Republican 527 groups continue to lie

The latest lie: Obama “used to be a Muslim” and is lying about it.

So, how true is this? It isn’t.

First, who made this?

The Republican consultant who helped sink the 1988 Dukakis campaign with his infamous “Willie Horton ad” is using his attack dog skills against Barack Obama. A web ad created by Floyd Brown, founder of a conservative political advocacy group called the National Campaign Fund, accuses the presumptive Democratic nominee of covering up his Muslim past. The ad relies on a mixture of half-truth, innuendo, and dramatic headlines rolling across the screen to depict Obama as fundamentally “untrustworthy.”

Ok, the guy who made this is a well known sleaze-buckett.

How accurate is it?

Documents viewed by the AP showed that students attending the Fransiskus Assisis Catholic school were registered under one of five different religions: Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant. Obama, then known as Barry, attended the school from 1st through 3rd grade as student 203. He later enrolled in Public Elementary School Menteng No. 1, a school incorrectly described by the Washington Times Insight magazine and Fox News as an Islamic madrassa.

The Brown ad misses out key facts that cast a very different light on Obama’s Muslim connections. At the Catholic school, he was required to participate in Catholic rituals and pray four times a day. Teachers quoted by the Chicago Tribune said that he was probably registered as a Muslim because this was the religion of his then-Indonesian step-father, Lolo Soetero. Like many Indonesians, Soetero was a rather lax Muslim who drank and did not abide by the strict tenets of the faith.

More importantly, the Brown ad attaches far too much importance to an entry in a ledger written under unknown circumstances more than 40 years ago. The Tribune report notes that the ledger entry was “rife with errors.” It listed Obama as an Indonesian, gave an inaccurate name for his previous school, and made no mention of his mother. It is unclear who wrote the ledger entry, which can be viewed at the school but is unavailable on-line.

In short,

Barring fresh revelations, the Obama campaign’s explanation for the “Muslim” annotation beside Barack’s name in the Catholic school ledger seems reasonable. Three Pinocchios for Floyd Brown.

which means: “Significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.”

Gee, shocking isn’t it?

Hat tip to Seattleforbarackobama.

For more information to confront such smears, go to Obama’s fightthesmears.com site.