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The Speech: A Brilliant Fraud (Barack's Speech)
Washington Post ^ | 21 March 2008 | Charles Krauthammer

Posted on 03/21/2008 5:21:45 AM PDT by shrinkermd

But that is not the question. The question is why didn't he leave that church? Why didn't he leave...Obama's 5,000-word speech, fawned over as a great meditation on race, is little more than an elegantly crafted, brilliantly sophistic justification of that scandalous dereliction.

His defense rests on two central propositions: (a) moral equivalence and (b) white guilt.

(a) Moral equivalence. Sure, says Obama, there's Wright, but at the other "end of the spectrum" there's Geraldine Ferraro, opponents of affirmative action and his own white grandmother...

"I can no more disown [Wright] than I can my white grandmother." What exactly was Grandma's offense? Jesse Jackson himself once admitted to the fear he feels from the footsteps of black men on the street.

Yet Obama compares her to Wright. Does he not see the moral difference between the occasional private expression of the prejudices of one's time and the use of a public stage to spread racial lies and race hatred?

(b) White guilt. Obama's purpose in the speech was to put Wright's outrages in context. By context, Obama means history. And by history, he means the history of white racism...

This contextual analysis of Wright's venom, this extenuation of black hate speech as a product of white racism, is not new. It's the Jesse Jackson politics of racial grievance, expressed in Ivy League diction and Harvard Law nuance. That's why the speech made so many liberal commentators swoon: It bathed them in racial guilt while flattering their intellectual pretensions. An unbeatable combination.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: barack; ihaveanexcusespeech; jeremiahwright; krauthammer; nobama; obama; speech; wright; wrightwingconspiracy
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This is a comprehensive, carefully worded and thought out polemic. I have excerpted only a few of the key points.
1 posted on 03/21/2008 5:21:45 AM PDT by shrinkermd
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To: shrinkermd

the item about Wright’s reprinting the LAT Hamas-written op-ed , justifying the denial of Israel’s legitimacy, in the church newsletter, ought to drive off even the sycophants. But I’ve been disappointed before.


2 posted on 03/21/2008 5:28:05 AM PDT by gusopol3
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To: shrinkermd

Obama’s purpose in the speech was to put Wright’s outrages in context. By context, Obama means history. And by history, he means the history of white racism...

Exactamundo.

Typical, aint it?


3 posted on 03/21/2008 5:28:26 AM PDT by Canedawg (No Che Hussein NObama, and the Hildebeast, too)
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To: shrinkermd

Excellent.


4 posted on 03/21/2008 5:30:31 AM PDT by littlehouse36
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To: shrinkermd
If you want a good example of punditry suckered into the Obama sophistry, see this quote from today's WSJ written by Peggy Noonan:

...It seemed to me as honest a speech as one in his position could give within the limits imposed by politics. As such it was a contribution. We'll see if it was a success. The blowhard guild, proud member since 2000, praised it, and, in the biggest compliment, cable news shows came out of the speech not with jokes or jaded insiderism, but with thought. They started talking, pundits left and right, black and white, about what they'd experienced of race in America. It was kind of wonderful. I thought, Go, America, go, go..."

The title of her speech is A Thinking Man's Speech and it can be found on FR as well as: HERE.

5 posted on 03/21/2008 5:34:47 AM PDT by shrinkermd
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To: shrinkermd
But Obama was supposed to be new. He flatters himself as a man of the future transcending the anger of the past as represented by his beloved pastor.

And then he tripped and fell in to the same tripe the Sharptons and Jacksons have been peddling for decades.

Parts of Obama's speech sounded too similar to some of JJ's shakedowns. In effect, Obama's speech was an attempt as a shakedown of white voters by playing heavily on the ole white guilt.

It will be interesting to see what the polls reflect in the coming days. Some of the quick polls yesterday were showing Obama's numbers falling significantly.

==

[Chris Wallace gives Obama a pass on F&F this morning.]
6 posted on 03/21/2008 5:35:32 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: shrinkermd

his grandmother would probably prefer to be disowned after the number of times she has been used this week to prop up his campaign.

now whe is a “typical white person”, and is afraid of blacks.

hmm, would that make a “typical black person”, someone who avoids work, spends time in prison, bails out on his family obligations,blames everyone (ie whites) for their problems? nahh, that would be racist.


7 posted on 03/21/2008 5:43:10 AM PDT by tm61
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To: shrinkermd
...His defense rests on two central propositions: (a) moral equivalence and (b) white guilt. ...

