Obama throws Rev Wright under the bus

[HAL 9000 96]

OK. Lets. Unless, of course, the smearing campaign can come up with something else to blow up completely out of context thereby ignoring once again the issues most voters care about.

Obama, in the meantime, will continue campaigning on issues with charisma like any other campaigning politician.

Who are you to say what issues 'most voters' care about?

And who's this 'smearing campaign' you speak of?

Um... because most voters probably look to choose their politicians based on the issues they care about the most, not emotional, empty, appeals to vague associations based on he-said-she-said publicity that are propelled by opposing candidates and their campaigns.

Hence, we'll have, most likely, a Democrat as President elected in November.

I think the only voters this issue matters to (muchly) is those who allow race to influence their vote too much anyway.

Or those who allow ignorance to influence their decisions as in past elections.

[Fandango 1,439]

OK. Lets. Unless, of course, the smearing campaign can come up with something else to blow up completely out of context thereby ignoring once again the issues most voters care about.

Obama, in the meantime, will continue campaigning on issues with charisma like any other campaigning politician.

Who are you to say what issues 'most voters' care about?

And who's this 'smearing campaign' you speak of?

Um... because most voters probably look to choose their politicians based on the issues they care about the most, not emotional, empty, appeals to vague associations based on he-said-she-said publicity that are propelled by opposing candidates and their campaigns.

Hence, we'll have, most likely, a Democrat as President elected in November.

You've spoken to most voters?

What ARE Obama's stance on the issues? How's he proposing all this change? It's funny that you speak for 'most voters' and what's important to them, cos as far as I can see it, Obama's running on a smoke and mirrors campaign....only with a cheeky smile, good speech, and a wink. If that's not emotional, empty and vague, I dunno what is.

And I'd hardly call a 20 year spiritual advisor a 'vague association' but diff strokes

[Dan J 277]

I was just watching a news conference on TV. He just totally disowned Rev Wright. He looked very nervous. He was stammering, stuttering and every other word was "um". He said that "nothing that Rev Wright said yesterday was constructive". Ok, he did it. He has disowned him. I still have to wonder how someone can sit in a church for 20 years and not understand what the preacher stood for. This isn't over, not by a long shot.

He should have done it a long time ago.

He is in damage control. No doubt about that. With more primaries coming up next week it does not look good for him. You know I have wanted the battle between Hillary and Obama to continue. This is very good news for Hillary. My guess is that Hillary can now catch him in the popular vote and will have a real case to be made about being the most electable. I now give her even odds of getting enough SD's to get the nomination. The dem party will melt down. How about it Obama fans, if Hillary gets the nomination what will you do?

Wright's comments didn't seem give Hillary much advantage in Penn. That was her state, and she had all the cards, including the Wright controversy working for her. But she only managed a 9 point margin. If you took the Wright controversy out of the picture, she probably would have still won by 8-10 points.

That was before the last 4 days events. Watch what happens next week.

I think those who are most affected by Wrights comments probably won't vote for Obama anyway, with or without Wright.

I think this issue will have more bearing on the GE, but that depends on voter memory, which is relatively short. But I also think that McCain's more controversial religious endorsements might come into play if he tries to make Wright an issue.

Being endorsed by someone is very different than sitting in a church for 20 years. If the dems try a #######-for-tat on this subject they will lose.

Not really, its still by association in both cases. If someone works at a company for 20 years, does that mean they politically agree with their boss?

Does the pastor always define the Church? In most cases its the people who go to it, not the pastor giving the service.

Wow! Your trying really hard not to admit that Wright is a major problem for Obama. Face it Dan, Obama has a real problem. One that you cannot transfer to McCain in a like manner. You can try but it will not work.

Wright is only a problem if you want it to be one. If this situation was on the other side, and Wright was a controversial white pastor who was the pastor a church McCain went to. And his remarks were equally inflammatory, the reaction would be different. In fact it might even prove to be an asset. Why?

Is it that we have unresolved issues that go back to the civil rights era? Is race just a color over what really is a class struggle? Why is it so difficult to get past issues like this?

I think the only voters this issue matters to (muchly) is those who allow race to influence their vote too much anyway.

Exactly

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

What Obama said...

The core of his message: That Wright was not only offensive, but the polar opposite of Obama's own views and politics.

"I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That’s in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding to insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That’s who I am, that’s what I believe, and that’s what this campaign has been about," Obama said.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," he said.

Obama also distanced himself from the man in a way he has been reluctant to in the past.

"The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," he said. "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."

"They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs," he said.

"If Reverend Wright thinks that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church," he said. "But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no exuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today."

"It is antithetical to my campaign. It is antithetical to what I’m about. It is not what I think America stands for," he said.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/040...ces_Wright.html

[Fandango 1,439]

Yeah, anyone who cares about this is a secret racist. 'God #### America'

[no name 1]

What Obama said...

The core of his message: That Wright was not only offensive, but the polar opposite of Obama's own views and politics.

