Newsflash: Obama says “God bless America;” Plus: The Philly speech–Can Obama get his glow back? Update: Obama on Wright, “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community;” Hate-filled sermons were just “snippets;” Hey, let’s point the finger at “talk show hosts and conservative commentators”
10:57am Eastern.
10:40am Eastern…Waiting for Obama…has he ever used so many American flags?
Scroll down for updates…10:22am Eastern Waiting for Obama to speak…Drudge has the speech text…Obama refuses to disown Wright and sticks to the Wright-is-a-good-man-who’s-been-cherry-picked defense…10:50am Eastern Harris Wofford introducing Obama…10:55am Eastern…Obama takes the stage…
We know how his wife and his pastor feel about America. It’s finally dawned on Barack Obama that they have been undermining his glow of HopeNChange. The
Barack Obama avoided questions on the teachings of his long-time pastor in a press conference here, promising to address racially tinged comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a speech on race in America Obama plans to deliver Tuesday in Philadelphia.
Obama on Friday denounced as “inflammatory and appalling” comments Wright made that were circulated on video clips. Among them, Wright said blacks should sing “God damn American” instead of “God bless America.” Obama said he was not present when Wright made those comments.
But reporters at the press conference sought to probe Obama on his understanding of Wright’s views about white America and why he chose to raise his children at Trinty United Church of Christ, where Wright was pastor until recently.
Obama has had a long and close relationship with Wright, crediting the pastor with leading him to embrace Christianity and taking the title for his book “The Audacity of Hope” from one of Wright’s sermons. Obama was married by Wright and his children were baptized by Wright.
At a rally shortly before his press conference today, Obama uncharacteristically ended his remarks with the phrase “God bless America.”
Obama’s Philadelphia speech begins at 10:15am.
Michelle Obama has rearranged her schedule to be by his side. Obama says he’s going to distance himself from “stupid statements.” Does that include hers?
Democrat Barack Obama is seeking to distance himself from “stupid statements” by his longtime pastor that have aggravated racial divisions in the contentious Democratic primary battle. He is calling for both sides to tone down their rhetoric.
The Illinois senator is using a speech at a site near the nation’s birthplace to present what his campaign said would be a comprehensive take on “race, politics, and unifying our country.”
Among other things, the Illinois Democrat was seeking to calm the uproar over racially tinged sermons by his former pastor at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, remarks that have threatened to undercut Obama’s campaign theme of easing the racial divide.
Wright had been Obama’s pastor for nearly 20 years until retiring recently, and officiated at Obama’s wedding and baptized his two daughters. His inflammatory statements have been cited by Obama detractors, including comments that blacks continue to be mistreated by whites and a suggestion that U.S. “terrorism” helped bring on the Sept. 11 attacks.
“The conversation over the last couple of days has been dominated by some stupid statements that were made by Reverend Wright, but also caricatures of Reverend Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ — which, by the way, is part of a denomination that is overwhelmingly white. I think that that has distracted us from the possibilities of moving beyond some of these arguments,” Obama said in an interview with PBS.
Obama has also said he does not want to “kick him when he’s down,” given Wright’s recent retirement.
Obama was addressing supporters at the National Constitution Center, a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution.
Jen Psaki, an Obama spokeswoman, said that Obama wanted to deliver the speech because “the issue of race has received an enormous amount of attention” over the past few weeks and “he thought it was an appropriate moment to discuss his thoughts on the issue.”
***
The Obama strategy for talking to whites: “No sudden moves.”
From the Drudge text of the speech:
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed…
…Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
ABC News isn’t buying it. They follow up today:
More From Obama’s Pastor: U.S. a Racist Superpower
…”I think the caricature that’s been painted of him is not accurate,” Obama said Monday. “And so, part of what I’ll do tomorrow is just to talk a little bit about how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church community, for example, which I think views this very differently.”
Sen. Obama last week denounced two of Rev. Wright’s sermons blaming the 9/11 attacks on “U.S. terrorism” and calling on blacks to sing “God Damn American” instead of “God Bless America.”
But Obama defended Rev. Wright’s “social gospel” and said he agreed with some of his points, including issues relating to Africa.
