To me the title really details the critical point of the issue.  The story starts with Obama’s church.  The leader Rev Wright is a fire and brimstone pulpit pounder, but not the usual sort.  Imagine if Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan all rolled into one with a touch of Michael Moore tossed in.  The only sermons I have heard have all been directed not at soul saving, but at creating a culture of distrust and division between blacks and whites.

His social philosophy is summed up by what he calls Black Liberation Theology.  Essentially, it is blame everyone and ensure your status as victim is assured.

Obama has been under fire a while on his association with a guy who blames the US for 911, Aids, Drugs and a whole laundry list of other problems, as well as a healthy pro Palestinian belief.

Rolling Stone did a lengthy assessment of the man and the preacher last year.

Wright takes the pulpit here one Sunday and solemnly, sonorously declares that he will recite ten essential facts about the United States. “Fact number one: We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college,” he intones. “Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!” There is thumping applause; Wright has a cadence and power that make Obama sound like John Kerry. Now the reverend begins to preach. “We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional KILLERS. . . . We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. . . . We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. . . . We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means!” The crowd whoops and amens as Wright builds to his climax: “And. And. And! GAWD! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS SHIT!”

This is as openly radical a background as any significant American political figure has ever emerged from, as much Malcolm X as Martin Luther King Jr. Wright is not an incidental figure in Obama’s life, or his politics. The senator “affirmed” his Christian faith in this church; he uses Wright as a “sounding board” to “make sure I’m not losing myself in the hype and hoopla.” Both the title of Obama’s second book, The Audacity of Hope, and the theme for his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 come from Wright’s sermons. “If you want to understand where Barack gets his feeling and rhetoric from,” says the Rev. Jim Wallis, a leader of the religious left, “just look at Jeremiah Wright.”

Obama has been playing it very cool, saying he had no idea about the Reverend’s ideals, but some questions exist.  The story has been shuffling like mad.

Recently the Reverend preached about not singing God Bless American, But singing God Damn America.  This didn’t resonate well, so the mutterings about Obama’s association grew.  This along with Gerry Ferraro’s comments brought out a lot of criticism about Obama, Race and his views.

WSJ published this yesterday:

Obama and the Minister

In a sermon delivered at Howard University, Barack Obama’s longtime minister, friend and adviser blamed America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs and creating a racist society that would never elect a black candidate  president.

…

Concluding, Mr. Wright said: “We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty.  . . .”

Considering this view of America, it’s not surprising that in December Mr. Wright’s church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan for lifetime achievement. In the church magazine, Trumpet, Mr. Wright spoke glowingly of the Nation of Islam leader. “His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening,” Mr. Wright said of Mr. Farrakhan. “He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest.”

After Newsmax broke the story of the award to Farrakhan on Jan.. 14, Mr. Obama issued a statement. However, Mr. Obama ignored the main point: that his minister and friend had spoken adoringly of Mr. Farrakhan, and that Mr. Wright’s church was behind the award to the Nation of Islam leader.

Instead, Mr. Obama said, “I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree.” Trumpet is owned and produced by Mr. Wright’s church out of the church’s offices, and Mr. Wright’s daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.

Meeting with Jewish leaders in Cleveland on Feb. 24, Mr. Obama described Mr. Wright as being like “an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don’t agree with.” He rarely mentions the points of disagreement.

So in the face of a host of vile preaching Obama’s defense is essentially ‘Oh that Jeremiah, he is such a wacky guy!’

But as is frequently noted, that wacky old guy is one of Obama’s mentors, a “sounding board” for policy ideas and a member of one of his advisory committees.

So one question raised is:  Do we have the right to question the depth of his advice?

So after a year or so of avoiding a position, Obama released a clear denouncement of Wright’s views, but at the same time, his repudiation is very nuanced IMHO:

On My Faith and My Church

The pastor of my church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently preached his last sermon and is in the process of retiring, has touched off a firestorm over the last few days. He’s drawn attention as the result of some inflammatory and appalling remarks he made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents.

Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialog, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.

A nice clear repudiation, but he drops in a hint of what is to come:  The Rev is retiring, so he is taking steps to diminish the threat.  He launches into a praise of the man:

I knew Rev. Wright as someone who served this nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country, from Union Theological Seminary to the University of Chicago. He also led a diverse congregation that was and still is a pillar of the South Side and the entire city of Chicago. It’s a congregation that does not merely preach social justice but acts it out each day, through ministries ranging from housing the homeless to reaching out to those with HIV/AIDS.

So despite being a radical who preaches hate and intolerance, he is a great guy…if you are poor, sick and preferably, black.

But ignoring my caustic evaluation, the issue may be one of trying to determine how much influence the Rev had in the church.  Until we see the results of the new pastor, that may be an open puzzle.

Seeing the praise, it was not a shock to read that Obama was keeping him on staff:

From NBC’s Mark Hudspeth

The Obama campaign says they have no plans to ask the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to step down from a campaign spiritual advisory committee. They’re stressing that this committee — the African American Religious Leadership Committee – was a laundry list of people associated with the campaign and didn’t really do anything. The group never actually met.

They say Wright has no formal role on the campaign (unlike some others on this committee who do have a formal role in faith-based outreach). They say he was included mostly out of respect to his long relationship with Obama.

