Ironic, isn't it? Some conservatives have been calling for an inquiry into Barack Hussein Obama's Muslim connection--didn't he attend a madrassa in Indonesia?--when the real problem turns out to be Obama's Christian mentor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Wright is a kind of Ward Churchill in vestments. Remember Ward Churchill? He's the leftist white guy who was posing as an American Indian as he gave speeches saying America deserved to be attacked and that 9/11 was a case where the "chickens came home to roost." Eventually the University of Colorado gave Churchill the boot.
Oddly enough Wright used exactly the same language as Churchill in saying that on 9/11 America got its comeuppance. Actually, Wright's statements taken collectively are worse than those of Churchill. Wright also said the U.S. government deliberately introduced AIDS into the black community. And he insisted that instead of saying "God bless America" we would be better to say "God damn America."
This is the man that Obama calls "like family." This is the man that Obama credits with "introducing me to my Christian faith." This is the mean that Obama choose to marry him and his wife, and to baptize his children. This is the man who inspired the title of Obama's book. This is the man whom Obama credits with being a mentor over more than two decades.
I found it very interesting to hear Wright explicitly endorse Obama over Hillary in church. Normally when evangelical preachers cross the political line they get hammered for violating the separation of church and state. One pastor I know invited a local Republican official to give his personal testimony in church and had to answer to the IRS for it. How come black churches engage in blatant electioneering, even to the point of busing members to the voting booth, and nobody from the ACLU or the media raises an eyebrow?
Equally fascinating is Wright's comment in church that unlike Hillary, Obama will be a race man. Wright's argument is that Obama will stand up for poor blacks against the rich whites who control the country. In the past Obama has been accused by some of being insufficiently attentive to black concerns. The term sometimes used for this is Oreo: black on the outside, white on the inside. Wright by contrast seems to be claiming that Obama is white--or at least tan--on the outside but black on the inside.
Wright poses a possibly lethal threat to Obama's chance to be president. Obama's great appeal is that he's the political equivalent of Tiger Woods. He's not an America hater or a race man like Charlie Rangel or Jesse Jackson. Wright makes Americans wonder: why is Obama so close to a man whose incendiary views are far worse than that of just about any black radical figure with the possible exception of Louis Farrakhan? Isn't professed ignorance of Wright's political views, combined with a refusal to cut ties with him, proof of Obama's bad judgent?
Pretty soon people are going to ask: Is Wright's influence the reason why Obama doesn't want to wear an American flag pin? Or raise his hand to his chest when the national anthem is played? Is Wright's ideology part of the reason why Obama's wife says she has not been proud of America for her whole adult life? And behind all this, the big question: at a time of war, can America is entrusted to a man who seems tolerant of the kind of vicious anti-Americanism that we are used to hearing from our worst enemies?
Reader Comments ( Page 43 of 44)
631. Considering that the original celebration of springtime and renewal that the church co-opted and made into their easter was originally designed to celebrate new life and new growth, I plan on celebrating easter the old-fashioned way.
Trying to knock up my wife.
Godless Heathen Brian at 4:35PM on Mar 21st 2008
632. bumpity
brandon at 4:39PM on Mar 21st 2008
633. I believe there is a spiritual gravity that has a very light, but constant pull on us human beings. That is the basis of religion, however instead of just going with the flow of that gravity people have to have a reason for all this so beliefs, and myths are made to explain something that needs no explanation. All we have to do is to say yes to this pull from spiritual gravity, and our hearts, and minds will be purified over time.
I think Obama has said yes to the flow of spiritual gravity, and as a result has love for his fellow man, and the natural reaction is to love him right back. I believe all of this happens automatically, and one has to make a conscious decision to negate his love. It is this love that makes him truthful, and sincere, for how else would he treat his fellow man if he loves them. His feet may be clay but he has a heart of gold. Long live.
Jerry Brown at 4:47PM on Mar 21st 2008
634.
I have to say that I don't really appreciate the occasional crowing I read regarding the situation in Michigan and Florida.
I didn't have a damn thing to do with the decision to move up the primary and yet it appears that my vote and the votes of every other Democrat in my state will not be counted.
It's not right.
FL Chick at 4:51PM on Mar 21st 2008
635. www.carguide1.com
CARGUIDE1 at 4:56PM on Mar 21st 2008
636. 633.
I have to say that I don't really appreciate the occasional crowing I read regarding the situation in Michigan and Florida.
I didn't have a damn thing to do with the decision to move up the primary and yet it appears that my vote and the votes of every other Democrat in my state will not be counted.
It's not right.
FL Chick at 4:51PM on Mar 21st 2008
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I agree, but you should be angry at the Democratic National Committee, and not the candidates. They set the rules, and the candidates both agreed to them. So to see Hillary crowing about how the voters are disenfranchised now is pure hypocritical bullshit. She truly will do anything to win, up to and including destroying the party altogether.
I am also angry at the DNC for this, by the way. Howard Dean SUCKS! But I'm also not stupid enough to go over to the Dark Side (GOP) just because I'm pissed, either.
Godless Heathen Brian at 5:04PM on Mar 21st 2008
637.
I AM angry at the DNC and not the candidates.
What I was really referring to in my post is some other voters, generally from other states, but also FL republican voters who seem to be gleeful that the votes of FL's democrats will not be counted.
FL Chick at 5:19PM on Mar 21st 2008
638. "Paul's claims of reverse bigotry are typical of the small-mindedness Obama has to overcome here." --GBH
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"My grandmother was a typical white person..." Barack Obama -- March 20th, 2008
Yup...you're absolutely right, brian...Obama has some serious small-mindedness to overcome.
