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.
See what others have said
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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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American just isn’t white enough for you, is it?
Please don’t answer the trolls. I just scroll past their comments but when you quote them, I see what they say anyway. Please!!
Why Pookie hasn’t been banned is beyond me.
This poster threatened me.
(not that I was scared or anything….it’s just juvenile to do as such!)
The Wright distraction is just that, a distraction. Frankly, there are far easier targets of opportunity in which to keep Obama in the Oval Office with nothing more than a “Visitor’s Pass” on his lapel.
We really need that discussion about race, healing old wounds, and simply getting on with it. Senator Obama might be useful in that regard, but not much else.
Is it too much to ask that I be referred to as Euro-American? He refers to African-Americans, Native-Americans, Asians, Hispanics (I’m guessing that refers to South American descent) and Whites (although he did refer to Blacks & Browns once).
If we’re going to not mention skin color (not that we should) at least be equal about it.
On the other hand, he didn’t refer to us Euro-Americans as Crackers.
Overall I think this really puts the super delegates in a tenuous position. If they go with the popular vote and vote for Barack they are supporting a rascist and if they go against the popular vote and vote for Hillary they are being racist.
There are going to be some exciting backrooms in Denver this summer.
I think we are a little tired of the perception that BHO “transcended” race in his candidacy, but really, he’s not all that. Very disappointing.
I never threatened you and you know it. Karma is what threatens you.
That stage full of American flags really rubs me the wrong way. Right off the bat, before he Even says a word it shows that it is all staged. I say BULL S**T. This coming from one who wont wear a flag pin nor put his hand over heat during the anthem.
Oh yah, and why don’t you quit calling me a cracker?
Mookie, go crawl into that black hole you came from.
It’s frickin’ 2008! Anybody that wants to succeed in life can. It’s really an insult to anyone of color and those that started with nothing but decided they weren’t going to accept this crap about not having opportunities and made something of themselves.
What it comes down to is you are one of two types of people and it has nothing to do with color. You are either a “blame everybody else” do nothing for yourself type or an “I’ll work my ass off to succeed” in spite of what others say type.
I’d say many of us had a father and/or mother that worked their ass off and didn’t sit there waiting for everybody else to feel sorry for them.
Again, it’s 2008. Slavery has long since ended in this country. If you don’t like your chances here in America then you certainly won’t be happy anywhere else.
KARMA mookie? Wow we are still in a haze from the ’70’s it sounds like. Is Hussein still talking?
That would give you entirely more happiness than you deserve.
I am more concerned with illegals than other racial problems.
The so called issues that Obama is referring to are no longer valid.
He is dividing the races by merely talking about it.
At least if there are riots this time, they’ll get winded fast.
Until he accepts that he is not black, I have little faith in the integrity of Obama.
So if you don’t vote for me yall are racists!!
Hah! Good one.
Obama sputtering his Socialist agenda.
True that. I went to the World Series in Denver and would have bought an oxygen tank by the time I got to my seats if they had been selling them.
Stacked audience?
As someone on “all in the family” once said. “What we have here is a genuine BIG OT!”
But that’s exactly what you did with your 20 year association with Rev. Wright. You tolerated a leader who filled the minds of his followers with hateful lies. And now you’ve come to change that? When did this happen?
Is it just me?
It started off pretty good,
Then,
It degenerated into a political stump speech.
No we don’t want America becoming like Mexico or Zimbabwe but I suppose in mookies world food doesn’t matter only the appearance of different colors. Tell me, where are the harmonious colored countries that are welcoming whites? Oh that’s right they are stealing white farmers land (the primary suppliers) and then whining about the fact that they have no food. If you continue to do stupid things blame yourself not whites or any other colors. And one thing on the illegal issue, last Sunday the day of rest when my whole neighborhood is quiet and relaxed I was awaked by an extremely loud chainsaw. That’s right, I know if you are working on Sunday speaking Spanish you are a tax evading work stealing person who cares nothing about us. I for one am tried of having them give us the finger and I will report any neighbor that assists in the invasion. That’s what it is an invasion from south of the border, no shots fired, a cold invasion, not unlike the cold war. You want to play head in the sand keep it to yourself or perhaps move, to one of those countries you can’t list.