"I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That’s in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding to insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That’s who I am, that’s what I believe, and that’s what this campaign has been about," Obama said.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," he said.

Obama also distanced himself from the man in a way he has been reluctant to in the past.

"The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," he said. "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."

"They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs," he said.

"If Reverend Wright thinks that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church," he said. "But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no exuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today."

"It is antithetical to my campaign. It is antithetical to what I’m about. It is not what I think America stands for," he said.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/040...ces_Wright.html

So if he truly wanted to disown the man, he coulda done it, say 15 years ago, or 5 or 1? But no, he stayed on till the scandal broke. Pathetic.

Also - why the change of heart? March 18, 2008:

In Philadelphia, Obama said he "can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother." Obama has changed his mind, even to the point of insisting that Wright was not his spiritual mentor.

link

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/03/i-can...than-i-can.html

Edited April 29, 2008 by illumine

[rebeccajo 14]

"God Damn America" wasn't said by the candidate.

[Dan J 277]

Yeah, anyone who cares about this is a secret racist. 'God #### America'

I would not say racist, more unresolved about race and or class.

Being racist implies that one hates a certain group of people. But in this case, I think this issue is more about being uncomfortable with race and or class and comming to terms with it.

[HAL 9000 96]

OK. Lets. Unless, of course, the smearing campaign can come up with something else to blow up completely out of context thereby ignoring once again the issues most voters care about.

Obama, in the meantime, will continue campaigning on issues with charisma like any other campaigning politician.

Who are you to say what issues 'most voters' care about?

And who's this 'smearing campaign' you speak of?

Um... because most voters probably look to choose their politicians based on the issues they care about the most, not emotional, empty, appeals to vague associations based on he-said-she-said publicity that are propelled by opposing candidates and their campaigns.

Hence, we'll have, most likely, a Democrat as President elected in November.

You've spoken to most voters?

What ARE Obama's stance on the issues? How's he proposing all this change? It's funny that you speak for 'most voters' and what's important to them, cos as far as I can see it, Obama's running on a smoke and mirrors campaign....only with a cheeky smile, good speech, and a wink. If that's not emotional, empty and vague, I dunno what is.

And I'd hardly call a 20 year spiritual advisor a 'vague association' but diff strokes

Another "Oh No, Not this $hit Again"...

As far as you're concerned you are perhaps watching a little too much SPAM-TV coverage, but then its possibly you and a few others. Or more.

As far as his actual stance on the issues:

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/

Let us know where the smoke and mirrors are to be found.

What Obama said...

The core of his message: That Wright was not only offensive, but the polar opposite of Obama's own views and politics.

"I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That’s in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding to insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That’s who I am, that’s what I believe, and that’s what this campaign has been about," Obama said.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," he said.

Obama also distanced himself from the man in a way he has been reluctant to in the past.

"The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," he said. "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."

"They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs," he said.

"If Reverend Wright thinks that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church," he said. "But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no exuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today."

"It is antithetical to my campaign. It is antithetical to what I’m about. It is not what I think America stands for," he said.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/040...ces_Wright.html

God forbid some folks just pay attention to the actual issues discussed in context brother Steven.

[Fandango 1,439]

What Obama said...

The core of his message: That Wright was not only offensive, but the polar opposite of Obama's own views and politics.

"I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That’s in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding to insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That’s who I am, that’s what I believe, and that’s what this campaign has been about," Obama said.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," he said.

Obama also distanced himself from the man in a way he has been reluctant to in the past.

"The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," he said. "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."

"They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs," he said.

"If Reverend Wright thinks that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church," he said. "But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no exuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today."

"It is antithetical to my campaign. It is antithetical to what I’m about. It is not what I think America stands for," he said.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/040...ces_Wright.html

So if he truly wanted to disown the man, he coulda done it, say 15 years ago, or 5 or 1? But no, he stayed on till the scandal broke. Pathetic.

Also - why the change of heart? March 18, 2008:

In Philadelphia, Obama said he "can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother." Obama has changed his mind, even to the point of insisting that Wright was not his spiritual mentor.

link

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/03/i-can...than-i-can.html

agreed.

interesting....guess he's disowning his white granny now too!

[HAL 9000 96]

"God Damn America" wasn't said by the candidate.

Nor did the Pastor come out into the limelight before.

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

"I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That’s in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding to insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That’s who I am, that’s what I believe, and that’s what this campaign has been about," Obama said.

He has my vote.

[no name 1]

March 18, 2008 speech:

...I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

http://drudgereport.com/flashos.htm

[almaty 19]

obama did right..by distancing himself from that attention #######

[Fandango 1,439]

Another "Oh No, Not this $hit Again"...

As far as you're concerned you are perhaps watching a little too much SPAM-TV coverage, but then its possibly you and a few others. Or more.

As far as his actual stance on the issues:

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/

Let us know where the smoke and mirrors are to be found.

Present.