Obama throws pastor under the bus

[RecycleMichael]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080430/pl_politico/9965;_ylt=AhbFSNFi4nft305RDTOi.j1h24cA

Obama breaks with former pastor

Ben Smith

Sen. Barack Obama coolly denounced the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for his "appalling" words and for his personal and political betrayal Tuesday, a day after Wright seized center stage in the race for the White House and six weeks after Obama said he could no more "disown" his former pastor than he could his own grandmother.

Obama's remarks were a second attempt to end perhaps the most damaging chapter of his political career -- and strategists raised significant doubts about whether even Obama's blistering words could immediately quell the crisis Wright has created for the Illinois senator's campaign.

In the weeks since the Wright controversy first emerged, Obama has receded in the public eye, and his Hyde Park, Chicago, milieu -- Wright, former Weather Underground bomber William Ayers and the San Francisco comments that made Obama seem distant from working-class Americans -- has come to dominate his image and seemed to energize the flagging nomination hopes of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"When I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts everything that I am about and who I am, and anybody who has worked with me, who knows my life, who has read my books, who has seen what this campaign's about, I think, will understand that it is completely opposed to what I stand for and where I want to take this country," Obama said in a press conference called after a rally in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he was campaigning Tuesday.

Obama's comments were triggered by Wright's defense of what the candidate called "ridiculous propositions": that the U.S. government created the HIV virus and that Louis Farrakhan is a great and important voice.

But underlying Obama's words was a sense of personal betrayal by a man whom the candidate had given the "benefit of the doubt" in his speech in Philadelphia last month.

Wright had dismissed Obama's March 18 speech as politics, and Obama turned on him sharply and, he said, with "anger."

Wright's words were "a show of disrespect to me [and] an insult to what we're trying to do in this campaign," Obama said.

Indeed, Obama seemed to offer a distinctly personal denunciation of Wright, whom he had defended in Philadelphia as a good man and a good minister.

"I'm particularly distressed that this has caused such a distraction from what this campaign should be about, which is the American people," Obama said. "The fact that Rev. Wright would think that somehow it was appropriate to command the stage for three or four consecutive days in the midst of this major debate is something that not only makes me angry but also saddens me."

Later, Obama effectively accused Wright of grandstanding at the expense of his presidential campaign.

"Now is the time for us not to get distracted. Now is the time for us to pull together, and that's what we've been doing in this campaign. And you know, there was a sense that that did not matter to Rev. Wright.

What mattered was him commanding center stage," he said.

Analysts differed on how much damage Wright will do Obama in his primary fight with Clinton or in a general election against Sen. John McCain, but none dismissed the impact the televised images of the animated, radical preacher will have on the candidate as the campaign proceeds.

"For Obama, Wright is like an infected tattoo. I mean, you can treat the flare-ups, but the stain is self-inflicted and lasting," said Republican strategist and former Bush aide Tucker Eskew.

Even Obama's supporters acknowledged that Wright has done him real damage. But they said they hoped the speech would draw a clear line between Obama and his former pastor -- and that the confrontation between the two men would underscore the difference between them.

Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), an Obama backer, applauded the Illinois senator for taking the issue head-on. Obama, he said, "was personally angered and responded."

Fattah doesn't think Wright's resurfacing will have any impact on voters. "People have already factored in the Wright situation when it arose the first time," he said. "I don't think there's going to be a second look at it."

Even if there is, said Fattah, voters understand that the relationship between a pastor and a congregant is not one that constitutes a mutual endorsement. Still, Obama's critics derided the timing of his speech. "The failure to unceremoniously disgorge the pastor from his universe earlier in the year now means that today's action -- while better late than never -- is still very late in terms of the lasting political consequences," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant who supports Clinton.

But Obama has, in the past, quelled concerns about his campaign with the kind of skillful, direct political performance he turned in Tuesday -- and with an appeal to the same principles of reconciliation that have animated his campaign. "I don't know what else he could say. I don't know what else people would demand he could say," said Bob Shrum, a top adviser to the 2004 presidential campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.).

Indeed, the general election impact is hard to gauge. Obama's immediate aim, though, was to reassure Democratic voters and -- at least as important -- the party officials who will decide the nomination based on his values and his political viability. And while the Wright eruption has reinvigorated Clinton's campaign, which announced Tuesday the endorsements of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley and Rep. Ike Skelton, a powerful Democrat from Missouri, there were no signs of superdelegates abandoning the ship of the front-running Obama, who announced the backing of Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Ky.) on Tuesday.

