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Dick Morris: "Rev. Wright [Obama's pastor] Row Will Pass Soon"
NewsMax.com ^ | 18 Mar 08 | Dick Morris and Eillen McGann

Posted on 03/19/2008 9:22:16 AM PDT by seanmerc

Will the Gospel According to Jeremiah Wright sink the Obama candidacy? Not very likely.

Let's start with two basic facts:

1. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has already won the Democratic nomination. It's over. Regardless of how the remaining primaries and caucuses go, including Michigan and even Florida, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) can never catch Obama in elected delegates.

His current lead of 170 pledged delegates will not be overcome no matter what happens. Even if Clinton beats him by 10 points in each of these primaries, he will still lead among elected delegates by over 100. The superdelegates will not override the will of the voters unless Obama is in jail. They will not let themselves in for a civil war by overruling a black man who is beloved by the young by going over the heads of the electorate and naming the candidate that lost the primaries as the nominee.

Regardless of how damaged Obama may be by the Wright tapes, it will not provide sufficient cover or cause for them to do so.

2. Wright's rantings are not reflective of Obama's views on anything. Why did he stay in the church? Because he's a black Chicago politician who comes from a mixed marriage and went to Columbia and Harvard. Suspected of not being black enough or sufficiently tied to the minority community, he needed the networking opportunities Wright afforded him in his church to get elected. If he had not risen to the top of Chicago black politics, we would never have heard of him. But obviously, he can't say that. So what should he say?

He needs to get out of this mess with subtlety, the kind Bill Clinton should have used to escape the Monica Lewinsky scandal — but didn't. As the controversy continues, Americans will gradually realize that Obama stuck by Wright as part of a need to get ahead. They will chalk up to pragmatism why he was so close to such a preacher. As they come to realize that Obama doesn't agree with Wright but used him to get started, they will be more forgiving.

While he lets this fact sink in, he needs to continue to distance himself from Wright by characterizing that kind of anger and animosity as a thing of a generation past. He needs to compare the progress of which whites are proud in discarding the racism of our forebears with his own pride at being a post-racial candidate. He needs, again and again, to reject what Wright says and emphasize his belief in America and the validity and morality of the American Dream.

As the controversy matures, he can increasingly depict those who fan its flames as trying to live in the past and re-fight the civil wars of race that have divided America.

All these themes were evident and articulately presented in Obama's Tuesday speech on race.

What Obama needs not to do is to resort to the kind of Clintonian fudging that animated his interview with Keith Olbermann. By saying “I wasn't there” and “I didn't know” and “I didn't hear him say it,” he will invite contempt and derision. If he were to continue in that vein, he would buy himself a controversy akin to that which drowned John Kerry in the facts and allegations of his service in Vietnam. People will surface to say, “I sat next to him, and Wright said such and such,” and Obama will be hostage to everybody's subjective memory.

But if he handles the situation with subtlety and lets what he cannot say — that it was opportunism that led him to stay in that church — sink in among the electorate, he can and will survive this battle.

And let's remember one other thing: The Democrats will increasingly realize that he will be their nominee and, in continuing this battle, they are eating their own.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: 2008; barackobama; dickmorris; election; elections; ihaveanexcusespeech; jeremiahwright; morris; nobama; obama; obamarama; politicsofoppression; wright
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1 posted on 03/19/2008 9:22:17 AM PDT by seanmerc
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To: seanmerc

Morris hates Hillary so much that it blinds him to the real world. I really don’t think normal people are going to easily forget the “G-damn America” and anti-white, anti-Semitic hate ravings of Obama’s lunatic preacher.


2 posted on 03/19/2008 9:24:15 AM PDT by hsalaw
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To: seanmerc

I wonder if Dick Morris is writing this to keep Hillary in the race.

Isn’t it true that they detest each other?


