Congregation Defends Obama's Ex-PastorCongregation Defends Obama's Ex-Pastor »
Posted By gamahuche 6 months, 3 weeks ago in News"There are two narratives that have been created with what's going on right now.There's the narrative of the African American church community that understands what has happened, that knows [Wright's] record and his legacy. And then there's the narrative of the wider community that doesn't understand. "Part of this is indicative of the
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gamahuche6 months, 3 weeks ago
Didn't everybody know this story was going to blow one day soon - and that the Radical Right would attempt to create a lethal weapon from it to use against Obama?
Obama IS between a rock and a hard place on this, far more in terms of his own conscience and his need to remain honest and true to himself than the lesser detail of how to respond politically.
How he handles this may well become the touchstone of the success or failure of his Presidential bid. The relationship between religion and politics is fraught with dangers and pitfalls in the US, an aspect of the culture that is one of the most difficult for people from other cultures to understand and obviously a critical issue in its dealings with the rest of the world, all too obviously exposed today in its war with Islam.
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jordan116 months, 3 weeks ago
Didn't everybody know this story was going to blow one day soon - and that the Radical Right would attempt to create a lethal weapon from it to use against Obama?>>>>
Of course I knew it. But even though the American people fell for the crap against Kerry, in the face of four years of disastrous bush agendas, I believed they couldn't possibly be that stupid again. We'll see if that's the case. We'll see if Americans are stupid enough to be manipulated again. And if they are, they deserve what they're going to get.
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Beau78906 months, 3 weeks ago
More has been made of this than it deserves. I think it's likely Obama didn't really want to publicly disavow Wright's sometimes inflammatory rhetoric because of his affection for the man and respect for his work to unite its largely poor community and elevate its members. He probably should have.
At the same time, that's pretty much the extent of Obama's problem here--not speaking out sooner. He didn't tacitly approve of Wright's remarks: there is no evidence in Obama's record in either the U.S. or the Illinois State Senate that Obama believes Wright's more radical ideas or that he'd let them inform his policy positions. (Or that he has a "secret black agenda to destroy the country"--the same paranoid subtext of the "he's really a Muslim who attended a radical Islamist school" smear).
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rimbaud6 months, 3 weeks ago
This is more than swift-boating, though. It is something real that will take a dialogue of a kind other than the kind usually used in a campaign to explain. His posture related to this issue will be critical to his acceptance as "another kind" of politician, or as just "another poltician".
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rimbaud6 months, 3 weeks ago
Rev. Wright is not a politician... He is a preacher. He challenges his listeners and breaches their comfort zones. Why would his parishioners, especially educated ones, like the Obamas, submit to the discomfort week after week? I think you will find few black Americans that do not see the truth in Rev Wright's remarks, despite the fiery rhetoric.
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globalwarmer6 months, 3 weeks ago
This is not the first time Obama publicly said he had some difference of opinion with his pasture. But he certainly has a way with words, I have even more respect for him now.
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lovermanComment removed: User banned.
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HOUSEMD6 months, 3 weeks ago
The so called lethal weapon is anti-american racism that was recorded on video by Rev. Wright's church. This is Wrights mess and Obama's for staying as a member for 20 years. Wright is clearly a racist and preaches that philosophy to a very loyal audience. This goes to judgment and character where Obama is concerned. Had he quit the church LONG ago he wouldn't be in this mess right now. There is no conservative or Clinton conspiracy here. Wright is a racist and preaches racism by choice. Obama has chosen to remain a member of this racist anti-american church and remains friends and devoted to his mentor Wright, no one forced or tricked either into doing what they do.
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Leemck026 months, 3 weeks ago
gamahuche, remember this is the same media that is a King maker. It took a Texas Governor who claimed to be a uniter and conservative through many pitfalls doing just the opposite. Mishandling of policy, disaster management, the economy and war strategy, to name only a few. It is the same Fourth Estate that should give balanced news but instead cherry-picked stories that took attention from graft, corruption, scandalous behavior and acts that factored into the current economic conditions. This nation is guided by propaganda, and if you look at stories that get attention, and ask how do they fit in opinion making, forget their content, then you will see it is a machine. How many stories have you heard about our trade imbalance? This nation has more record imports, that's your jobs, than ever in the nation's history. Do you think our media should influence your presidential choice? Obama can beat McCain, the shift is timely, you don't get news toward beating a Republican.
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gamahuche6 months, 3 weeks ago
Two extracts FTA:
Obama indicated over the weekend that he plans to remain a member at Trinity largely because Wright is no longer the pastor. It is an ironic twist, given that Obama says that he may never have embraced Christianity had he not been entranced by Wright's impassioned advocacy of social justice while working as a community organizer in the late 1980s. Obama had shied from religion until he heard Wright interweave the Bible with the black experience, and Obama's discovery of Trinity made him feel at home in South Chicago. He titled his autobiography "The Audacity of Hope" after one of Wright's sermons.
"The senator is not naive, and what he's doing is very hard," said Shaun Casey, a religious adviser to Obama's campaign. "He's trying to remain loyal to his pastor but also differentiate himself politically."
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gamahuche6 months, 3 weeks ago
"There are moments for [Wright] when the anger, when the rage about what's happened to poor black people in the ghetto is so tough, so deeply painful, that he says things most whites would find off the charts and unpatriotic. But you don't preach in sound bites."
