No more God Bless America?

[John317]

"To be sure, such attacks often fail to mention that presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain had a similar uncomfortable brush with controversy when he gratefully accepted the recent endorsement of Texas televangelist James Hagee, best known by some by some for referring to the Roman Catholic church as “the great whore,” and a cult. 'I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee’s, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics,' McCain said, during a recent stop in heavily Catholic New Orleans."

They are not even in the same category. As a nation with separation of church and state, Hagee's teachings about Catholics has no place in the campaign. And, as Redwood has already said, Hagee was merely endorsing Senator McCain, which is perfectly fine. However, the difference is that Wright has been Obama's pastor for the last 20 years, and therefore what Obama has been listening to and supporting with his influence and money is a far larger question.

I'm afraid that unless Obama can produce proof that he denounced Wright's statements and beliefs before he began to campaign for the presidency, these denouncements he is making now are going to look disingenuous to the American people.

[Amelia]

Quote:

I'm afraid that unless Obama can produce proof that he denounced Wright's statements and beliefs before he began to campaign for the presidency,

I doubt he can do that. Until this controversy arose last week, Pastor Wright was Obama's campaign religious counselor.

Quote:

On past occasions when it was noted that Wright had continuously made controversial remarks, Obama passed it off by saying that the man who married him and baptized his children was like a kindly old uncle one tolerated but didn't agree with always.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/355291_thomassononline18.html

[Woody]

Yes. We choose who we want to be indoctrinated by. I would not want to listen to such hate speech at church. I find his excuse of not hearing this kind of talk before ... as uncredible. And even if he personally did not attend while that type of sermon was preached ... surely he would have heard comments from his fellow members. He had to know what kind of person Wright was. And yet he was silent and gave him his support.

[John317]

Imagine Wright preaching his ideas at the White House and the American president and his wife responding, "Amen, preach it, brother."

Then, "Hey, hold it. I denounce that. Yeah, that's it-- I denounce that.... but you're free to preach it anyway."

It's been emphasized in Obama's campaign that words really have meaning and that they are terribly important. And I fully agree. Words have consequences. Now we'll find out if they really still do.

[jasd]

Quote:

Quote:jasd

Were the “public office” that of Commander in Chief of the USofA, then yes, you ought rightly to be vetted – as to, among other things – the acuity of your judgment.

>>I am not sure if that is a complement or criticism.<<

Just a not-quite-abstract observation.

The question revolves not around the issue of goofiness but of treachery; that is, treachery as in the statements made by Wright. Obama, aspiring to no more than a business to serve the needs of his family, does not have to distant himself from such denouncements as we've been witness-to recently.

>>According to Obama, these types of sermons were not typical and were so rare that he claims to have never heard one in person.<<

How much known strychnine has to be in the Thanksgiving Dinner before you know it’s not safe for your family?

>>That being the case, a man with goofy political ideas can still be sound spiritually.<<

Whom the gods would destroy – they first make mad! nuts! crazy! insane! ... that’s us, “We the People” – if we continue to rationalize – as we seem to be doing... re: the Presidential campaigns.

[jasd]

Re:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/17/wright/index.html

Yikes! Salon trying to draw a comparison to Rod Parsley and John McCain (McCain and Parsley met only once – that being on the hustings) is, well... I suppose, desperate means for desperate times.

I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop – that paragon of objective journalism – “Mother Jones”

Sheesh! one actually begins to wonders why Obama is trying to distance himself from the good reverend Wright! Is the poetry of “just words” beginning to pale and its protagonist finds need to disassociate himself for the vulgar reason of expediency?

Nah! what with that shtick about hope and change working so well – he’s not goin’ tah devolve to simple expediency for polity’s sake, is he?

“Say it ain’t so, ‘bama, we hardly knew ye.”

Hannity interviewed Wright a year ago. Those, or similar video clips were part of the interview. Obama can hardly be said to have a read on Americas’ pulse and [following] – needs – if a thing of such moment slipped by him and his organization. Not encouraging.

[Neil D]

He had to know what kind of person Wright was. And yet he was silent and gave him his support.

Silence does not necessarily mean support, Redwood.

And a wise counsilor sometimes keeps on staff someone who is antagonistic to a group to give balance to the message that the group intends to give...

For example, if I were to have a group of counselors for me running for city mayor, I would have Bravus, and Planey, and Jeanette and CoAspen and I would have YOU and maybe Shane on it too. You and Shane would be giving balance to the counsel given.

I know, you and Shane would probably be....well, I won't play the political card...but you get the idea..

[John317]

Hannity interviewed Wright a year ago. Those, or similar video clips were part of the interview. Obama can hardly be said to have a read on Americas’ pulse and [following] – needs – if a thing of such moment slipped by him and his organization. Not encouraging.