In the short term, this furor presents a delicate challenge for Clinton, who must ride the issue without seeming to stoke it. "Any attempt to keep the issue alive for its own sake will hurt whoever does that," Shrum said.

Conversations with uncommitted superdelegates Tuesday afternoon revealed no immediate shifts as a result of Wright's or Obama's words. "Rev. Wright is a pimple on this whole campaign," said Steve Ybarra, a California superdelegate who is chairman of the Democratic National Committee's Hispanic Caucus and who said he didn't find the question relevant. "It's more than enough said about the issue."

[RecycleMichael]

I am very happy that Obama has distanced himself and his campaign from this pastor.

For those who have been reading my political comments, you know I have been discussing this long before the national media was. I discussed this with some of you by private e-mail back in 2007.

Obama should have left this church or denounced this pastor weeks, months, or years ago. It bothered me that it bothered me so much, but I just felt uncomfortable supporting a presidential candidate that showed such poor judgement. I know it was guilt by association, but, sometimes, you are who you hang with.

I feel much better about Obama today.

[Wilbur]

Actually, I think the pastor threw himself under the bus.

[we vs us]

quote:Originally posted by Wilbur

Actually, I think the pastor threw himself under the bus.

+1 Wilbur.  That's the stuff right there.

[pmcalk]

I watched him on Bill Moyer, and thought, this guys ok, smart, knows his scriptures.  But then something seemed to happen to him on the way to the press club.

As much as I understand why Obama distanced himself from this man, and as much as I think many of Wright's comments are wrong, I still think it is important to understand better why he says what he says.  If you think he is just one crazy guy, you haven't spent much time in African American communities.  I use to work in the projects in DC.  It was a common belief that the government introduced crack cocaine to destroy black communities.  

How can we ever change what's wrong with America if a large chunk of the population sincerely believes that the government is conspiring to destroy them?  

What does it mean to a community when a young black man at his bachelor party is killed in a hail of bullets, and the police who shot him are acquitted?  The news media is focused on the black preacher, but the African American community is seeing something entirely different.
 
We have a real problem in our country.  Sometimes when I see the vast divide that keeps us apart in America--whether by race, religion, politics, or class--I think it might be hopeless.

[FOTD]

PM....NOT HOPELESS!

We are seeing the change we envision. Tolerance and acceptance can't come without the mean people kicking back over and over. Stay calm and don't panic. A new day is dawning. Have hope. This is what the year 08 is in politics....change. The evil doers and mean people have had their day.

[spoonbill]

Oh boy!  The whirl wind is starting.  If you can't see that, then the will be a good learning experience for the young and the high (that would be you FOTARD).  The only thing I give you, is that you are right, the media will pound this until it's the only question left to ask.  Wright will be in every debate just like he was a candidate.

WEvsUS I can't be so hard on you.  You only come across as young.  This is not the first time this has happened to a candidate.  Obama will now have to take the next few weeks to campaign against Hillary, McCain, and Wright.  The members of the black church will view it as a campaign against their church.  Hillary will stand back and gain small numbers.  Many of the Super Delegates will view this as a valid reason to vote against Obama and justify it to the party.  This is what they've been waiting for.  Bill is already working behind the curtain on this.

I admire your willingness to explore change.  The prospect of a new day is always inviting.  Unfortunately you are being used.  The change you seek, is no more than smoke.  Nothing concrete has been proposed by any candidate (D or R).  The only candidates that proposed a plan for relief from taxes, relief from inflation, relief from foreign energy control, and relief from being the world's police force are no longer in the race.  They were crushed with the right foot of establishment and the left foot of ambition.

Obama's chances against McCain are minimal now, and Hillary's chances never existed.  

As for Hillary, the current polls don't reflect the revival of her scandals that will take place if she is nominated.  I hold here in my wrinkled hand an old document from the Clinton years.  The universal health-care plan.  It is the most ridiculous piece of work ever committed to paper with a budget in the trillions.  Don't you wonder why it hasn't been put back on the table yet?  It's ammo.  It's as thick as a bible and offers hundreds of pages of hand-grenades.  Her new plan is basically a mandatory insurance plan funded by taxes.  It will do nothing to decrease the cost of care, in fact it will inflate it.  It also promises to destroy the profits of the drug companies.  In other words, no more new drugs.  Wonderful!

