Free Republic

Speaking at the 100th anniversary of a Washington, D.C. church, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright knocked President Barack Obama and accused America’s elite academic institutions of instilling racism. Using that as a metaphor, Wright proceeded to list dozens of names that he suggested were foundational stones for the black community, from Nat Turner to Emmett Till to W.E.B Du Bois. He then seemingly took a shot at his former parishioner, President Obama. “They are the foundation,” he said of the names he listed. “This is how God brought us out,” he continued. “This is how God brought us over, this is...

During last week’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing on “The Radicalization of Muslim-Americans,” Congressman Al Green (D-TX) took issue [1] with the hearing’s focus on Islam and Muslims, asking the witnesses testifying before the Committee: “If you agree that radicalization exists within all religions to some extent, would you kindly extend a hand into the air.” Noting triumphantly that “all the hands are raised,” Green then asked: “Why not have a hearing on the radicalization of Christians?”The immediate answer is obvious. On the one hand we have recent jihad plotters in the U.S., including Naser Abdo, the would-be second Fort...

Acts of faith are performed each day in this country, and we are all the better for it. But sadly, Barack Obama does not seem to have faith in the American system, nor does he believe in American exceptionalism, nor does he believe that Americans can make it on their own without government handouts. In short, Obama doesn’t have faith in us. Faith has become an inflammatory topic in the 2012 election. In policy, speeches and campaign ads, the president has used faith as a means to demagogue his Republican opponent. Faith has been used by the left-wing extremists as...

In 2008, Barack Obama won 95 percent of the black vote. Now, blacks voted in large percentages for Democrats long before that, of course, largely because of Democratic devotion to huge spending on social programs. But Obama’s election was unique. The black community, however, was also largely anti-same sex marriage. In fact, many commentators suggested that Obama’s presence on the 2008 ballot in California allowed Proposition 8, upholding traditional marriage, to win approval – blacks showed up to vote Obama, and cast their ballots in favor of Proposition 8 at the same time. Take the black population in Maryland, for...

MAY 30, 2012 The Chicago Way Obama’s coterie of insiders is worth a closer look this time around. By John Fund Every president comes to Washington with a coterie of outside advisers, friends, and fixers they’ve picked up during the course of a career. Eventually one or more of them becomes controversial. Richard Nixon had Bebe Rebozo. Jimmy Carter had his brother Billy and Bert Lance. Ronald Reagan had Mike Deaver. Bill Clinton had many trailing after him — they became the menagerie implicated in Whitewater and Monicagate. But Barack Obama’s inner circle has almost completely escaped close scrutiny since...

In 2008, Barack Obama took aim at the “pew gap,” the overwhelming Republican edge among voters who regularly attend church. The Democratic presidential nominee came nowhere near closing it, but he didn’t have to. He just needed an extra percentage point or two among traditional GOP constituents, and he got it. The Democratic National Committee is promising a repeat performance in 2012. But some religious leaders and scholars who backed Obama in 2008 are skeptical. They say the Democrats have, through neglect and lack of focus, squandered the substantial gains they made with religious moderates and worry it will hurt...

Every president comes to Washington with a coterie of outside advisers, friends, and fixers they’ve picked up during the course of a career. Eventually one or more of them becomes controversial. Richard Nixon had Bebe Rebozo. Jimmy Carter had his brother Billy and Bert Lance. Ronald Reagan had Mike Deaver. Bill Clinton had many trailing after him — they became the menagerie implicated in Whitewater and Monicagate. But Barack Obama’s inner circle has almost completely escaped close scrutiny since he became president. That may be about to change, and the rich cast of characters making up Team Obama merits...

Rev. Wright on Obamas: ‘Church Is Not Their Thing’ By Fred Lucas May 29, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – In speaking about Barack and Michelle Obama, their longtime pastor, the Rev. Jermiah Wright said, “Church is not their thing. It never was their thing.” President Obama and the first lady were married by Rev. Wright, and their two daughters, Sasha and Malia, were baptized by the controversial pastor. As head of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Ill., Wright sometimes delivered sermons critical of U.S. foreign policy and asked whether God should bless or damn America. (Rev. Wright is now...

Not all campaign books are treated equally. Just look at Edward Klein and J.H. Hatfield. Klein, of course, is the author of the new book "The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House." Hatfield, now dead and forgotten, wrote a book about George W. Bush, "Fortunate Son," during the 2000 presidential contest. Klein's book, which debuted in early May, has been mostly ignored by large media organizations (although not by the book-buying public, which has put it at the top of next week's best-seller list). Hatfield's book, on the other hand, rocked a presidential campaign -- before crashing and burning...