3 posted on 03/19/2008 9:24:32 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: seanmerc
Dick Morris: "I Hate Hillary, Part CCLXII"
4 posted on 03/19/2008 9:24:37 AM PDT by pogo101
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To: seanmerc

Archie Bunker Democrats are not happy.


5 posted on 03/19/2008 9:24:52 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: hsalaw

I agree. I think Rev. Wright is indelible ink.


6 posted on 03/19/2008 9:25:40 AM PDT by Goreknowshowtocheat
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To: pogo101
Isn’t it true that they detest each other?

Yes, but if she drops out, he'll have nothing to talk about.

7 posted on 03/19/2008 9:26:17 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: seanmerc

I’m so glad to read that Morris wrote this. I had been afraid that Obama’s pastor row would pass soon.


8 posted on 03/19/2008 9:27:46 AM PDT by Piranha
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To: seanmerc
And let's remember one other thing: The Democrats will increasingly realize that he will be their nominee

What's the over/under on how many days until Dickie flips on this prediction? I can't keep up.

9 posted on 03/19/2008 9:28:17 AM PDT by don-o (My son, Ben, reports to Parris Island on June 30.)
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To: don-o

Rev anti-White will be around for a long time and should be. Obama NEVER disowned him in his speech. This has ruined the “independent vote” and the white male vote. He is unelectable.


10 posted on 03/19/2008 9:30:16 AM PDT by Blue Turtle
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To: seanmerc

I do not think its over because that guy wright keeps opening his mouth, even the MSM looks for a good story.


11 posted on 03/19/2008 9:30:55 AM PDT by svcw (The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.)
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To: seanmerc

Like the Soviet show trials during their 1930s purges, Obama’s speech was not supposed to convince critics but to reassure supporters and fellow-travelers, in order to keep the “useful idiots” useful.

t sowell


12 posted on 03/19/2008 9:31:05 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: seanmerc

This means Obama is in deep trouble.

Morris is wrong about almost everything.


13 posted on 03/19/2008 9:32:03 AM PDT by LowTaxesEqualProsperity
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To: hsalaw

Just wait until the Sunday papers come out with side-by-side pics of Obama and MLK and ministers nationwide call for a Two-Million Man Unity March.


14 posted on 03/19/2008 9:32:18 AM PDT by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: seanmerc

NOW, I believe Obama is toast! Dick Morris, the leader counter-indicator in politics says he’s okay.


15 posted on 03/19/2008 9:34:30 AM PDT by dangus
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To: seanmerc

Yes, part of this is Morris’s hatred of hillary, but part of it is his incomprehension of religion.

What kind of impression will people get of Barrack Obama if they conclude that he spent 20 years in this racist church, and brought up his children there, just because it was politically useful? Is that a reason for going to church every Sunday?

Among the chattering classes, nobody is religious, so this behavior is perfectly comprehensible. In fact, it’s better if Obama doesn’t believe any of that religious nonsense. But ordinary Americans, including many Democrats, are at least 70% religious in some way.

This kind of opportunitist hypocrisy won’t go over very well. It’s much worse than not going to church at all. They may not say anything, or even think it through, but their picture of Obama will be considerably less warm and fuzzy.


16 posted on 03/19/2008 9:34:32 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: sageb1

Rush just mentioned on his show that another black pastor has denounced Wright. The black community may not be so united on Wright as Obama tries to make it seem.


17 posted on 03/19/2008 9:36:20 AM PDT by hsalaw
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To: seanmerc

bttt


18 posted on 03/19/2008 9:37:08 AM PDT by dennisw (Never bet on a false prophet! <<<||>>> Never bet on Islam!)
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To: seanmerc
wow dick really doesn't get it.
19 posted on 03/19/2008 9:37:22 AM PDT by ari-freedom (McCain must pick a conservative VP if he wants conservative support)
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To: seanmerc

This “Post racial” candidate angle is something new to this campaign. It is a catchy phrase and I think people will buy into it, not because it is true, but because they want it to be true.


20 posted on 03/19/2008 9:38:20 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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