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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Earlier on Michelle’s site I falsely connected Oprah to this racist.
I apologize to Oprah and salute her for leaving this church.
Oprah understands the opportunities America offers and heard the anti-American, racist views of J Wright and left.
There is a simple answer to the cherry picking allegation. Put the sermons back on YouTube. As many as you like. As was said by a panel on the news last night, the media has them. They bought them at the Trinty bookstore.
In apologizing to Oprah I would add; she knew BO to be a member of this church her old church….tsk, tsk, tsk.
Hasn’t Sharpton already been promising riots if Bambi doesn’t win the nomination?
If Obama doesn’t totally disassociate himself from the likes of Wright & Sharpton, then what whitey expect when he becomes Pres? Take it all from them & give it to the blacks? Pretty scary dontcha think? I for one, am terrified of this guy.
maytake said:
That won’t happen with blacks who have subjected themselves regularly to Rev Wright’s hate-filled “sermons.” There are so many blacks whose minds and souls are poisoned by the message of seperation due to the “institutionalized racism” in America, and that any personal failures a black person may face is due to this racism.
This speech went straight to the hearts of these people. It doesn’t matter that it is convoluted and that he still embraces this venom-spewing race-baiter. That he cannot disown him any more than he can disown the “Black community” or his white grandmother.
This speech is disgusting, but millions are ready to swollow it hook, line, and sinker.
So, Obamessiah had the guts to address his preachers comments while in Philly? That’s funny, at my end of the state, he, and I qoute, “sidestepped one controversial issue, refusing to answer questions about remarks made by his pastor,”
Other qoutes from spectators: “He seems to be an ethical person.”, “I just got mesmerized by him.” “He seemed like he was a very truthful person.” BLECH!
“When asked by a CCBC (community college) student about college funding, he worked his answer on that question around the war. He told the woman there’s not enough money to provide free college tuition, then quickly stopped himself. “If we weren’t spending close to $12 billion a month in Iraq, we could come pretty close.” Hmmmmm, wonder what he thinks about the DREAM Act for illegals????
I heard Hume interviewed early this morning on radio and it appeared to me that he was already embracing the Fox line we are seeing. I can only hope that guy doesn’t have any kids. He should be ashamed to call himself an American man. I saw through their bologna years ago and I have them blocked now, along with all the others. Its great, after a short while you forget the channel even exists. To tell you the truth I have almost a thousand channels to choose from yet I only watch a couple, TCM old movies that tell it like it is (actors acting is nice too) and occasionally the military channel even though I have detected the pcbs coming through on that one too. It is owned by discovery after all. Oh yeah, I used to watch the history channel until it became the mystery channel.
Perhaps it’s a coincidence that the Messiah Appeaser’s most important speech falls on Neville Chamberlain’s birthday.
Wait for the MSM (that includes Fox) to compare this speech to the greatest of all time in American history.
There’s a reason why “Big O” gave that speech in the middle of a work day. Just about nobody will watch it. Then the MSM can parse it, and play it up as nothing less than a “Sermon On The Mount” given by the new messiah…
It won’t help, in the end.
After Obama finished his speech, he said he had felt the hand of God entrancing world leaders as he delivered the speech.
Today, Glowbama said he WAS present in church when Wright made incendiary remarks.
What about 3 days ago when he did his damage control tour and said he WAS NOT present in church for any hateful remarks?
radiorelay, MSNBC is way ahead of you. They were saying it may be the greatest speech since MLK’s I have a Dream speech.
Exactly. Where is Christ in Wright’s sermons? Where is Christ in the congregation’s reactions to these hate sermons?
In the end, it all comes down to Obama, his hate filled wife and their children, continued to go to a church where hate and anger are more important than forgiveness and the Word of Christ.
In the primary in Virginia I almost voted for Obama to keep Hillary off the ballot, until I realized that Romney was still on the ballot. I voted for Romney to help move McCain to the right. Now it is a toss-up in my mind as to what I fear most. …. Bill wandering the halls of the White House while Hillary officiates over national health care or the two Obamas giving out reparations.
Where is Christ in Wright’s sermons? Where is Christ in the congregation’s reactions to these hate sermons?
