Dr. Steven Kraus

One prominent Western Iowa supporter of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama says he thinks misleading chain emails and rumor mongering are eroding his candidate’s support among older voters.

“Even though John McCain doesn’t know how to use an email other people his age do,” said Dr. Steven Kraus, founder and president of Future Health, Inc. in Carroll.

Kraus, who sat next to the Obamas at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner weeks before the Iowa Caucuses and served as the presidential candidate’s co-chair for Carroll County during that process, says emails falsely referring to Obama as a Muslim are having an effect with older voters he talks to in rural Iowa.

“They’re working,” he said of the emails. “Most Americans are not diving into the campaign to research the issues.”

In an interview with Iowa Independent before an Obama rural roundtable event in downtown Carroll, Kraus, a long-time chiropractor who now runs a company specializing in electronic medical record-keeping, said the dynamic he sees with older voters is this: Judy Smith receives an email from a relative, say a nephew, with scurrilous charges about Obama’s “Muslim ties.” She passes it on to friends who give the email credibility because they see it as coming from Judy — their friend at coffee — not from the nebulous and/or nefarious original source.

Older voters who had been with Obama are being made uneasy by the content of the emails, Kraus said.

“They’re highly questionable now because of some of these lies and falsehoods,” Kraus said.

Older Internet users generally don’t have as sophisticated an understanding of the medium as the millienials or Gen Xers Obama is reaching. Anyone who has received silly forwarded jokes from an older parent knows this.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Kraus said. “These chains of spiritual messages, these jokes.”

Somehow, charges and false statements about Obama — a committed Christian — have made their way into this network, Kraus said.

Time Magazine reports that some of the chain emails allege the ridiculous.

One chain e-mail claims that the Antichrist was prophesied to be “A man in his 40s of MUSLIM descent,” which would indeed sound ominous if not for the fact that the Book of Revelation was written at least 400 years before the birth of Islam.

Kraus is worried the Obama campaign is not doing enough to reach older voters on the Net, and that this dynamic could prove decisive with voters who will head to the polls with incorrect information.

The controversy had been simmering since Imam Muhammad Khan of Des Moines offered the daily prayer Jan. 14, the first day of the 2008 legislative session. During the invocation, Khan prayed that God “give us victory over those that disbelieve,” which some construed as being a reference to the United States’ war in the Middle East. Khan was the guest of Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, D-Des Moines.

Although some reporters questioned the remarks on the day they were made, Republicans and Democrats were generally dismissive of the questions initially, noting that leaders of several religions and denominations are invited to the Capitol during the session to offer an invocation.

Muslim clerics have delivered prayers for at least five years, according to a review of Senate and House minutes. However, this is the first time an imam has been invited to open the annual session with the official prayer, a point that irked some Republicans.In recent weeks, Khan’s appearance at the legislature has been fodder for conservative talk show hosts and a popular topic at websites like Jihadwatch.org and the conservative Little Green Footballs.

Abdul-Samad told the Iowa Independent that he decided to address the controversy by invoking point of privilege Wednesday after a Democratic colleague received an e-mail from a woman in Arizona who asked why the Iowa Legislature would allow a prayer from an imam who “was talking about destroying America.”

“I don’t identify with Muslims who want to destroy America and I recognize where this has reached a point where what (Imam Muhammed Khan) had said was being taken out of context,” Abdul-Samad said. “We can’t let people define us and we can’t let the House chamber become a place where misinformation prevents us from coming together. We have to be able to reach out and talk to one another.”

Most legislators contacted by the Iowa Independent were reluctant to talk about the unusual events in the legislature on Wednesday, saying that it diverts attention away from an ambitious agenda that includes issues ranging from a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage to increasing funding for education, health care and the environment.

One veteran Republican representative said Abdul-Samad’s remarks were generally well-received by most members of the House.

But after Abdul-Samad finished, Rep. Gary Worthan, R-Storm Lake, invoked his point of privilege and said that he recounted the imam’s prayer to two sons who had served in the Middle East. Both were offended by the remarks. In his criticism of the prayer, Worthen asked representatives to be sensitive to the opinions of Christians as well as Muslims.

“At that point it could have gotten tense,” a Republican lawmaker, who asked not to be identified, said. “I have to give credit to (Speaker Pat Murphy and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy) for diffusing the situation.”

As Worthen wrapped up his remarks, Reps. Ray Zirkelbach and McKinley Bailey — two Democrats who veterans of the Iraq war — signaled their intention to speak, at which point the leadership called all four representatives to the well of the House chamber. Abdul-Samad said Zirkelbach and Bailey were preparing to tell their colleagues that they fought in the Middle East to protect every American’s right to freedom of speech and religion.

The Republican representative we spoke to said that although he wasn’t privy to the actual conversation, it was obvious that the exchange was congenial. Abdul-Samad said that he and Worthen exchanged a hug when they finished talking.

“I understand and respect his concerns just as I hope he understands my point of view,” Abdul-Samad said. “I don’t condone violence of any kind and I hope people understand that the point that was trying to be made was that in a society where people are dying from disease and violent crime and poverty, we need individuals to come together to strengthen society.

“We understand that the war is a very sensitive issue. People have lost their lives. And you don’t separate one Muslim from another when you have lost loved ones,” Abdul-Samad said. “But we have to understand that not every Muslim supports strapping a bomb to a physically challenged woman and then detonating it in a crowded market in the name of God.”