Wright is a leading proponent of Black Liberation Theology. He went with Farrakhan to Libya to visit with Kaddahfi during the 1980s, and Wright also gave Farrakhan an award.

Now of course Obama has been in close association with Wright for twenty years and has been supporting him with his influence and money all this time. He has said that he went out in search of a church that would be representative of his views. So, being a highly intelligent man with no little ambition, Obama deliberately chose that church with that pastor. Or are we to suppose he did it blindly? Of course not. So then he's been listening to his sermons for two decades now. How can Obama be unaware of what Wright believes and teaches?

It's impossible to believe that all of a sudden Wright is saying things that are completely new and out of character with everything else he's been teaching. If the Senator running for the highest office in the land was not aware of what Wright teaches, what does that say about the quality of Obama's observation and thinking? This is very strange because many other people say that they've known for years that Wright has held these beliefs. Something doesn't smell right here.

Another thing, is it possible that what Obama's wife said about her inexperience with pride in America was influenced by her weekly exposure to Wright's teachings? Or rather, did she and Obama go to Wright's church because his preaching is in line with what they like to hear? Or even perhaps, as has been suggested by Juan Williams, a black reporter for NPR, did Obama choose that particular church with his eyes set on the political advantages of being associated with it? After all, he needed to demonstrate that he is a legitimate member of the black community. Either way it doesn't appear to look very good for him. I will be interested to see how this plays out in the Pennsylvania primary.

[lazarus]

Lets see what the man has to say. Here's a copy of the embargoed version. His actual remarks may be different.

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama

"A More Perfect Union"

Constitution Center

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

[Woody]

Quote:

Silence does not necessarily mean support, Redwood.

But getting out the old checkbook does. Obama supported this racist with dollars for 20 years.

[Dr. Shane]

FOXNews had a body language expert on last night that was evaluating Obama and saying he is being honest and straightforward with what he is saying about his pastor. In other words, he isn't spinning anything.

Obama has character. I hope he wins the nomination as Clinton has no character at all. Although I agree politically with McCain more than Obama, I may well cast my vote for Obama in the fall is he is on the ballot. Character matters to me. It means more than experience. November is still far off and a lot will come up before now and than but at this point I am leaning toward Obama.

I would really like to see an Obama vs. McCain electrion because both are good men and we would be assured a good President.

[John317]

... Although I agree politically with McCain more than Obama, I may well cast my vote for Obama in the fall is he is on the ballot. Character matters to me. It means more than experience...

Do you feel, then, that Obama's character is so positive that this becomes THE deciding factor rather than McCain's own strength of character, his experience, his testing under great pressure and your agreement with his views?

[John317]

... I hope he wins the nomination as Clinton has no character at all. ...

I would really like to see an Obama vs. McCain ...

If Obama weathers this current storm, I think there can be no question that he will be be the Democratic nominee.

[Amelia]

After hearing bits of this on the radio and reading the full speach, I feel much more encouraged that Barack can be a president for all the colors of the Amercian people.

[John317]

If Obama doesn't accept responsibility for sitting there for 20 years and nodding his head while he heard the wrong things that Wright was preaching, he won't be able to convince enough Americans in order to win the general election. Now's the time for him to come completely open and honest about it. He needs to explain why he continued to sit there year after year and hear things he didn't agree with but said nothing about them. I think the reason he did it is obvious-- at least it is to me-- but he needs to tell it to the American people. He's already admitted that he did hear some of those things. And that's a good start. But one thing he doesn't want to do is become "the black candidate." If that happens, he loses. He needs to keep the campaign where it was before, about hope and change, not about race.

Senator Obama said, "We've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike."

But I don't see any evidence that Wright's words offend any blacks (although I know many were offended by them). I see a lot of people trying to defend both Wright and Obama. I see people saying that Wright is correct in condemning America for bombing Japan. I see a lot of people trying to persuade us that Wrights teachings on these things are reasonable and to be expected "within the black community." So, where's the outrage? Where was the outrage and offense shown by Obama and others before it appeared that Wright's sermons could possibly end Obama's hopes of becoming president? Where is the evidence of blacks being offended by it today?

[Dr. Shane]

Quote:

Do you feel, then, that Obama's character is so positive that this becomes THE deciding factor rather than McCain's own strength of character, his experience, his testing under great pressure and your agreement with his views?

I like the fact that Obama is married to his first wife. McCain's first marriage ended in divorce likely due to adultery on his part. I also do not like the fact that McCain appeared in a Hollywood production "Wedding Crashers" which contains "lots of needless swearing, and it promotes casual sex as the norm. It even portrays marriage as a big mistake throughout most of the film". McCain is also known to be hot-headed and impulsive. So there is a contrast in the character of the two.

