Posted on 04/30/2008 5:43:02 AM PDT by SJackson
There were some interesting insights -- as well as some nutball theories -- in Rev. Jeremiah Wright's appearance at the National Press Club on Monday.
There was also a heavy dose of B.S., as when Wright said negative reaction to his most divisive comments was "not an attack on Jeremiah Wright [and has] nothing to do with Sen. Obama. It is an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition."
No sir. Not true. You were criticized for what YOU said. Maybe the average white commentator truly doesn't understand the African-American religious tradition, but that doesn't mean the criticisms of your comments weren't utterly valid.
Just when you figure Obama would love to see Wright shopping for motor homes for his retirement, Wright is soaking up the spotlight with more enthusiasm than Spencer Pratt on a red carpet.
Meanwhile, Obama called Wright's most recent appearance a "spectacle," said their relationship had been altered and added, "What Rev. Wright said [Monday] directly contradicts everything I have ever done or said in my life."
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
The good ship Barry O is about to sink.
Words of a coward. Black churches are no more under attack because of Wright than white churches are under attack because of the investigation of the FLDS cult.
Well, that isn't going to cut it. There's too much history there, too many years of acquiescence and non-denial to throw away in a press conference or two.
Reverend Wright made a joke about how infrequently Obama attended church. I think he went just enough, when it was convenient, to build his resume and his network.
“No, this isn’t a tag team match. Wright is beyond a loose cannon on the decks, and Obama is about to get knocked overboard.”
Pardon my cynicism but I respectfully disagree. This is a well planned effort to fool the voting public and the gullible MSM. Looks like they succeeded with you. PMSNBC has been on all morning saying how Obama has now distanced himself from Wright and that the story is over. Get it? CNN is doing the same. They fell for it (maybe intentionally) hook, line, and sinker. At least as far as the liberal Dems go, and that’s who vote in the primaries and that’s all that counts right now as far as Obama is concerned. He just needs to win the primary and he will. Hillary just doesn’t have the votes.
If he knew, he lied to America.
If he didn't know, it reflects significantly on his judgment.
If he didn't know, did he sleep through those 20 years of church services?
If he didn't know, why did he hide Wright in the basement (and pray there with Wright) before going on stage to make his initial speech to run for the presidency?
Obama still hasn't actually distanced himself from Wright — but only from Wright's comments. And which comments, exactly?
Obama still has not addressed the subject in a way that most listeners find acceptable.
See, this is the real point. Sooner or later, people are going to say, "Which 'America' do you believe in, Senator? The one that is racist, that you aren't proud of, that you gives AIDs to its own people, or the one that says we are a shining city on a hill, a chosen people, overcomers, etc?"
He absolutely can't win that exchange, no matter which way he goes, because to this point he has built a campaign out of what's wrong with America. So he has been agreeing with Wright on the fundamental nature of the American character. That is what is at issue.
Now, if it was not a Clinton operative who got Wright to the NPC to speak in the first place, I might be more skeptical. But this is NOT a setup. Wright is off leash, he's loose, he's uncontrollable, and many questions are now about to be asked that were being silenced before. See TomGuy's post, above. He lays it out perfectly.
It is, sooner or later, going to come to exposing Obama's innermost view of the fundamental character of this nation and he can't win: if he says we are a good and decent nation who tries to promote peace and democracy, he's lost his constituency; and if he agrees with Wright, he's lost the mainstream white vote and he's finished.
And I love it.
Don't be fooled by what the drive-bys say today. Remember, they said exactly the same thing a month or so ago when this first broke, and now . . . they are right back in the same place.
That occurred to me too -- for about 10 seconds.
Obama's speech yesterday proved that that theory --that Wright and Obama are in cahoots and that "everything that has happened in the past week has been planned"-- could not be true.
Why? Because Obama let slip that the REAL reason for his new public attitude toward Wright was not his "outrage" at Wright's outlandish claims, but Obama's irritation at being personally "dissed" by Wright.
That was a huge misstep. It proves that this whole thing wasn't planned. It also makes it clear that Obama, far from being "brilliant," is really pretty dumb politically.