I wonder how it'd play on Al Sharpton's radio show if Don Imus had fingered him as "a typical black person"? Sharpton nearly shit his pants when Imus merely said "you people" on Sharpton's show. Imus was just talking to the group of people confronting him on the show and Sharpton took it as a racial slur. Imus lost a very lucrative career because of such "claims" of bigotry.
I don't "claim" reverse bigotry from Obama. Rather, I have demonstrated it several times. Essentially, though, Obama thought it vital to mention white racism at least twice in his "More Perfect Union" speech from Philadelphia. Not once did he mention black racism in that same speech. That FACT by itself demonstrates a racial slant to the speech, and to Obama's character.
Then, as if to clarify things, Obama referred to his grandmother as "a typical white person." So, brian...in all your worldly wisdom, tell me what a typical white person is to a black person? And while you're at it, tell me what a typical black person is? Or a typical Asian? Or a typical Latino? Or a typical Arab?
Can you say racial profiling? Can you say stereotype? Can you say blatant racial prejudice?
And then you have the nerve to dress me up in KKK garb because I recognize a racial slant to Obama's speech? So, using your logic, I can fairly conclude that Obama is a card-carrying member of the Black Panthers and wants to overthrow whitey's government for the sole benefit of the black man, right? After all, he recognized a racial slant in his grandmother. That makes him my opposite equivalent.
Paul at 5:43PM on Mar 21st 2008
639. Voters in the fall will not buy Obama's claim that he can no more disown Wright than his own white grandmother. You get to pick your minister, You don't pick your grandma.
Obama said that the point he was making about his grandmother is not that she holds racial animosity, but she is a "typical" white person.
WHO'S THE REAL RACIST??! NOT MY PRESIDENT!
FLLady at 12:13AM on Mar 22nd 2008
640. More evidence of Obama's racial slant against whites:
April 11th, 2007 -- "I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus," Obama told ABC News, "but I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude." --Barack Obama
Sure...Barack will call for the termination of a white guy who uses the same phrase Stevie Wonder used in his hit song "I Wish", but Obama just can't bring himself to leave a congregation where anti-American sentiment and black racism finds a receptive audience.
Paul at 9:18AM on Mar 22nd 2008
641. Barack Obama was raised in a lovely home in Hawaii, got to travel around the world as a child, and was educated in the finest private schools this country has to offer.
AND HE SPENT TWENTY YEARS LISTENING TO HOW OPPRESSED HE IS?????
I voted for Obama in the Massachusetts primary.
I was GOING to vote for him in November.
Now that skinny little punk can KISS MY ASS.
And that goes for his racist pig of a wife, too.
Ken C. at 10:13AM on Mar 22nd 2008
642. The Constitution allows Freedom of the press; Freedom of Speech; Freedom of religion; and Freedom of Association. Seems like they forgot the Freedom to listen, which is what you do in church. This frail claim is censorship in the worst sense. Obama is not responsible for whatever any minister says. Was Nixon responsible for all the anti-black, Anti-jewish, and anti-catholic remarks of Billy Graham. Absolutely not, and you need to grow up.
Fred Thomas at 1:44PM on Mar 22nd 2008
643. "This frail claim is censorship in the worst sense. Obama is not responsible for whatever any minister says. Was Nixon responsible for all the anti-black, Anti-jewish, and anti-catholic remarks of Billy Graham. Absolutely not, and you need to grow up." --Fred Thomas
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Gee...where was all this social insight and wisdom whenever the African-American community set about to skewer Don Imus?
Rationalizing Obama's clear racial slant against whites by pointing to the 35 year-old sins of Richard Nixon really does nothing to help your case.
I mean, are you really defending Barack Obama by saying, "Well, he's no worse than Richard Nixon!"
Should we really respond with, "Oh wow! You're absolutely right! Nixon was such a blessing for this country! Let's elect another bigoted president!"
Sheesh...do you realize how absurd you sound as you're typing or do you just not think?
Paul at 5:23PM on Mar 22nd 2008
644. Rationalizing Obama's clear racial slant against whites by pointing to the 35 year-old sins of Richard Nixon really does nothing to help your case.
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and yet you point to Don Imus to bolster your argument?
KEEP MUDDYING THE ARGUMENT.
The blacks did it to Imus... so my racism is justified.
Thankfully a lot of young people see past the bullshit that you and others like you spew.
Tampa Tony at 6:17PM on Mar 22nd 2008
645. Tony...you're nothing but an annoying shill with no real validity.
Don Imus used a phrase that Stevie Wonder used in his hit song "I Wish" where he described himself as a nappy-headed boy. Black America called for Imus's termination from MSNBC. Then Imus went on Sharpton's radio show in a gesture of reconciliation and used the innocent phrase "you people" to address the "impartial" panel confronting him in the studio and Sharpton nearly shit his pants. Can you imagine if Imus had described Sharpton as a "typical black person" the way Obama described his mother as "a typical white person"?
So, yes, I stand by my use of Imus. Imus was skewered for nothing. Perhaps he shouldn't have called the Rutgers team "hos" but they were a team of mixed races and that being called a ho is a women's issue--not a racial issue.
You're pointing to Nixon's sins to justify Obama's bigotry. Meanwhile, I'm pointing to the needless humiliation and ruination of Imus as an example of black America's misguided cries of racism.
HUGE difference there.
Paul at 8:27PM on Mar 22nd 2008