Family Security Matters
In a Family Security Matters
Editorial on Sunday, it was suggested that President Obama’s apparent support of the Ground Zero Mosque, followed less than 24 hours by presidential back-pedaling, was creating a crisis of leadership. The apparent pandering to a project which has never gained widespread public support was predestined to create problems. Michael Bloomberg, New York’s liberal mayor, had attempted on
August 3 to invoke the Founding Fathers and to cite instances from a century before, during the time of Peter Stuyvesant, to impress upon New Yorkers that religious tolerance was the hallmark of the Big Apple. By extension, Bloomberg appeared to reason, New York’s citizens should all rally to support the Ground Zero mosque and thereby defend religious liberty. A Mairist
poll from August 10
th had shown that Bloomberg’s former popularity had sunk dramatically since April, coinciding with his support for the mosque. A CNN poll from
August 11 had shown that almost 70 percent of the American public opposed the Ground Zero Mosque.

In an act of extreme hubris, against the groundswell of political opinion, and ignoring the lessons that could have been learned from Mayor Bloomberg’s dip in popularity, the president and his speech writer pressed on regardless.