Free air time for B.O. Hillary must be jealous. Can’t wait for the next SNL.
And why do politicians always have these bleeding heart stories added to every speech? Can’t verify them. No names. Just made up crap.
From the speech:
You look for the bad in Wright while Obama looks for the good.
Drudge has the full text of the speech. Obama basically throws the Reverend under a bus, and tries to move on. He also references, for the first time I am aware, his white relatives. Up to this point all of his speeches have focused primarily on his blackness. He also suggests that he “disagrees wit many of his political views”. Really? Then provide proof.
He also talks about converting to Christianity – but from what????
In the quotation from Dreams From My Father, he talks only of his experience as a black person; no mention of his bi-racial identity. This seems to suggest a focus for whatever reason on being a “black person”, not a bi-racial person.
He suggest he never heard Wright refer to any white person in a derogatory term. OK, prove that.
He talks about Ferraro, and tries to equivocate the two cases. No dice; both Democrats with identity politics problems.
He blames African-American problems on slavery, Jim Crow, inferior education, lack of FHA mortgages… but not low standards, or the debilitating effects of being told how bad things are by people like Wright, Jackson, and other race hustlers.
He talks about race issues being used by politicians to “gin up” votes. Can anyone say ‘irony’?
He talks about the evil corporations, lumping them all in a stew of poor accounting, greed, and inside dealing.
He talks about the “white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling”. Hillary must be fuming!
He says blacks must remember their history, but not be bound by it as they continue to struggle…. and then refers to it endlessly, so no one can move on.
Describes discrimination in the past, and how it’s not better, just “less overt”.
Near the very end, he talks about “stealing the future” of black children, white children, Asian children, Hispanic children and Native American children. Did he miss anybody? No? Identity politics block fully checked.
Finishes the speech with a sappy story about someone named Ashley who is white, and a black man who supports her efforts to get out of poverty. Hurl! And, oh yeah, corroboration please, Mr. Obama.
All in all, a good speech that won’t be good enough to put the controversy away.
The guy is a racist. Everyone knows it, what else is he going to do? The more he talks about racism, the more obvious it is so he talks about Iraq…….
lgm you are one spinner. We all look for the good in people. It’s the evil one’s we also want to be aware of. Get it?
Of course in a liberal mindset there is no good and evil, just HOPE!
I grew up with many of these people on the south side of chicago. They had the same opportunities I did. We went to the same schools (maybe we should be angry about the quality of public education). Yet despite the free education, my high school had a 67 percent drop out rate. As long as people see themselves as victims they will not improve their own situation. Obama is not even one of them. His ancesters were not slaves (his father was from Africa and his mother is white).
Christians are not angry at the jews about the death of Christ, that is utter nonsense. You are trying to defend the indefensible.
Obama pastor’s theology:
Destroy ‘the white enemy’
‘If God is not for us and against
whites … we had better kill him’
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=59230
OK, I’ve heard the speech. I’m still not voting for him.
Nice to know he says his white grandmother was a racist also, so cut Rev. Wright some slack.
I like it when he makes up his own questions for his own answers. It only gets difficult when someone else asks the question. Pretty lame.
So much for hope and change. The only thing I heard from BHO was class warfare and racial demagoguery.
Jim C
#70 lgm said:
But he has so much more to be thankful for, and as a “man of God,” that is what makes his demagoguery so evil.
Congregates like Oprah and Barack? C’mon. If someone insisted from the pulpit every Sunday that you weren’t even capable of economic advantage in America (at the same time that sons of Kenyan immigrants and daughters of unwed, teenage mothers from rural Mississippi are amassing millions in wealth right around you) you wouldn’t have an economic chance either; even if your relatives were slighted 50+ years ago.
Not to the point that it holds them back as millions of destitute immigrants (legal and illegal) take advantage of US opportunity and pass them economically in one generaton’s time frame.
I was turned away from universities as candidates with lesser academic qualification were accepted based solely on their skin color.
