Obama clearly believes Americans reason and think before they vote. I hope he is right.

As Jon Stewart said, Obama:

Spoke To Americans As Though They Were Adults

Of course Obama is going to defend his friend and mentor Rev Wright. Obama has been very close friends with the man for 20 years. He believes evrything Wright says but knows he cannot say so
publically for political reasons. Heck he let the Slumlord Rezco fund his early political career even though he provided no heat for the tenants in his buildings in Obama's district. Obama will say anything and hang out with anyone no matter how scummy to get to the top. Obama is all talk no substance, his supporters are absolutely clueless as to what he stands for besides a couple of buzzwords. He voted for the Cheney Oil bill, the worst bill in history. He has no military background unless you consider his Rev Wright's hate speech as a weapon. He throws people under the bus in a moments notice. Comparing his grandmother to the Rev Wright in order to spin his relationship with him was the single lowest point in campaign history. I guess we will have to take Obama's word for it that she was racist, she cannot defend herself.

I didn't know Oprah was a member of his church as well. She should dedicate a whole show to it's history. Some people actually think that the church doesn't accept white members.

You know what would be funny? What if that really was Bill C blabbering off like an ignorant fool...devoid of facts.

Given the propensity of the MSM and, yes, even many pundits of the blogosphere, to label Pastor Wright and his church as crackpot and worse, I think it's time to acknowledge an ugly fact:

Pretty much every one of these media spokespersons - Tim Russert, Wolf Blitzer, Cokie Roberts, Lou Dobbs, Chris Matthews, Nora O'Donnell, George Stephanopolis, Sam Donaldson, etc. - are racist.

Not overtly racist. I'm sure they all have black friends and associates. But like almost every white person in this country, they are tainted with an unconscious racism and class perspective that limits their experience and perspective to an alarming degree.

They may praise Obama's thoughtfulness. They may even privately support his candidacy. But the reality of street opinion of African Americans as reflected by Jerimiah Wright and many others is far harsher, more bitter, angrier and, frankly, more poisoned by white racism - than these so-called journalists can possibly comprehend.

The black people the MSM talking heads speak and associate with are folks with whom they are comfortable sharing cocktails and dinner. But they are isolated and class bound elitists who wouldn't know "street" if it came up and bit them in the ass.

Which Pastor Wright pretty much did. What seems to them as a glaring contradiction between Wright's scholarship and erudition and his roiling anger is, to most African Americans an utterly invisible line. There's simply a face one shows to culturally ignorant white people, and a face you show to your own. There is no contradiction. But there is a chasm between the experience of elitist MSM personalities, and ordinary black Americans.

The tragedy is that it is the MSM's skewed perspective that is presented as reality to most Americans. That fact may be as much a barrier to Senator Obama's chances as racism itself.

Eric's in charge today!

Time to make your move
Time for you-know-who to go

While there's a legit point to discussing the candidate's churches, I would make a couple points:

1) disproportionate attention on Obama's church, presumably because it's a black church. McCain's preachers were literally an afterthought.

2)the video spliced hitjob against Wright seems to be an excuse for bigots of all stripes to come out of the woodwork with indignation. The twist is these folks are certain, based on flimsy evidence, that Wright is a "racist". The meme is that Wright, by association Obama, and probably all black people, "hate whites". Anyone else see this as what psychologists call "projection"?

3) The truth about Wright seems to be coming out, but the MSM will resist it, because they have the narrative they want. The photo with Clinton has been dismissed out of hand, as has McCain's own preacher problems. What gets me is how much the MSM games our electoral system and how the decisions they make are not transparent and they are not accountable. ABC News for instance has not corrected the record about Wright:
http://truthabouttrinity.blogspot.com/

I went to the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue this afternoon.

There was a guy carrying a big sign:

OBAMA FOR CHIEF BUNNY.

Somehow I don't imagine anybody doing that for Hillary or McCain.

What we've missed so far is a thoughtful analysis of Wright's problematic statements: in particular of each of the Wright clips which the Right is distributing.What percentage of Wright's sermons do they comprise? A least in the case of the most egregious appearing ones what is the context.
And how representative are they of the overall message ?

I see that the revered Professor Marty from the University of Chicago says he often attended Trinity and didn't hear any of these problem sermons. Which is an implicit refutation of the argument that Obama should have left Trinity Church many years ago.

Astra did a useful explanation here a couple of days ago of "The chickens coming home to roost" sermon (an ill chosen phrase a week after 9/11)pointing out that Wright was repeating the gist of the comments from an former ambassador. Altho almost certainly not the offending phrase itself.

And "god damn america" was understandable as the
conclusion of end of summary of ways in which the US has mistreated blacks : could we expext God to bless America for ,e.g. for murdering Goodman , Schwerner and Cheney.

So there's room for a thorough treatment of the issues Wright raises.As far as we , and our sort are concerned.

