Obama: Wright "a legitimate political issue"

A legitimate political issue is different from "the only issue the conservative elite can talk about." It's all about emphasis. 72 people died in Iraq yesterday, U.S. food banks can't keep with demand given economic problems in the U.S., we are on the verge of an international food crisis, the U.S. is in recession, and all the conservative elite media can talk about is a candidate's minister and his relationship with ex-radicals who are now university professors.

Imagine if the conservative elite paid this much attention to the candidate's position on the economy, on war, on torture, on gas prices. Instead, it's utter boredom. Who can worry about Iraq and torture when we can handwring about Obama's preacher?

A shameful spectacle.

Americans are hungery,homless,and jobless. so why are Rev Wright so important? it causes fear? or do we take American voters for being all racist? I think Americans are smarter than given credit for.

"none whatsoever of the fact that nearly all black voters are voting for him."

Are there voters saying they won't vote for a white candidate? There are white voters--Reagan Democrat types--who say they won't vote for a Black candidate. Not just Obama, but any black candidate. Black voters are saying they support Obama, but they aren't saying "I can't vote for a white candidate . . . any white candidate."

Rod-

I think you criticism of Wright doesn't exactly jibe with your own professed beliefs.

You attack him for saying "goddamn America," even though you are quite open to the idea that god does in fact judge this country. You found understanding in two white preachers who pushed this line--Falwell and Robertson's comment that god allowed 9/11 because of gays and the ACLU--but a black preacher gives a sermon on the historical wickedness of government...well, that's another story.

You say that he is "full of himself" for calling his media treatment a public crucifixtion. Though you claim "outrage" over the sermon snippets, you weren't outraged enough, I guess, to actually seek out the entire sermon and give it a fair hearing. In fact, other than Bill Moyers, I have heard and read precious little regarding Wright's influence on his community or the meaning behind his sermons.

You seems to agree with the notion that he compated Marines to Romans. Yet, no one these days denies that this country acts, talks and walks like an empire. Wright, in his sermon, pointed out that governments lie and that empires never last. He's right on that point.

Wright has a PhD, he is talking about and saving the Katrina victims by expousing the rightful indigination of the state of the other USA. The USA we all saw in the Katrina debacle. He is the champion of that segement of the population.They are also USA citizens.Obama sticking it for 20 years aligned himself to the cause. That is why Black Americans are en masse voting for him. He has seen their pain something the other USA thinks it their own making. Rev Hagee McCain minister said ther blacks brought the curse of Katrina on them 'doing all that homo stuff'What this Obama debacle shows is that the very christians who should love thy neighbour as thyself can not come to terms of letting loose a black guy in the oval office. Well we blacks knew that all along and then Obama came up with this nonsense that HOPE and the audacity of it could break barriers...We knew that you whites were deep down racially motivated but the eloquence of Obama gave us a glimmer that maybe cynicicm would get us no where and we had to take a seat at the table....much ado about nothing

Arthur,

What this debacle shows is that most Christians are shrinking violets too enamoured by a safe, quiet, forgettable religion that doesn't challenge the status quo.

Rod talks a big game when it comes to staying local, embracing tradition and moving away from the "Khaki Jesus." Along comes Wright, and for all I see embodies just those traits, and Rod acts like a vampire chewing on garlic.

You found understanding in two white preachers who pushed this line--Falwell and Robertson's comment that god allowed 9/11 because of gays and the ACLU-

Yeah, I sure did embrace Falwell and Robertson's remarks, especially when I wrote on National Review Online in their aftermath:

My neighborhood is one of the most liberal precincts in the country. Last night, though, I stood next to a lesbian couple, holding each other and their candles, with tears in their eyes, and I thought: I am with you, ladies. I watched my neighbors, flags, and candles in hand, gaze over the harbor at the Statue of Liberty in the distance. Some held their candles high in salute to her.

Someone put up a sign at the base of the flagpole, a message that was illuminated by all the candles burning for the dead. It read: "Whatever our faith, whatever our belief, let us stand together and pray for the victims and their families." Yes, I thought, this is how it should be. Last night, standing at that flagpole with my rosary in my hand, I felt all our political and cultural differences dissolve. We were one in grief, and love of country.

Moments like this rarely come in the life of our nation, and though we will become aware once again of our disputes and division, for this moment in history, I have nothing but love for these people.

Neighbors. Citizens. Patriots. My fellow Americans. Any other sentiment at this time strikes me as unspeakably profane.

So, bearing in mind the pain those of us who live in and love this great city are suffering now, you know what I have to say, with hot tears in my eyes and cold rain falling on the living and the dead here? Jerry, Pat, you heartless bastards, your timing is awful.
---
In retrospect, I regret having used that language about Falwell and Robertson. But the basic sentiment stands.

About Chuck Colson, the difference between Colson and Ayers is Colson repented of the evil he did, but Ayers is still proud of his.

(BTW, nobody answer "Eleazer Williams"; it's that oft-banned nut Kim Margosein, trying to stay relevant).