But they aren’t acting out and indoctrinating future generations of “Jew Haters” like Barack Obama’s mentor and spiritual advisor, Jeremiah Wright.
But they don’t scream about it from the pulpit and poison their communities with hate and despair, like Barack Obama’s mentor and spiritual advisor does.
Now we get to hear the real spin…hallelujah!!!!!!!
Well put jimC!
A successful Black man, saying Blacks are victims of their own background is ludicrous.
Aren’t these the VERY…SAME…PEOPLE who tell us to “move on”?
Did Obama really say anything new here? He basically claimed that the criticism of and attention on Wright’s sermons is a “mere distraction.” That somehow there is “justified racism” on both sides of the racial divide (white vs. black). That somehow “conservative commentators” were responsible for him losing his “glow.”
Nothing but empty platitudes. No wonder the Europeans love Obama so much. They eat up meaningless rhetoric for breakfast. Please don’t judge him by the company he keeps.
Is Obummer for real? Seriously. Just because Wright mentored him doesn’t mean he should stick by him. If that were the case people would have to put up with toxic friends and family members their entire lives. Is he living in a world devoid of outside perception and reality?
I read this speech and I just felt sick inside. He just really thinks he’s some kind of hero. Weak-minded blacks love him for sticking by Wright and they eat up the whole “black liberation philosophy.” It’s nauseating. Really. Nauseating.
Obama was doing his lawyerly-Clintonian best to avoid having reporters prove that he was in the church when Wright made some of his most hateful words. So Obama very cleverly said that on occasion he heard Wright make “fierce critcisms” of US foreign policy. Those “criticisms” include such niceties as calling the US the purveyor of AIDS around the world, blaming the US for AL Queda and 9/11. This is cute Barack. Sure, Katie Couric and Brian Williams and the ladies of GMA will go back to worshipping you but now the cat is out of the bag.
He will not be President that is for sure. Too much hate there for a smart-minded person to see (conservatives:):):)
Just another trial lawyer like all of the Dem’s who run for the top office. Republican Presidents by history all came from the working force. Not the force of trial lawyers who want to destroy our nation.
Well, it looks like another democrat crying out to the black population once again, to “vote for me and I’ll save you”. That’s a tired old promise and people still believe it. “You can fool some of the people, all the time.” (Lincoln). If they make him President the democratic leadership will “advise” this naive rookie as to what to do, every day. Then show the world how wonderful they are by having a black as Chief Executive. Meanwhile, the election process has become a race process. Vote for Obama and not feel guilty or be labeled a racist. What a mess!
Barack Obama does not “embrace [the same] Christianity” that most evangelicals do. I would not attend a church where the pastor made remarks “with which I strongly disagreed”. I’m glad this is all coming out, so the charade is revealed in full.
I think he’s damaged now. Don’t know how much but he’s no longer the infallible, above it all, candidate he once was. It’s a start.
This speech was a very strong effort at the impossible task of damping down the firestorm over the “minister’s” hate-filled rants.
#90 chap said:
Sigh, it’s always left to us conservatives, isn’t it? As liberals have proven time and time again that they aren’t willing to support our Nation’s defense.
Saw this on another blog written before the speech. Interesting.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
B. Hussein Obama, faith experience and Reverend Jeremiah
I don’t need to hear B. Hussein Obama’s speech today. I have a pretty good idea what he is going to say. Obama’s lawyers have been working overtime and he has been practicing his sincerity.
Obama will spend the first portion of the speech speaking in bland generalities establishing the following facts:
(1) Racism is wrong.
(2) Unity is good.
(3) The politics of the past must stop.
(4) diviseness has no place in America anymore.
(5) Obama has courageously lived his life by these ideals.
(6) Obama is proud to live in a country where one so brave as himself can overcome racism, disunity, the past, capitalism, and other bad stuff to lead the country in bold pronouncements against war.
(7) Obama is a deeply faithful Christian (just like his Kenyan grandmother) who practices the Christian virtues of high taxes, socialized medicine and big government bureaucracy – just like Jesus.