Other sermons reviewed by ABC News, from videotapes sold by the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, reflect Rev. Wright’s repeated attacks on the U.S. government as a “racist and arrogant superpower” that does not value its black citizens.
In one sermon in October 2005, Rev. Wright addressed the racial elements at play in the wake of Hurricane Katrina….
Ed and Allah liveblogging at HA.
10:50am Eastern. Harris Wofford introducing Obama.
10:56am Eastern. Obama begins.
11:02am Eastern.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
11:05am Eastern. Here we go again with the minimizing of Wright’s theological demagoguery as mere “snippets.”
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
11:10am Eastern. Obama just delivered this line:
“These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.”
It was delivered rather perfunctorily.
The crowd claps for the first time for this:
“And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.”
11:19am Eastern. Here we go with the moral equivalence card and pointing the finger at “conservative commentators…”
The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now.
11:23am Eastern. Obama goes for the glow. Audience applause:
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
11:28 Eastern.
We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
11:31am Eastern. Obama invokes Ashley Baia.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
The wrap-up:
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
Obama’s bottom line: Everyone’s a victim. You’re part of the problem if you keep talking about Jeremiah Wright. Everyone’s churches have crazy demagogues. Schools need more money. Leave illegal aliens alone. Never mind all the black grievance-mongers who have built careers sowing seeds of divisions. Look at all the talk show hosts and conservative commentators! Elect Obama. Fixer of souls.
***
Best takedown of Obamessiah of the day: Right here.
Another good one: Ace rips Obama’s hemming and hawing.
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Trackbacks
- Sister Toldjah
- What Obama will say
- Obama’s “Yeah, But That’s Just Cherry Picking Wright’s Sermons” Speech; Updated : The American Pundit
- Hyscience
- Don Surber » Blog Archive » Obama’s speech
- Stop The ACLU » Blog Archive » Obama Refuses To Disown His Racist Pastor
- Confederate Yankee
- Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » » The Obama Excuses With Some Class Warfare Thrown In
- The Philadelphia Story: Will Obama’s Speech Get Him Out of Hot Water? - Shallow Nation
- Obama’s Speech On Race Does Not Answer Questions On His Judgement « An Angeleno’s View of the World
- Obama speech reactions | Infidels Are Cool
- Reformed Hippie
- This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here » Blog Archive » “A fish don’t know he’s wet…”
- Oblogatory Anecdotes - Obama's Speech
- PAXALLES
- Poll: Will Obama Overcome his Pastor’s Negative Publicity?
- Right Angles » Blog Archive » Don’t think the speech will help Obama
- Reverse_Vampyr >> Obama's whirling dervish speech
- AmericanPapist
- Red_State_Blue
- BigMouthFrog
- The Leg Feels Thrill Again as Obama Throws Dead Grandma Under the Bus « Chris Matthew’s Leg
- THE AUDACITY OF OBAMA « Texas Hold ‘Em Blogger
- The Obama Racial Division Speech: Success Or Failure? (With Reaction Roundup)
- Oblogatory Anecdotes - Battered Flag Syndrome
- Leaning Straight Up
- Stuck On Stupid
- More On Obama From Michelle Malkin « Thoughts Of A Conservative Christian
- Michelle Malkin » The Philly Showdown: Barocky vs. Hillarocky; Update: Hillary spanks Obama: People “don’t cling to religion when Washington isn’t listening to them;” Update: Obama grilled on Wright (”I’ve disowne
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You think Obama will offer an apology for the use of the term “cracker” to describe white people in one of his books?
Another politcal weasel who thinks he can talk his way out of anything.
And the superficiality of many will likely insure that he can.
Someone needs to evaluate the exact meaning of the word “audacity”. There are racial overtones even in the title of his book. How dare a black person hope? Is this what he thinks white people believe? I,for one, find the title of his book offensive. The United States of America is the very definition of the word “hope” for all its citizens, black and white. This is the reason so many people want to live here regardless of their race, religion, sexual preference, etc.
The views expressed by Wright are those of liberal black ideology. These ideas are at the core of liberal thinking, and to think Obama can distance himself without betraying his obvious ideology is a joke.