———————————–
Well, Christ was being black and was abused by whites. That’s where.
BTW, for people looking to see if Obama was in the audience, don’t forget to look for Michelle (Obama that is).
BTW, for people looking to see if Obama was in the audience, don’t forget to look for Michelle (Obama that is).
—————————————-
He admitted in today’s speech that he lied about being in the audience. He was there.
But no media will even DARE to call him on his lies.
EXACTLY.
No way I would stay especially if I STRONGLY disagreed.
This guy nor his pastor ever bring up the New Testament and what JESUS CHRIST really IS, what the Christian message IS.
I wonder if they get out of the Old Testament? You can’t fully understand one without the other, you can’t know Christ by hating and never forgiving.
The fact that Obama would throw his own grandmother ( the white one) under the bus for personal gain is reprehensible as well.
There are so many things wrong with what B. Hussein just said I just want to scream it makes me so ill inside.
No they are not supposed to be conserative. They and all selfclaimed news stations are supposed to give us accurate facts first and then their opinions second.
Obama Lied, People Cried
From the ABC link posted by Michelle:
That contradicts the statements Obama made over the last few days claiming he was never present when such remarks were made by Wright.
In other words, Obama was lying about not being present when Wright launched into his tirades against the US of “KKKA”. That admission was carefully buried in the 9 page speech.
Obama failed to explain why he lied to the American people. Instead, he attempted to excuse the rhetoric, which excuse presumably also explains his lie.
That little bit of buried text is a startling revelation into the character of the man. He knew it was only a matter of time before someone matched up his attendance with one of Wright’s incendiary sermons, so he had to get ahead of the curve and admit he indeed was present. In other words, he only admitted the lie when it became clear that he would be proven to be a liar. Incredible.
Doesn’t Rupert Murdoch’s moonbat son control Fox now?
Heh, smelly fishy, as in a flop from his consistent anti Patriot meme.
There are, some parts of Rev. Wright and apparently “these people” (that church community)that are indeed rightly disturbing and that seething hate is hard to separate from Obama the candidate.
Pity party.
Lets us have some whine with the cheese.
My racism is legitimate, yours, not so much.
How dare you expose my righteous ascension to the light of day.
You’re racist and Rev. Wright is just reacting to your hate and besides you shouldn’t blame me for listening to this guy for twenty years, I didn’t hear it anyway.
Can’t we just all get along, so I can get elected, because you owe it to me.
The profound mistake Rev. Wright made was racism, the mistake Candidate Obama made was the lack of moral resolve it takes to stand up to what amounts to tyranny.
America has stood up to tyranny for a long time now, a lack of moral resolve is a deal breaker for a President.
I have a dream too…..levelheaded blacks and whites step forward together to denounce hate speech on both sides, Mexico asks its wayward citizens to return to help build a great nation, great American universities return to teaching and lay off the left wind indoctrination, and the people of Iraq realize the sacrifice made by our young American heroes and move forward to form a free society. That’s just for starts!
Well, Republicans need something to get McCain elected (since he still can’t rally the base)…
may as well keep leeching the race card like everyone else…
Oh yeah… God (not sure which one since Bush says we all worship the same gOD) Bless the “Divided” States of America
GD America
GD Stained Declaration of Independence
Jim M. #163:
Thank you. You give a great summation of what is at issue with Obummer and Wright. I would like to add one more thing: do some black people want help? If they’ve bought into this liberation theology then they must be truly on their own. Gasp! I guess this means that they’ll give back those food stamps, welfare, WIC, and all those other “special entitlements.” If blacks truly are “free” and “liberated” then why ask for handouts from the guvment? Oh, I forgot, it’s a racism thingy. This is payback for the time they were slaves (generations and generations and generations ago).
Blacks are “oppressed”= whites/society at large must pay for their “therapy”
All these flags reminds me of Dukakis in a tank and John Kerry’s hunting trip.
He needs a big nose and ears, like Bozo the Clown.
Why is this called a “major speech”? Just seems like political double-speak and an attempt to change the subject.
Obama, March 14, 2008:
Obama, March 18, 2008:
That is called getting caught in a lie.