Obama will talk of his “faith experience” in the same way that Al Gore spoke of his “faith tradition.”
After inspiring all of us thusly, Obama will spend the last portion of this speech minimizing the importance of the Reverend Jeremiah. Obama will marginalize the words Jeremiah has spoken, while making himself the hero for refusing to abandon his friend while making clear that Obama himself is above those words.
By the time Obama is done we will wonder what all the fuss was about.
The networks will interview people who will express relief that the controversy is finally over. Instant polls will show that viewers are unconcerned with the private beliefs of the friends of audaciously hopeful candidates.
The network commentaters will remind us that the voters are more concerned with issues such as Bush’ creation of hurricanes and global warming. They will tell us how silly it is that people actually say Obama’s middle name (the “H” word).
They will tell us how uplifting, hopeful, audacious and courageous the speech was.
Long after tomorrow, historians will point to March 18, 2008 as a turning point. This will be known as the day that Obama confronted the forces of racism that have ruled the U.S. since the time of Christ.
And we will be there to witness history – but only if we are audaciousness enough to hope.
————————————
http://cassandra2004.blogspot.com/2008/03/b-hussein-obama-faith-experience-and.html
I’m a white male “Irish-American” if we must use these terms, and I have health insurance and still have to wait in line in hospital ERs. Means they are crowded, often by illegals who because of liberals like Obama past laws that make me pay for their indiscretions of invading our imperfect union.
Why didn’t he say God Bless America this time–too many folks listening in? It’s not what he said that scares me, it what he hasn’t said in this speech and there is plenty of that. I’m not sure I got his point about Ashley.
You are right BrianNY. It’s all about the ‘village’ now. No more entrepreneurship, just jump on the bandwagon and we will take care of you all…..that is until the Muslims takeover then you can throw both parties out for good forever.
Don’t underestimate the power of this speach. Let’s all come together and free ourselves from the oppresser is a message that will garner a great deal of appeal. It is suductive and dangerous.
If we do not unite against this, this country will never be the same.
Oh, and one more thing, Obummer:
You understand jack about most Americans, and about this country. You are another professional, pandering politician. You did say one thing that was honest- your candidacy is:
You make excuses for an obvious race pimp and your association with him. Doesn’t your continued association with the likes of Wright condone the opposite of which you “profess?”
You can blame conservatives, corporations, racism, the whole enchilada except the one person who should be offering up apologies for what he said: Rev. Wright. You could admit you made a mistake but that would then make you less than “holy” and on the par with the likes of Pres. Bush (who’s blamed for an assortment of things under the sun).
No, you give yourself a free pass instead of making a full accounting for who and what the dear reverend actually is. The more you stick up for this abomination of a preacher, the more his ignorance and hate will stick to you. You’re the candidate for HOPE and CHANGE? Hardly.
Just prior to the speech CNN had their black news commentator who seemed orgasmic about this will allow Obama to carry on with his messianic campaign. He had a black professor & another black lady commentators who were very liberal. Unfair and unbalance=CNN all the way.
Of course Fox Moved On but the “others” are still droning on. Good thing Pat Buchanan on PMSNBC.
20 years of hate speech exposed = “caricature.” Got it.
Time for my Rush fix.
He failed to sell to me. The 9yr old Ashly story did him in, its TOO full of holes. For example: what about food stamps (too much money maybe?) and why did her parents not care about her nutrition and health? I do not believe it is truth, I need proof.
What a segragationist “white men flocking to McCain”?
Is he saying do not help people out of the welfare coral but put everyone in the corral?
I do not buy it. I guess that makes me a white man forced to vote McCain.
Did I do anything about it? No. Did I support his racist screed with huge donations? You bet I did.
Even Oprah got out of that racist rathole, apparently having more common sense than Lord Obama. She managed to do fine without the tutelage of the “reverend” Wright.
Sure, Wright grew up in the 50’s and has a different perspective on race, but why teach it to the children of today?
I don’t believe him. This is damage control. For Obama to expect that after his being a member of that hate filled congregation for over 20 years and not be aware of what has been festering there only shows total contempt for our intelligence.
