Obama's Big Tent

Here's an example of how Obama "outreach" works on the ground--an IPT blog post about a get-together in Dearborn, Mich. organized by a government agency which included a gent who has expressed support for genocidal jihadi rackets Hezbo and Hamas, but which pointedly excluded non-Muslim media coverage:

...That's what happened last October when the Commerce Department co-sponsored a "Muslim-American Business Outreach Meeting" with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, Michigan.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) revealed that 75 people attended the invitation-only event. Most were touted as local Muslim and Arab-American business and community leaders. Invitations indicate the event was "At the request of the National Security Council at the White House" as a follow-up to President Obama's Cairo speech last June. Part of his remarks pledged to work at forging new business partnerships domestically and in the Middle East with the Muslim community."

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke attended, along with Dearborn Mayor John B. (Jack) O'Reilly, Jr. But media access was limited to local Arab and Muslim press, the FOIA records show.

That included Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News in Dearborn. Siblani has a history of endorsing Hamas and Hizballah, including an August 2006 rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House. During his speech, Siblani referred to then-President George W. Bush as a terrorist for supporting Israel in its summer of 2006 conflict against Hizballah in southern Lebanon. He then exhorted the crowd with the question "Who is the freedom fighter?" to which the crowd repeatedly responded, "Hizballah!"

Lest that be considered a statement in the heat of the moment, Siblani voiced his support for Hizballah and Hamas during several media interviews, including with NPR and CBN.

It's not clear that the event would have generated much media attention had it been open to all outlets. And Siblani has a right to his opinion, of course. But it's less clear why organizers felt he deserved near exclusive access to agency leadership when some of those views are directly in conflict with the government when it comes to terrorist groups working against American interests.

Oh, come now. It's crystal clear why organizers felt the deserved near exclusive access. It's because organizers were as clueless as the Deferrer-in-Chief (or DiC).