Amazing to here liberals try to condemn liberalism and racism and remain liberal and racist.
He addressed the Wright issue in the first two minutes of his speech and then spendt the next half hour droning on, trying to hypnotize us into forgetting about his racist friend who he never truly distanced himself from in the first place.
Speech Title: The Big Lie
See if you can pick out Jeremiah talking points in here under “Crime”
http://www.ontheissues.org/Barack_Obama.htm
And one other thing. If Obama is such a great leader and wants the most powerfull position in the world, why wasn’t he able to lead his church to a better understanding of Christianity… which certainly doesn’t preach hate and racism.
Michelle, thanks for this opportunity to vent. I’m off to work.
doncha just luvvit!!
We’re taking Wright “out of context”, his supporters say.
So I suppose the DVDs they sell in his church are part of a “Rev. Wright Taken Out of Context Series”, eh?
faraway, it’s called a major speech because the media deemed it so. You are absolutely correct in characterizing the speech as “double-speak”. It does not answer the question of how a congregation would retain a minister with such vile views and whose hateful tirades are evidence of a deep and pervasive hatred of non-blacks, and of our country as a whole. Nor does it explain why that church seems to be nothing more than a front for political indoctrination, promoting a view of society that includes the elevation of Louis Farrakhan to idol status. Nor does it explain how he can call someone his mentor and advisor when his views are so clearly different from what Obama would like us to think of his own. But as usual, pretty speeches are all some people need. Don’t bother them with details.
The first time he mentions his white family, at least the first time I have heard, he talks about his grandmother’s racical comments about being afraid of black men. Geeeze!!! I said to my friends months ago…take a look at his church and there you will see where Obama comes from!!!
If I went by the comments posted at U Tube site, this was the greatest speech on race ever. “Our next President!”
Forget Wright and Michelle Obama. This demogogue in the WH with a liberal Congress will surely bring on a Great Depression with high tax and protectionist policies. Not to mention a pC environment that is incrementally sharia-encouraging. Or a huge terrorist outrage in a major US city.
I think we are in deep doo doo come ‘09.
Far worse than what would have prevailed under the Goracle or Lurch even.
…..I didn’t think I would see anyone in my lifetime who would or could “outclinton” Bill Clinton. But I think we have one in Barry H.
To me, Barry comes across as such a; con-man, liar, used car salesman, Kirby Vaccuum Cleaner salesman, QVC pitchman…. Just an actor, so disingenuous, so “slick”, so scripted, so “polititian”…. Give him a straw hat, a cane and big dark glasses and send him to the nearest carnival.
Uh oh, but don’t look now but I think that the Troll Liberation Front demographic (including lgm) has come to lecture us on how “wrong” we all are. How we’ve just misjudged Obama and his dear pastor friend. Uh okay.
Now, Chaps, are you hear to comment on Obummer’s speech or to make a comment on somebody else’s comment? Perhaps, let us know one more time (ala Rusty) how poverty is unavoidable in the black community.
I didn’t know you’d joined the Obummer appology bandwagon. I guess trolls need heroes too, huh?
Good thing for B.O. that his racist grandmother doesn’t own a company or work in the media or politics. The “reverends” Wright, Sharpton and Jackson would have her ass railroaded out of business.
Yes, let’s continue to feel blacks’ victimhood, eh, lgm? When and where does it end? To compare this preacher’s sermons to one’s anger with a relative is a foolish assertion on your part. If that were the case, then many Americans would continue to be mad at those they’re estranged from instead of moving on which is healthy. Too bad the black community can’t get on with it.
Get over your white guilt, lgm… we get out of life what we make for ourselves and our family. If blacks want to continue to feel like victims… they will continue to feel at the mercy of others and powerless.
I guess you haven’t renounced your Troll Liberation Front membership, yet, huh?
audacity: the bold or arrogant disregard of normal restraints
I gotta give both Barack and Jeremiah credit when due…they sure know how to pick words.