If Obama didn’t believe in the hate rhetoric of his minister, he should have left the church. You don’t expose your children to what you yourself don’t endorse.
I left my church when our minister came out as a believer that the holocaust was a fraud. It’s as simple as that. You walk out the door and don’t look back.
All liberals live in the past Dimsdale. That’s why they are always miserable.
So his white Grandmother confesses, she sometimes fears passing black men in the street. The same thing can be said for many black Grandmothers. Just saying. I know, it’s totally un PC but that’s what you’re going to get.
“What a segragationist “white men flocking to McCain”?
I can’t believe he actually said that.
Where is O.J. when we need him? If he gets away with this speech another black got away with murder. Another thing, doesn’t this rant remind everyone that he is a socialist? Where does it leave the individual in his line of thinking?
When this whole thing started, I concluded that Obama is either (1) a liar for saying that he never heard those sound bites, or (2) incredibly stupid for not noticing his pastor is a racist. Well, Obama now acknowledges he did hear some of those sound bites, so I guess (1) applies.
Obama very deftly and cleverly skirted the issues of his judgment, character and credibility.
While we know that Obama is a gifted public speaker, we know nothing more about the man than we did over a year ago. He finally did acknowledge his white grandparents (the people whom he referred to as “nice white folk” in his book).
The following comment I posted on another thread yesterday is perhaps more relevant here. Obama’s approach to unification as spelled out today is to include other races among the great oppressed peoples; a decidely Marxist approach to politics:
Maybe Obama was trying to tell us that his Grandmother feared him everytime he walked by. He can blame his white grandmother for all his and all blacks ills.
Those 800 dogs on FOX are sure cute aren’t they?
Barack the Bargainer
So, how did Wright come to believe that we started the AIDS virus? It didn’t exist in the 50’s when he grew up. I guess we started the bird flu to destroy the Chinese.
B.O. loves to give speeches. Why? Because nobody can question you during a speech. You can read from your carefully worded script. You can play the race card and the blame card during a speech.
B.O. has no credibility.
B.O. has no record of political accomplishment
B.O. has no JUDGEMENT or he wouldn’t be a close friend to J. Wrigt or a member of his “church” of hate
WHERE IS J. WRIGHT AT? HIDDEN AWAY FROM THE WORLD BECAUSE THEY KNOW HE WOULD RUIN B.O. IF HE HASN’T ALREADY.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER. DON’T TELL ME J.W. AND B.O. AREN’T LIKE MINDED. ANTI-AMERICA. ANTI-WHITE.
My next book will be entitled ‘The Audacity of Socialst Democrats and Their Racist Friends’.
What a joke. First Obama tries to distance himself from the Hate Whitey, Hate America, etc. rhetoric but without really disavowing the demogogic preacher, since he needs blacks to remain in his corner. He brings up slavery and Jim Crow, etc. to further appease liberal black voters and to keep stroking White Liberal Guilt. Then he pours on the red meat for the typical Democratic voter who hates the rich and those who make more money than he does by bashing corporations. And he finishes it off by bashing the conservative new media that tore back the curtain on the Great Obama-Oz in the first place.
It’s something that would work on Obamazombies who will see only what they want to see and on the MSM, but I think he has blown it with independents, moderates, and many Southern whites. Obama used left-wing black nationalism to rise up through the political ranks in Chicago and he’s finding out now he cannot just shake it off. I hesitated saying this before, but now I’m convinced if this guy (God forbid) wins the WH, you can bet his old pals and the Mrs. will be pushing for “reparations.”
“Blacks are Angry”
Does history “change” because of your anger?
Will history “change” when you gripe about it…Or, does it make you EVEN MORE angry?
Are Blacks really angry?…Or, are they just wallowing in self-pity?
On March 18th, 2008 at 12:09 pm, Chard402003 said:
And he got away with it. In the Fox interview, he said he didn’t know what the good Reverend said and today he said he did. He just slid it by everyone. I guess lying about racism is included with lying about sex as acceptable in our society these days.