I don’t know what he can say that will be convincing to anyone with a brain. This is the guy who refuses to wear a flag pin because ?? he doesn’t need to wear a flag pin to be patriotic?? Hey, Barry, it doesn’t hurt. His wife quite plainly hates this country, even though she lives in a million $ mansion. Go figure. Rev. Wright’s words seem to fit the pattern.
Too late for damage control.
It’s out there and nothing he says will matter to people with 1/2 a brain.
The others will simply vote for him because of his color.
This should be good. I do not believe one word out of BHO mouth on this issue.
L
Can’t wait for the “sermon / education” I am about to receive from his Obamaship. The audacity is his notion that we need a lesson in race relations at all. Given the facts, I believe it was them who commented on the obvious racist whites in NH who said they would vote for him then behind the curtain chose the white woman instead. I believe the race card has been played repeatedly by them in their assertion that if he was leading, the supers had better vote for him or the real “reverend” Sharpton would be protesting in the streets. And ultimately it is them with nearly 90% of the black vote in a primary.
Imagine the uproar if 90% white voted for Hillary or McCain………perhaps we need a speech on the audacity of double standards.
Will he address the real issue? The issue is not Rev. Wrights comments, but the fact that those comments come for the ideas and values they promote at this church.
http://www.tucc.org/black_value_system.html
I have yet to hear anyone in the media bring this up and ask Sen. Obama if he believes in and practices this value system this Church promotes.
Of course, when you’re uneducated, and unwilling to help yourself, plus disappointed that the U.S. isn’t giving you everything you want for free, you’ll feed into this racism. The ones that make it their goal to be the best they can, refuse this nonsense. Working with the homeless back in the 80s, I remember one black kid, on cocaine, come in for treatment. He hated whites, which included me, big time. Once he cleaned up, though, he found a different world and the desire. I ran into him a couple of years ago. He bought us coffee, gave me a hug, and showed that he was studying now for his Master’s in sociology, in a nice suit and tie. It isn’t rare; it can be done. Yet, these racists want to keep people down, for their own sense of power. “Blame it on everyone and everything; never yourself”. They are nothing more than legal robbers…robbing people of their lives. Oh, yes….way to go, Raleigh.
Not only that, he insinuates, you’re a faux patriot if you do wear a flag on your lapel.
This racist is now going to heal us with his words. He has the balls to give us a lecture on how he is going to bring us all together, the audacity.
Will someone take Rev Wrights statements one by one and address them?
Did we bat an eye after having nuked Japan. No we did not. Because we were at war.
Has our foreign policy had blowback? Yes, in ways big and small. Osama Bin Laden said he did 9/11 because we had our military is sacred Saudi Arabia.
Did we constructively engage South Africa at the expense of their majority population? Did we trade with the Soviet Union and not Cuba?
No we are not perfect and we have made mistakes, but we have done good, too. If there are any failings of Rev Wright it is his incomplete assessment and analysis of what America is all about. Yep, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Rev. Wright’s followers & others who think they are so oppressed should be forced to watch the movie “Pursuit of Happiness” with Will Smith. The true story of a black man who made it to the top despite unbelieveable odds. Shows what can be done with determination.
I’m looking forward to this statement and how he will try to weasel his way out of a 20 year association with a church that preaches anything but Christian values. It does explain a lot about his failure to wear a USA flag lapel pin, not wanting to place his hand on his heart when the national anthem is played, and the statements by his wife.
So far, he’s called Jerry’s statements “stupid”…That isn’t enough.
I want to hear him clearly tell people, who is really to blame for 9/11.
I want to hear him clearly tell people, how HIV infected Americans.
I want to hear him clearly tell people, Truman’s decision to bomb Nagasaki and Hiroshima was based on clear military, and foreign policy thinking, and sound judgement.
I want to hear clear contradictions to Jerry’s stupid statements.
Anything less, simply doesn’t cut it.
What Obama said was he didn’t know his pastor of 20 years was making these kinds of statements. A radio host on Fox News this morning said it perfectly; he said “you mean not one person in 20 years told Obama what the pastor was saying?”
Obama lied on National Television of the same ilk as “I did not have sex with that woman” and there is no way he can take it back or make it right. He’s a smooth talker but has been outed as a liar.