Abdul-Samad said he was moved by news reports on Wednesday regarding a decision by the Roman Catholic Church to change the wording of a prayer recited on Good Friday that Jews found offensive.

“With society the way it is today, the last thing we should have issues over is prayer,” Abdul-Samad said.

Abdul-Samad said that a majority of Iowans are tolerant of Muslims and said that imams have been invited to lead prayer at the Capitol for several years. He noted that the first mosque in the United States was built in Cedar Rapids.

Dean Fiihr, communications director for Murphy, said almost all the e-mails that representatives have received regarding the issue have come from out of state.

RED OAK — Showcasing a Iowa Rotary Club-ready folksy sense of humor and old-school politician’s patience for pressing of flesh, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson Saturday spent nearly an hour with a few dozen Red Oak residents in the southwest reaches of the Hawkeye State..

Richardson, the popular New Mexico governor, covered a wide swath of issues, telling the audience — and a media entourage that included Spanish-language international broadcast organization Univision — at Kate & Lainie’s  Coffee House that the United States should withdraw all troops from Iraq by Dec. 31.

The U.S. presence should be followed  by an internationally supported all-Muslim peace-keeping force, Richardson said.

“Our troops in Iraq have become a target,” Richardson said. “They are viewed as the occupiers.”

A former U.N. ambassador, congressmen and secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, Richardson said he has the experience to use diplomacy effectively before reaching for the guns of the American military — that he could ask questions first, broker deals, and shoot later if it comes to it.

The United States must move past President George W. Bush’s damaging philosophy of cutting off talks with countries with which it has disagreements.

“Pretty soon, we’ll be talking to only the Vatican,” Richardson said.

Richardson said Iowa could be play a leading role in improving agriculture on a global scale, a foreign aid effort that would benefit the farm community at home and boost the nation’s reputation abroad.

“You used to do that with Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution,” he said.

Richardson’s visit to the small GOP-leaning Montgomery County seat — home of the most celebrated murder trial in Iowa history, the still-unsolved 1912 Villisca axe murders — is part of his campaign’s strategy to play the Iowa caucuses game by the old rules, not rely on star quality and packed events that don't offer the access Iowans have come to expect, demand even.

“I’m not here for a rally with 2,000 people and then I leave,”Richardson said.

The Des Moines Register reported late Saturday night on its Web site that Richardson is making inroads with Iowa Democrats. He’s climbed to 10 percent in the latest Register Iowa caucuses poll, behind former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., at 29 percent and U.S. senators Barack Obama, D-Ill., 23 percent and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., 21 percent.

“Once people see him, it’s an easy sell,” Mike Stratton, a senior advisor to Richardson and one of the Democratic party’s behind-the-scenes power brokers, told Iowa Independent.

Jennifer Horner, director of the Southwest Iowa Latino Resource Center based in Red Oak, said Richardson is “compassionate” and “real.”

“I feel really good about him,” Horner said. “There are some really strong Democratic candidates.”

Horner, 35, a single mother and Red Oak native who is white, said white, rural Iowans will accept a Latino candidate.

“I think they will,” she said. “I think he’s playing things in the right way. He can’t be too sensitive and compassionate about immigrants. I probably am more than he and I understand that. He has to appeal to a wide range of people.”

When Iowans meet Richardson they see a Latino but they hear a white person.

“I do too,” Horner said. “But he’s definitely got Latino in him and I know he will make responsible choices as far as when it comes immigration reform but I also understand that he has to have kind of a tough stance on the border.”

Richardson, a California native, is the son of an American father and Mexican mother. He grew up in New England and Mexico City.
Horner said Richardson also may have some crossover appeal with Republicans.

She said one elderly Republican friend at the Richardson event leaned over to her sand said: “I’m not a Democrat but I think he’s wonderful.”

“That might sum it up right there,” Horner said.

Carroll County Democratic Party Chairman Butch Heisterkamp, who is necessarily neutral at this point, believes western Iowans will be receptive to Richardson’s message, and that he may be the candidate to emerge from the back of the pack, if one does.

“He’s going to cause a lot of interest as he gets around more,” Heisterkamp said after hearing Richardson speak recently in Denison. “He’s very strong on foreign relations which we are so weak on right now.”

In Red Oak and Denison, Richardson highlighted his international experience.

Diplomacy shouldn’t be viewed as a “reward” for good behavior, he said.
“Even bad guys need something,” Richardson said. “You can hold a carrot in one hand and a big stick in the other.”

Richardson said he has the resume and track record to stare down America’s enemies, to reach accords that prevent the nation from sending troops to combat except as a last resort.

“I stood toe-to-toe with the world’s bad guys, Saddam Hussein, North Korea, the Sudan, Fidel Castro, (Omar) al-Bashir (Sudan),” Richardson said in Denison. “President Clinton used to say, ‘We have problems in our foreign policy. There are bad dictators. Bad people like Richardson so we’ll send him there.’”

On other issues, Richardson took the following positions at the Red Oak event:
— All Americans should be able to participate in the Congressional medical plan.
— Veterans should be provided “heroes” cards that would entitle them to health care anywhere in the nation.
— K-12 schools in  the United States should have mandatory physical education.
— There should be a cap on credit card interest rates associated with the payment of medical bills.
— The $500 billion being spent on the war in Iraq should go to health care and education and other domestic issues.