So, lemme get this straight:
- Flag lapel pins are “faux patriotism,” but when you’re in trouble because of your astonishingly bad judgement of other people’s character then it’s OK to bedeck the stage with more flags than you’d expect to see at a Fourth of July parade?
- You can accuse others of “cherry-picking” the despicable things that Wright has said, but defend him by reverse cherry-picking only the things you find admirable in him?
- You claim to want to move “beyond race,” but won’t repudiate an “advisor” of 20 years acquaintance who is nothing if not a flaming racist?
- You say you want to “unite America,” but are a product of the corrupt Chicago democrat machine, have a voting record in the Senate that nobody can get to the left of, and surround yourself with plain-spoken haters like Samantha Powers, Jeremiah Wright, Michelle Obama and Bill Ayers?
Whatever.
One thing I’ll say for him, Obama’s certainly got the “audacity” part down.
Otherwise, this speech is of a piece with his two-faced approach to just about everything. For example, about NAFTA he tells the “rubes” who believe in him that he’ll bail out of it unless it’s re-negotiated; then he turns around and has another “advisor” tell the Canadians that it’s all just campaign rhetoric.
Somebody – the Canadians, or the rubes – is being taken for a ride.
Likewise, by associating for 20 years with a repugnantly racist preacher in a repugnantly racist congregation, he’s telling such racists everywhere, “I’m with you.” Now, he’s trying to tell the rest of America, “No, I’m not with them.”
Again, somebody’s being taken for a ride. And I don’t think it’s the racists.
Bottom line, when I think of Obama, all his lofty words fall away and I hear only two expressions:
- You can judge a man by the company he keeps; and
- Actions speak louder than words.
I’d have given him the benefit of the doubt if, say, allegations surfaced that he *used to be* a member of a racist black pseudo-Christian “church,” but left it 20 years ago; or that he *once knew* an unrepetent member of the Weather Underground, but had long ago repudiated that association.
But neither of those two scenarios is the case; in fact just the opposite is true.
Even if he decided that the disgusting racist Wright didn’t need to change his ways, if what he heard was bothering him Obama could’ve found another black church with a less repulsive minister.
But he didn’t. He stayed put. And his act of staying put tells me more than any book he might write or speech he might give.
There’s an old southern saying about the need to be wary around flim-flam men: “Don’t listen to what he’s saying, watch his hands.” It’s a good rule of thumb to follow whenever any liberal politician or other proponent of identity politics opens his or her mouth – and far from being an exception to the rule, Obama is “Exhibit A” in evidence supporting it.
#170 – Yes.
Well said Jim M.
Wright said blacks should sing “God damn American” instead of “God bless America.” There is nothing of Christ in this man. He may call himself a pastor and his followers may play church, but there is nothing ‘christian” about the enterprise. Challenged with the most basic tenets of scripture and doctrine, I am quite sure he would be clueless. Bible “scholar” indeed. If Mr. Obama cannot repudiate this and declare his core beliefs, he should be dropped off at the nearest political dung hill. Mr. Obama appears to be a soulless wraith.
Obama was well-schooled in boiler plate by Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr:
From my studies of historical race-relations in America, that is straight of out the past, where in pre-Civil War southern culture, to stay off the bottom, poor whites were encouraged to stand on black. Obama’s rhetoric today infers that we are still that America, non-afluent white folks and minorities alike are being held down by the same oppressor: rich white folks. That is what Barack Obama, in his pew, learned from the Rev. Wright.
Ashely…another, perhaps made-up, story about how this country needs the government to control all aspects of our lives to protect us from anything negative in our lives. A nice story if you love socialism/communism. I’m already tired of money disappearing from my paycheck in order so someone else can use it. They don’t ask, they take. That’s pure socialism. That’s why so many people live off of us. Why try, when the people will pay you anyway and take care of you. Trouble is, these people want more and more of my hard-earned money and vote the people in who will “legally steal” it.
He could have cinched the nomination (and maybe the Presidency) if he had done anything remotely courageous in his speech.
