Rev. Wright: If you're elected, Obama, I'M COMING AFTER YOU...

[metta 0]

Rev. Wright: If you're elected, Obama, I'M COMING AFTER YOU...

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that he will try to change national policy by “coming after” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) if he is elected president.

The pastor also insisted Obama “didn’t denounce” him and “didn’t distance himself” from Wright’s controversial remarks, but “did what politicians do.”

Wright implied Obama still agrees with him by saying: “He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was [portrayed as] anti-American.”

Wright, who was Obama’s pastor for 20 years and performed his wedding, made the explosive comment during a chaotic question-and-answer session at the National Press Club in Washington, following the pastor’s remarks about the black church in America.

“I said to Barack Obama last year, ‘If you get elected, November the 5th I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people,’ Wright said.

The minister was speaking as part of a tour that is drawing heavy news coverage and causing a huge headache for Obama’s presidential campaign.

Obama, seeking to distance himself from remarks by Wright that some have taken as anti-American, has emphasized that Wright has retired.

But Wright talks of their relationship in the present tense. “I'm a pastor; he's a member,” he said. “I'm not a ‘spiritual mentor.’ “

In the Democratic debate on April 16, Obama referred to Wright as “somebody who is associated with me that I have disowned,” then clarified that to say he had disowned the comments.

But Wright objected to a question saying Obama had denounced him.

“Whoever wrote that question doesn't read or watch the news,” Wright said. “He did not denounce me. He distanced himself from some of my remarks, like most of you, never having heard the sermon, all right? …

“He didn't distance himself. He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was [portrayed as] anti-American. … He did, as I said, what politicians do.”

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[no name 1]

Obama already said it's unfortunate that Wroght is speaking out now. I say keep digging a hole for Obama...

Obama feels Wright impact

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

A public relations blitz by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is re-igniting a racially charged controversy at a time when Obama is trying to convince party leaders he can appeal to white, blue-collar voters critical to capturing the White House.

In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Obama acknowledged that speeches Sunday and today by Wright come at an awkward moment for his presidential bid. Obama did not dispute Fox anchor Chris Wallace's assertion that Wright's re-emergence "obviously isn't helpful to your campaign."

Wright, who is scheduled to speak at 9 a.m. today at the National Press Club in Washington, lamented his "public crucifixion" during a 45-minute sermon Sunday in Dallas and later while delivering the keynote address to an NAACP convention in Detroit.

Wright said the people who call him "bombastic" and "divisive" simply don't understand a religious experience that's different from theirs.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-0...ev-wright_N.htm

[metta 0]

Wright implied Obama still agrees with him by saying: "He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was [portrayed as] anti-American."

Wright, who was Obama's pastor for 20 years and performed his wedding, made the explosive comment during a chaotic question-and-answer session at the National Press Club in Washington, following the pastor's remarks about the black church in America.

Well, I don't want to characterize him(Wright) as a devil but I am tempted to say that Obama made a Faustian bargain some 20 years ago and now Wright is making a claim for Obama's soul.

Neither Mccain's or Clinton's campaigns could have scripted for a more unfortunate "distraction" than Obama's own spiritual leader has so far.

Imagine, three days of media coverage and going...

Edited April 28, 2008 by metta

[metta 0]

Oh, it gets better!

For Obama, a Voice of Doom?

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, explaining this morning why he had waited so long before breaking his silence about his incendiary sermons, offered a paraphrase from Proverbs: "It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

Barack Obama's pastor would have been wise to continue to heed that wisdom.

Should it become necessary in the months from now to identify the moment that doomed Obama's presidential aspirations, attention is likely to focus on the hour between nine and ten this morning at the National Press Club. It was then that Wright, Obama's longtime pastor, reignited a controversy about race from which Obama had only recently recovered - and added lighter fuel.

Speaking before an audience that included Marion Barry, Cornel West, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam official Jamil Muhammad, Wright praised Louis Farrakhan, defended the view that Zionism is racism, accused the United States of terrorism, repeated his view that the government created the AIDS virus to cause the genocide of racial minorities, stood by other past remarks ("God damn America") and held himself out as a spokesman for the black church in America.