Wow, Michelle–
I was wondering if you’d comment on the speech as opposed to posting excerpts from it. You finally responded, and I have to say I’m disappointed (but not surprised) at your response’s shallowness, truculence, and intellectual dishonesty. Obama criticized race hustlers along with demagogues on race issues. He encouraged people to try to understand each other so we can move past racial divisiveness. You should acknowledge–all of your commenters should, too–that there was no way you were going to listen to what he had to say. You were only concerned with crafting a superficial “takedown.” Enjoy your well-deserved spot in the dustbin of history with all the other haters.
DON’T FEED THE OPRESSED TROLLS
Kovacs:
Obummer never really explained anything in regards to Wright. He made excuses. Then he used “justified” indignance in both white and black communities as a deceptive way to bring us all back into the fold. Well, I’m not that biddable!
I read the speech… word for word. Stop being his apologist and get with the program. We’re all responding to the simple matter of Obama speaking the same jive he’s always done. You want to wallow in your “white guilt” that’s fine.
The weak-minded will always accept hook, line, and sinker what any fence straddler (Obama) wants you think. He’s not criticizing he’s justifying… he won’t break with the past because if he did Wright would be yesterday’s news, now wouldn’t he?
“I don’t want to wake up four years from now and discover that we still have more young black men in prison than in college.”
–Barack Obama, fund-raiser in Harlem, NY, Nov. 29, 2007.
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Mr. Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school’s Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006.
“We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college,” he began.
To paraphrase Edmund Burke, evil prevalis when good men do nothing.
Now is the time to keep digging into this guy’s (BO’s) words and his church’s words and the founder of the liberation theology’s words). Look into BO’s first and second book; and every single sermon of Wright while BO was a member needs to be examined. I always thought that BO was a total racist fraud and he has proven himself that. Also, let’s not forget to play back his wife’s angry, racist, anti-American rants and read her racist college thesis. Anyone who belongs to a church that focuses on a race and on Africa, not the USA, should not even be allowed to run for President of the US. He would serve only one race and not even America, but Africa. No thanks, BO. I hope Hillary beats him big time in PA.
Did anyone comment on the delicious factoid that the man who won’t wear a flag lapel pin surrounded himself with 8 really BIG flags for his speech?
Personally, I’d really like to vote for Obama except that his views and are about 100% opposite to mine… Semper Fi and complete the mission in Iraq and other places.
I wish this much attention had been paid to the RAPE LITTLE BOYS pedofiles in the ROman Cathlic Church and John Kerry and Rudy Guiliani had been so “pressed” to denounce such behavior …
I guess opinions by a pastor (which may turn out to be true some day) are more dangerous that grown priest RAPING little boys…
oh well…
gOD bless America
Since the boycott over at Kos the Obamamaniacs don’t have anyone to argue with so their out trolling en masse.
So you think fulfilling your obsession with power, plus more money out of our paychecks will change anything? Why don’t you try to get to the root of the problem rather than the usual “throw more money” idea, and playing the race/victim game and the blame game. Let’s be honest, if you can. You aren’t interested in their problems; just your own: winning the WH. You say nothing in your speeches about them changing anything, just about hope and change. Face it, you have no new ideas.
Throwing his Grandmother under the bus tells us all we need to know about this man. His speech sounded like a pack of lies to these “untrained” ears.
Well, at least there aren’t a bunch of “Obama is toast” posts like at NRO.
However, all this talk is just that -
Obama is the person most likely to be the next President.
Instead of Glowbama, how about Lowbama?
He has reached an all-time low. Sorry, but making excuses for this so-called preacher doesn’t cut it.
“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.” Correct. This type hatred has been going on for decades now, paid for with taxpayer’s dollars and now we see that the real racists today are themselves.
You cannot be an agent of change and unity when your minister, a close friend and confidant, of 20 years is in your ear barking out racist anti-American rhetoric. You cannot be an agent of change and unity with J. Wright teaching your children hatred toward white people and our country. Let me put it this way. Nobody attends a church for 20 years if they do not agree with the teachings of their pastor. NOBODY!
I am in favor of Nobama.
I thought democrats were opposed to this. They are so married to the death tax and would really like the state to be able to take it all.
Just caught a small piece of Obama’s newest declarations regarding his current mess over Pastor Wright – and I must say I am totally flabberghasted.