But , sadly , I expect the horse has left the barn
with respect to the chance of Obama's getting votes from low income whites. Patriotism may or may not be the last refuge of scoundrels but it surely is some sort of necessity for the middle aged Joe Lunchpail . Altho he won't admit it to others and maybe not to himself ,he's failed to achieve the gilded life style of which he dreamed in high school. He's not satisfied with his status in the family. He's putting on weight. But at least he's a citizen of America the Beautiful, the Greatest Country on Earth.

With apologies to Cole Porter( I think)
"Oh no you can't take that away from ".. him.

I voted for Obama, was moved by "Memories from My Father" and would prefer a President O to a President HRC. But I now hope she get's the nomination .Because I think Obama has already been swift-boated. And if she's nominated the chance remains of Obama's saving the country from a President McClain by accepting the VP nomination.

Here are a couple tinyurl links to the CNN Roland Martin blogs -- extended excerpts, summaries and audio of Wright's 9/11 sermon and "God Damn America" sermon.

At least there are a couple journalists trying to report accurately.

http://tinyurl.com/2xyjh8
http://tinyurl.com/2xyjh8

This is for everyone, but especially the Obama critics who are willing to think and make judgments for themselves -- in other words, those with enough courage and confidence to open their minds to a more complete picture.

"At least there are a couple journalists trying to report accurately."

Yeah, a few. But these are buried in blogs. just like how the run up to Iraq, the lies were on A1, and then the corrections and questions were A19.

I swear, the media is destroying the country with it's lies and idiocy.

Thanks Joe, you said what a lot of us wish we had said.Tension is running rampant, hope this is over soon.

i bet IMUS wished he had you WRIGHT apologists when he made the racist comment about the womens basketball team. heck so does geraldine farroro. it is amazing to me i don't care how long i had gone to wrights church i would have left upon him voicing this in the pew. i can also bet the farm that wright shared with OBAMA his feelings and opinions as well regardless if OBAMA was there or not. say what you will but folks all over chicago and this country know wright is very controversial. please stop trying to mainstream him. he has had calm sermons as well but this does not excuse the things he has said and his anti american beliefs. EOS

i bet IMUS wished he had you WRIGHT apologists when he made the racist comment about the womens basketball team. heck so does geraldine farroro. it is amazing to me i don't care how long i had gone to wrights church i would have left upon him voicing this in the pew. i can also bet the farm that wright shared with OBAMA his feelings and opinions as well regardless if OBAMA was there or not. say what you will but folks all over chicago and this country know wright is very controversial. please stop trying to mainstream him. he has had calm sermons as well but this does not excuse the things he has said and his anti american beliefs. EOS

So many churches aren't.
What has kept Obama from following Siddha Yoga or Adidam?

God bless America and God damn w.

Although I support Sen. Clinton, I think it would be a tragedy for Sen. Obama's campaign to founder on this particular reef (his allegiance to Rev. Wright). The basic problem his speech last week did not address directly enough is the PERCEPTION however misguided that Rev. Wright is unpatriotic, and because Sen. Obama listened to his sermons for 20 years, ergo he is also unpatriotic. I had an idea about how to counter this and actually wrote to the Obama campaign to suggest it. They probably thought it was a Trojan horse, or more likely, filed it under "delete." Anyway, here's my idea: what if Sen. Obama opens a discourse not about the nature of racism in our nation but about the nature of PATRIOTISM. Some have criticized Sen. Obama for not publically proclaiming his allegiance to the nation in the form of symbolic acts of patriotism, such as placing his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance/singing of the national anthem, or not wearing a flag pin. Rev. Wright's intentionally passionate rhetoric seems more nakedly "unpatriotic." But if we understand patriotism as an attitude of "my country, right or wrong," an argument could be made that Rev. Wright is deeply patriotic in the sense that despite his profound ambivalence about aspects of our history, actions in the world, and leaders, he has chosen to remain and work from within the system to change things for the better. Sen. Obama could make a similar argument that despite his own profound ambivalence about some of the things Rev. Wright has said, or the words he used to inspire his congregation, he chose to remain loyal and work from within to change things for the better.

Excellent post. It is delightful to get a rational point of view from the other side instead of hateful trollery. (there are many Obama trolls out there too so not throwing stones at HRC supporters)

I agree with you for the most part - but I think the speech was more to stop the hemmoraging than to correct the situation. However, I don't think he could have gone too much further on his patriotism etc. at that particular moment.

One thing that I have noticed about Obama over the course of the campaign is that he tends to take a long-view approach to things. So I think he did what he needed to do-let it sink in, let the furor start to die down rather than feeding it then start to add pieces of information in defense. Unfortunately he isn't always on top of these things enough (Michelle's proud comments) but in this case he appears to be.

I haven't seen as much on the patriotism vs. the Wright flap yet, but it is out there so I hope he takes the same approach.