In front of 30 television cameras, Wright's audience cheered him on as the minister mocked the media and, at one point, did a little victory dance on the podium. It seemed as if Wright, jokingly offering himself as Obama's vice president, was actually trying to doom Obama; a member of the head table, American Urban Radio's April Ryan, confirmed that Wright's security was provided by bodyguards from Farrakhan's Nation of Islam.

Wright suggested that Obama was insincere in distancing himself from his pastor. "He didn't distance himself," Wright announced. "He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was anti-American."

Explaining further, Wright said friends had written to him and said, "We both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected." The minister continued: "Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls."

Wright also argued, at least four times over the course of the hour, that he was speaking not for himself but for the black church.

"This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright," the minister said. "It is an attack on the black church." He positioned himself as a mainstream voice of African American religious traditions. "Why am I speaking out now?" he asked. "If you think I'm going to let you talk about my mama and her religious tradition, and my daddy and his religious tradition and my grandma, you got another thing coming."

That significantly complicates Obama's job as he contemplates how to extinguish Wright's latest incendiary device. Now, he needs to do more than express disagreement with his former pastor's view; he needs to refute his former pastor's suggestion that Obama privately agrees with him.

Wright seemed aggrieved that his inflammatory quotations were out of the full "context" of his sermons -- yet he repeated many of the same accusations in the context of a half-hour Q&A session this morning.

His claim that the September 11 attacks mean "America's chickens are coming home to roost"?

Wright defended it: "Jesus said, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic divisive principles."

His views on Farrakhan and Israel? "Louis said 20 years ago that Zionism, not Judaism, was a gutter religion. He was talking about the same thing United Nations resolutions say, the same thing now that President Carter's being vilified for and Bishop Tutu's being vilified for. And everybody wants to paint me as if I'm anti-Semitic because of what Louis Farrakhan said 20 years ago. He is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century; that's what I think about him. . . . Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains, he did not put me in slavery, and he didn't make me this color."

He denounced those who "can worship God on Sunday morning, wearing a black clergy robe, and kill others on Sunday evening, wearing a white Klan robe." He praised the communist Sandinista regime of Nicaragua. He renewed his belief that the government created AIDS as a means of genocide against people of color ("I believe our government is capable of doing anything").

And he vigorously renewed demands for an apology for slavery: "Britain has apologized to Africans. But this country's leaders have refused to apologize. So until that apology comes, I'm not going to keep stepping on your foot and asking you, does this hurt, do you forgive me for stepping on your foot, if I'm still stepping on your foot. Understand that? Capisce?"

Capisce, reverend. All too well.

[no name 1]

Oh, it gets better!

For Obama, a Voice of Doom?

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, explaining this morning why he had waited so long before breaking his silence about his incendiary sermons, offered a paraphrase from Proverbs: "It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

Saw that! I see Real Clear Politics has their own Wright section - classic!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[SaadBell 0]

Let them sling their filth, McCain has all kind of skeletons in his closet, hold tight folks it is going to be a very bumpy ride.

[no name 1]

Let them sling their filth, McCain has all kind of skeletons in his closet, hold tight folks it is going to be a very bumpy ride.

Wright is slinging his own filth!

[SaadBell 0]

Jabberwocky - omg that is priceless thank you for that, I about died laughing.

[no name 1]

Monday, April 28, 2008

Jeremiah Wright May Have Just Sunk Obama's Campaign

The Obama campaign is off the rails.

The entire tone of the race changed the moment we saw the first fiery Wright sermon. The sight of those sermons triggered a question in a lot of voters' minds: How do you get the moderate-sounding, pleasant, agreeable student Barack Obama from an angry, divisive, radical, way-out-of-the-mainstream teacher like Jeremiah Wright? The sermons weren't quite a deal-breaker, but many Obama supporters, leaners, and undecideds were asking... how did Obama choose this man as a mentor? How could he possibly not know that his mentor had these attitudes? And does Obama agree with any of Wright's inflammatory statements?

In response, Obama gave a very eloquent speech about race relations in America. But it never quite answered the question, and in fact tried to blur the distinction between family we are born into and those we choose to turn to for guidance. Hillary jabbed at this in the debate, and Obama never quite had an appropriate response. He even said he disowned Wright, then backtracked and said he disowned his controversial statements.

