All well enough and good..however...

Submitted by Jascha Kessler (United States), Jan 8, 2008 at 18:28

....since one of the debates in Iowa offered ringer as a caller-in who waved a green-colored volume of the Bible, demanding of various debaters whether they believed every word of The Book, it would be fair enough to ask Senator Obama point-blank whether he has any faith whatever in any sect, Buddhist or Judeo-Christian-Islamic; and if he considers that he remains in the faith of the Muslim, however tenuous and attenuated.

If the reply is returned that he is a practicing Christian or something else, the next question must be to ask if he understands that for the Islamists he is a marked man and targeted for assassination as an apostate, willy-nilly. That could be useful, even crucial, for voters to consider, whatever Senator Obama's response.

In short, such questions are not at this point a matter for investigative reporters to argue. All US presidents are sitting targets, as history has shown; but for Obama the risk may be an order of magnitude greater. And it follows that should he be the Democratic candidate after all the primary votes are tallied to their delegations, who would be his choice for Vice President.

We are dealing with the present-future; not the past, although few candidates seem to have shown much awareness of that fact. Terror ubiquitous today is to be breathed in as naturally as whatever air circulates in the West.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".