New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg decried rumors linking Barack Obama to Islam.
Speaking before a Jewish audience in Florida, a key state and constituency in Obama’s Democratic presidential bid, Bloomberg called the “whisper campaign,” which has manifested itself mostly in chain e-mails, “lies” and “partisan politics.”
“This is wedge politics at its worst, and we’ve got to reject it – loudly, clearly and unequivocally,” Bloomberg said in his address last week.
E-mail messages claiming that Obama does not support Israel and is sympathetic to radical Islam have flooded the electronic mailboxes of residents of South Florida, which has the second-largest Jewish population in the United States.
Bloomberg, whose name has been put forward as a possible running mate for both Obama and John McCain, spoke June 21 at a breakfast meeting of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.
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