NOW HERE'S A SURPRISE – AT 8:34 P.M. ET:  We usually don't think of Howard Dean, former presidential candidate and Democratic national chairman, as a voice of reason, but miracles do happen.  From the New York Post:

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, in a surprise move Wednesday, became the second high profile Democrat to come out against the building of a cultural center and mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero.

“This is something that we ought to be able to work out with people of good faith," Dean said in an interview with WABC radio.

"We have to understand that it is a real affront to people who’ve lost their lives, including Muslims.

"That site doesn’t belong to any particular religion … So I think a good reasonable compromise could be worked out without violating the principle that people ought to be able to worship as they see fit.”

Well, okay, a moment of sanity.  Maybe sanity comes to those who read numbers correctly.  A new poll just out shows that Americans who've formed an opinion reject President Obama's endorsement of the mosque, and by a sizable margin:

Most Americans who have an opinion about President Barack Obama’s comments on the Islamic community center to be built near ground zero don’t approve of what he said, according to a new Gallup Poll.

Out of just more than 1,000 adults contacted Tuesday, 37 percent said they disapproved of the comments Obama made at a Friday night Ramadan dinner, at which he said developers had a right to build the center, which would include a mosque. Only 20 percent said they approved, and the rest didn’t have an opinion.

Maybe it would be a good idea for liberals and their allies among the American elites to stop labeling everyone who opposes the mosque as a racist or a bigot.  Might offend tens of millions of Americans, not a good idea in an election year.

August 18, 2010