Serious Questions for Obama regarding Rev. Wright
by Universal, Sun Mar 16, 2008 at 11:46:22 AM EDT
I watched CNN's program "Reliable Sources," hosted by Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, several hours ago.
The panel discussed the burgeoning Jeremiah Wright scandal and its effects on the viability of presidential candidate Barack Obama.
A number of angles were considered, but there were two points of agreement:
1. The story is as big as it is, and will continue to have journalistic 'legs,' because of the existence of the dramatic video of a clearly exercised, strident Wright giving his sermons.
2. The next aspect of the scandal to be examined by reporters will be to try to place Barack Obama at some of the incendiary sermons. Senator Obama, in denouncing Jeremiah Wright and forcing him to step down from his campaign, said that he had never personally sat in the pews of the church when Wright delivered such messages as the videos demonstrate. "What did Obama know about Wright and when did he know it?", I believe one of the panel members said.
This is where things could get tricky for the Illinois senator and where it is possible that he could be engaging in a parsing of words.
Obama has said that he was not aware of Wright's inflammatory remarks, I believe, until he began his run for president (http://www.startribune.com/politics/nati onal/president/16691146.html). The questions then are:
- Do you mean the official start of your presidential campaign?
- If you knew of his remarks then, why did you name him to your
official campaign staff?
Particularly germane to this issue is your disinviting him to give an invocation at your formal announcement of your presidential campaign (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/us/pol itics/06obama.html), which leads to follow-up questions:
- Why is it that you asked Rev. Wright not to give the invocation
at this event? What did you know then?
- Why didn't whatever information you had that made you rescind
your invitation to Rev. Wright stop you from making him a
part of your official campaign staff?
Continuing, Senator Obama, you said that you never sat in the pews of Trinity United Church of Christ and heard Wright deliver such anti-American, racially divisive remarks (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/us/pol itics/15wright.html?_r=1&bl=&ei= 5087&en=5a8aba53a3148fae&ex=1205 726400&oref=slogin&pagewanted=pr int). However, you have also said that you listened to tapes of Rev. Wright while at Harvard Law School (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0 803/14/acd.01.html) and you have been a member of Wright's congregation for 20 years. Which leads to our next questions:
- How can you expect anyone to believe that you were not fully
appraised of the nature of Rev. Wright's messages? Are we
supposed to believe that the man who baptized your children
and married you and your wife, whom you chose as your
spiritual adviser, wasn't fully examined by you? That is,
that you didn't know exactly what he was all about before
you choose him for the important duties just mentioned?
- If you didn't know all about him, as you have said, then what
does this say about your supposedly superior 'judgment?'
There are only two possibilities here, and neither is
good where you are concerned: You chose someone whom you
hadn't fully vetted to be your spiritual mentor for years
or else you knew the hateful nature of this man's message
and yet you still chose him to be on your official campaign,
even after he said to you that you might want to distance
yourself from him. Which is it, senator?
More issues of judgment have arisen from this imbroglio, senator. When the matter began to come to a head on Friday, you wavered (http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2 008/03/14/770536.aspx) when faced with what should have been an easy decision, leading to yet a further question:
- Why did you say, initially, on Friday that there were no plans
for Wright to step down from the campaign before then
turning around mere hours later and firing him? What was
the sudden change in attitude, and what does this change
of your mind say about your judgment, and your conviction?
Senator Obama, it is my firm belief that should you be named the Democratic presidential nominee, Democrats could very well suffer a loss in the general election along the lines of a Reagan - Mondale rout. Your association with this hate-mongering pastor has jeopardized the fortunes of millions of Democrats who are incredibly eager to re-take the White House this year.
As could be expected, the GOP has seized on these videos and your association with Wright and seems rather eager to exploit your poor judgment:
"I think there's a reason Republicans I talk to are increasingly looking forward to running against Barack Obama," Fleischer said.
