Deconstructing Obama's lawyerly evasions on Wright

The American Thinker ^ | March 16, 2008 | American Thinker

[libstripper]

Barack Obama desperately needs to distance himself from his spiritual mentor and pastor of two decades, Jeremiah Wright, Jr. But the man who wants America to believe his promise of unspecified change adopts the carefully-parsed language of a Harvard-trained lawyer. There is a fundamental discordance in spirit between a canny, evasive lawyer inserting loopholes, and the smiling vision of unity and change you can believe in.

Here is the key paragraph of Obama's statement, bizarrely first published on the Huffington Post, a website that once featured Senator Joseph Lieberman in minstrel blackface. There are multiple evasions buried in each line, analyzed below:

[gidget7]

AMEN to that!

The Bible says put not your faith in man......

[ilgipper]

He’ll have to do it in a way that doesn’t alienate black voters who agree with what Wright says.

At this point, Obama could gun down a room full of black people and still get 95% of their votes.

[Yardstick]

“When Obama decided against wearing an American flag pin, we may all have been a bit too quick to accept his rationale, too quick to find that issue unimportant. Now, that American flag pin has gotten a lot bigger for a lot of us, especially in light of what may have been and may still be Obama’s deeper, and, perhaps, secret, less than patriotic beliefs about America.”

Yes. In fact, this whole thing is reminding me of the movie The Sixth Sense. Along the way there have been these little clues -- the lapel pin, Michelle's comments, some of the passages from Obamas book, the feeling that there's something not quite right about this guy -- but now, looking back, knowing the Obamas spent the last twenty years with the hateful Wright as their spiritual advisor, it all makes sense.

[cinives]

Can Obama say he slept thru all that racket of the screaming congregation ?

I guess he’ll sleep thru the phone ringing at 3AM too, huh. :)

[TomGuy]

That American Thinker analysis of Obama's statement makes Obama a parser and nuancer par excellence on the level of BJ Clinton and John "I started a joke" Kerry.

[caveat emptor]

Good post. Somebody is just so mean for getting the Rev’s DVD publicized.

[Bob]

To survive must resign his membership of this church and distance himself permanently from Rev. Wright.

I think it's about twenty years too late for that to do him much good. At that time, and for his local political future, joining TUCC was probably a good move on his part. It appears, though, that nationally it has come back to bite him in the butt.

[PGalt]

Hooray Reverend Wright!

Beckwith, I'm hooraying the one comment that I find most truthful, this one...

“Bill did us just like he did Monica Lewinsky” - Reverend Wright.

The rest of Wright's rhetoric, I have little use for.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Looking at this from another angle....How the hell could anyone consider putting anyone from this flamethrowers congregation in OUR white house? A Big question to Obama: Don’t you go to a church because you believe in its ideas, values and concepts??? Who are you lying to Obama to get into the white house?

[Otho]

The “Obey” poster reminds me of the cult movie “They Live!” and it's famous line — “I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum!”

[Intolerant in NJ]

Harvard-trained lawyers know that every adjective adds a condition which must be met in order to prove that a denial is false, not just misleading...the problem for Obama is that life is not a legal work product or a courtroom, and the vast majority of people in the country can see right through the legal froth to the essential principles underneath - and they ain't liking what they see.........

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the best laugh of the morning: “The “Obey” poster reminds me of the cult movie “They Live!” and it’s famous line — “I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubble gum!””

[Grampa Dave]

You are very correct in your comments re Hussein ObamaSamma and his conduct re our flag and the flag lapel pin.

Yes. In fact, this whole thing is reminding me of the movie The Sixth Sense. Along the way there have been these little clues -- the lapel pin, Michelle's comments, some of the passages from Obama's book, the feeling that there's something not quite right about this guy -- but now, looking back, knowing the Obamas spent the last twenty years with the hateful Wright as their spiritual advisor, it all makes sense."