The shadow of Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is cast on a stage background as she campaigns at the University of Pittsburgh in Greensburg, Pa., Tuesday, March 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Posted on 03/25/2008 2:28:10 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
GREENSBURG, Pa. - Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she would have left the church that Barack Obama attends if her minister had talked about America the way Obama's pastor has.
Clinton's comments to reporters marked a clear shift in her handling of the Obama church controversy, which she had generally avoided until now. Some Democrats see Obama's refusal to dissociate himself from the Chicago church and its recently retired minister, Jeremiah Wright, as his stickiest campaign challenge so far.
"I think that given all we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor," Clinton said at a news conference in Greensburg, Pa., after being asked if Obama should have left the church. She declined to say what Obama should have done, or whether the subject is now a legitimate topic for her appeals to Democratic superdelegates, the party leaders who will decide whether she or Obama will be the presidential nominee.
Over the years, Wright has preached fiery sermons to his predominantly black congregation in which he shouted "God damn America" for its treatment of minorities. He has said the U.S. government invented AIDS to destroy "people of color." He also suggested that U.S. policies in the Middle East and elsewhere were partly responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Videos of the remarks have circulated widely on the Internet and news programs.
In a highly publicized speech last week, Obama sharply condemned Wright's remarks and the preacher's refusal to acknowledge progress in race relations. But the Illinois senator refused to repudiate his longtime spiritual mentor, saying he could no more disown Wright than he could disown his white grandmother.
Clinton was ready for the question at her news conference, and read much of her response from notes, unlike her handling of other questions.
"We don't have a choice when it comes to our relatives," she said. "We have a choice when it comes to our pastors and the churches we attend. Everyone will have to decide these matters for themselves. They are obviously very personal matters."
If Wright were her pastor, she said, "the choice would be clear."
Emphasizing that she was saying only how she would have dealt with a minister such as Wright, Clinton added: "I don't think that's negative."
Her comments closely tracked those she had made earlier in the day in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. She and Obama are competing for votes in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary.
Clinton indirectly compared Wright's comments to those of radio shock-jock Don Imus, who lost his job as a prominent program's host after making a racial slur about the Rutgers women's' basketball team.
Clinton noted that she condemned Imus in a speech at Rutgers.
"I said it was time for standing up for what is right, for saying enough is enough," she said of the speech. "While we of course must protect our right to freedom of expression, it should not be used as a license to demean or humiliate our fellow citizens."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement, "It's disappointing to see Hillary Clinton's campaign sink to this low in a transparent effort to distract attention" from her acknowledgment that she had exaggerated an account of a hostile reception in Bosnia as first lady in 1996.
Obama has "spoken out against his pastor's offensive comments and addressed the issue of race in America with a deeply personal and uncommonly honest speech," Burton said.
That's her job.
This will piss of the blacks. Yeeeehaaaaw!
The shadow of Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is cast on a stage background as she campaigns at the University of Pittsburgh in Greensburg, Pa., Tuesday, March 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
I honestly think this is just another Hilla-lie. She would do ANYTHING to get the nomination, and if this incuded going to a “church” that spewed hate (a la Obamaland), she’d do it. Folks, the woman has 1) no creativity, 2) no honesty, 3) no talent whatsoever, and 4) no morals. That’s why she and Bubba will never separate.
She would have left running with her head down to avoid the snipers.
Apparently, Hillary doesn’t want the issue to go away. She shouldn’t have said it now. She should wait for another 2-3 weeks.
LIE!
There is no way to prove this. It’s a hypothetical. But she lies so much that it is the default assumption.
You have to ask the question: If Obama was with this Rev. for 20 years, and was his Mentor and spiritual advisor all this time, and we have seen and heard what this Rev. said in public. The question is: What has he been mentoring and advising Obama in private?
And invite him to dinner on the way out.
He did? Sharply, yet?
Says who?
Yes, but we're looking for "walking out the door" here, not "spontaneously combusted during the sermon".
I was amazed at how many were defending Wright, and more to the point, saying that everything he was saying was true.
Now, Clinton disavows those beliefs? You’re right, this is going to piss off a big chunk of their base.
She never would have been asked to stay.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement, "It's disappointing to see Hillary Clinton's campaign sink to this low in a transparent effort to distract attention" from her acknowledgment that she had exaggerated an account of a hostile reception in Bosnia as first lady in 1996.
This is true popcorn fodder, my FRiends. HRC is asked a legitimate question, answers it (truthfully or not is for the listener to gauge, given all the evidence to date of the veracity of the former First Lady), and then is torched (even I might grant, a little unfairly) by the BHO spokesman who claims she is using the topic to distract us from yet another legitimate question.
Man, it's fun to be a conservative these days!
I have to say that Clinton wins this one on substance. Not only that, I think she’s telling the truth! I think she would have left a church where the pastor preached like Wright. She’s would have seen the political liability of remaining there.
Obama wouldn’t join such a church today, but for most of the past 20 years, he could depend on the dinosaur media to keep the existence of Wright a secret from the electorate. I am sure that even five years ago, Obama didn’t foresee Youtube.
You never would’ve been welcome in the first place, Hillary.
You don’t have a deep enough tan.
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