Mysterious Choices

You've probably seen the video on the internet or on TV. The McCain campaign volunteer in Woodbridge, Virginia who chased away an anti-Muslim McCain supporter at a rally. The guy's name is Daniel Zubairi, a Muslim, who is a Republican and actually ran for Congress in 2006.

Here's a DailyKos piece that relates what happened afterward. Turns out that CNN wanted to interview Zubairi, and he said he was "good to go," but at the last minute, while the CNN interviewer was live on the air, the McCain campaign pulled the plug on the interview. A second try resulted in another rebuff.

The interviewer, Rick Sanchez, related to Huffington Post's Sam Stein that he was "mystified" by McCain's actions. One would think that McCain would want to show that there are people who work for him who actually have principles and don't tolerate bigotry at its rallies and events. Go figure, right?

Well, I have an hypothesis: McCain doesn't want Zubairi to speak for the McCain campaign because he's a Muslim. Having a Muslim represent the GOP is just a bad idea when they've been hammering away at how awful Muslims are and accusing Obama of being a closet Muslim (or at worst, allowing their supporters to believe it and spread it around the internet and on TV). They have got their "base" (in Arabic, al Qaeda, by the way) fired up, and for them to know that there is a Muslim (actually Muslims, as the video shows ordinary citizens who claim to be Muslim Republicans shouting down the bigots) among them, telling them that hating Muslims is not OK. It's off message. The message is that Obama is a Muslim, and we can't trust Muslims, so we can't trust Obama.

I predict we'll see Zubairi wearing blue before long.