WHO KNEW that anything political could shock ME!
GOOD GRIEF!!!
The man just had the UNMITIGATED GALL to tell AMERICA to move on and forget all this RACIST STUFF and MOVE PAST OUR racism, ~~~and don’t let OUR attitudes cloud all the other issues of this Presidential campaign.~~~
WHAT???
EXCUSE ME – when the ISSUE HERE is OBAMA’S racial trash, NOT OURS!
WE didn’t just attend 20 years of RACE-HATING DESTRUCTIVE ANTI-AMERICAN rantings and go on TV and BRAG about our pastors!
HE is in this situation because AMERICA DEMANDS A NON-RACIST CANDIDATE to stand for the contest of who shall be our President OF ALL the poeople.
For 40 years, our Presidents have had to PROVE THEY ARE NOT RACIST.
Obama proves HE IS VERY RACIST and has a powerful BLACK MUSLIM AGENDA – YES! – BLACK MUSLIM
AGENDA – sorry – I have seen MANY Black CHRISTIANS who didn’t idolize FARAKHAN AND WEATHERMEN and BLACK PANTHERS, etc unabashedly!
WHO DID PREACH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST WHOLEHEARTEDLY!
HE now demands WE SET ASIDE OUR attitudes regarding HIS trash off of which a nasty scab has been uncovered publicly – IGNORE ALL it says about HIM, and just proceed, BLINDLY, and anoint him the RACE “HEALING” PRESIDENT??????
KISS MY GRITS!!!!
DIM PARTY OF THE KKK – check your voting stats since 1850 – all the KKK stuff happened in DIM Southern STRONGHOLDS (I am from Texas – all the way back to the very beginning – 7-10 generations, I know whereof I speak!) – and this is NOT the same as saying “U.S. of KKKA” – the Dim Party was and remains the only home of the KKK –
DIM PARTY – HEAL THYSELF.
Or FOLD!
You have no RIGHT to slander America, which is still most largely NOT racist, by claiming that which YOU DIMS FOUGHT the CIVIL WAR FOR is OUR disease and not your own.
Yes, it AFFECTS us – but WE are NOT the INfected ones – yes, it is like a family with one member of it having a terrible disease – BUT WE CANNOT CLEAN UP YOUR MINDS AND HEARTS FOR YOU!
Neither can Muhammed or Ghandi.
How you can GET BITTER one hundred years after white people abolished slavery…
AFRICA and other Black people strongholds didn’t destroy slavery – Great Britain and American WHITE people did it.
WE DID NOT START IT! Neither Great Britain nor America, nor any of Great Britain’s Empire EVER WAS THE ONE WHO STARTED SLAVERY.
And Black people NEVER WERE, and ARE NOT NOW the sole targets of Slavery.
How does this kind of bitterness start out of JUSTICE finally being brought about?
Because they fall for SOCIALISTIC TEACHINGS of KARL MARX and Joseph Stalin through the DEMOCRAT Party, now strongly infecting the GOP as well.
There is no justice in Socialism, and THAT is why it birthed BITTERNESS to rip America to shreds.
The Democrat Party was birthed in a screed for oppression. And married a screed for oppression, Socialism.
Obama steeps himself for 20 PLUS years in the roiling boiling pot of bitterness and anti-Americanism and IT IS OUR FAULT that it adversely affects HIS campaign.
What would HE be saying if it had been a WHITE CANDIDATE caught in FACTUAL racism – yes I know they’ve all been accused of it if they are a GOP candidate, for the last 40 years – but I said FACTUAL racism.
What would he be saying.
Would Obama be DEMANDING that America MOVE PAST the evidence against a WHITE GOP CANDIDATE? And consider the other credentials the person has to qualify them for President of the USA???
I SHOULD SMILE!!!
The Jews killed Jesus 50 years ago?
You know, you are right. Let’s be like the Palestinians, who can’t forget an event that happened ages ago, can’t get past the past, and continue to live in squalor and teach their children hate and that everything that is wrong in their lives is not due to their “leaders,” but rather due to the Jews.
Yes. Let’s do that. Keep teaching tha past like it is the present and the future. Then we can all really move forward.