Wow, it’s been two weeks and we haven’t seen Michelle Obama.
America has just been so mean to her husband of late.
/
There’s a reason he doesn’t wear a US Flag on his lapel. Remember his statement regarding that issue. He was very clear that not wearing one does not mean you’re not patriotic. That was shortly after America-hating wife finally became proud. Losers, all of them.
I will not listen to his ‘audacity’ speech in a few minutes. I have many more important things than listening to a lying soul. The news will be on anyway for sometime regarding this speech.
I can tell you one thing. Nothing will compare to Mitt Romney’s speech regarding religion.
This is ridiculous. Do Americans even have enough sense to recognize and admit that some people hate them and always will? They want racial change so bad they desire to be liked so much they are willing to pretend that this was no big deal. This cult leaders words are embraced by I would say 80 percent of blacks according to different radio callers that were black yesterday. The cult leader has preached that if God don’t hate whites too they don’t need him. The media including fox news and some talk radio are clueless fools who have no problem playing it down trying to pull more wool over our eyes. Whites are murdered by blacks lay the responsibility at the feet that is where it belongs. Congratulations white media rats not only do they hate you but so do I you are lucky you have each other at least temporarily.
Wake up white Americans these people have no desire to improve race relations all of the lies we have been told are finally coming home to roost. Don’t let them fool you these people are despicable they are all guilty of crimes against whites before and after the fact. One thing is for sure, I believed the rhetoric too but BHO’s campaign of change has changed my mind. I refuse to be a sacrificial lamb on the alter of pcbs racism I care about my family my friends my countrymen and no white hating devil will ever change that. Cult leader wright wants a piece of us don’t talk about it as usual come and get it we were waiting the last time (LA riots) but although they threatened us they never followed through with I, what a surprise. Frankly this cult leader sounds a lot like a radical imam at the least they have a lot in common, another big surprise.
We’re already hearing “the broader context”
Have the Visine ready…The wool being pulled over your eyes, is gonna’ itch.
Watch today’s speech be heralded as a “landmark” moment in Obama’s campaign. A real “call for change”, etc.
I don’t believe it.
I go to my Church every Sunday because I believe – wholeheartedly – in its teachings. I believe my priest understands and is in full obedience to those teachings.
If my priest would do things that violated those deeply held beliefs and/or the teachings of the Catholic church – I’d find another parish.
In. A. Heartbeat.
I wouldn’t even bat an eye.
I would not spend 20 years in a church and pretend I didn’t know what the church taught, or what sort of sermons my priest/pastor was giving.
It wouldn’t happen. Claiming ignorance can only get you so far.
And if Barack Obama is so clueless about his church – a place he volunteers to go to, get married in, and have his children baptized through – what does that say for his presidency?
Will he know what’s going on in the White House? In Congress? With the people he appoints to his Cabinet? In the world?
Methinks not.
We need to keep hammering this point home. While the far-left contingent won’t care; mainstream America will.
The Weekly Standard put on its web site last night a particularly vicious and antiSemitic speech that Wright gave recently. In the speech Wright called Israel “the dirty word” and that was something Wright apparently got from Louis Farrakahn. It is a replay of Farrakhan alternately calling Judaism a “gutter religion” and a “dirty religion”. Wright went on to say that “Negros” (Wright’s word) have to learn not to be intimidated by “The Jews”. Of course, the MSM and the New York Times will not mention this bit of poison from Wright. And the Obamas will be given credit by the MSM for being free of any kind of prejudice. The MSM will portray Obama’s speech today as being the second coming of JFK’s speech in Houston in 1960. About Wright’s antiSemitism, ther will not a word.
Isn’t it ironic that the Democrats, who so enthusiastically call Republicans racists, field two leading candidates who are racists. Hillary’s campaign was quick to resort to racist inuendo when she was losing. And Obama willingly embraced a racist buffoon for his pastor.
I will pause at this point to chuckle.