Here’s an idea: denounce not only Wright but all the other race baiters and country haters like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan. Spell out how damaging 40 years of emphasizing victimization and hate and reverse racism has been for the black community. Take a page from the speeches of Bill Cosby – challenge the community to throw out the hucksters and embrace higher standards and expectations for themselves based on effort not affirmative action.
People seem to forget that the black community showed continual gains in educational achievement, income levels, home ownership, nuclear families, controlled birthrates, etc. through the 1950’s – but that all fell apart beginning in the 1960’s. The Great Society programs sowed the seeds of what we are reaping today. Having taken that path, the social infrastructure requiring one to take personal responsibility for their success or failure is gone. What is left are the likes of Wright, Sharpton, Jackson, et al.
I am not denying that there are still vestiges of racism left in this country, and that the life of a black is harder than that of a white. But how much of the latent racism is a result of 40 years of the taunts of the race-baiters like Jackson & Sharpton. I believe our society would much more healed if we had not walked done the destructive path of the Great Society and its spin-offs. As we have heard this week: those chickens are coming home to roost.
Obama’s Grandmother was not alone in the fears she expressed to her grandson:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/09/05/destruction_in_black_america_is_self_inflicted/
And the day the reparations come in the mail there will be a run on malt liquor throughout the country. Two days later all the reparations will be spent and the “blame whitey for still being poor” rants will continue.
Glad Obama cleared that up…It’s ALL MY fault.
( well , and white grandma’s.. a little)
.
When something is wrong with my life it is almost always of my doing.
Personal Responsibility.
It is my responsibility to be proactive to change my life, not waiting for someone to come in and ‘bail me out’.
What is so hard to understand about that simple concept.
I am so tired of the sunshine patriots who proudly wear their flag pins while taking money from lobbyists, selling our jobs overseas and taking away rights, like privacy or right to property. So spare me the lectures on whether Obama is a patriot or not because he wears or doesn’t wear a pin. I never wear a pin. I served 4 years in the U.S. Navy. Want to prove you are a patriot to me? Stop wearing a pin and enlist in the military (or better yet, your children) , help the poor rebuild their home after a disaster, be a cop, a fire fighter, something that helps people other than yourself and than you can call yourself a patriot. Otherwise, stick your pin up your ass, politicians!
I predict that BHO will get the nomination. White dems are coming out in support of him this is the dem party just read any of their websites if you can stomach it. Recruiting bombers, military haters, code pinkos, black separatists and now white white haters. Keep your children far from these monsters child endangerment is a serious crime you could be arrested.
It’s apparent to me that Obama has planted the seed of “whitie” bringing him down. Now, when he loses, the green light is on to blame racist whitie for his defeat. He obviously needs lots of whitie votes to win the nomination and even more to win the general election. I think that today he’s alienated much of the white support that he had.
He’s a race pimp in the mold of Sharpton and Jackson. If he really wanted to unite the country, he could have just avoided any race discussion and distanced himself from Wright. Notice that only blacks even talk about race. You don’t hear Hispanics and Asians whining about race. For the most part, they just work hard to achieve all that this country has to offer.
Race will cease to be a problem and discussion in this country when some blacks stop whining about it and pursue goals that all other races are. Many blacks are already there. Obama needs to catch up.
You can see exactly what I said earlier has already started. The Liberal mainstream, Obama-loving media is breathing a fake “sigh of relief” and is preparing to drop this issue like a hot potato.
Totally predictable.
The anger and griping comes from the anger profiteers such as al sharpton, jesse jackson and wright. they have to keep blacks in a corral and keep them adjatated to make a personal profit.
If anyone has noticed, this is not the way the speech is being portrayed on Fox. The opinions seen here are not appearing on Fox, even though that station is supposed to be the “conservative” news station.
Obama obvuscates the real point of his discusting pastor. Rev Wright’s message is division and hate–all the while Obama’s message is supposedly unity. His refusal to disassociate himself from this man means that he doesn’t care about unity.
This speech should make self-respecting blacks join the Republican Party in droves.
Permanent link to speech: http://www.pearlharbor.org/speeches/obama-more-perfect-union-2008-03-18/