2008 Obama Denounces Wright
posted by April 29 at 11:12 AM
onFrom Obama’s press conference just now:
The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I had come to know over 20 years.
And:
I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday.
And:
I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church. But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no exuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.
But… what will Wright say in response?
UPDATE: Video of Obama’s opening statement at his press conference, via MSNBC:
Comments
Ah, but did he denounce and reject?
Good. Now can we get on with the issues, Mainstream Media?
phew! glad that's settled.
@2 - nope, but thanks for playing! Say, did you hear that Obama doesn't wear a flag lapel pin every day?
Okay, that was pretty clear. If not under the bus, he was certainly asked to get off of the bus.
Let's hope Wright doesn't feel the need to comment, and keep the story going. Let us pray...
@1
Precisely. This is loud, clear, and decisive...
But is it *extra double-secret* loud, clear, and decisive?...
Can't wait to hear him get bashed for all the things he *didn't* say...
or for not being a knee-jerk reactionary about it...
or for blahblahblah...
On another note, I love how it apparently becomes Obama's duty to denounce every black person who ever said anything inflammatory. Wright isn't enough - you must denounce Farrakhan too, sir! Reject and denounce! Do it!
Hey, have they made him denounce Sharpton yet? Marion Barry? H. Rap Brown?
It was simple and to the point. Now Hillary can start trying to work it to her advantage.
i, too, await the spin on this one... was giving him the benefit of doubt a lack of judgment? did obama not reject and denounce? did he not take action soon enough? will this disenfranchise mainstream, church-going, african americans? will obama have to change churches now?
Wright may cry about it, but as much as the media (and Hillary) would love to keep this issue alive, I'm quite sure that since Obama forcefully cut Wright off (and may do so again), Wright will very quickly become yesterday's news.
Under the bus indeed. But anyone who thinks Wright is now going to just shut up and go away is dreaming.
Never mind throwing Wright under the bus; I'm still waiting for Obama to send him to the back of the bus! Only then will we know that he's white enough to vote for.
@5- More like he was asked to move to the back of the bus.
Obama/Wright 2008 - Two brothers who know what time it is.
@12: Nicely done.
@13: You snooze, you lose. Also, lacking the flair of #12.
What does this have to do with their medical insurance plans, plans to invade Iran and start a third war we can't afford, McCain's tripling of the US budget deficit, the doubling in food prices for most US families not in the ultra-rich category, or continuing reduction of wealth for all but the top 0.1 percent of America due to salary/inflation/mortgage/rent crises?
Nothing.
So why are you MSM like the Stranger so obsessed by it?
Meanwhile, we have something like 4100 US soldiers dead but we never see pics on our media.
oh fuck.. this is giving me the biggest headache ever... i can't even read any more about it or watch any more... my ears and are bleeding...
Wright is such a raging egomaniac. It's clear now that he's actually trying to harm Obama's campaign, despite the loyalty Obama has shown toward him against all better political instincts.
During his race speech in Philly, Obama didn't actually defend Wright, but he refused to throw him under the bus. He used the occasion to make a lot of subtle and important points about race in this country. It could have been historic, a real start for some kind of reconciliation, for something better. But that's not what Wright is about.
Obama's oft-stated desire to bring people together is exactly what Wright does NOT want to do. That's why he went and stirred up the shitstorm again...he NEEDS the shitstorm. It's his whole self-image. He believes the hate is the source of his purpose.
And of course, a Clinton surrogate set it all up: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Clinton_supporter_invited_Wright.html
It makes perfect sense that the Clintons would have a hand in this...after all, like Wright, their self-interest is in fostering divisions. Creating an intra-party war over Obama is the only way Hillary can get the nomination, and in Hillary's eyes, the nomination is her birthright. She'll do anything to attain it, because she is in a psychic (psychotic?) state of need and entitlement. So is Wright.
They are two sides of the same self-interested coin, and both are deeply threatened by the idea of a united country. Their careers and egos are dependent on savaging the "other."
The tragedy for Obama is that he didn't see that connection sooner.