It’s also worth pointing out that nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the most economical option for ending WWII as far as lives were concerned. When the historically illiterate, such as Pastor Wright, condemn the atom bombings of Japan they are implicitly endorsing a conventional war against Japan that would have taken more lives by an order of magnitude. Hiroshima and Nagasaki stopped the war with the loss of a few hundred thousand lives. Invading Japan and conquering it on the ground would have cost millions of lives, mostly Japanese. Pastor Wright is the voice of ignorance in this case, as he is on so many other topics.
BamBam’s done for. this speech is simply the death rattle.
This “speech” is pointless.
Barry and Michelle have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be racists. In addition, B. Hussein has been proven to be a liar and corrupt.
So what, exactly, can a lying, corrupt, American hating, racist, black man say to change any of that? That he’d like a do-over?
If he were White, this would be end-game. He’d be toast. And rightly so. NO ONE would believe for a second that an extremely close relationship for over twenty years with a racist America hater was anything but what it is.
If he had any sense of decency, he would drop out , as he loves to yell, “NOW!”
I am sick of the whole thing. Only those of us on this blog give a rat’s a$$ what any of them say. And to top it all off, Fox news keeps putting on that horrible Sharpton & asking him what HE thinks. Blech.I am going to turn on the cartoon channel.
I have to agree with tgusa. There is more hate out there then we realize and the hate is coming from the blacks. It comes down to welfare primarily. They have done nothing to help themselves. They expect handouts. Black fathers disappear because the government takes care of their offspring. Katrina started this I believe. All the crap regarding the 9th ward and lack of instant help……of course Nagin and Blanco are truly responsible for that.
Broader Context:
20 years of spiritual guidance?
or,
20 years of indoctrination?
I agree. To ask Al Sharpton to discuss racial issues is like asking Bill Clinton to discuss morals.
I attended a new church in Kauai in 1993 after hurricane Iniki hit that island. I found this great church. The congregation was small at first because people had been displaced. However, within three months we had re-built the majority of the church back to its original being. Then a new parishioner showed up. He started talking ‘in tongue’. I found it strange as I had never experienced that before. Well it became a regular part of the service. The pastor apparently liked it. I did not. I left the church I once believed in because it had changed into something ‘radical’ I did not like. I found that out in less than 6 months…..not 20 years.
I have to agree with you too, geminicontender. Many other posters as well, its nice to be somewhere where people are not clueless, thanks Mrs. Malkin.
“Swift Boat” refers, now, to the task of a grassroots political organization to get out the unbearably ugly truth about a presidential candidate’s anti-American behavior.
America-bashing and hating (undiscovered/hidden by the MSM) can no longer withstand the gaze of new media news gathering.
I’m sure that the Swift Boat organization has written a good after action review that another outfit can take and learn the right way to baste Obama in his own lefty hate stew.
Well tgusa #33 – it is true that you hang with people of like mind. MM has brought together a pretty fine bunch of people in itself….and luckily a few who we can argue with too.
The worst things outside slavery that crippled black people in America in terms of self-esteem and self-reliance and truly being mainstream in society was to regard being born black as a culture unto itself.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
They misspelled ‘immersion’ and turned it in to ‘perversion’.
Even if he catagorically rejects all of the statements by his reverend, it only shows that he joined the church for one purpose: POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY
The more I see of this “church”, and the more I read the views of its leader, the more it resembles a black Muslim congregation, and the less it resembles any sort of Christianity. Obama says Wright “led him to embrace Christianity”. But I thought he claims to have been raised a Christian, with his time spent in the Muslim schools just a happenstance of his family’s moving around. A basic tenet of Islam is that you don’t leave the religion, under any circumstances. I don’t believe Obama has. And he still doesn’t honor the flag or swear allegiance to this country, unless he just started that in the last few days, also.
When he stops grandstanding for Hope and Change and becomes no longer a Black man, but an American man, it will establish him as credible.
Until them he is just selling a Used Car.
#38
BIG if there. B Hussein joined because he believes all of it. ALL. OF. IT.
There really is nothing for him to “take back” or “explain” He is who he is.
He needs to resign his candidacy.
What’s taking sooo long for him to speak?
Is he waiting for Divine Intervention?
this Wofford guy is definitely a donkey. this speech doesn’t help BamBam.
Abe was the most peaceful of all presidents, eh?