Obama's position on issues would have to be scary for me to let it override his character. The fact he will appoint liberal judges is the issue that most concerns me and may cause me not to vote for him. There are some other issues I don't like about him such as anti-corporate and anti-trade rhetoric but being that Congress will have to go along with him, I am not as concerned about those as I am about liberal judges on the bench.

Quote:

If Obama doesn't accept responsibility for sitting there for 20 years

He has done that.

Quote:

and nodding his head while he heard the wrong things that Wright was preaching

I don't know that he was nodding his head. I think he has been very straightforward about his religious experience with the church. This church did a lot of good things. It is a very large church with a lot of activities. It is very understandable to me why someone wouldn't want to leave such a church just because the pastor went off on occasional tirades.

Quote:

I don't see any evidence that Wright's words offend any blacks

According to Obama, he was offended.

[Woody]

Today ... Obama flatly refused to condemn Wright. He said that to do that would be like condemning all blacks ... whatever that meant. I think his speech today was just double speak. He is trying to get elected. He now knows he has to both condemn the remarks but also support the system that supports such remarks on a regular basis.

[Bravus]

Did we think that the first black president in American history would be elected without race becoming a major issue at some point this year? I know I was pretty much waiting for that particular penny to drop. Good that this scandal-of-the-week has come out now and been disposed of so long before the election. The story really is nothing more than another 'Britney Spears shaves her head' media storm, and no more important - no matter how much the right tries to make it the defining issue of the election. I think Shane has done a good job of describing the issues of character, at least in terms of a counter to the notion that it's Obama who has that case to make rather than McCain.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, but there are a few more primaries yet to come, and the conventions... I suspect it will be a barely-remembered blip by November.

[Woody]

Quote:

I suspect it will be a barely-remembered blip by November.

Personally ... I have a long memory. The last time someone made this kind of comment (above) ... to me ... was when George Bush made the infamous statement "read my lips". I had a political friend (SDA) who was running for the State Senate that year. I worked for his campaign. Well ... he told me what you just said. As we know .... to this day ... "read my lips" is one of the most infamous statements in political history.

I predict that the Wright factor will be a big factor. It is in MY mind.

[John317]

Even Juan Williams says that Obama was trying to use the Trinity church and Wright for political purposes, and I think that becomes obvious when we examine all the facts of the case. Obama was brought up in Hawaii and went to a preparatory school for children from wealthy homes, and therefore he did not have a connection with the black community. He clearly needed to shore up that weakness in his background if he intended to go very far politically, and he chose the church where the well-known Wright preached his radical Black Liberation Theology. Newspapers have quoted Wright talking about his conversations with Obama, to the effect that they discussed together the fact that the time would come when the Senator would need to distance himself from Wright.

That time is apparently now. Recently the New York Times reported that "according to the pastor [Wright], Mr. Obama... told him, 'You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.'"

Sounds like a political decision, not due to his being outraged or being personally offended.

[Woody]

Quote:

Sounds like a political decision, not due to his feeling outraged or personally offended.

Exactly. This is the way it smells to me. I think Obama's excuse is feckless IMHO.

[John317]

...The story really is nothing more than another 'Britney Spears shaves her head' media storm, and no more important - no matter how much the right tries to make it the defining issue of the election.

I think this seriously damages Obama as a presidential candidate. Just how damaging and whether he can pull it out depends a lot on what he says tonight and whether the American people accept his explanation. I have real doubts about that right now. I think a lot of people are disappointed in him. They expected him to be separate from "the angry black man" thing, but it appears he's pulled himself into that vortex. If he is largely seen in that way at the time of the general election, I don't think he'll come close to winning.

I agree with much that you say, though, such as that it is a good thing for him that this issue has come now rather than just before the election or during the convention. He needs to do everything he can to stop any doubts people might have in their minds about him, and one way to do that is to be completely forthright, even if it means admitting that political considerations played a large part in his decision to be a member of Wright's church.

[Woody]

I look more at action than words. Obama has talked a lot about unity. But, what has he done about it? He attends a racist church. That speaks volumes. Why would someone who wants unity ... expose himself to hate? Right now ... Obama needs to be specific about condemning what his pastor said . And he needs to explain why he listened to all this hate and just now is denouncing it. Come clean man ...

[John317]

I completely agree with you. I'm willing to listen to him, but I feel differently about him now than I did before. I am wondering how much is just political talk. Like you, I want to see action.

[Woody]

Okay .... I am listening to O'Reilly. And they have all these black people saying 'Oh I don't agree with anything that Rev. Wright said" BUT ....

What I want to know is where were all these black members of that church when Wright preached these things.

If my wife preached just ONE of these sermons ... she would not be preachin anymore. So, for Obama to say he hadn't heard it is no excuse and possible not true. This kind of speech would be talked about and if it was disliked ... he would have been fired. So, why is Obama going to a church that condones such hate speech?

Please tell us why Obama.