President Barack Obama, right, speaks of wanting "a Muslim summit'' in a new book about the president, and of addressing the nation's racial divide, but first, as the author, Newsweek's Richard Wolffe, reports, there is this matter of Vice President Joe Biden's mouth. Biden, left, and Obama, filled theirs with hamburgers at Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., recently. Obama ordered mustard on his, but that's another story... (Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg-Pool / Getty Images)
by Mark Silva
President Barack Obama, who plans an address to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt, in early June, suggests that he could make some headway in the world if he were able to convene "a Muslim summit.'' He says he'd like to address the racial divide as well, and his historic election alone does not suffice on that front.
"If I had a Muslim summit, I think that I can speak credibly to them about the fact that I respect their culture," Obama said in an interview included in a forthcoming book about the president by Newsweek's Richard Wolffe: Renegade: The Making of a President.
He could communicate the fact "that I understand their religion, that I have lived in a Muslim country,'' said Obama, whose family lived for a time in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation, when he was a child, "and as a consequence I know it is possible to reconcile Islam with modernity and respect for human rights and a rejection of violence. And I think I can speak with added credibility."
Obama will get a chance on June 4 to convene that summit, with a wide regional media audience for his Cairo address.
The son of a white mother and black father, Obama also tells Wolffe that his election does not solve America's racial challenges. "Solving our racial problems in this country will require concrete steps, significant investment," he said. "We have a lot of work to do to overcome the long legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. It can't be purchased on the cheap.
"I am fundamentally optimistic about our capacity to do that," Obama added. "And I do assert that there is a core decency in the American people and in white Americans that makes me hopeful about our ability to deal with these issues. But these issues aren't just solved by electing a black president."
Obama also has made some efforts at getting his own vice president, Joe Biden, in line, the author writes -- but that could prove more difficult than healing the racial divide and bridging the cultural gaps between the religions. Wolffe writes of one joke that Biden made about Obama friend Valerie Jarrett, an innocuous line about her being in the Senate. Obama, Wolffe writes, rebuked Biden with a terse, "It's not funny.''
Comments
Hey Wingnuts!
This is the way to do foreign policy. Not the shoot first, invade, waterboard/torture, and then ask questions later that your heroes use.
Posted by: DrainYou | May 21, 2009 4:27 PM
The real terrorists, I'm afraid, are the self-serving Republican/Neocon hawks who promise to explode a political dirty bomb in the halls of the capitol every time someone tries to be sensible about American foreign policy and national security. They are still running things with their fear tactics. They have always run things. And the sorry fact is that their dominance is a decades long model of bipartisan comity.
Posted by: Clutch Cargo | May 21, 2009 4:35 PM
Drain you, you are misrepresenting the Bush/Cheney policy. It was "don't ever ask questions at all" not 'Ask questions later". Please be more careful in the future.
Posted by: Mike | May 21, 2009 4:47 PM
This guy's got a one track mind on racism.
Didn't Obama profit from minority preference programs?
Didn't he get into college based on his race? Certainly not on his grades.
Obama believes he's god, that will be his failure.
Posted by: no god | May 21, 2009 5:52 PM
What a fool! Obama is an absolute idiot!!! Does he really think that just because he is president now...these people don't want to destroy our way of life? God bless George Bush and Dick Cheney..the GREATEST president and Vice President this country has ever had!!!!!
Posted by: Joe | May 21, 2009 6:19 PM
Drainyou ,
Remember, always do the torture after the fact to obtain the intel. to justify the invasion.
It works every time!
Dick Cheney
Posted by: Dirty Dick | May 21, 2009 7:22 PM
Great source on the quip about Biden. Who would one believe, Fox News our your own lying eyes.
Biden is fine and doing the work he has been tasked to do. The meme about conflict is juat that -- a meme to imply problems that don't exist.
Posted by: Michelle | May 21, 2009 7:46 PM
What a fool! Obama is an absolute idiot!!! Does he really think that just because he is president now...these people don't want to destroy our way of life? God bless George Bush and Dick Cheney..the GREATEST president and Vice President this country has ever had!!!!!
Posted by: Joe | May 21, 2009 6:19 PM
****************
Joey,
It doesn't really take much to get Republican minions like you to wet your pants, does it?
BOO!
Posted by: DrainYou | May 21, 2009 8:22 PM
Well Joe,
Except for destroying our military confidence and readyness. Plunging the economy into recession. Starting a fake war on manufactured evidence. Letting the "real" terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 escape and still at large in Afghanistan/Pakistan. Lower our standing in the world with selfish foreign policies. And shredding the constitution and our personal liberties at home.
I'd agree with you.
Posted by: syj | May 22, 2009 9:31 AM
"that I understand their religion, that I have lived in a Muslim country,'' said Obama, whose family lived for a time in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation, when he was a child, "and as a consequence I know it is possible to reconcile Islam with modernity and respect for human rights and a rejection of violence. And I think I can speak with added credibility." ~ the great Obama, Supreme Ruler and special friend of the Muslim World
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DrainYou, I, Wingnut, AM paying attention. Yes, do show us how it should be done. The results, whatever they may be, will be proof enough for me. If Islam Fundamentalists can be disarmed by the rhetoric of an Obama Mustapha Mond speech, then I, Wingnut, will drink the kool-aid and then lie prostrate in the kool-aid. It is the least that I could do. Until then, I am stocking up on buttered popcorn. This movie is just getting started.
Posted by: Django - N Exile In/Around the 30th Parallel | May 22, 2009 11:24 AM
I've come up with the handy, super-duper, all purpose Barack H. Obama post. It can be used by the man himself, his teleprompter, and his fans. It's short (only 4 sentences), and it covers the highlights of everything Obama has said, on any subject, the last year:
1. Nothing is ever President Obama's fault.
2. Anything that goes well in the next 100 years is due to President Obama.
3. Anything that goes wrong in the next 100 years is Bush's fault.
4. Anyone who disagrees with points 1-3 is a racist.
Posted by: Dissent is Patriotic | May 22, 2009 12:24 PM
I've come up with the handy, super-duper, all purpose Barack H. Obama post. It can be used by the man himself, his teleprompter, and his fans. It's short (only 4 sentences), and it covers the highlights of everything Obama has said, on any subject, the last year:
1. Nothing is ever President Obama's fault.
2. Anything that goes well in the next 100 years is due to President Obama.
3. Anything that goes wrong in the next 100 years is Bush's fault.
4. Anyone who disagrees with points 1-3 is a racist.
Posted by: Dissent is Patriotic | May 22, 2009 12:24 PM
You didn't come up with that one. All you did was to resurrect everything Bush supporters said to/about his detractors for the past 8 years, then substituted "Obama" for "Bush" in statements 1 and 2, "Bush" for "Clinton and Carter" in statement 3, and "racist" for "terrorist sympathizer and America-hater" in statement 4.
Posted by: Op109 | May 24, 2009 5:12 PM