I give it a 85 nice beat, easy to dance to, oops had a 60’s flashback to American Bandstand.
Overall grade a B-, he points on the problems of race were very well made, he lost points in his defense of the Pastor & trying to pawn some of the blame to talk radio & conservatives.
As to the crazy uncle analogy that he used earlier. I have one of those, my wife is Hispanic, we were married in December 22 years ago in Dallas, most of my family lives in NC. In the spring we went to visit my family & they arranged a nice party. The crazy Uncle made a vile racist remark to my wife & upset her greatly. I called him out on it & gav ehim several options: apologize immediately, go outside with me & we will settle this between us, or get in his car & leave. He chose to leave, I have not spoken with him since & until he apologizes to my wife I have no intention to speak to him ever. A person of character has several options when dealing with racism: you can ignore it which is the same as condoning it in my book & doesn’t show much character or you can confront it.
Obama missed the point. The issue is not one of race but one of hatred for America.
Does he really think that blacks are the only ones every discriminated against? I have had racial, sexual, and age (both too young and too old) discrimination thrown my way and I am white. Smart people recognize that they simply have to adjust to circumstances and move forward in a positive fashion.
We now have institutionally incapable, self-victimized blacks because they are always allowed to be angry as an excuse for their own failures and troubles. (Maybe this excuse worked in the 1960s, but even then my first two bosses as a shipyard worker were black men— one of whom was a graduate engineer.
Obama’s racial crap no longer works with me as I have seen it over and over and recognize it as garbage and worse, destructive and smelly garbage.
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.
Just I little reminder to Mr. Obama, our great country is 232 years old from the signing of the Declartion of Independence in Philadelphia July 1776. Nice try though, your speech writers must have been tought very well by their Social Studies teachers.
What seminary did Rev. Wright attend and which ones has he delivered his hate speeches to? Inquiring minds want to know.
They COULD learn more about real oppression by watching “The Inn of the 6th Happiness” with Ingrid Burgman, the true story of a Gladys Aylward, a British upstairs maid who couldn’t get ANYONE to help her go to China as a Christian missionary, so she worked as an upstairs maid and paid a few pennies a week to the train ticketmaster for almost a year to pay her passage there herself, where she learned what true hardship really was, among the simple and very hard lives of Chinese people, in time to get “battle-hardened” enough to be ready to take ONE HUNDRED CHILDREN from their tiny village across mountains to safety from the invading WW2 Japanese army, who would have slaughtered these orphans on sight. She took them on foot, without enough food or clothing, or anything else.
The movie has been romanticized, but for most people, the visual facts of the struggles she faced are retained in the movie as well as screen can demonstrate in a couple of hours.
Children being raised today in a school she started for them and worked in most of her life, those children today pray so hard for the people of the world that the time they spend on their knees causes them to bleed, but they do not pay any attention to it and just keep right on.
I saw some of the missionaries who work with them a few years ago, thankfully, I had already seen the movie many many times and knew who they were talking about, instantly – telling about the lives of these amazing Chinese people who are still affected directly and personally by the life of this little British upstairs maid.
I think you better look to your own house: Obama has much more to be afraid of with Hillary and the Clinton machine than McCain.
I don’t recall McCain having anything whatsoever to say about this. Nor Bush. Is this a part of BDS, or just a generalized “it has to be Karl Rove’s fault somehow” mindset? You forgot Halliburton and Blackwater!
Isn’t it funny that the big fundamentalist, whack job religion problem is happening with the Democrats?
Aren’t the Dems always preaching (no pun intended) that the influence of radical religions and ideas like this are the Republican’s fault/problem?
Somewhere, Jerry Falwell is laughing his ass off…..
Not to defend his speech writers… I personally think this whole thing is one giant spin and am wondering when Sen. Clinton will pounce…
…but I believe the 221 years is referring to the signing of the Constitution in 1787 in Philadelphia.
Ummmm…during all of his speech he was talking about the Constitution, which was signed 221 years ago, not the Declaration of Independence. You must have been taught very well by your reading comprehension teachers.
This whole Ashley Baia thing sounds fishy and in true Democrat fashion is using overwrought emotion to try and shove more government programs down our throats. This same exact story was used in a speech in Atlanta last January. Exact as in word for word!
