Here's what we're up against, folks. We have lots of work ahead of us.

proud2BlibKansan

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Sun Oct-26-08 07:23 PM
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Here's what we're up against, folks. We have lots of work ahead of us.

Obama rumors abound

Only a few days remain until Election Day, a gray-haired widow noted, leaning over the untreated wood railing of her front porch in rural Nash County. Sarah Ashby has been following the presidential race closely, she said, nodding to affirm the statement.

And with each day that passes, her concerns deepen.

�If America puts him in as president, we deserve what we get,� Ashby said, shouting over the rumble of a passing pick-up truck. �I think he�s a Muslim. The media knows he�s a Muslim-Arab, and they won�t do anything. They�re brainwashed.�

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A broken and winding dirt path leads through the mostly wooded Riverside Mobile Home Park where Ashby lives, less than two miles outside the town of Spring Hope. A few faded Confederate flags, discarded appliances and a miniature Dale Earnhardt statue line the trail through the secluded trailer community.

�People are just ignorant,� Ashby said. �People don�t know who this guy is.�

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But none of the outlandish rumors, it seems, have gained as much traction throughout rural Eastern North Carolina as the ones questioning Obama�s background.

�Senator Obama comes from an unusual racial background,� Perrin said. �His race makes it easier for many people to accept these sorts of statements because people are, in a way, looking for reasons to distrust him.�

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�His name is a clue that he wants to bomb America with our own weapons once he�s president,� one Rocky Mount woman said recently, emphasizing the �bom� portion of Obama�s last name.

Another local man called demanding the media stop referring to Obama as the first black presidential candidate from a major political party. Obama, the man argued, is mostly Egyptian, part Asian and part white.

�Besides, Thomas Jefferson was technically the first black president,� the caller said.

Brenda High called the newspaper last week, upset after failing to get through to reporters at Fox News. High said she refused to believe Obama was leaving the campaign trail this weekend to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii.

�He�s going to Hawaii to get a phony birth certificate because he was born in Albania,� High said. �He�s Albanian. I�m certain he probably already has a plant in the register of deeds office so he can get the birth certificate.�

High called back later, correcting herself. Obama, she said, actually was born in Kenya.

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Weber had just finished casting his ballot at an early voting site. He took his son along to �teach him about our civic duty to vote,� he said. When asked what he thought of a potential Obama presidency, the boy�s eyes widened.

�I would be scared,� the boy said, before expressing his fears that Obama would let the terrorists win the war in Iraq. �They could attack us here.�

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�I don�t know,� said Ashby, who gets her news through talk radio and a few friends who read a lot on the Internet. �I heard it�s a conspiracy to destroy us from inside our own government. He hates white people, I know that. And all these blacks are voting for him because they think he�s black, but he�s not even completely black. He�s 77 percent Arabic and the rest black.�

more . . . http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/obama-rumors-abound-206036.html?page=2