SHELBYVILLE, Ind. - Barack Obama can talk about his childhood years in Kansas and upbringing by his white Midwestern grandparents, but if voters at one small-town Indiana cafe are any indication, he has a long way to go to convince them he represents heartland America.
“Obama has great ideas but his background scares me,” said Chris Leighton, 60, a secretary having lunch at the Chaperral Cafe in Shelbyville, in southeast Indiana. “Everyone talks about him being a Muslim and having ties to terrorism, but how do people really find out?” 
The incorrect belief that the Illinois senator is a Muslim was shared by half a dozen others in the restaurant — a sign that dirty campaign tactics and Internet innuendo has taken root among some voters in Indiana, the next state to vote.
Construction worker Ron Debaun, 61, said he hadn’t yet decided whether he would support Obama or Hillary Clinton in Indiana’s May 6 primary, noting they both “have good ideas.” But he’s leaning toward Clinton.
What doesn’t he like about Obama?
“His Muslim ties,” said Debaun.
Why does he think Obama is a Muslim?
“Let’s just say that he admits it himself,” he said.
Retired locksmith Leslie Hedman, 61, said he doesn’t like any of the three candidates — Clinton, Obama, or Republican John McCain – because none are committed Christians.
“Obama is a Muslim,” he said. Where did he hear that?
“He said he was but then he said he’s not,” said Hedman.
Ironically enough, many of the lunchtime crowd said they were also turned off by Obama’s ties to Rev. Jeremiah Wright – the former pastor of Obama’s Christian church in Chicago, Trinity United Church of Christ.
“I definitely don’t like Obama because of the mess with him and his pastor. I don’t think he’s been honest about it,” said Candace Demmin, 37, as she had lunch with her mom.
“How can you go to a church for 20 years and not heard your minister say something off-color? Either he’s heard it and is lying about it, or he’s lying about going to church as much as he does,” said Demmin. “In which case he’s not the Christian he says he is.”
Obama strongly denounced his former pastor on Tuesday and called his racially charged comments “appalling.”
And if Obama’s Muslim ties and Christian pastor aren’t bad enough, his atheism is the last straw.
“A person who doesn’t believe in anything? I don’t want anything to do with him,” said cafe owner and Clinton supporter Shirley Bailey, 70. “He says he won’t take an oath on the Bible, he won’t salute the American flag. That doesn’t sit well with me.”
Obama was sworn in at the U.S. Senate with his hand on a Bible. He stopped wearing an American flag lapel pin — standard issue for U.S. politicians — saying that a pin on the chest matters less than what’s in the heart.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
Photo credit: Reuters/Andrea Hopkins (Shirley Bailey, owner of the Chaperral Cafe in Shelbyville, Indiana, said she can’t support Barack Obama in Indiana’s May 6 primary because of his religious views. Many of her customers agreed.)
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Senator Obama’s father was a muslim, he was raised a muslim. At some point in his life he shifted his faith to “Christian,” which isn’t Christian at all, it’s a liberation mentality rooted in Marxism. And if you think he’s lying, well he is. They all are. That’s what politician’s do. It’s impossible to be a Christian politician, whether Republican or Democrat, Obama or McCain, Clinton or Bush. It doesn’t matter. To be a successful politician you must at some point compromise your faith and go against what the Bible says. (Ex. Lying, deception, selfishness, bitterness, greed, etc.)Faith cannot be legislated, it is only by an experience with truth.
- Posted by The Herald[...] son when he was 2 years old) no longer practiced either. The fact these articles appeared amid an “Obama-is-a-Muslim” whispering campaign in an election year makes a good case for suspecting they may have been [...]
- Posted by For President » Blog Archive » Muslim scholar responds to “Sharia smear” against ObamaVOTE FOR OBAMA
THERE IS NO CHOICE.
If you want to save this country, if you are a patriot, if you can’t stand the same-old spin, BS, political lies, bankrupting this country by invading other countries without reason,poor education and health standards that this country has assumed for the last 30 years, you better vote for Obama.
IWe need to love our country again.
We need other countries to respect and admire us again. Right now, we are becoming the world’s biggest joke and the world’s largest money machine— Bush-Clinton- Bush- Clinton
Take courage. Be strong - have the guts to become a new founding father and founding mother of this country now. Fight to get American’s soul and America’s survival back. You and all your friends must vote for Obama if you wish to save America’s great potencial.
I am a retired, white,business oriented gal. The truth, not political spin, will set us all free… women, men and children.
Clinton-Bsu- Clinton
- Posted by michelle tallent’s biggest joke.
To the person way up above - Shelbyville may be a small town, but that does not make all of us hicks. And there are many of us from Shelbyville who do read a political article, or even two. Yes, that means we know how to read, so already we must be “brighter” than you think. I am an avid Obama supporter, and I grew up in this “hick town.” I do not share any of the misconceptions that the interviewed people do. Please take this as a lesson that you cannot judge any group by the actions of a few of its members.
- Posted by Shelbyvillian1. Barack Obama was raised by his WHITE grandparents and his WHITE mother.
2. As a child, people called him Barry
3. He is a Christian.
4. He will win the nomination. Mark my words.
- Posted by kdonIt’s hard to imagine how the morons quoted in that article (and their fellow stupids in this thread) manage to survive in this world of busy intersections, sharp objects, and cleaning products that look plausibly like artificial sweeteners. Yes, I know, we’re supposed to pretend that you cretins represent heartland values, but your genuine frontier gibberish is just racist, paranoid, blinkered nonsense stuck in your tiny little minds like a bug up your ass. Actually, there’s a thought. Maybe you have a primitive midbrain lodged in your hindquarters like the dinosaurs, controlling how you breathe, keeping your hands off hot stoves, and telling you how to vote in presidential elections.
In any event, just like anyone can make a baby so can anyone vote. Slack-jawed yokels and mouth-breathing yahoos can both reproduce and elect idiots like George Bush President of the United States. In this cycle the stupid vote is focused on the vital issue of whether Barack Obama is a radical black Muslim atheist terrorist Marxist, or maybe just a black guy. In either event they won’t vote for him, but if he’s a radical black Muslim atheist terrorist Marxist, then:
You got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
We’ll all meet back at the local saloon
We’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing whiskey for my men, beer for my horses
Later there will be puking and wife-beating.
- Posted by I need to take a shower after reading thisAh….Karl Rove’s America. White, ignorant, bigoted, and damn proud of it. These people would make Gomer Pyle look like a Rhodes Scholar.
- Posted by OregonDan