How can the Democrats fix this?
Someone needs to drop out, and a solid VP candidate must be chosen.  But I don't know if it's possible.  That VP must be strong enough to stand on his/her own.

[tim huntzinger]

I was dismayed at how poorly the O handled the situation.  He should have defended his Church as the Body of Christ, and pointed out how Christ changed Wright - not perfected him.  O's equivocations and writhing around has absolutely diminished his standing.  He should have used Wright's appearances as evidence that Wright is his own man and that they are not joined at the hip.

[Friendly Bear]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

I am very happy that Obama has distanced himself and his campaign from this pastor.

For those who have been reading my political comments, you know I have been discussing this long before the national media was. I discussed this with some of you by private e-mail back in 2007.

Obama should have left this church or denounced this pastor weeks, months, or years ago. It bothered me that it bothered me so much, but I just felt uncomfortable supporting a presidential candidate that showed such poor judgement. I know it was guilt by association, but, sometimes, you are who you hang with.

I feel much better about Obama today.

I don't.  

There are strong strains of Marxist ideology in the Black Theology content of Obama's only known church experience:

An uninterrupted 20-year lovefest until he ran for President, and Reverand Wright's relationship stuck to Obama like a Tar Baby.

Figuring out WHO is Barack Obama cannot be completed until the calculus of his adherence to a virulent, radically intolerant strain of religion known as Black Theology is factored into the equation.

His major religious experience has been within a Black Theology church that espouses the theology that White christianity is different from Black christianity because White christianity was the religion of the Slave-Master, and even that Christ was an African.  

His church continually espouses the belief that Black people are "Oppressed".  Oh, and that the U.S. Government invented AIDS to target minorities.  And, crack cocaine, too.  

Looney-tune city.  Although I will agree that Federal sentencing guidelines for several decades has had a disparate impact on blacks because the sentence for selling Crack Cocaine is much more several than for merely selling Cocaine.  

Even a cursory reading of the purpose and practice of those churches espousing Black Theology will quickly make you realize that Barack Obama has not been driving your Daddy's Oldsmobile, nor attending your Daddy's church the past 20 years.

TWENTY Years.

His Chicago church choice fits his profile, however.

His parents were far Left socialists; probably Marxist-Leninists.  A White woman marrying a black man in 1961 earned the woman an instant Pariah label.  But, as she was three months pregnant when they wed, it may have been her Hobson's Choice.  His father quickly abandoned them.

He may even have enough momentum to get the Democratic Nomination, but there's plenty of time before November 4 for voters to get educated as to the content of his character.

I suspect the more they learn, the less they'll be impressed by his superbly delivered speeches.

[8D]


 

[tim huntzinger]

Where does that leave you, FB?  What gospel does your church preach?

[FOTD]

Yes, be afraid. Especially if you live in Oklahoma. The end is coming. Marxists are far more lethal than facists and neo cons.....

On a more serious note, John McFlintstone's got an issue with an entire race....not a single pastor(although he's got several of those issues as well)....

John McCain's White Supremacist Problem
     Posted April 28, 2008 | 03:02 PM (EST)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cliff-schecter/john-mccains-white-suprem_b_99014.html
 
"One would have to strain to be shocked that a racist ad is finding its way out of the bowels of conservativism in North Carolina. For political observers from the 1980s and 1990s will remember that Senator Jesse Helms was a master of using divisive tactics inject race into just about everything he did outside of brushing his teeth -- whenever he wasn't straining through the holes in the sheet he was wearing to see his Jefferson Davis emblazoned toothbrush.

Yet, racism for electoral gain obviously did not go away with Helms' retirement from politics. And neither has Republican timidity in doing anything to control the extreme elements in the party--or their base if you will. So once again, just as other conservatives sat idly by and claimed Jesse was just being Jesse, now John McCain throws his hands up in the air as if there is nothing he can do when a racist ad is run by the North Carolina GOP against Barack Obama:

ABC NEWS' Bret Hovell and Russell Goldman report: Sen. John McCain said Thursday that if elected president -- and becomes the de facto head of the GOP -- he would not demand a change in the leadership of the North Carolina Republican Party despite condemning its plan to air an ad attacking Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, and his controversial minister.
It's good to know where the Senator stands on this issue (at least today). In my book, The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't, I recount McCain' questionable past on issues of race his entire career. From the many years he rejected a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday (pretty much the entire 70s and 80s) to his serial flip-flops on the Confederate Flag in 2000 (which he admits he did for political reasons -- no way, not you Johnny!) to his close association with a white supremacist named Richard Quinn, who found himself hired as a political advisor by McCain in 2000 (and still is from what I can tell) after openly praising David Duke (he called him a "maverick") selling t-shirts praising the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and writing/editing for a magazine (Southern Partisan) that reminded us that slave masters just really weren't all that bad.

