Obama Responds Weakly As Wright Problem Worsens

Drudge links a WSJ item with some of the worst rhetoric from Wright, yet - 2006 at Howard University. Meanwhile, Wright came up in a Pittsburgh journalist's call with Obama yesterday. The response appears to be less than satisfactory. Does Obama really think he can wait this one out?

No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body."

Mr. Wright thundered on: "America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."

Obama questioned briefly on Wright:

Q: I don't know if you've seen it, but it's all over the wire today (from an ABC News story), a statement that your pastor (the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side) made in a sermon in 2003 that instead of singing "God Bless America," black people should sing a song essentially saying "God Damn America."

A: I haven't seen the line. This is a pastor who is on the brink of retirement who in the past has made some controversial statements. I profoundly disagree with some of these statements.

Q: What about this particular statement?

A: Obviously, I disagree with that. Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it's important to judge me on what I've said in the past and what I believe.

Comments

[Jason]

Obviously, this quote is not just one statement in a sea of Christian love. They should have played the entire sermon for Barack. The other thing is that Obama agrees with this guy by just being a member of this church for decades. If I ever heard my priest say anything like this, I would be gone in a heartbeat. Maybe Chicago doesn't have any other churches though. I certainly wouldn't have the guy baptize my kids, marry me, and steal his line to title my book. In typical Democrat style, they rode emotion without doing any background checking. Now they are in trouble.

[tree hugging sister]

"...I don't believe picking his tree would reveal any "cherries" like those."

Oh, God, I'm DYIN' here!!! And once I clean the coffee off the monitor, will post my own deep thoughts...

[s sommer]

The pastor is nuts, but he does express frustrations and ideas which I have heard others agree with... people who feel that they have been kicked in the head and kept down in our society. There's no way for us to know how much of the pastor's rhetoric the Obamas truly might agree with, but he is clearly their friend.

I have friends from both extremes of the political spectrum. The cartoons my friends send me in chain emails slap both sides hard in the face. Sometimes, they make me laugh, sometimes I cringe and cannot delete their jokes fast enough.

There are those who only associate with people with whom they agree on just about everything. Do such people have much influence in their world? Hardly.

By being members of such a congregation, the Obamas are living proof that their pastor is wrong. Do you think that the people attending that church do not know that they have a US Senator in their midst? Two Ivy League educated church members? Their simple presence and participation is a sermon in itself, countering the pastor's angst and hopelessness.

Obama was supposedly an "activist." I have yet to see exactly what that means, what he did, but it implies that he was working in the trenches with people who needed positive input and guidance to change.

I am not shocked by his pastor's words. I have heard rhetoric like his before. Maybe, it is good to get it all out on the table and have America have a conversation about it.

Can it be about a point of view, rather than about Obama? Because, these are not HIS words.

HIs words seem to be completely the opposite of what his pastor has said. Does that count for something?

[Harvard@Cal]

I never knew the Westboro Baptist Church was in Illinois. And I didn't know Fred had changed his name to Wright either. But, judging from the speeches, that's got to be the case, no other explanation I can think of.

[MarkJ]

"So do you think Obama is wondering if there is any video of him in the crowd clapping during one of Wright's rants. That would be a killer."

Caleb,

I agree. Obama must be sweating bullets right now, because the Clinton Campaign is indubitably, and feverishly, looking under every friggin' rock for this kind of stuff. And, for the right offer, they may very well acquire it.

In short, if the Clintons can pin down Obama as having attended at least one of Wright's rants, then Prince Charming's campaign is D.E.A.D. Imagine Hillary saying, "Mr. Obama, your attendance at these sermons means you either approve of Reverend Wright's hateful rants or are turning a blind eye to them. Which is it?"

[HitNRun]

A: Obviously, I disagree with that. Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor.

I've had a few pastors in my much-shorter-than-40-year life and I don't believe picking his tree would reveal any "cherries" like those.

40 year career? Damn, we've only been looking at the last three weeks.

[LogicalSC]

Paul B:

I see you are a "kool-aide" drinker for Obama. Like the rest of his campaign, he says nothing and you hear what you hope he means.

Have you heard and read his wife's thoughts? She certainly has similar feelings as Obama's "spiritual advisor" and you write it off as Obama joining the church 20 years ago to "change" this ugliness? His children were raised attending these sermons? They were raised and "baptized" into this church. Are they going to be the ones to provide a better influence? Where would they get the idea that is was wrong? Not from their mother, as she feels the same. Obama? Nobody knows because the truth is virtually nothing is known about his ideas or philosophy. He certainly didn't reveal any "hope" with his dealing with Rezko's slum or his choice of associates, Ayers.

But as I said, he is the "perfect storm" candidate for today's Democratic party which is controlled by the America-hating adolescent left. He hates all the right things, America, men, and "whites".

So get on with it.

[Jeffersonian]

Right, Paul B, it must have been the only church in that entire state senate district.

It won't work, pal. This sort of racialism/racism was the core of TUCC, not a deviation from its message. If Obama "profoundly disagreed" with this sort of thing, he wouldn't be there. Period.

[Dan Riehl]

LMAO - God, Paul B - can't anything ever be a liberal's responsibility? Must everything be "our" fault? Your nonsense is ever more weak than Obama's. It's beyond ignorant; it's pathetic.

He was inspired enough to entitle a book after one of his sermons because ... well, the church was close to where he worked!! Freakin priceless. Only a hopeless ideologue could even entertain your silly ideas.