If this type of story is so common why is it necessary to use the same story twice? Why not a second melodramatic tale of woe, suffering and young bravery? After all, there “are millions of children who want to help their parents.” It sounds as if this sad story has been embellished by the highly active imagination of one of his young supporters.
#236 kovacs said:
Always trust, but verify my friend.
Twenty three years of stripes are hard to remove with one speech, especially after you’ve just been caught.
After reading The Speech, and numerous comments at several sites. The many references to Andrew Sullivan’s post got me curious to read his quick blurb. This guy is purported to be a conservative? Seldom have I felt such gut-wrenching revulsion for words of praise. Gahhh! Don’t think I can handle what the libs will write.
Wright has all but written a 60 second commerical that 527’s could have a field day with. I sugguest something along these lines:
Opening scene: Video footage of attacks of 9-11. Voiceover: “On September 11th, America was attacked by evil radical extremists, but Barrack Obama’s pastor and mentor sees it differently – he thinks America got what it deserved”
Video footage of Wright: “now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
Video footage of hospice care for seriously ill HIV patients. Voiceover: “America’s best and brightest have been battling the scourge of the HIV pandemic, but but Barrack Obama’s pastor and mentor sees it differently – he thinks America stated the HIV epidemic.”
Video footage of Wright: “The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.”
Video footage of soldiers assisting Iraqi civilian victims of Al Quaeda attack. Voiceover: “American soldeirs are bravely fighting terrorists while trying to bring peace and stability to a troubled part of the world, but Barrack Obama’s pastor and mentor sees it differently – he thinks America is the Number 1 killer in the world”
Video footage of Wright: “God damn America – that’s in the Bible – for killing innocent people.”
Photo of Wright and Obama smiling together. Voiceover: “And what does Barrack Obama think of his pastor and mentor?”
Video footage of Obama: “I don’t think my church is actually particularly controversial.”
Photo montage of patriotic Americans (e.g. flag being draped from roof of Pentagon after 9/11 attack; firefighters raising flag over rubble of twin towers; makeshift memorial at Shanksville, PA) Voiceover: “Is that the kind of judgment that voters should be looking for in their next President and Commander-in-Chief?”
No doubt. She must be absolutely giddy with this little show. Here she was, practically on the ropes, and this comes gift wrapped to her.
No, Republicans need not bother entering this fight.
McCain may not have been my first pick; but if I were advising him, I’d suggest staying out of the fray and wait for the Clinton offensive.
Obama didn’t forget to blame corporations.
I’m just surprised he didn’t find a way to jam that ‘ugly’ word “profit” in there.
Of course, considering the Obama effect, some might have mistaken the word for “prophet”.
j/k… sort of.
As far as I’m concerned Obama’s rewriting of the last 50 years of history is BS. As a boomer coming of age in the 60s I saw a tremendous amount of racism in the 60s including race riots in places that I worked in the summer of 1967. During the next 40 years I have worked with Blacks, worked for Blacks and have Blacks work for me which has been quite a change. The country also has changed considerably during that time. To bring up racism as if it was still the 60s is pure BS. Imagine today how many white people would walk out of their church in a heartbeat if their white minister made the kind of remarks that the Rev. Wright did. Imagine if you tried to apologize by saying that the remarks were false but the white anger was real.
Obama is toast. The MSM is starting to smell blood in the water. OB’s hall pass has been revoked. The Democrat convention will be entertaining. You have to hand it to the Democrats. Who else could screw up a primary so well. With the Repubs in the tank it was their year. Fortunately they have selected 2 unelectable candidates. Incompetence has its price.
#258 USMCgramma said:
Wikipedia states that he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in 1990, but from his videos, I could’ve sworn he got it off the same matchbook as Al Sharpton.
.
I stand corrected
I am praying that this will help to end the morons who suffer from white guilt.
Because I am a white male who became an adult in the 70’s, I have had the system play against me because I am not black. We should be judged on our merits, not skin color, or ethniticity.
We all could have equal opportunity if we were treated as AMERICANS first.
