Obama's Changing Moral Equivalence

Townhall.com ^ | May 2, 2008 | Charles Krauthammer

[Kaslin]

"I can no more disown him (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown my white grandmother."

-- Barack Obama, Philadelphia, March 18

WASHINGTON -- Guess it's time to disown Granny, if Obama's famous Philadelphia "race" speech is to be believed. Of course, the speech was not just believed. It was hailed, celebrated, canonized as the greatest pronouncement on race in America since Lincoln at Cooper Union. A New York Times columnist said it "should be required reading in classrooms across the country." College seniors and first-graders, suggested the excitable Chris Matthews.

Apparently there's been a curriculum change. On Tuesday, the good senator begged to extend and revise his previous remarks on race. Moral equivalence between Grandma and Wright is now, as the Nixon administration used to say, inoperative. Poor Geraldine Ferraro, thrice lashed by Obama in Philadelphia as the white equivalent of Wright's raving racism, is now off the hook.

These equivalences having been revealed as the cheap rhetorical tricks they always were, Obama has now decided that the man he simply could not banish because he had become part of Obama himself is, mirabile dictu, surgically excised.

[Sacajaweau]

I've disowned people for much less. It has to do with my reputation and/or standards.

His grandmother isn't in the same category.

He "picked" Wright as a friend and mentor.....Just like Hillary picked Alinsky.

[pnh102]

Part of me feels bad for Obama. Obama really stuck his neck out for Pastor Wright when Obama gave his speech in Philadelphia and Pastor Wright repaid his kindness by going on every TV talk show you could think of and screwing Obama even more.

You'd think if Pastor Wright wants Obama to win so bad, the first thing Wright would do is to shut up... maybe book a yearlong vacation in Africa or someplace else. I can't imagine that Wright doesn't believe that each time Wright opens his mouth, it hurts Obama badly.

[Yankee]

You lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.

Screw Obama the leftist turd, his pastor, his wife and his bomb-tossing frieds. America Haters all.

The POS should never see the inside of the White House, not even on a tour.

[PJ-Comix]

Obama's turning surprise about Wright into something to be counted against whites -- one of the more clever devices in that shameful, brilliantly executed, 5,000-word intellectual fraud in Philadelphia -- now stands discredited by Obama's own admission of surprise. But Obama's liberal acolytes are not daunted. They were taken in by the first great statement on race: the Annunciation, the Chosen One comes to heal us in Philly. They now are taken in by the second: the Renunciation.

Clever observation about the Obamassiah!

[iopscusa]

Obama’s liberal acolytes are not daunted...great description of Al Gore’s Enviro/Marxist followers also!

[pnh102]

Screw Obama the leftist turd, his pastor, his wife and his bomb-tossing frieds. America Haters all.

Oh, absolutely. Obama knew exactly what kind of trouble Pastor Wright brought to his campaign. If he was smart, he would have distanced himself from them the moment he even thought about running for President.

[Dixie Yooper]

Where is Reverend Wright? Has anyone seen or heard from him since Obama tossed him from the Smooth Talk Express ? Are The Nation of Islam goons keeping him under house arrest until the primaries/election is over? What happened to him?

[maica]

If a black American is elected president, an awful lot of revWright’s resentments will be neutralized. He made his reputation by preaching resentment of “harsh treatment by whites.” Yet America is a majority white country, and any president has to get the majority of white votes in order to win.

Wright does not want Obama to win!

[Louis Foxwell]

I do not believe that Wright understands he is hurting Obama. This is a man who has not listened to another soul offer critical advice in more than 20 years. He has been the voice of God his entire adult life. He has been celebrated, indeed, worshipped by his parishoners. His ivory tower has remained flawlessly in tact. The only voice he has heard is his own and he does not disagree with himself, not openly.
Wright evidences all the symptoms of grandiose pomposity illuminated by his firm belief in the superiority of his intellect. I daresay he believes his offerings helped at the press club pulpit.
A real phoney of the first water.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Yes, and now the Liberal apologists are all insisting “this is the last word... just move along... this answers everything... if you bring this up again, you’re just being a racist.” That’s the talking point line from the Haughty Senator John Kerry to media critic and college professor Jane Hall... “it should stop now!”

How dare anyone question Senator Obama’s judgment!

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

You'd think if Pastor Wright wants Obama to win so bad...

I think envy trumps all in Wright's game. He sees Obama rise, he wonders "Who does he think he is?"

[Question Liberal Authority]

Obama really stuck his neck out for Pastor Wright when Obama gave his speech in Philadelphia and Pastor Wright repaid his kindness by going on every TV talk show you could think of and screwing Obama even more.

No. Obama lied through his teeth by saying that the Right Wing was looping Wright's comments and taking them out of context. Then Wright repeated the comments quite clearly and articulately. Then Obama lied through his teeth again and said he never heard such a thing.

[Question Liberal Authority]

“it should stop now!”

It could stop in a second. All Obama has to do is drop out of the race, resign his Senate seat, and go back to "community organizing".

[OldYank1]

Very nice article but it is missing a couple of changes that I feel reflect even greater reason for the change.
Wright made two claims that show with great clarity the reasons for the sudden change.

First, he introduced the idea this was purely a race issue. “This is an attack on the Black Church”. To this point in time there has been no mention of Black Theology. A difference between black churches and white churches yes but not the extreme views lying in the foundations of Black Theology. If Wright pushes this agenda, Obama will have a very hard time convincing white America that he isn’t on the same path as Louis “man-of-the-year”.

Second, and probably the bigger slap by Wright, was the revelation that Obama “gave the answers he had to give”. “I am a preacher, he is a politician and says what he needs to say to get elected.” The smug look at the time was also very revealing. You could almost see the “wink” signaling Obama “didn’t really mean it”. If this were coupled with the Canadian NAFTA “wink”, it could leave a massive gap in the Obama sincerity cloak.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Yeah but when will Obama disown the author of his autobiography, The Audacity of Hope, for his racist remarks?

[Question Liberal Authority]

This is a man who has not listened to another soul offer critical advice in more than 20 years. He has been the voice of God his entire adult life. He has been celebrated, indeed, worshipped by his parishoners. His ivory tower has remained flawlessly in tact. The only voice he has heard is his own and he does not disagree with himself, not openly.

Wright evidences all the symptoms of grandiose pomposity illuminated by his firm belief in the superiority of his intellect. I daresay he believes his offerings helped at the press club pulpit.

A real phoney of the first water.

Everything you just said about Wright applies even more to Obama.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"But these comments are not new. These were precisely the outrages that prompted the initial furor when the Wright tapes emerged seven weeks ago. Obama decided to cut off Wright not because Wright's words or character or views had suddenly changed. The only thing that changed was the venue in which Wright chose to display them -- live on national TV at the National Press Club."

This is the Moral Equivalence Gap, between the elitist "bitter" remarks in San Francisco, the Philadelphia Speech, and the meltdown at the National Press Club, which may prove decisive for the 2008 Democratic presidential race, winning a place in future history books. What happened to the messiah of hope and change?

[Nailbiter]

.......... The smug look at the time was also very revealing. You could almost see the “wink” signaling Obama “didn’t really mean it”

Last Apr/May out of one of NY rags was story about Obama telling Wright that he was going to have to disown him and not to take personally.
This is just extension of that action.

I have been looking and cannoy locate link at this time.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

The jealous Wright is peeved because Obama is “acting white.” If getting a good education is acting white, imagine what Columbia and Harvard Law mean! And then factor in a possibility of becoming POTUS. Now that’s acting white beyond the pale.