Any link to the full transcript? This should be quite interesting.

Wasn't he just acknowledging the particular pressure Obama is under?

I don't think there is a bit of animosity there. Rev Wright has said often enough that he loves Barack Obama and believes in him.

And I believe that.

Erik, I mean - sorry.

I am protesting this one, Erik, not Greg.

Wright should do Barack a favor and be quiet.

Ruh Roh!

How did he get out of the broom closet with Sharpton and JJ Jr?

sorry bout the OT, but obama gets another super:

I actually think that, perhaps counterintuitively, the more Wright can be out talking to the press, the better. He was initially defined largely by forces with electoral and/or pecuniary interests in conjuring up a scary black enraged boogey man -- an ancient and powerful archetype in America -- with little pushback from an Obama campaign torn between correcting the record and not wanting to add oxygen to the story.

Wright isn't nearly as whacky as the caricature that has emerged when only a few soundbites were shown. His military service and the social services his church has provided are unquestionably impressive. And if he rags on Obama a bit, that too might actually be helpful to Obama.

The whole brouhaha was a stupid, unfair controversy that drew on awful racial stereotyping. Some more sunlight will make it less problematic -- and more boring.

It must be of no small concern to Obama that Wright is speaking out again. And his remarks that Obama was simply speaking as a politician don't help Obama's message.

Actually this is the second time that I'm aware of in which Wright has spoken to the press since being silenced by Obama's PR manager. And again on sees the resentful side of the good Reverend. It doesn't tend to refute what we saw in those angry sound bites he is trying to minimize.

I wonder when the Moyers interview is going to air.

If Erik can make judgments about what is meant there, I feel free to assume the exact opposite.

We should be talking about Sen. Barack Oilbama continued accepting donations from oil company executives and employees last month even as he aired ads in which he stated he took no oil company money, his campaign finance reports show.
Lie after Lie after Lie.

So, he admits Obama is just another lying politician.

Who da thunk it?

He does what politicians do. So that what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as a politician.

Priceless! Obama's own pastor and friend of 20 years calls him a liar!!!

This will be fantastic for soundbites and commercials!

Can anyone recall any other candidate facing such a charge from their own pastor?! I don't think so.

Matthew
http://www.TheProblemWithObama.com

Also priceless, The Obama Cult, nuancing the statement as not meaning what it clearly says. Back to the definition of "is". This is getting old, why don't you all admit that the Dear Leader has lied and is lying? Or, does misstate, omitted, badly worded, or poor choice of words make it easier to stomach?

Matthew
http://www.TheProblemWithObama.com

You know, this place is getting such a bad threadlice infestation that it is really getting irksome.

They are the trolls now.

Yeah...Maybe I can see how that comment can be considered a little 'backhanded'. But, maybe it's more of a commentary directed at politicians in general and the state of our political discourse than towards Obama himself.
Suppose the best thing is to watch the interview - ought to be rather interesting. Then kick back and watch the SPIN!

Obama should never have denounced Farrakhan in the Los Angeles debate. He should responded that he is not in the denunciation business. He's been paying for it ever since. Next it was Reverend Wright. Who's next, Jay-Z? Obama in some ways brought this on himself.

Lanny Davis, you sly devil, you have so many avatars!

Come on!

http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/2008/04/hill_on_brinks_radical_i_didnt.html

I will listen to criticism of Rev. Wright from those who have served their country as he has.

Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s challenge, Wright gave up his student deferment and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1963, after two years of service, he entered the Corpsman School and graduated valedictorian and was trained as a cardiopulmonary technician at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, where he graduated as salutatorian. He was selected to be part of the medical team caring for President Johnson following his surgery in 1966. Before leaving the position in 1967, the White House awarded Wright three letters of commendation. (summarized from Wikipedia)

What Obama Could Have Said About His Pastor
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a True Patriot
By LAWRENCE KORB and IAN MOSS
In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines. In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)
The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy's premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, as a member of the commander in chief's medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation. What is even more remarkable is that this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two branches began to become integrated.
While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections.
Who is the real patriot? The young man who interrupted his studies to serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?
After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America's biggest cities.__This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, who has been in the news for comments he made over the last three decades.
Since these comments became public we have heard criticisms, condemnations, denouncements and rejections of his comments and him. We've seen on television, in a seemingly endless loop, sound bites of a select few of Rev. Wright's many sermons. Some of the Wright's comments are inexcusable and inappropriate and should be condemned, but in calling This him "unpatriotic," let us not forget that this is a man who gave up six of the most productive years of his life to serve his country.
How many of Wright's detractors, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly to name but a few, volunteered for service, and did so under the often tumultuous circumstances of a newly integrated armed forces and a society in the midst of a civil rights struggle? Not many. While words do count, so do actions. Let us not forget that, for whatever Rev. Wright may have said over the last 30 years, he has demonstrated his patriotism.
Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss are, respectively, Navy and Marine Corps veterans. They work at The Center For American Progress. Korb served as assistant secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration.
This piece ran in the Chicago Tribune on April 3, 2008.

Um -- Clinton never apologized about the lie about Bosnia. She said, I was tired, I misspoke, I made a mistake. What a bunch of non-sense. It was not a matter of "I said "we were under sniper fire" when I mean to say "we wonder if there was a flat tire."

As to Wright, I can't blame him for being unhappy. First, the media takes a few statements he made, which on their face are offensive, and presents it as if it is the only thing he has ever said. Wright has said a lot of things, much of it very inspirational, and done lots of good works. Unlike most of the chicken hawk know it alls who talk about patriotism, he actually served his country in the military. He ain't perfect, but he's not a wackadoodle. He's a good man, a good pastor, who has run a good church that does lots for people in need and helps people make sense of their lives in a broken world.

Second, Wright said these things, not Obama. Now, Rendell can praise Farakahan, and nobody asks Clinton about it. Haggee can call the Catholic Church a whore, and nobdoy questions McCain about it. But a black politicans pastor says something off the wall, or Louis Farrakhan says something nice about a black politican, and the black politican is accountable for those words. Seems to me as if both Obama and Wright have been wronged here.

Well, the Clintons invited him back in the late 90s to sort out their marital differences. Now there's turnaround, I'd say.