Obama's speech showed statesmanship vs. political calculation.

The kind of politics that everyone seems sick of is all about deciphering the meaning of what's NOT said, Obama didn't leave anything unsaid, that makes the masters of the political game nervous.

What's truly sad in my opinion is that Hillary will bring down her husband's legacy (albeit imperfect) in her personal pursuit of the expanded power Bush accumulated for the executive branch.

Ask yourself... will Hillary actually pull back the reins on this power or will she wallow in it to prove to the world (i.e. her critics) that SHE was the "it" factor for the Clintons all along?

If you don't believe she will pull back on the executive power reins... do you think the republican who takes the presidency back after her... will?

Don't forget the pendulum swings both ways.

oh, Obama's speech was a combination of rhetorical dodges and half-truths. He belongs to a group of fruitcake fools who believe a lot of crazy shit, some of it quite poisonous and most of it deeply misinformed. (actually, as Christianity itself is essentially a zombie cult, all churches are groups of fruitcakes, but Wright's church is really over the edge of reason). The CIA invented AIDS to kill black people? The US is "one big concentration camp"? Genocide? This is really fucking pathetic and disgraceful, and insulting to peoples who have endured oppression, much less concentration camps and genocide. And Obama and Michelle? Ivy league educations, and thanks to AmeriKKKa and affirmative action, and it is quite likely neither would have gotten into HLS, Princeton or Columbia solely on academic merit. I'd like to see them disclose their SAT and LSAT scores, and then let's have that discussion about race.

oh, and to edify you fools. I find it supremely amusing that Christians never catch the meaning of my reference to their beliefs as zombie worship. Let me spell it out: a dead guy wakes up and walks around for three days = the walking dead = zombie. Get it? Jeepers Americans are horrifically stupid. You richly deserve the government you have, and the next one you will soon get : )

"The CIA invented AIDS to kill black people? The US is "one big concentration camp"? Genocide? This is really fucking pathetic and disgraceful, and insulting to peoples who have endured oppression, much less concentration camps and genocide. And Obama and Michelle? Ivy league educations, and thanks to AmeriKKKa and affirmative action, and it is quite likely neither would have gotten into HLS, Princeton or Columbia solely on academic merit. I'd like to see them disclose their SAT and LSAT scores, and then let's have that discussion about race."

FYI milorad,

1. You might want to look up the death toll estimates for African slaves brought to the Americas during the Middle Passage. Let's just say the number greatly surpasses six million.

2. The modern concentration camps developed by the British during the Boer War and by the Nazis were based on US military "pogroms" against Native Americans. Apartheid was based on the American eugenics movement and Jim Crow laws.

3. As far as AIDS transmission is concerned, obviously you've never heard of Project Coast. Project Coast was developed with resources provided by the US intelligence community to the South African de Klerk regime. The US government condoned Project Coast to the extent that the infamous Dr. Stephen Hatfield repeatedly boasted of being a Selous Scout the entire time he worked at USAMRIID.

Long before Hatfield had his security clearance revoked, military research programs existed here in the US that emphasized the use of select agents against targeted ethnic groups(Coccidioidomycosis, anyone?) Back in the '80s, anyone who suspected governmental complicity in HIV transmission in sub-Saharan African counties was denounced as paranoid. Unfortunately, these allegations are now largely confirmed. Whether Project Coast tactics were utilized here is unknown. However, several high-ranking individuals affiliated with the program contacted the CIA to emigrate to the the US when Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa.

4. If weren't for the Civil Rights movement and affirmative action, quite a few selective law schools would still have their long-standing "Jewish quota" restrictions. Being black and having Sephardi ancestors, I would have been doubly barred from attending any of the top Tier I law schools that accepted me. By the way, I was accepted based on my qualifications and outstanding achievements. Are you bitter because you were turned down?

5. By calling the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton "monkeys", you illustrate the virilent racism endemic in many communities populated by Eastern European immigrants to this country. Thank you for confirming my stance on the need for massive immigration reform.

oh brother, what non-sense. first of all, in my law skool, Russian LLM students who took a year of securities law and the like passed the NYS bar at about a 100% pass rate. African-american students passed at about a 70% rate, dragging my schools average down to to 90%. And not of my black classmates impressed me intellectually, and definitely none of the black faculty. Law firms and law schools have an obligation to provide the best possible quality legal services to the public, not to ensure that the adcademy and the the profession are 50% women, 18 black people, etc. And affirmative action is not the same as merely removing a prohibition to you attending law school, it is a decision to award you a serious admissions preference because of race. And yes, I do resent it. Coming from a poor family in Appalachia, I was appalled at how many dumb, upper middle class black classmates I had, who got immensely better aid packages to boot. And the results of AA? Hacks like Condi and Clarence Thomas. And I think Obama's not much better.

as for the rest of your non-sensical blather, I don't even have time to reply.