Steven Waldman

Steven Waldman

In Defense of the Anti-Obama Jeremiah Wright Ad

posted by swaldman | 3:00pm Friday October 31, 2008

The National Republican Trust PAC is spending $2.5 million to run this anti-Obama ad in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.John McCain had made a point of saying he wouldn’t raise Wright, specifically chastising the North Carolina Republican Party for running a similar ad.So, McCain can no longer claim the high road on this. He stopped an earlier campaign on Wright, and hasn’t stopped this one.But I have a contrarian view on this: seems to me that Jeremiah Wright is a far more legitimate attack against Obama than Bill Ayers, teaching sex to kindergartners, Obama’s “socialism,” or many other issues they’ve used. I’ve never understood why Wright was off limits but the others were legit. I think summarizing the entirety of Wright’s message as “hate” isn’t fair but, let’s be honest, compared to what they’ve got on Bill Ayers, the anti-Wright material is rock solid.Having said that, to run these ads now may not be politically wise. The last month seems to have taught us that voters view ads like these as a sign that a candidate doesn’t care sufficiently about the economy.



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Comments read comments(5)
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you know what

posted November 1, 2008 at 12:09 am


you know what? i don’t care. i don’t care about stupid reverend wright. he was angry and he said some crazy things. he was also angry and said some very true things – like black men being locked up in prison, and the craziness of a country that refuses to take care of its weakest members.
all these ads are sick and twisted and i think its disgusting that people are getting jumpy about paying taxes, and making baseless charges of socialism, communism, and marxism. i saw an ad today about welfare… WELFARE! Is this the 90s? Are we going to start that welfare crap again? Yes, I pay taxes, and I don’t mind giving a little bit more if it means a waitress who makes 15k a year gets some extra money… even if she doesn’t pay taxes. That’s below the freaking poverty line. You cannot live off of 15k a year!
I’m not rich and I worked hard for my money,but my goodness, now it’s socialism to help people who can’t afford to help themselves?
Not to mention, I like my roads, I like my town, and i like living in a country that has public schools, and affordable healthcare in the case that i suddenly can’t afford it.
and another thing re: rev. wright… he’s evil but palin’s jews for jesus preacher or her witchdoctor pastor aren’t? mccain’s relationship with hagee, dobson, and falwell are fine too? reverend wright is a racist and dangerous, but the people at mccain/palin rallies holding “obama monkeys” and screaming hateful things against muslims, arabs, gays, and black people are fine? PLEASE. spare me. that’s not patriotism and that’s not “country first.”
I care about the economy, ending the war in iraq, and getting bush out of the white house. he failed, time for plan 2.



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Julie

posted November 1, 2008 at 2:50 am


I would like to force people that criticize Rev Wright’s sermons to sit down and actually listen to the entire sermons.



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aaron

posted November 1, 2008 at 8:32 am


And I’d like the MSM to stop kissing BO’s ass and dig into his background and some of these controversial relationsips, but neither’s going to happen.



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Julie

posted November 2, 2008 at 3:03 pm


Part of Wright’s sermon. From the link below there is a link to another sermon that contained clips to smear Obama:
Rev Wright’s sermons were not anti-American, racist, or anti-Semitic – listen to the entire sermons. Wright’s G** D*** was in a sermon against the Iraq war, against the Bush administration, not the American people. http://tinyurl.com/4x52to
I applaud Rev Wrights for speaking out against the war. My pastor and other pastors preached against the Iraq war, although the style was much different. I could never vote for McCain because of his pushing for war in Iraq, Iran, and Syria within hours of 9/11. McCain told us the war would be quick and not cost very much.
Part of Wright’s sermon:
“War does not make for peace. War only makes for escalating violence and a mindset to pay the enemy back by any means necessary,” he said. Wright criticizes the Bush administration & it supporters for using Godly language to justify the war in Iraq. He equates using God in America as condoning the war in Iraq to the same perspective of Islamic fundamentalists
“We say that God will bless the shock and awe as we take over unilaterally another country, calling it a coalition because we’ve got three guys from Australia, going against the United Nations, going against the majority of Christians, Muslims and Jews throughout the world, making a pre-emptive strike in the name of God. We cannot see how what we are doing is the same thing is the same thing that Al-Qaeda is doing under a different color flag calling on the name of a different God to sanction and approve our murder and our mayhem”
Long history of government lies,“Prior to Harry Truman’s government, the military was segregated. But governments change. … under Clinton blacks had an intelligent friend in the Oval Office. Oh, but governments change”
“Where governments change, God does not change. God is the same yesterday, today and forever more. That’s what his name I Am means. He does not change”
Note: “chickens coming home to roost” comment was attributed not to Wright but former Ambassador to the Iraq, Edward Peck



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Your Name

posted November 2, 2008 at 9:37 pm


Hey Julie-
What about Jeremiah Wright’s charge that the U.S. government invented AIDS to kill blacks.
Why did Obama sit under this Pastor- much less esteem him as his “mentor”?
Wright’s sermon at Obama’s very first service, highlighted by his book and in his speeches as an epiphanic moment, was controversial and objectionable enough. And it didn’t make him leave the church. It made him join the church.
Listen to this if you haven’t heard it:
http://www.preachingtoday.com/sermons/sermons/audacityofhope.html?start=1



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