Wright's portrayal has been typical of the misunderstanding of the black church, his peers said. The fact that Wright worked to empower one people, Atlanta theologian Jacquelyn Grant said, hardly qualifies him as racist.
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HOUSEMD6 months, 3 weeks ago
"The senator is not naive, and what he's doing is very hard," said Shaun Casey, a religious adviser to Obama's campaign. "He's trying to remain loyal to his pastor but also differentiate himself politically." If he does that isn't that like trying to appease everyone? Some issues you must take a firm, clear stand. This is one of those issues.
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cushi6 months, 3 weeks ago
That is one of the saddest things about this attack on him via his retiring pastor. He is being stripped of one of the best relationships he has had in his life after the loss of his father and mother! He has a strength of character that will no doubt get him through this, but it is heart rending to see anyone being torn so brutally this way!
He has had to weigh the possibility of serving the good of many against serving the good of the few, and as difficult a decision as that has to be, he knows that the needs of the many must, of necessity, prevail. I'm sure his love for his immediate community will remain strong, but it cannot take priority over the larger good, and he will never compromise that.
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engineer6 months, 3 weeks ago
In today's Borowitz Report, Obama shows he has been given a big smear. Check it out
www.borowitzreport.com
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1-2-Oscar6 months, 3 weeks ago
We would well to remember that Rev. Jeremiah Wright is NOT the target of the smear campaign that is currently being directed at him. The REAL target is Senator Barack Obama, a black man who had the unmitigated gall to challenge the Democratic establishment and interfere with the carefully orchestrated coronation of Senator Hillary Clinton as our nation's next President. Rev. Wright may be destroyed by the attacks being made on him, and his reputation is certainly besmirched forever, but for the Clintons this is merely an unfortunate byproduct of their driving necessity to put that uppity ni&&er, Senator Obama, back in his place.
Senator Obama, if sufficiently chastised, may yet be offered the Vice-Presidency. After all, isn't that where he really belongs, on the back of Senator Clinton's bus?
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SonOfTheMask6 months, 3 weeks ago
Do you really think it is the Clinton Machine that is pushing this controversy? They may benefit, very true. But, the Obama/TUCC/Wright relationship goes back a long time, how would Team Clinton drop that bomb now? Seems more like the conservatives finally realized that there was a ticking time bomb in the Obama closet.
I've read a lot in the past day or two and the Obama campaign tried to quietly move away from Rev Wright from the get-go. To me, that seems an acknowledgement of the political fallout that would surface with Wright's outrageous comments went mainstream.
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1-2-Oscar6 months, 3 weeks ago
From Bill Shaheen in New Hampshire, to Bill Clinton in South Carolina, to Howard Wolfson in Ohio, to Geraldine Ferraro last week--the Clinton campaign has made CERTAIN that white Americans are frequently reminded of Senator Obama's race. This is not being done by peripheral figures--these are all campaign insiders, and they are not political novices--they know exactly what they are doing.
Conservatives may be happy to ride along with these attacks, because they diminish a candidate they perceive as a real threat in November, but they are not initiating them--the Clinton campaign is using race to achieve what they have been unable to accomplish through legitimate means.
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gamahuche6 months, 3 weeks ago
First the cons tried to pin the Muslim tail to Obama and when that flopped they came up with this one.
Wright is controversial - no doubt of that - and the force of that is heightened by his charisma. But he's hardly a black riposte to the KKK.
Obama HAD to distance himself to some extent from that aspect of Wright but has perhaps allowed himself to be pushed a bit further than he needed to.
Compared to the noxious garbage that emanates from Limbaugh and Coulter which has no basis in reality and consists almost exclusively of hate-filled invention the reality of Rev Wright is probably on reality relatively mild. It sounds like when he's preaching he's almost speaking with voices.
I certainly know whom I would prefer to have tea with!
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Leemck026 months, 3 weeks ago
Son, you don't see cars coming and jump in front of them to prove points. When you have to deal with a situation, then do so effectively. Obama should not look for negatives to air but when they become an issue he does well. He is a Harvard grad. If you want to get hammered, go to work or home if you have a wife and make sure you tell your boss all the things you messed up, drag every item out. Now, you are likely getting smart.
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JoseMadre6 months, 3 weeks ago
"Wright may be destroyed by the attacks being made on him, and his reputation is certainly besmirched forever"
Oh please! Wright did this to himself. No one forced him to make his anti-American, tinfoil hat remarks.
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jordan116 months, 3 weeks ago
This is unbelievable. As I researched Obama, I wondered where they would find the ammunition against him, other than being black of course. His accomplishments and intelligence couldn't be impugned, so they pulled the MUSLIM card. That didn't work. What other rumor could they dig up? His Pastor. If this works, the American people deserve whatever befalls us. If this works, we're too stupid to deserve what's left of a country that gave us everything.
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DeadXXXManXXXTalkin6 months, 3 weeks ago
It may work. After the '04 election, anythings possible.
The smartest guy I know, who makes me look like a mentally challenged ground squirrel, was the first to tell me about how Obama's pastor was gonna screw up his campaign. I didn't get how it was a big deal [still don't], but he assured me it was gonna be.
And here we are.
I asked a question elsewhere, that I knew no one would answer, directed at those that think 'Pastor-gate' is a big deal:
Say Obama knew all along his Pastor spouted these inflammatory comments, and he becomes president anyway.
What do you think Barak will do when he becomes president that has anything at all to do with his Pastor's comments?
I mean really, what are they worried about?
You know what, I'll bet they themselves don't know.
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