Here we go……
“…just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed…”
Uh…NO!
He should’ve been raised in Berkeley, CA. He’d have a following there regardless of (or because of) his hate for America. Black Muslim Bakery, city council whose brains are still ‘fried’ from the ’70s, tree sitters and military haters. Go Michelle and Obama Hussein
Few lines from his speech hit me.
Yes it is the evil corporations and greed causing these white resentments by African Americans and why they can’t become middle class.
Full measure of justice? What justice is he talking about here?
Then we have
So for you one problem is the “White Community” ignoring the injustice done to the African-American community and causing discrimination, not things like Rev. Wright or the ideas and values of your Church.
Yes these statements reflect exactly what the “Black Value System” says.
Flowery speech…..come on.
GET with the program at hand.
Goodn ,ow we get a history lesson. He must be a fast learner
Why do black people get a pass on the poor decisions they make by claiming their “view” of it makes it okay?
This isn’t a difficult issue. If a white person, republican or democrat, were running for office and had a 20 year close relationship with a racist anti-American like J. Wright their career would be over.
Let a white man from the deep south try to run for president and have it come out he has had a long time close relationship with David Duke or someone else who is racist and clearly hates our country. There would be no end to the criticism. And it wouldn’t matter if he grew up with a crazy racist uncle, neighbor, best friend, minister, or whoever. That “view” would not give him a pass.
Just because many black people feel everyone in America is racist and owes them something doesn’t mean it’s true. I’m starting to wonder why people who feel this way bother staying in this country. I wouldn’t.
You can tell buy the number of flags on the stage that he thinks this is a serious problem.
What an unbelievable crock of BS, and an insult to the intelligence of anyone with any ability to think.
I am glad this is being live blogged because I’d lose my breakfast trying to watch it.
He has just RUINED himself completely.
Slaves? COME ON!
He’s now MLK
Is this about WRIGHT or NOT?
Please address this Mr Obamanation!!!!
Same ole stories…..WHO cares?
Funny my family history is mainly English, however, I never grew up thinking I had to defend them for anything. I made my own life my own way…..why can’t they?
When will he bash conservative talk radio? It’s always someone else’s fault.
Just to clarify, BHO did not rise up from poverty or overachieve (as he insinuates about his “white” grandmother’s sacrifices). He graduated from Hawaii’s top prep $chool.
What a weasel. I just thought we was a dope. Now I think he’s slimy.
Yee-hah!!
This speech is the best thing to happen to Hillary’s campaign in a looong time!!!
He’s running down his checklist to make sure he doesn’t miss a thing.
Wright a critic? No.
A Traitor. (Your bedfellow Mr O.)
No, I have not heard anything in my church regarding hatred towards any ethnic group.
So the excuse is….others do it.
Before Hitler came into power people dismissed his statements about “Killing the Jew and others” as mere hyperbole and was not to be believe or taken literally. The statements of Wright, I do believe to be Wright’s true thoughts and I do assume that Wright means his statements literally. Anyone that continues to “Stand Beside”, Wright marks themselves with the same brush that Wright paints himself.
How is he going to settle all these monumental problems he talks about? He can’t get out of his own way. Audacity.
I spent my last 20 years in the military overseas (Germany). There are no racial quotas or monikers for what type of german citizen they profess to be. If you apply for work in Germany, one question is on the application concerning who and what you are: Country of Citizenship.
If we are stupid enough to elect this affirmative action racist, then we deserve everything that comes with it.
We have to finally hold blacks accountable for many of the problems they are bringing to our communities and stop apologizing for the bad behavior of the many. I feel sadness, but no guilt for what my fore fathers had done, as I was not alive in those times. When the black community insists on slavery as their wedge issue, maybe we should focus on who is still trading and dealing in slaves….AFRICA
We fought a just and right war for the rights of all Americans, for those of you educated in our schools the last 20 years, this war was the Civil War. This came at a great price. The blood of our brothers and sisters to fight for equal rights for all AMERICANS>
Generational welfare, teen pregnancies, government dependency and quotas, violent crime committed against whites and ignored by everyone, ruined major cities run by corrupt
blackpoliticians(Detroit, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Houston,etc.) the list can go on and on.If you are offended by this, too bad. I am not PC and have dated outside of my race and feel comfortable with that, until recently now that I see the majority of the blkack community defending Obama and his racist hote monger JWright.