[The Ace]

and there is abundant contrary evidence that he doesn't.

Funny stuff, really.

You mean "evidence" like continuing to go to the church, right?

Obama chose this church because of it's proximity to the community for which he was an activist

wow, you have really swallowed all the Koolaid.

Would be interested in some property in Florida by chance???

[Paul B]

It's "weak" to say he "profoundly disagrees" with the Pastor's controversial statements? You've set this up so that any answer less than crapping all over the man who married him and baptised his children is "weak." Any fair minded person would find Obama's answer completely reasonable and diplomatic. There is no evidence that Obama believes or agrees with Wright on these statements, and there is abundant contrary evidence that he doesn't. Obama chose this church because of it's proximity to the community for which he was an activist - hopefully more educated and religeously moderate blacks will follow Obama's example and join these congregations to provide a better influence on these devastated and neglected inner city communities. Doubtful it will happen if the Right is successful in smearing Obama. Heckuva job guys...

[LogicalSC]

What is becoming more and more clear is that Obama is a anti-American racist in a shiny package.

From his racist church and "spiritual" leader, to his American and man-hating wife, to his terrorist Weatherman friends, it can longer be ascribed to a "misstatement" or they weren't really close. Everybody and every aspect of life from his church to family life is encase in this hatred.

But here is the kicker, he should be the Democratic nominee because he perfectly represents the platform of 85% of today's Democrats which they constantly had to hide from America for the past 3 decades to get elected.

So lets get it over with nominate him and finally see if America truly wants this America, "white", and man hatred to be it's representive to the world.

[MD]

Wow, that's a little overboard there, Ennis. I guess one set of inflammatory rhetoric deserves another....

[MD]

Also, Sen Obama profoundly disagrees with *some* of these statements? Why did he throw in the *some*? Verbal tick? If not, what are the statements he does agree with?

[Ennis]

He apparently thinks that his "charisma" will make this all fade away.

Memo to Barak: The effective half life of charisma is very short. Be prepared for a very rough ride. The MSM and your BFF Oprah may coddle you but the public won't. You see, the MSM is no longer the gatekeeper of information and your BFF Oprah is losing her audience due to her support of you. BTW-if you supposedly disagree with this racist pastor why the hell do you give so much money to this guy and why does your wife parrot what this guy says? I think it is because you agree with him.

The next items you are going to have to answer for are the following.

1. Earmarks and your wife's job-isn't it amazing that she gets a "new position" at her job which pays her alot more for essentially doing the same thing she was before. And isn't it amazing that the place where she works just got a ton of money from an earmark sponsored by you. Coincidence? I think not.

2. Kenya, Islamofascism, Sharia and your relatives-Why are you using your position as a US Senator to aid the institution of Sharia law in Kenya? Could it be because your relatives (including your Islamofascist older brother) are the ones who are trying to institute Islamic rule over Kenya? Your relatives are using all sorts of "fun tactics" like gang raping little girls, genocide on almost Rwandan levels, etc. Why do you remain silent? Is it because you condone these acts? Is it because the ones doing it are from YOUR tribe?

Pamela over at Atlas Shrugs has your number on this one, Barak. http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/kenyas_killing_fields/index.html

[MD]

Agree with comments above. Cherry-pick? Um, Senator Obama, that statement is not cherry-picking. It is a quote that represents a very particular view of the world and is expressed as such by the Reverend.

Too clever by half. No, no, no. The question is: does Senator Obama think that Reverend Wright has engaged in similar inflammatory rhetoric in the past, and does he think that inflammatory rhetoric impact the community he is serving? He wants a new politics of conciliation, a new era of bipartisanship, a new era in Washington, but thinks this kind of talk is okay? How much harm can that kind of stuff do in the community the Reverend serves? I would imagine quite a lot.

[Fred Beloit]

I wish this Wright business would have been saved for the general election. By then it will be stale and Obama will say, as Hillary and Bill often do: "That charge is old news and was answered a long time ago". You know, like the miraculous cattle futures speculation, as if it were not a concealed but outright bribe.

[JohnnyR]

Are there any series of sermons from Wright (let's say four or five weeks in a row) that are, you know, Christian? That are not diatribes against whites and America?

Apologists (including Obama) say that this is just cherry-picking a few statements. Even though it's unimaginable that the MSM would accept this explanation from a Republican in a similar circumstance, is it possible to see if Obama's own explanation is correct? Or did Wright do this basically ever Sunday?

[Jeffersonian]

Anyone who think that these flaming nuggets from Wright are out of character or somehow anomalies from a body of work otherwise pastoral and conciliatory is fooling himself. The most casual glance at Trinity UCC's website will show any fair-minded observer that Wright and his church are a racialist/racist organization peddling Black Nationalism, anti-semitism and radical politics in a steady, polluted stream. Let's remember, too, that one of these stem-winding sermons preaching racial loathing was a **Christmas** service. Lord have mercy...

Obama is trying to distance himself from this, pretending these remarks were unusual and unsupported. The videos we've seen show that Wright's flock was anything but condemnatory of the sermons and it is increasingly clear that this is this church's central theme, not a digression from it.

[Caleb]

So do you think Obama is wondering if there is any video of him in the crowd clapping during one of Wright's rants. That would be a killer.

[joeb]

The MSM really needs to stay on Obama about this black racist pastor. If anybody is "cherry picking" from that racist bigot numbskull they are surely going to get a lot of "cherries".