The rightwing just lies and lies and lies.

Obama, like his predecessors, issued a proclamation(pdf) honoring today's "holiday."  What he didn't do is what Bush did — open up the White House and make it a public event.  Instead, he kept it a private event.

And that's the full story.

But that doesn't stop the lies:

Rush Limbaugh said Obama tried to "cancel" the National Day of Prayer.

Uh, no, as I said, Obama issued a proclamation.

Fox News' online project, Fox Nation, said the president "won't celebrate" the National Day of Prayer.

Well, again, no.  He did issue the proclamation and had a private thing in the White House.

And then there's this from Fox's Gretchen Carlson, who said that the Obama's decision to participate in "private" prayer on "National Prayer Day" is evidence of Obama "giving in to the PC society that we live in."

Yeah, or maybe it has something to do with Matthew 6:6, you gasbag. (Sorry, it just appeals to me to couple biblical references with insults).

Fox News' Steve Doocy said Reagan and George H. W. Bush held events similar to that of George W. Bush, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck said on Fox News that the National Day of Prayer "has been a huge tradition" in the U.S.

Uh, wrong on both counts.

First of all, the National Day of Prayer was created by Congress (along with "In God We Trust") in the 1950s.  So it's not a "huge tradition".  Also, Thomas Jefferson (who wrote the Declaration of the United States) and James Madison (who wrote the Constitution) explicitly rejected state-sponsored prayer days.

Even after the National Day of Prayer came into (non-binding) law in the 1950's, most presidents barely took note.  Even Reagan virtually ignored it for seven of his eight years in office, doing no public prayer events those days.

Come to think of it, if it's such a huge deal, did you even know about it before you read this post?

Finally, Hasselbeck of Fox News actually whined with respect to this (phony) controversy, "We should be able to gather and pray as we see fit."

Yeah, I agree.  But here's the thing: you can.  You can do it now, you can do it regardless of whether or not there is a proclamation, and you can do it whether or not Obama prays today in a public event or a private event.  You can do it on a boat, you can do it in a moat….

In fact, if the folks at Fox News think this is such a big deal, why don't they pray before the Fox Morning News show and every telecast?  Has that ever happened?

Also, the "outrage" of the right begs the question: Why does the big-government-hating right wingers need a government to tell them it's okay to pray in the first place?

These people are serious idiots or demogogues without conscience.  Or both.