#268 salt said:
A very good example of why democrats don’t easily concede like republicans, even when it appears that they have zero statistical hope.
Speaking of which, if it was so easy and shameless for Team Clinton to talk up race in SC, float the photo of “Tribal Barack” to the media and send Geraldine out to slit her own throat in getting the “black candidate” message out there, has anyone explored whether they were also instrumental in getting Brian Ross and ABC News to drive over to Reverend Wright’s church to procure these devastating videos?
I mean, it’s not like the Clinton Campaign doesn’t have a capable advance team on the ground in Chicago, that doesn’t know that city like the “barack” of their hand!
Did anyone else notice that BHO tried to use the absolute moral authority card when referring to Wright? He said that Wright served his country as a Marine.
Well, I honor his service to his country. But, that doesn’t make what he said any less racist, or any less repugnant. Military service, or losing a child to military service doesn’t give you a free pass to spout racist, anti-American, or anti-semetic views.
Jim C
You nailin’ it good!
It sure isn’t Justice for Black criminals he is talking about – he was ranting about the Three Strikes Law.
Excuse me, but JESUS was never one to excuse CRIME, or sin!
He PAID THE PRICE for ALL of it, and has never in a single instance EXCUSED it – not for anyone – not for ANY excuse.
And the only time He COVERS it is with FULL REPENTANCE and BOWING THE KNEE to His Sovereignty.
There are no “THREE STRIKES” with Him.
I’ve never heard a preacher or a Biblical scholar teach against full accountability for oneself.
Adam and Eve, and Cain tried the Blame Game – it didn’t work for THEM.
Every preacher worth his salt would be preaching that we NOT try that.
Any one teaching contrary to THAT cannot be teaching JESUS.
You teach REPENTENCE and SURRENDER. You teach BOWING THE KNEE to One other than SELF – Jesus. Including repentance from REBELLION.
And Jesus is NEVER going to tell someone, HEY! Look! It’s your lucky day! You don’t have to pay for YOUR sins – we have a full quota of YOUR kind in Hell, today. Here is YOUR “Get out of Hell FREE” card. Thanks for playing the game! Come back soon!
Democrat convention… there will be blood. I’m still waiting for these rich black athletes to tell BHO how wrong he is but they are probably busy watching other younger blacks (oppressed) competing in the college hoops tournament. Ah what a country where someone can makes millions playing with balls. No I’m not talking about mcgreasy or the local English teacher you dirty minded so and so’s!
And just how AMERICAN are YOU!
Socialism didn’t build this nation!
And if you (generic general) are one of those who want to use it to take this nation DOWN, then you may not have what it takes to be a citizen in good standing, here.
None of the folks flocking here as a refuge came here because they were looking for USSR, Jr.
Not to be persnickety about it, but July 4 1776 is considered to be the nation’s birthday. I don’t recall having an annual barbeque on September 17.
They’re both sad anniversaries, according to “Rev” Wright.
This is an interesting read…..
Call to Renewal Keynote
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Senator Obama spoke at the Call to Renewal Conference sponsored by Sojourners earlier to day. He spoke of the role of religion in politics.
“This is why, if we truly hope to speak to people where they’re at – to communicate our hopes and values in a way that’s relevant to their own – we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse.
Because when we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations towards one another; when we shy away from religious venues and religious broadcasts because we assume that we will be unwelcome – others will fill the vacuum, those with the most insular views of faith, or those who cynically use religion to justify partisan ends.
In other words, if we don’t reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, Jerry Falwell’s and Pat Robertson’s will continue to hold sway.”
…”So we all have some work to do here. But I am hopeful that we can bridge the gaps that exist and overcome the prejudices each of us bring to this debate. And I have faith that millions of believing Americans want that to happen. No matter how religious they may or may not be, people are tired of seeing faith used as a tool of attack. They don’t want faith used to belittle or to divide. They’re tired of hearing folks deliver more screed than sermon. Because in the end, that’s not how they think about faith in their own lives.”
http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060628-call_to_renewal_1/index.php
Eatra credit question of the day: Who was the first Presidential candidate to call for the firing of Don Imus?
Hint: The audacity of hypocrisy.