U.S. President Barack Obama drew harsh criticism over the weekend for voicing his support of a Muslim group’s right to build a controversial community center near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.
While liberals applauded Obama’s sentiments, conservatives billed the project as insensitive, and the episode is stirring speculation over whether the president’s stance might hurt Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections.
Opponents have for weeks voiced their opposition to the building, which is expected to house a mosque, just blocks from Ground Zero, a site that many Americans consider sacred.
“As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country,” said the President on Friday at White House dinner in celebration of Ramadan.
“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable,” he said.
Republican leaders criticized the president’s remarks, prompting speculation that the issue could provide fodder for Republicans to take over seats in Congress in the November elections.
And with Democrats expected to lose seats — some analysts even predict they will lose control of the House — they may have to choose whether they are with the president on the issue or not.
Despite the controversy, the mosque is no make-or-break election issue, as voters are primarily concerned about the economy in the worst recession since the 1930s, said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.
Still, Obama’s stance could strengthen his image within the Democratic base.
“If Obama had done anything else, he probably would have looked relatively weak and accommodating, and that would not have played to his advantage,” he said.
For Republicans, however, the controversy could bolster its narrative that Obama is even-handed to the point that he puts U.S. interests on the backburner.
Both Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress have been on shaky ground in recent months, as the once popular president’s approval ratings have plummeted to an all-time low of around 44 percent, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.
On CBS “Face the Nation”, Republican strategist Ed Rollins on Sunday called the president’s statement, “probably the dumbest thing that any president has said or candidate has said since Michael Dukakis (former presidential candidate) said it was okay to burn the flag.”
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R- Texas, said Obama’s statement demonstrated how out of touch the administration is with most Americans.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday, he said Americans feel they are being “lectured to, not listened to” by the president and added that while people can choose to worship as they wish, the decision to build the structure was “unwise”.
A Fox News Poll found that while 61 percent of Americans believe Muslims have the right to build near Ground Zero, 64 percent said it would be morally wrong to do so. A CNN poll found that 70 percent of Americans oppose the plans and 29 percent voiced approval for the project.
The president on Saturday clarified the previous day’s statement, saying he was making a broader point about the constitution and freedom of religion, and that he was not commenting on the “wisdom” of building the center.
On Monday, White House spokesman Bill Burton answered reporters’ questions on why Obama weighed in on the issue.
“The President thinks that it’s his obligation to speak out when he thinks issues of the Constitution are — when issues of the Constitution arise,” he said.
“And so, in this case, he decided to state clearly how he feels about making sure that people are treated equally, that there is a fairness and that our bedrock principles are upheld,” he said, adding that “the President spoke to this because it’s an issue domestically about our Constitution.”
Voters historically cast their ballots against the party in power during the midterm elections, but add to that factor double-digit unemployment and the possibility of a double dip recession, and the Democrats are in trouble this election season, analysts said.
A Rasmussen poll released Monday also found that 48 percent of likely voters would cast their ballot for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 36 percent choose the Democratic opponent.