Here is the view of novelist and screenwriter Roger L. Simon, who might be expected to know something about what kind of material will play well with the public:
"As we all know, we don't choose our family, but Obama chose this racist demagogue as his pastor for decades. It's not funny," Simon writes on his personal blog. "It could do for Obama what Willie Horton did for Dukakis," Simon later adds. "But unlike the Willie Horton ad, Obama will deserve this. Horton was a mistake by Dukakis that any of us could have made. Jeremiah Wright was Obama's personal choice for years."
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/200 8/03/13/a-sermon-echoing-around-obama/?r ef=opinion
These statements lead to the next question:
- With the clear understanding that the GOP has seized on these
videos and has vowed to use them against you should you be
nominated, why should any Democrats continue to support you
when many of us feel as though these tapes will cost you
millions of white Americans' votes, not to mention those of
Jewish-Americans (Wright was associated with Louis Farrakhan
) and any other Americans who don't like the phrase "God
Damn America" or who don't like America being blamed for
9/11? How can you think you have ANY chance against the TV
ads you know will be coming your way in October and November
?
And finally:
- Has the time come for you to end your campaign, with the
knowledge that -- due to you own lack of judgment or
inability to act to remove pastor Wright from your campaign
(or to have never named him) -- should you be nominated your
fellow Democrats are doomed to 4 more years of GOP rule in
the White House?
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You have failed us, Senator Obama. That much is clear. By your acceptance and elevation of the racially divisive Rev. Jeremiah Wright, you have both shown an unwelcome part of your character and you have demonstrated a decided lack of judgment, supposedly one of the positive cornerstones of your campaign.
There are those in the media who have attempted to equate your spiritual adviser with certain pastors who have endorsed Senator McCain, but those attempts have already been shot down as the non-equivalences that they are. An example:
"[Obama's] connection to Wright isn't the equivalent to John McCain's going to Liberty University to make nice with [preacher] Jerry Falwell," writes Ross Douthat in The Atlantic magazine. "It's the equivalent of John McCain taking his wife and children, most Sundays, to Jerry Falwell's church." And this McCain has not done - neither with Falwell, nor with (evangelical preacher John) Hagee."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/9647 32.html
Simply put, that 'equivalency' dog won't hunt.
.
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I'm not going to mince words, senator: I think you are lying about Reverend Wright. I think you knew all about him before your formal announcement to run for president, regardless of whether or not you were present for those particular sermons which have received significant airplay in the last several days.
You are too intelligent a man to have: picked someone as your personal spiritual adviser; named your second book after one of his sermons; chosen him to marry you and your wife; allowed him to baptize both of your daughters; chosen to join and attend his church for 20 years; and allowed your daughters to listen to his antagonistic messages week after week, year after year, without knowing all about him.
One of the common questions I have heard both in the media and on various blogs in the wake of this scandal is:
"Is this why Michelle Obama seems so angry, because of listening to Reverend Wright for years? Is this why she has said she is only now proud of her country, when you, her husband seems to have a chance at the White House?"
In that same vein, people are wondering about you, Senator Obama. Wondering if Rev. Wright's anger has passed over to you. Pastor Wright has displayed a lot of anger and frustration and disrespect towards the United States, and, as he has been your spiritual adviser and pastor for around two decades, people are bringing up legitimate concerns about your own temperament, particularly as it regards your country and its various citizenry.
This scandal isn't going away. Indeed, this seems to be but its infancy. There can't be any glossing over of this.
.
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Now is the time to cut our losses, our Party's losses. It is time for you to subsume your own ego and do the right thing for the Party, for the Party's general election chances.
With those videos of a bellowing, ethnically polarizing and hate-filled Jeremiah Wright in the possession of the GOP, there is no need for an 'October Surprise.' I hope that you understand that and fully grasp the consequences of your actions, Senator Obama.
There is but one choice left to you now. Should you fail to avail yourself of it, rest assured that the Democrats' fate in November will forever be laid at your feet.
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Tags: 2008 elections, Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright (all tags)
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