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Former DNC Chairman Charles Manatt
AUDUBON — A former chairman of the Democratic National Committee says President Barack Obama should start being more public about his family’s church attendance to puncture challenges to his Christian faith from political opponents.
“If we’re ever going to get rid of this issue about him being a Muslim, start going to church,” Charles Manatt said in an interview.
According to The Associated Press, a recent poll found that nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they thought Obama was Muslim, up from the 11 percent in March 2009. The proportion who correctly said he was Christian was 34 percent, down from 48 percent in March of last year. The poll, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, surveyed 3,003 people, the AP reported.
If Obama were more visible with church attendance, “it would satisfy 80 percent of the people in the United States,” Manatt said.
Manatt grew up in Audubon and went on to substantial success in business and the law in California and Washington, D.C. He served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1981 to 1985. Earlier this week, Manatt spoke with The Iowa Independent during a fundraiser for Democratic congressional candidate Matt Campbell at Manatt’s farm in Aububon.
Manatt said the recent challenges to Obama’s Christianity won’t have staying power.
“It’s a flash in a pan,” Manatt said. “If I were advising the president tomorrow, I’d say, ‘Start going to church.’”
He added, “He’s a Christian. They used to go to church in Chicago, and in D.C. he’s gone to St. John’s, the Episcopal Church right across the square from the White House. They’ve gone to church in Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)”
Overall, Manatt said, the state of the Democratic Party is solid.
“The question is of public issues,” Manatt said. “If people don’t think we should have had a stimulus bill and don’t think we should have a banking reform bill and don’t think we should have a health-care bill and don’t think we should have the recent stimulus to create enough money to keep the teachers and the police and the firemen working in the cities in which they are — then we’ve done everything we can.”
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