"I'm a surrogate for the Obama campaign," said Newark Mayor Cory Booker during an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, "I'm not about to sit here and indict private equity ... I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of the record of Bain Capital, they've done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses."Many a conservative commentator seized on Mayor Booker's pronouncement as a sign of weakness - that some within Obama's camp see the discussion of economic matters as a losing...

-SNIP-and, frankly, trying to dredge up Jeremiah Wright, right or wrong, after this issue was litigated four years ago by John McCain deciding not to litigate it was stupid,” Rove said on "Fox News Sunday."-SNIP- “I thought it was very smart for the Romney campaign to immediately go out and denounce the tactic,” Rove added. “It certainly sent a message to everyone in America what they wanted the campaign to be about

Civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson defended Monday controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, saying that it was a “source of pain” to see him criticized in the media. “I know it’s a source of pain for me to see him used as an object of degradation and manipulated the way he’s been used the media as if he’s some sort of enemy of the state. It’s not fair and it’s not true,” said Jackson on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.” “It pains me to see him used as an object of degradation.” Jackson said that Wright had developed an influential ministry, one that...

The Jeremiah Wright “Goddamn America” controversy came to a close when then-Senator Barack Obama and his family left their long-time church during his successful presidential campaign in 2008. But Mr. Wright has been resurrected from the dead by right-wing conservatives again, The Washington Post reports. A super PAC has on the table a proposal that may bring the controversy back to light. Billionaire Joe Ricketts was suppose to back the proposal, but has now backed off of it. “The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big,...

The Ricketts family saddens me. I am sorry I ever said the city of Chicago or the people of Wrigleyville should sacrifice to help the owners of the Cubs build a better and more valuable team and Wrigley Field. I advocated that as recently as last week. I never wanted folks to open their wallets and simply give the Rickettses their cash, but I thought that the public could make some concessions and that the neighborhood could put aside its desires and be helpful in building a stadium that could improve the Cubs and, perhaps, bring new revenue to the...

In a 1200 word feature piece titled "Race Issues Return with Rev. Wright," written by Jonathan Martin and James Hohamann, MSNBC's unofficial web-partners at Politico go into excruciating detail charting the return of Obama's former pastor and 20-year mentor. Naturally, the article is all about race-race-race and racism-racism-racism, and how by some unholy act of MSM witchcraft Wright is a bigger problem for Romney than for the man who spent two decades at his knee. What Politico glaringly chose to leave out of its in-depth and oh-so detailed reporting, though, is the primary reason Reverend Wright is back in the...

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose "God damn America" sermon set off a firestorm during the 2008 campaign, agreed not to publish an account of the episode until after President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, according to an interview Wright conducted with the author of a new book on Obama. Wright said he made the decision at the urging of a friend and mentor, the prominent University of Chicago emeritus professor Martin Marty. In the interview, Wright told Ed Klein, author of The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House, that he keeps a cardboard box of documents and notes detailing his experiences...

Like I said yesterday, given his liabilities on the economy, I think The One’s reasonably comfortable with nearly any change of subject. Even this subject: Campaign manager Jim Messina sent out a fundraising appeal Thursday night saying that the proposal, submitted to (and rejected by) a Republican super PAC, “shows in vivid and gruesome detail what the President and all of us are up against.” He adds, “This is going to be worse than we could have imagined … Pitch in today to fight these attacks and show them this only makes us stronger.”… These Democratic efforts to promote this...

And in what might be the biggest projection of all-time, Sharpton claims Republicans have a “long history of fear and smear.” Via Newsbusters: SHARPTON: We start in 1988 with the attack add against Michael Dukakis. And we saw it again in 2004 with the swiftboating of John Kerry. The party has run entire campaigns on character assassination. But the latest effort, it’s about more than just winning an election. It’s about dehumanizing President Obama. . . . I think we went through that four years ago, everyone knows where the president stands. I think this was more geared trial to...

The renewed focus on President Barack Obama’s controversial pastor is reviving the issue that neither presidential campaign wants to discuss directly: race. But the differing reactions Thursday from Obama aides and Romney officials to revelations about a planned ad campaign linking Obama to Rev. Jeremiah Wright shows that Obama has more to gain than Romney if race enters the 2012 campaign. Romney’s campaign, irritated at what they saw as a distraction from their economic assault on the president, quickly put out a statement from their campaign manager in response to The New York Times report. The campaign accused the Obama...

Senator John McCain, who refused to make President Obama’s association with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright an issue during his 2008 presidential campaign, repudiated a proposal by Republican strategists to “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do” — open an incendiary, racially tinged attack on the president. Mr. McCain also shrugged off the slights against him in a proposal for the political ad campaign, which was brought to light by The New York Times. “I don’t know whether to be offended or not,” Mr. McCain said with a smile. “It is what it is. Look, my life...