Yeah, He’s TOAST.
Welcome back Hillary!
He is defending this arse.
He’s putting Wright right back up on that pedestal. He hasn’t figured it out yet.
Uh oh…
From these comments, methinks Obama might just be in danger of losing support of the MM comment poster demographic that I know he was counting on to carry him victory.
@geminicontender:
Think you might mean this part:
Bye, GlowWorm.
When does the choir come out???
Dems want our guilt. That’s what they depend on. Screw that! Get on with life and get rid of your hangups.
If you are angry at a relative you might use language that seems to show you don’t love said relative. Reverend Wright has plenty to be angry with America about. Most of his congregents are economically disadvantaged because of past (and present?) policies of America.
Do you think black Americans should not be angry at their historical treatment? I grew up in a town that had official segregation laws. Christians are still angry with Jews for killing Jesus, which happened well over 50 years ago. Jews still complain about their expulsion from Spain in 1492.
and anti American statements taken out of context….
greysheep, LOL!
Good one.
Describing the black congregation.
Gee. Lots of adjectives but NO verbs.
Unless his name is Robert Byrd.
Wonderful words that say nothing. Of course this has been his whole process…..hot air.
He’s done.
Talk about true colors.
*sigh* now I have to peel off my Mitt stickers and get Hillary ones… I feel so *used*.
I actually read that the church is made up of middle to upper missle class professionals.
Every church I have attended/visited/driven past etc uses the Bible and generally takes a few passages of it and tries to show you how to apply it in today’s times. I for one would love to be a fly on the wall of Heavens gate when the good cult leader has to meet his master. Somehow I don’t think he is going to be pleased. Is not the seventh circle of Dante’s Inferno reserved for the sowers of discord? Methinks this cult leader is going to have those chickens he speaks of barbecued. Unfortunately, for a number of blacks it will always be 1860.
What exactly IS he attempting to say?????
If he becomes President will he finally do away with welfare?
“Birds of a feather flock (no pun intended) together.”
Nice try lgm. If we had less policies we’d probably be well ahead of where we are today. Less government. Can’t you see how the Libs are sweating right now. Two minority candidates that they propped up for years is now biting them in the ass. Less policy, less regulation. Let a man or woman prove himself by himself.
Wright is pretty much the black version of Fred Phelps. Both are equally indefensible.
Any who defends Wright’s statements and opposes those of Phelps are hypocrites of the highest order.
Well, LGM, I am fed up with ungrateful brats.
I am fed up with illegals.
Now what?
I can’t tell if people are going to eat this up or not. My guess is that this doesn’t change much, unless it causes the media to drop the Rev. Wright issue after a few days of discussing the speech.
The problem is with “black liberation theology” and Wright’s sermons are consistent with it…not cherry-picked.
I am dizzy from his rambling.
We don’t need a speech about his trials and tribulations.
Don’t want to hear about blacks either.
It took me a long time but I finally figured out who Rev. Wright reminds me of. Red Foxx in “Sanford and Son”.
Work calls. Have to provide tax dollars for Reid and Pelosi’s misguided actions
Red Foxx was at least funny.
“scratched and clawed…..”……
oh please. Making excuses.
And don’t forget to chip in for that Iraq war thingy too! I hear that is pretty expensive.
That Rev. Wrights comments don’t matter and that we do have a big race problem in this country that is the fault of whites and evil corporations is what I got from that.
I got $10,000,000 (ZWD) in cash for the talking head who asks Obama where he stands on reparations for slavery!
Yes! It’s his only hope to be POTUS. It’s how he should end this speech.
Unfortunately, I know a few (whites)who are drunk on the Obama Koolaid.
Another words, people of Wright’s generation are still angry…..hence, justifying their enabled ignorance to continue bad behavior.
Way to go OBOMB!
chapoutier…I will give all of my tax dollars to our boys in Iraq. And whatever else they need. What I don’t need to do is fund your hospital bill.