I think I have always been a pretty strong Obama supporter but I hate to say it: I think this is the beginning of the end for the junior Senator from Il. Obama had his "mulligan"(sp) with Wright already and the media and certainly the Republicans are going to shove this in our faces until November. Watching his remarks, (which were good, not great) you could see that he knows that this is the beginning of the end.
But if Obama can pull a victory from this in November (I really hope he can) then we may just have ourselves the best politician since FDR or frankly the best politician in US history. That is if he can spin this to not only do no damage to his run but to use it to his advantage.
I think it's ridiculous that Obama even felt compelled to denounce Wright. Nothing he said was particularly shocking. But I guess that's the way the game is played in Washington.
Andrew @ 19,
Sorry, but we all know the superdelegates are gonna coronate the Clintonator, us party-activist piss-ons be damned.
It's preposterous to think that our country could elect a candidate like Obama anyway.
@21, and that will give the election to John McCain. And once again, we will have played right into the GOP dream race: McCain vs Clinton.
Onward to Terhan!!!
Notwithstanding Rev. Wright, Obama had to beat Clinton away earlier. By "hanging around", Clinton drastically decreased Obama's chance of winning.
Funny thing is, the front runner in this election cycle has always been pulled back. Hillary, Romney, Huckabee, the voters are afraid to make a decision. They were burned by Bush and don't want to make another mistake.
Timing is everything. Unfortunately, Obama peaked too early. He had to win the nomination earlier. I fear that Hillary and the Clinton machine will win this war of attrition. I don't count her out beating McCain either.
Clinton wins, but Americans lose. Same old politics, same old corporate control, same old Washington.
Now, Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Wright was 100% correct about US policy and why "they hate us". For anyone that has lived in the Arab world and seen the horror of US and Israeli oppression and meddling it's all understandable why "they" struck back on 9-11. Wright stated the ugly truth of US foreign Mid-East policy and now he's hated for it.
@24 even if wright is 100% correct about one of his many highly contested views, he does not deal with that issue in a palatable way. especially considering it is an opinion, and a divisive, unpopular one at that, i prefer obama's way of explaining the current situation, and plan to move forward better than wright's.
I'm pretty sure a number of TV and radio right wing preachers blamed 9-11 and AIDS/HIV on America ... why is that different?
Just because they frenched Sen McCain?
I think it comes down to the Democratic Party as a whole will be less harmed by Barak runniing and losing than by the supers picking Hillary and her losing. The leading democratic politicians know this, but do they care?
So, which will win, racism and Wall Street, or the Democratic values and agenda (and Wall Street)?
Or, to put it another way, the time for the Democratic party to race bait Obama out of the race and come out of it relatively whole probably passed in late December or early January.
@12: and that's why I love you.
@24 Now US oppression I can get; we are the Big Kid on the block and thus must take our lumpings. But I am compeltely dumbfounded when people renounce Israel. I cannot state it any better than a recent article I read (unfortunately the title of the journal escapes me) that demands to know why the world still denounces Israel when it is Israel giving Palestians water and electricity (among a myriad of other reasons.)
Wright has a vested interest in sabotaging Obama's bid. If a black man gets the nomination of one of the major parties, or worse yet, takes the White House, it gets allot harder to argue that blacks are held back by whitey and that ya gotta hate whitey everywhere you find whitey. (Which is, of course, the basis of Wright's (and Farrakhan's, and Sharpton's, and Jackson's) franchise.)
Much as I want Obama to win in November, having politicians brought down by association with insane preachers is good. Maybe some day politicians won't need to feign religious idiocy to be nationally viable.
can't let the white lumpen proles hear anything that upsets their delusional belief that americans & are amazing government are the good guys - blowback is real, and its a bitch.
start thinking, hicks.
No Now he has to Denounce his own MAMA and his Wife to the appeasement of White People who would never denounce their Pastor, Minister, Rabbi. Black people you are still in mental slavery and cant stand up like men. This is a sad, sad, buckdance. Soon we will be back in physical chains.
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