Excellent anaylsis. Somehow Wright spreading racial lies and hatred from the pulpit is the moral equivalence of his grandmother being afraid of a black man who was harrassing her on the street. Secondly, somehow Wright spreading these lies and hatred is America's fault because of past injustices to the black community. Doesn't sell to rational people.

Victor Davis Hanson also had an excellent analysis of Obama's speech. He found the same "moral equivalence" theme.

Referring to whether Obama heard about Wright's sermon on 9/16/01, Krauthammer writes, "Obama says he missed church that day. Had he never heard about it?" I don't think Barack or Michelle Obama have ever said where they were that Sunday. The churches were packed that weekend with people who regularly or irregularly attended churches. I'm curious why they have never said where they were. That is one Sunday that anybody who went to church will remember.
8 posted on 03/21/2008 5:46:31 AM PDT by Girlene
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To: shrinkermd

It’s nice to see some focus on what Obama actually says rather than how good he says it.


9 posted on 03/21/2008 5:51:36 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
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To: gusopol3

Thank you, Charles.


10 posted on 03/21/2008 5:53:19 AM PDT by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he used to say: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: shrinkermd
"Why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?"
11 posted on 03/21/2008 5:55:56 AM PDT by Obadiah
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To: shrinkermd

Thank you Mr. Krauthammer, brilliant as usual.


12 posted on 03/21/2008 5:58:53 AM PDT by Southern Partisan ("Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less." ----R. E. Lee)
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To: shrinkermd
Obama says, "We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country," and then he proceeds to do precisely that.

First Obama declares he won't indulge in a particular behavior. Then Obama indulges in it. If I had a penny for every time he did it, I'd be a rich woman.

13 posted on 03/21/2008 6:00:55 AM PDT by syriacus (Obama: Racists who are TOO set in their ways, like Wright, are excused from the need to CHANGE.)
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To: shrinkermd

Hahah, what a wonderful wordsmith Krauthammer is. Spewing coffee here... Thanks for posting.


14 posted on 03/21/2008 6:03:36 AM PDT by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
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To: Girlene
Referring to whether Obama heard about Wright's sermon on 9/16/01, Krauthammer writes, "Obama says he missed church that day. Had he never heard about it?" I don't think Barack or Michelle Obama have ever said where they were that Sunday....

And even if they didn't make it to church that day, didn't they at least even hear about that sermon? Considering they were regular parishioners you'd think they'd know someone -- or several somebodies -- who would have clued them into what had been said, i.e. "Oh, you should have been in church Sunday. You should have heard what the Reverend said..."

15 posted on 03/21/2008 6:06:27 AM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: shrinkermd

...”end of the spectrum” there’s Geraldine Ferraro, opponents of affirmative action..”

Anyone who opposes AA is a racist? Supreme Court must be racist when they ruled Michigan’s AA program was reverse discrimination.

AA is simply a racial spoils system and won’t end until college presidents and admission officers are frog walked off campus in cuffs for violating the civil rights of non black applicants.


16 posted on 03/21/2008 6:07:07 AM PDT by y6162 (Q)
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To: shrinkermd
Obama couldn't find the strength to walk out of his church.

Still, he looks strong enough to tap Wright on the shoulder.
And he looks strong enough to whisper into Wright's ear that he is scandalizing the young people in his congregation.

Is Obama only capable of speaking through a microphone to strangers?

17 posted on 03/21/2008 6:09:14 AM PDT by syriacus (Obama: Racists who are TOO set in their ways, like Wright, are excused from the need to CHANGE.)
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To: shrinkermd

Were the wife and kiddies in church to hear the good reverend.


18 posted on 03/21/2008 6:10:38 AM PDT by Mike Darancette (Obama: America is the greatest country on the earth, Help me bring change.)
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To: yankeedame
My brother was swooning over Obama's speech. I had to point out Obama's criticism of Imus and how he used his daughters as an example to condemn Imus. Obama's daughters live in a household making $1.5 million, yet Obama lets them go to a church where they are indoctrinated with hate and victimology.

Note that when Reverend's Wright accused the government of creating the aids virus to destroy blacks, that accusation falls on the Jimmy Carter, who was president when the first aids cases appeared.

19 posted on 03/21/2008 6:14:08 AM PDT by aimhigh
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To: Girlene
Good point!

The Sunday church services immediately after 9/11/01 drew crowds, as a rule, because people wanted comfort & answers.

I remember it clearly (as clearly as I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot) and the church I had been attending in Los Angeles which drew modest crowds, was packed to the rafters.

I doubt Obama & Michelle's memory bank is that deficient.

20 posted on 03/21/2008 6:14:43 AM PDT by Guenevere (If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.)
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