It's good that the Obama campaign apologized to the Muslim women who campaign volunteers barred from a photo-op, but they should go a bit further. The obvious move would be to invite those women to a sit-down with the candidate. The bigger move would be to invite them to the sit-down, and then make a speech forthrightly addressing not only the rumors, but the ugly undertone of the rumors, which implies that the religion of millions of Americans and over a billion people worldwide somehow renders them dangerously "other." There's no worse strategy in "the War on Terror" then deciding our enemies aren't merely a couple terrorist dead-enders, but a couple thousand terrorist dead-enders plus more than one billion other people. It's doubtlessly a tricky line for Obama to walk, as plenty of racists will simply assume "well that's exactly what a Manchurian Muslim agent would say," but addressing it openly might make it a considerably more toxic charge and ensure it stays contained to those who've already bought in. And, in any case, these rumors have settled darkly on the edge of the election and this event shows that they're affecting the behavior and thinking of otherwise perfectly rational folks. It's time to resolve the tension.