Rev. Wright's comments are a problem for Sen. Obama because they are very far to the Left. When Rev. Wright mentions Panama, Grenada, Khadafy, etc., he does so in terms essentially calling them War Crimes. Rev. Wright then seems to say that these War Crimes led to 9/11. These previous actions took place during the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations. In other words, Rev. Wright seems to clearly despise these administrations. If you are on the Left, Rev. Wright's opinions won't bother you. If you are a Moderate Conservative, on the other hand, while you may disagree with any of these military actions, you may not believe that they reach the level of War Crimes. All of this matters because Sen. Obama is not running as a Big Leftist but as a Moderate who can reach out to people on the other side of the political spectrum. To the extent that Moderates or Conservatives see Sen. Obama as someone comfortable with a Pastor who clearly despises Reagan and Bush Sr., they will not be inclined to vote for him. It is a fair issue precisely because Sen. Obama is running on the very notion that he is a uniter. I'm inclined to believe Sen. Obama, but Rev. Wright is a huge problem for Sen. Obama. All of this wouldn't matter, of course, if we generally trusted politicians to do what they say they will when in office. But we don't trust them. Hence, Sen. Obama is being scrutinized very carefully by those who will only vote for him if they feel comfortable that he will in some sense listen to their concerns. If Sen. McCain weren't such a problem for many people on the Right, this Rev. Wright issue wouldn't matter so much. In this campaign, however, these voters are up for grabs and so opponents of Sen. Obama are clearly going to try to paint him as a more politic Rev. Wright. Get used to it. It's fair to try and determine who the candidate really is.

Ayers. This is total nonsense IMO. Ayer's wife went to jail and Ayers stood trial. Obama went to their house once (?) and served on a board for disadvantaged children with Ayers for a while. That is it. They are not buddies. He didn't adopt Ayers philosophy. Ayers interview in 2001 came well after Obama had no contact. This is ultimate guilt by association. McCain used to live with a drug addict, Bush used to be a drunk. These are just as relevant i.e. NOT.

I have just come to the conclusion that I do not think like Rod or most Americans. When I see a few 5 second clips supposedly representing a man's whole life I wonder where everything else is to back that up? Why such short clips? When I go to their website they do not have the whole sermons. What are they hiding? Actually reading his whole sermons and reading his writings Wright is not nearly so whacky. I guess the thing that struck me was his saying that when he went to Richmond he knew there was racism and segregation, he just didn't really realize there were Christians who acted that way. Like many of us older folks, he remains overly influenced by events in his early life. At any rate, I do not see this in Obama.

One more thing-why does Wright's Marine service matter?

It seems very important to right wing critics to prove that they oppose hate America. People like Max Cleland obviously hated America because they criticized it. Obama apparently believes, and I concur, that most people who hate America do not serve it. Some guy who serves his country for 6 years and then works with the inner city poor for 30 years might not be a hater.

Steve

I hate some of the things my country has done, and those things done during my lifetime -- especially during the time I've been a voter and taxpayer -- were done in my name and/or on my behalf. I take it as a mark of love for my country when anyone joins me in protesting those things.

Any candidate that wants my vote better think long and hard several times over before calling me an hater of my country.

Amen, Franklin. I'm sick and tired of phony patriots who think that loving your country means sticking a made-in-China flag in your lapel and supporting anything the government does in your name, no matter how wrong-headed, unjust, or just plain stupid. To love America means to speak up when we are desecrating our own sacred ideals, destroying our freedoms, abusing our power. Anything else is cowardice. "All that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to remain silent."

As for Jeremiah Wright, he served his country for six years as a U.S. Marine, which is more than Bush (who spent the Vietnam War snorting coke and boozing it up--and who said, when asked by an interviewer how he felt about the war, "I think I supported my government"; apparently he couldn't actually remember where he stood) or Cheney did, or any other of those neocon chickenhawks who are only too happy to send other men's kids off to be mutiliated or killed in their war. And they call themselves patriots while they smear an ex-Marine and a man who has spent his entire adult life serving his country and his community? I disagree with a whole lot of what Jeremiah Wright says, but I'm grateful to him for his courage in "defending to the death" my liberties--and his own. I'll take his brand of patriotism over that of the phonies any day.

ChuckDFW:
Go rent the documentary, "The Weather Underground", and you will see Ayers (and Dohrn) in all their primary-source glory.

Partisans are intellectually corrupt to a degree that never fails to astound me. The Obama lovers stay up all night defending Wright, when in truth the man's odious comments cannot be defended.

On legionnaires:

"However repugnant the idea is to liberal societies, the man who will willingly defend the free world in the fringe areas is not the responsible citizen-soldier. The man who will go where his colors go, without asking, who will fight a phantom foe in jungle and mountain range, without counting, and who will suffer and die in the midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptered Britain to democratic America. He is the stuff of which legions are made.

"His pride is in his colors and his regiment, his training hard and thorough and coldly realistic, to fit him for what he must face, and his obedience to his orders. As a legionary, he held the gates of civilization for the classical world; as a bluecoated horseman he swept the Indians from the Plains; he has been called United States Marine. He does the jobs - the utterly necessary jobs - no militia is willing to do. His task is moral or immoral according to the orders that send him forth."

-- T.R. Fehrenbach, "This Kind of War"