In case you needed my opinion to figure this out, Reverend Wright doesn't seem to be doing his former parishoner any favors, choosing instead to hog as much of the spotlight as possible, reiterate the most objectionable of his greatest hits, and I guess just see what John McCain can do with this. One supposes this'll lead to a more open breach between Wright and Obama, which might help the latter in the long run, but it's a pretty depressing mess at this point.
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Wright Round Baby
29 Apr 2008 06:30 am
Comments (14)
and yglesias joins into the chorus of people on the left saying that wright should know his place and shut up. why don't you talk about how the media COMPLETELY misrepresents what wright has been saying the past couple days. being complicit in character assassination isn't an acceptable side effect of supporting a candidate for president.
um, you do realize that wright implied again that the US federal government created aids, right?
You should watch his speeches at the NAACP and the NPC in full.
The Rev. Wright debacle is a tragedy. I wrote on my blog that:
Jeremiah Wright is a self-absorbed and egocentric man. Barack Obama must disown Wright if he wants to have any chance of being elected President. I listened to the speech Wright gave at the National Press Club. I wanted to hear something good. The Bill Moyers interview was fine in my estimation. But Wright came out of the gate as provocatively as he could with a lecturing diatribe about the duplicity of White American Christians and its role in the development of the Black Church. He was unapologetic in his defense of the United Church of Christ and Trinity Church. But, he spoke in terms that many will find so objectionable that one cannot predict what negative implication it could have on Obama's campaign. He is a divisive figure, indeed. I didn't want to believe it, but Jeremiah Wright has become true Kryptonite for Obama. You have to hear it to believe it.
I fear Obama will really suffer from this outburst.
The Rev. Wright debacle is a tragedy. I wrote on my blog that:
Jeremiah Wright is a self-absorbed and egocentric man. Barack Obama must disown Wright if he wants to have any chance of being elected President. I listened to the speech Wright gave at the National Press Club. I wanted to hear something good. The Bill Moyers interview was fine in my estimation. But Wright came out of the gate as provocatively as he could with a lecturing diatribe about the duplicity of White American Christians and its role in the development of the Black Church. He was unapologetic in his defense of the United Church of Christ and Trinity Church. But, he spoke in terms that many will find so objectionable that one cannot predict what negative implication it could have on Obama's campaign. He is a divisive figure, indeed. I didn't want to believe it, but Jeremiah Wright has become true Kryptonite for Obama. You have to hear it to believe it.
I fear Obama will really suffer from this outburst.
"In case you needed my opinion to figure this out, Reverend Wright doesn't seem to be doing his former parishoner any favors, choosing instead to hog as much of the spotlight as possible, reiterate the most objectionable of his greatest hits, and I guess just see what John McCain can do with this."
Matt, has the thought ever crossed your mind that Rev. Wright might not share your own obsessions? That "politics" as you know it may not be the uppermost thing on his mind? That he might actually believe what he's saying, and think it important to say it regardless of whether it helps your side or not? I guess we can expect this from a guy who has actually said people shouldn't give to charity but give the money to politicians instead. I'm increasingly convinced that the Wright brouhaha is, among many other things, a sad commentary on both the insularity and the obliviousness of the political class in this country. Yes, he's being "self-indulgent"; that's an occupational hazard of prophets, deliciously satirized in the Book of Jonah [which you oughta read sometime]. But he's operating in a different universe than you are--a universe that's part of your common country, but that's utterly opaque to you, and one that you can't be bothered to understand because it doesn't fit into your crimped notion of what's politically useful.
As an Obama supporter, I have to say that if Sen. Obama doesn't take major steps to sever himself from Rev. Wright, it's going to severely hurt his campaign. A candidate has got to be strong enough to separate himself from the crazies that always pop up to try and ride the coattails of someone on their way up.
Trying to be mild and inclusive with respect to Rev. Wright will make Obama look like a milquetoast.
The funny thing about Obama is that his campaign is clueless to the uproar over this. They have obviously chosen the path of ignoring this. I think this is a big mistake. His supporters are very worried about his chances now.
They are going on like it's business as usual. At 9:15 I got this from his campaign in my inbox:
Subject: Limited Edition Car Magnet.
Edward --
Limited edition Vote for Change car magnet Next week, we have the opportunity to close out this race and secure the nomination for Barack -- but there's another deadline coming up even sooner.
Financial reports for April will be filed this Wednesday at midnight. The media pundits and Washington insiders will be watching the results and judging the strength of our campaign by the money we raise.
But what's most impressive about our movement is that our funding has come from grassroots supporters like you. We've never accepted donations from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. Instead, more than 1,500,000 ordinary people have stepped up to own a piece of this campaign.
To meet this deadline and celebrate our grassroots donors, we've created a special gift.
Make a donation of $15 or more before midnight on Wednesday, April 30th, and receive a limited edition Vote for Change car magnet:
https://donate.barackobama.com/magnet
The crucial North Carolina and Indiana primaries will require unprecedented resources. But we also need to start preparing for the general election.
We're building a powerful grassroots movement in all 50 states -- organizing communities, registering voters, and bringing new voices into the political process.
We have accomplished so much, but we need your support today -- to finish this contest, and to get ready to take on Senator McCain.
Help grow our movement at this critical time, and be part of history by joining 1,500,000 other Americans who are supporting this campaign.
