PUTTIN' ON THE AGONY, PUTTIN' ON THE STYLE – AT 10:45 P.M. ET:  The president expresses his anguish at the presumed misinformation about him that is out there, some year and a half after he took office.  From The Politico:

President Barack Obama dismissed a recent poll showing that a third of Americans don’t know he’s a Christian – and blamed an online campaign of misinformation by his conservative enemies for perpetuating the myth that he’s a Muslim.

Obama, speaking with NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Sunday afternoon, was equally dismissive of conservative talk show host Glenn Beck – saying he didn’t watch the Fox host’s Saturday rally in Washington but wasn’t surprised that Beck was able to “stir up” people during uncertain economic times.

Williams, sitting under a tent in a rain-soaked New Orleans, where the First Family commemorated the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, asked Obama why so many people were uncertain about something so fundamental as his faith.

COMMENT:  Well, for starters, Mr. Williams and his fellow mainstream journalists did a poor to nonexistent job of vetting this president while he was running for office.  We literally were not permitted to ask serious questions about his past, and his associations, without the risk of being called McCarthyites or racists.

Add to that the fact that Mr. Obama's "outreach" to the Muslim world has, more often than not, seemed more like appeasement and coziness.

Add also to that the fact that the president's Christian beliefs often appear artificial, more a political necessity than anything heartfelt.  It's hard to equate true Christian belief with the stuff preached in Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.'s church over the two decades that Obama sat in the pews and apparently didn't listen.

There is no serious online campaign of misinformation.  There may be some nuts out there who make things up.  If there is any online campaign, it is one of questioning.  The questions are legitimate.  The fact that they're there at all is the fault of Mr. Obama and his media sympathizers.

August 29, 2010