Sanctuary From the Facts?

CBN's David Brody, who's widely read on the right, likes Mike:

"It was Mike Huckabee who may have had the best night. Put aside the issues for a moment. Don't you get the sense that Huckabee comes across as an extremely effective communicator?

"Whether you agree with him or not, it seemed like every issue he talked about Wednesday had a well thought out, coherent argument behind it. When he speaks, the tone and words flow harmoniously. I mean his answer about the Bible being the word of God came across as humble, accurate and inclusive. Hard to do. On a question about 'What would Jesus do' when it comes to the death penalty, Huckabee's answer was heartfelt conflict yet strong. And then this line of the debate: 'Jesus was too smart to run for public office!'

"Even on the tricky question of whether he'll accept the endorsement of the gay Log Cabin Republicans group, Huckabee said that he needs all the help he can get. So sure he'll accept but won't change his position on same sex marriage. He even said he wants to be that group's President and everybody's President. Good answer, right? Or how about the line about space exploration when he said, 'Maybe Hillary can be on the first rocket to Mars.' "

That was the one line that struck me as a little harsh.

Are rumors about Obama a front-page story? TPM's Greg Sargent unloads on a Washington Post piece headlined "Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him":

"Look -- Obama is not 'dogged by Muslim rumors.' He is the victim of a smear campaign based on lies. These two things are not the same. And incidentally, to whatever extent Obama is 'dogged' by these rumors, surely this will only be facilitated when news orgs like WaPo fail to make a serious effort to knock them down before printing them.

"Just to be clear, CBS probably wouldn't be running with this headline if WaPo hadn't done such a bad job on the story. It portrayed the 'rumors' as being still in dispute, rather than labeling them false, and it told readers that they had only been denied by Obama and his advisers without noting that a central piece of the smear -- that he attended a madrassa -- had been called out as false by a top official at the school he attended."

I can't understand why the story didn't mention that the official at the Indonesian elementary school alleged to have been a madrassa--according to an unsourced story in the conservative online magazine Insight--had told CNN it had always been a public school and not a religious school.