There's some truth to that, the Nation of Islam is in the same general neighborhood as Wright's Church, in Congress the area is represented by Bobby Rush (former Black Panther) who Obama couldn't unseat in a primary run, and Jesse Jackson Jr., so there's clearly some sympathy for the victimization view.
It doesn't matter, even if he rejects Wright's views, the question revolves around his judgement and the sort of people he's comfortable surrounding himself with.
If I accept everything Obama said yesterday, I still have to consider the fact that until Wright attacked him personally, Obama was perfectly comfortable with the relationship. He had the sense to keep it out of public view, but in his "famous" race speech, he specifically refused to condemn Wright. Add to this Bill Ayers, terrorist, in whose home he lauched his political career, Rezko who financed him, assorted fundraisers for palestinian terrorists, and you've got a candidate who is clearly comfortable in the midst of political radicals. It's reasonable to assume they'd surround President Obama, just as they've surrounded Candidate Obama, Senator Obama, and State Senator Obama.
And I’m waiting for someone to ask him the questions that will force him to answer. I know I may have a long wait for any brave questioner or direct answer.
I have, but I've also noticed no clergy has been questioning the tenets of what he seems to assert is a distinct denomination, believing that Jesus was a black persecuted by white "garlic nose" Italians.
The issue of Liberation Theology really hasn't been explored yet, in the context of Obama as a practitioner. Nor has it's, and Obama's connections to Marxism. Remember his political mentor was Frank (Davis-last name left out of his book), a poet and Chicago political organizer who moved to Hawaii, where Obama met him. Also an admitted member of the American Communist Party. And Obama followed in his footsteps. Consider why someone from Indonesia and Hawaii, who went to school in California and NYC, ends up as a political activist in Chicago. My guess Davis was the connection.
That's true, though the issue has been Wright, not his arrogant contension that he's somehow representative of the consensus of Black Christians. Probably better that doesn't become the issue, better it focus' on Wright and Obama, though I'd like to see the Liberation Theology-Marxist connection explored.
At least that's how Obama told the story.
I can tell you how Obama got to Chicago. He was hired as a trainer by the Gemaliel Foundation, a group that trains community activist groups in Saul Alinsky organizing techniqes. Gemaliel sent him to Chicago.
My first thoughts.... to the letter. This was a planned and calculated way to ‘dis-own’ the misunderstood and perpetually challenged (by the evil white people) black minister.
Sorry, I may be white, but I’m NOT STUPID!
Thanks for the info.
That’s the part that really gets me. I’ve read that since Wright’s takeover in the early seventies, Trinity United Church of Christ has been considered on the far-out fringe of radical black churches, disdained by most pastors. Now suddenly, Wright is the Pope of Black America, acclaimed by all his peers. Now he speaks for the Black Christendom and his crazed, hateful, paranoid attitudes are those of Black America.
Obama notwithstanding, that is the really destructive thing to come out of this imbroglio. There is going to be a price for that. The self-marginalization of african-americans will be complete. “Why cater to these people anymore? They’re just plain nuts!” will be the attitude from here on.
I really hate it when people pick other people's words apart. Again, he may have been “caught up in the moment,” but that was the Daddy of all Freudian slips in my untrained, humble opinion.
Would that be why the Reverend Mr. Wright is building a home in an all-white suburb of Chicago, on the grounds of an exclusive golf course, away from the reminders of who he had to milk in order to get away from his “blackness”??? How the poor souls who sat in his pews every Sunday (the majority of whom were black) could not see through this sham of a shepherd who fed them lies and victimhood on a regular basis to not lift them up, but rather to make a buck on race-baiting is so far my ability to remain silent on the issue as it is to fly to the moon without the aid of a rocket. The programs he administered were also laced with the poison of divisiveness and bitterness.
I don't care how much money Mr. Wright has taken in and dispensed, he can never get away from his blackness and it isn't anyone's fault who is presently on the face of the earth. His ancestors gave him his blackness and there is no shame in that. What is shameful is that he feels it was an enemy who made him black — would that be European Whites???? I think not.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.