And since then, it's gotten worse, even with a Bill Moyers interview that wasn't softball so much as it was Nerf Tee-Ball. We've heard Wright compare the Roman Legions who punished Jesus to the U.S. Marines, we've heard him argue that the U.S. and al-Qaeda are doing the same acts under different flags, etc.

Now we hear Wright analyzing the differences between white and black brains (!) and that the criticism of him for his comments was "an attack on the black church." He didn't retract his assertion that the U.S. government created the AIDS virus. He didn't retract his accusation that the United States had committed terrorism. He raved about Louis Farrakhan.

And again, we're left with that question... presuming Obama strongly disagrees with all of Wright's statements in these areas... how did he end up selecting this pastor? This church? (I know we get the story in Obama's autobiography. But did Obama once agree with all of the crazy conspiracy theories? Does he still agree, late at night, when the microphones and television cameras are far away?)

Obama is saying he should be president, instead of two much more experienced rivals, because of his superior judgment. But what kind of judgment is needed to select Wright as a surrogate father figure?

More reaction:

Jake Tapper: "He clearly was not doing Obama any favors, not only by reappearing before a ravenous media thus distracting from Obama's attempt to relate better to white working class voters in Indiana and North Carolina, but by implying Obama's condemnation of some of his sermons was not sincere."

David Brody: "Jeremiah Wright did Barack Obama no favors. Pastor Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club today started out as a great opportunity to explain the importance of the black Church experience. Instead it turned into a circus atmosphere and ensured that the Wright controversy is not going away and has the potential to single-handily take down Obama’s campaign."

04/28 11:17 AM

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/pos...Dg2NThlM2YzY2Y=

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Jabberwocky - omg that is priceless thank you for that, I about died laughing.

I'm counting the days until June 2nd when this will all be over.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Former Clinton supporters defecting...

There are signs that the anger voiced by some African Americans is beginning to extend to the Democratic donor base. Campaign finance records released this week show that a growing number of Clinton's early supporters migrated to Obama in March, after he achieved 11 straight victories. Of those who had previously made maximum contributions to Clinton, 73 wrote their first checks to Obama in March. The reverse was not true: Of those who had made large contributions to Obama last year, none wrote checks to Clinton in March.

"I think she is destroying the Democratic Party," said New York lawyer Daniel Berger, who had backed Clinton with the maximum allowable donation of $2,300. "That there's no way for her to win this election except by destroying [Obama], I just don't like it. So in my own little way, I'm trying to send her a message."

The message came in the form of a $2,300 contribution to Obama.

Donors are not the only ones who have made the leap. Gabriel Guerra-Mondragón served as an ambassador to Chile during Bill Clinton's presidency, considered himself a close friend of Sen. Clinton, and became a "Hill-raiser" by bringing in about $500,000 for her presidential bid.

But he had a fitful few weeks as the battle between Clinton and Obama turned increasingly negative. Last week, he decided he had seen enough.

"We're just bleeding each other out," Guerra-Mondragón said when asked why he had decided to join Obama's finance committee. "Looking at it as coldly as I can, I just don't see how Senator Clinton can overcome Senator Obama with delegates and popular votes. I want this fight to be over -- the quicker, the better."

The Obama converts include William Louis-Dreyfus. The billionaire New York financier said he had been impressed by Clinton's performance in the Senate and distressed by eight years of the Bush administration when he donated the maximum to her campaign last August. Then, he said, he began watching more closely.

"However much one might have supported the Clintons, or one might support the usual suspects in the Democratic Party, I began to believe Obama represents a new approach. He gives off such a sense of relevance that he's sort of irresistible," Louis-Dreyfus said.

He also expressed, as did other big givers who crossed to Obama, exasperation about the tone of the Clinton campaign and frustration with the candidate herself.

"At the end of the day, all she had to do was open her mouth for me not to believe her," Louis-Dreyfus said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ST2008042504037

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

"At the end of the day, all she had to do was open her mouth for me not to believe her," Louis-Dreyfus said.

[Ban Hammer 13,079]

"At the end of the day, all she had to do was open her mouth for me not to believe her," Louis-Dreyfus said.