That's The Real McCain for you. Now I'll be waiting for the media to do their job and report on his close association with a white supremacist just as they have every aspect of Barack Obama's life. While not overly sanguine, I do have hope that some of the more responsible voices in the press, who as of late have been pointing out McCain's dangerous temper and penchant for not understanding who we're fighting abroad, will continue to show the courage to stand up to the McCain Machine."

[Gaspar]

quote:Originally posted by FOTD

Yes, be afraid. Especially if you live in Oklahoma. The end is coming. Marxists are far more lethal than facists and neo cons.....

On a more serious note, John McFlintstone's got an issue with an entire race....not a single pastor(although he's got several of those issues as well)....

John McCain's White Supremacist Problem
     Posted April 28, 2008 | 03:02 PM (EST)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cliff-schecter/john-mccains-white-suprem_b_99014.html
 
"One would have to strain to be shocked that a racist ad is finding its way out of the bowels of conservativism in North Carolina. For political observers from the 1980s and 1990s will remember that Senator Jesse Helms was a master of using divisive tactics inject race into just about everything he did outside of brushing his teeth -- whenever he wasn't straining through the holes in the sheet he was wearing to see his Jefferson Davis emblazoned toothbrush.

Yet, racism for electoral gain obviously did not go away with Helms' retirement from politics. And neither has Republican timidity in doing anything to control the extreme elements in the party--or their base if you will. So once again, just as other conservatives sat idly by and claimed Jesse was just being Jesse, now John McCain throws his hands up in the air as if there is nothing he can do when a racist ad is run by the North Carolina GOP against Barack Obama:

ABC NEWS' Bret Hovell and Russell Goldman report: Sen. John McCain said Thursday that if elected president -- and becomes the de facto head of the GOP -- he would not demand a change in the leadership of the North Carolina Republican Party despite condemning its plan to air an ad attacking Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, and his controversial minister.
It's good to know where the Senator stands on this issue (at least today). In my book, The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't, I recount McCain' questionable past on issues of race his entire career. From the many years he rejected a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday (pretty much the entire 70s and 80s) to his serial flip-flops on the Confederate Flag in 2000 (which he admits he did for political reasons -- no way, not you Johnny!) to his close association with a white supremacist named Richard Quinn, who found himself hired as a political advisor by McCain in 2000 (and still is from what I can tell) after openly praising David Duke (he called him a "maverick") selling t-shirts praising the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and writing/editing for a magazine (Southern Partisan) that reminded us that slave masters just really weren't all that bad.

That's The Real McCain for you. Now I'll be waiting for the media to do their job and report on his close association with a white supremacist just as they have every aspect of Barack Obama's life. While not overly sanguine, I do have hope that some of the more responsible voices in the press, who as of late have been pointing out McCain's dangerous temper and penchant for not understanding who we're fighting abroad, will continue to show the courage to stand up to the McCain Machine."

Oh! My goodness!  from the Huffington Post too. . .  That must be serious.

At least the wacko's are trying!

Please![]

You are no match for our vast conspiracy!  Our people are watching you FOTD.

[Friendly Bear]

quote:Originally posted by tim huntzinger

Where does that leave you, FB?  What gospel does your church preach?

It's irrelevant.  

I'm not running for President of the U.S.A.

I'm not running for anything.  

Although occasionally I've been elected Mr. Un-Popularity on the TulsaNow.org Forum.

[]

[mrhaskellok]

My perspective is this...it is all about risk.  Knowing what we know about him, do we want to risk it?  Even if his voting record is clean and ya ya ya...do we need another surprise in the White House?  As much as I don't want to say this, this primary isn't going to be long enough for me to really learn what I would like to about him.  To many wierd variables.

[FOTD]

quote:Originally posted by Friendly Bear

quote:Originally posted by tim huntzinger

Where does that leave you, FB?  What gospel does your church preach?

It's irrelevant.  

I'm not running for President of the U.S.A.

I'm not running for anything.  

Although occasionally I've been elected Mr. Un-Popularity on the TulsaNow.org Forum.

[]

Yes. You do have stiff competition.[]