Contribute $15 or more before midnight on April 30th. You'll own a piece of this campaign and you'll receive a Vote for Change car magnet to show your support in style:
https://donate.barackobama.com/magnet
Thank you,
Obama for America
The funny thing about Obama is that his campaign is clueless to the uproar over this. They have obviously chosen the path of ignoring this. I think this is a big mistake. His supporters are very worried about his chances now.
They are going on like it's business as usual. At 9:15 I got this from his campaign in my inbox:
Subject: Limited Edition Car Magnet.
Edward --
Limited edition Vote for Change car magnet Next week, we have the opportunity to close out this race and secure the nomination for Barack -- but there's another deadline coming up even sooner.
Financial reports for April will be filed this Wednesday at midnight. The media pundits and Washington insiders will be watching the results and judging the strength of our campaign by the money we raise.
But what's most impressive about our movement is that our funding has come from grassroots supporters like you. We've never accepted donations from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. Instead, more than 1,500,000 ordinary people have stepped up to own a piece of this campaign.
To meet this deadline and celebrate our grassroots donors, we've created a special gift.
Make a donation of $15 or more before midnight on Wednesday, April 30th, and receive a limited edition Vote for Change car magnet:
https://donate.barackobama.com/magnet
The crucial North Carolina and Indiana primaries will require unprecedented resources. But we also need to start preparing for the general election.
We're building a powerful grassroots movement in all 50 states -- organizing communities, registering voters, and bringing new voices into the political process.
We have accomplished so much, but we need your support today -- to finish this contest, and to get ready to take on Senator McCain.
Help grow our movement at this critical time, and be part of history by joining 1,500,000 other Americans who are supporting this campaign.
Contribute $15 or more before midnight on April 30th. You'll own a piece of this campaign and you'll receive a Vote for Change car magnet to show your support in style:
https://donate.barackobama.com/magnet
Thank you,
Obama for America
Matt, has the thought ever crossed your mind that Rev. Wright might not share your own obsessions? That "politics" as you know it may not be the uppermost thing on his mind? That he might actually believe what he's saying, and think it important to say it regardless of whether it helps your side or not?
Dude, Wright spoke at the national press club. In Washington. In the middle of the campaign. You think it never crossed his mind that his words would have a political impact?
Re Ed's Vote For Change car magnet , I've gotten an even funnier DCCC fundraising appeal. Evidently, if I donate a mere $50 , my name will go into a raffle. Winner of Raffle gets to attend the Democratic National Convention. For every additional $50, I get another chance to win.
Can you imagine Rahm Emmanuel giving ME any kind of a chance to attend the Democratic National Convention? hee hee hee
Shit, seat me with some Hillary supporters and I could have the place looking like the 1968 Chicago riots. Within 5 minutes. 10 minutes tops.
Ed,
I get what you're saying but...what is there really for Obama to do at this point? If he comes out and distances himself more from Wright, Wright's just going to come back with "well, that's a politician doing what a politician does" (which obviously would make Obama seem like just another conventional pol) or he could try to embrace him (no chance). There's no way Obama can silence Wright at this point, either. I think he really can only ride this out and simply say that he does not and never has agreed with Wright's most controversial stances. It sucks, but Obama's got this albatross now because he chose to stand by Wright in his Philly speech. "No good deed goes unpunished" comes to mind.
February 2007 - Wright disinvited from giving the invocation before Obama's presidential announcement
Bill Burton "Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church, but because of the type of attention it was receiving on blogs and conservative talk shows, he decided to avoid having statements and beliefs being used out of context and forcing the entire church to defend itself."
March 2008 - Obama says he had never heard those statements while at church.
“None of these statements were ones I had heard myself personally in the pews,”
a few days later March 2008 - Obama says he heard some controversial statements but not the ones on the news
"Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes."
April 2008 - Obama says Wright was disinvited in 2007 because of the quotes that appeared in Rolling Stone
"Well, understand that I hadn't seen the remarks that ended up playing on youTube repeatedly. This was a set of remarks that had been quoted in Rolling Stone Magazine and we looked at them and I thought that they would be a distraction since he had just put them forward. But, Charlie, I've discussed this extensively. Reverend Wright is somebody who made controversial statements but they were not of the sort that we saw that offended so many Americans."
The Rolling Stone article had excerpts of Wrights "Ten Facts" The Facts include the following commentary.
Racism is alive and well. Racism is the American way.
Racism is how this country was founded, and how this country is still run.
We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority. And believe it more than we believe in God.
We started the AIDS virus, and now that it is out of control we still put more money
in the military than in medicine. More money in hate than humanitarian concern.
So when the campaign first decides to deal with Wright that say it is to 'protect the church.'
Then Obama hedges on what he personally witnessed at service. Then the candidate implies the original distancing was for controversial statements but not ones that would offend many Americans. At some point between Feb 2007 and now there was a "good" way to deal with Rev. Wright but the Obama campaign never found it.
Comments closed May 13, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
And this is why I (and others) reacted negatively to the Philadelphia speech. Obama needed to clearly and unequivocally disassociate himself with Wright, not merely some of his ideas. Each time Wright pops off now, Obama's formulation that he can no more disassociate himself from Wright than he could disassociate himself from the black community will come back to haunt him.
When Obama set out for an unconventional campaign (filled with Alinsky teaching moments) this was the risk he was taking.
Posted by ephus | April 29, 2008 7:42 AM