say, but 1 in 3 Americans thinks maybe he doesn’t.
That’s not much as a vote of confidence, reminiscent of the country preacher who, in a fight with his deacons, demanded the congregation give him a vote of confidence. He won it, by a tally of 43 to 42, and proudly boasted that now the congregation was unified, so would everybody sit down and open their hymnals Page 161 and sing all four verses of “Amazing Grace.”
Naturally there’s a partisan split in the verdict on President Obama. Isn’t there always? Rasmussen finds that 62 percent of the Republicans say the president doesn’t love us enough and 77 percent of the Democrats say yes he does, and with love left over. But if Rudy Giuliani thinks life suddenly got tough, consider Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin who has overnight become the hottest Republican presidential prospect.
The reporters for The Post, who, being cold and detached and who you might think would be interested only in posing questions about Russian intentions in Ukraine or the latest thinking about immigration reform, turned instead to theology. Since inquiring minds only want to know, they asked Mr. Walker whether the president is a Christian. Mr. Walker, the son of a Baptist pastor and no doubt taught to appreciate distinctions, said he didn’t know.
Told by The Post that yes, he is a Christian, Mr. Walker declined to be drawn into a seminarian’s speculation about how many split peas can rest comfortably on an orange peel. “I’ve actually never talked about it or I haven’t read about that.” He said he thinks the president’s religion is not a topic of great interest to voters. “I would defy you to come to Wisconsin. You could ask a hundred people and not one of them would say this is a significant issue.”
Not significant, perhaps, but the governor has been out to a long lunch if he has missed the speculation about whether Mr. Obama is a devout Christian or a secret Muslim. But the pollsters, who asked questions about this in the early years of the Obama administration, support the notion that the public is confused about the president’s faith. Like most people, the president doesn’t like to answer questions about it.
The president himself, writing in his early memoirs, tells of getting a haircut in a small shop on the south side of Chicago. When the barber finished cutting Mr. Obama’s hair, he asked him bluntly whether he was a Muslim. “Grandfather was,” Mr. Obama said, not exactly answering the question. A Pew Poll in 2012 discovered that 18 percent — nearly 1 in 5 — of Americans thought Mr. Obama was a Muslim. Two years later, only 11 percent thought so.
But the political correspondents are on the case. They’re always ready with assumptions and perceptions about things they don’t know as much about as they think they do. Religion is only one of them. Theology and the mysteries of faith and belief are beyond the curiosity of most Washington journalists. As Basil Fawlty would say, you might as well ask the cat.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.