Aides say he was not present during the Christmas 2007 sermon or the post-Sept. 11 sermon. They weren’t sure about some of the others in question, are not sure when the last time the two spoke, and they stressed they don’t speak frequently.

But when the muttering grew louder, that changed:

Wright leaves Obama campaign

Spokesman Tommy Vietor emails:

“Rev. Wright is no longer serving on the African American Religious Leadership Committee.”

That cuts Wright’s only formal tie to Obama, and answers what was sure to be a question in Obama’s interviews tonight: If Geraldine Ferraro had to leave the Clinton campaign, why is Wright different.

So that may be that, though I find it hard to believe that someone he revers so heavily will be without continued influence to Obama personally, if not politically.

The issue at hand is influence and association.  We respect freedom of association, but anyone can tell you that association is a double edged sword.  You have to answer critics if your associations are negative when you are someone in the light of public scrutiny like Obama.

And as this not the first pro Palestinian adviser to leave his campaign under a cloud, many people will continue to wonder where his values lie.

What is clear is that Obama has a weakness, and the Clinton’s will likely use this if they can.

All I know is that race baiting and fear mongering has no place in our government, and with Al Sharpton predicting social consequences if Obama loses the nomination to the power lusting Clinton, this preacher is just more dry tinder waiting to explode and demagogue about white privilege.

It is also worth noting, as a footnote if you prefer, that if this was McCain, and the issue white power as opposed to Black Liberation, the conversation would be much worse.  But that is a double standard we should be used to by now.

Final comments:  While it is encouraging that he went all out tonight to repudiate this, but his comments were too rehearsed and calculating for me to feel  comfort.  Obama has known this is an issue since last year, and at one point he asked the Reverend not to appear with him out of fear of the association. 

Disinvitation by Obama Is Criticized

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., senior pastor of the popular Trinity United Church  of Christ in Chicago and spiritual mentor to Senator Barack Obama, thought he knew what he would be doing on Feb. 10, the day of Senator Obama’s presidential announcement.

After all, back in January, Mr. Obama had asked Mr. Wright if he would begin the event by delivering a public invocation.

But Mr. Wright said Mr. Obama called him the night before the Feb. 10 announcement and rescinded the invitation to give the invocation.

“Fifteen minutes before Shabbos I get a call from Barack,” Mr. Wright said in an interview on Monday, recalling that he was at an interfaith conference at the time. “One of his members had talked him into uninviting me,” Mr. Wright said, referring to Mr. Obama’s campaign advisers.

Some black leaders are questioning Mr. Obama’s decision to distance his campaign from Mr. Wright because of the campaign’s apparent fear of criticism over Mr. Wright’s teachings, which some say are overly Afrocentric to the point of excluding whites.

Wright offers some thoughts:

In Monday’s interview, Mr. Wright expressed disappointment but no surprise that Mr. Obama might try to play down their connection.

“When his enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli” to visit Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Mr. Wright recalled, “with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.” Mr. Wright added that his trip implied no endorsement of either Louis Farrakhan’s views or Qaddafi’s.

Mr. Wright said that in the phone conversation in which Mr. Obama disinvited him from a role in the announcement, Mr. Obama cited an article in Rolling Stone, “The Radical Roots of Barack Obama.”

According to the pastor, Mr. Obama then 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.”

While this does not contradict Obama’s contention that he only learned how radical the guy was after he decided to run, I have to wonder.

To me, it boils down to this:  How can you attend a church for 20 years, and then claim that you had no idea that your pastor preached hatred and bigotry from the pulpit?   Wright didn’t turn this way over night.

Obama is basically using the same “Iced Tea” defense that Al Gore did:

I’m sure we all remember the various Clinton/Gore fundraising scandals, including the one where Al Gore was suspected of making campaign fundraising calls from the WH. I’ll never forget one of the defenses he tried to use when questioned by the FBI about it:

August 1998 Gore again meets with FBI investigators about the 1995 fundraising meeting. When presented with documents that appear to contradict his earlier assertion that he was not a part of any fundraising discussions at that meeting, Gore offers what comes to be known as the “iced tea defense”: “The Vice President also observed that he drank a lot of iced tea during the meetings, which could have necessitated a restroom break,” which would have caused him to miss the discussions about fundraising, according to the FBI report.

The statement is as laughable now as it was then … and one Barack Obama used in a similar line of defense today in a statement he issued about the growing controversy over his racist reverend’s more, um, colorful remarks.

The answers Obama provides do not convince me.  I think this is damage control, nothing more.

Exit question:  Obama has now had two advisers leave his campaign, both of whom had a history of highly charged divisive rhetoric.  What does this show us about his judgment in picking advisers?

  Trackposted to Sister Toldjah, STA, Hot Air, Wizbang, Riehl World, Michelle Malkin, Jawa Report, STA, Hot Air, S&L, Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Shadowscope, InvestorBlogger, Adeline and Hazel, Chuck’s Place, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, Pirate’s Cove, Celebrity Smack, The Pink Flamingo, A Newt One, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, A NEWT ONE-LIVE COVERAGE FROM EAGLE’S MUSTER, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Phastidio.net, Cao’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Conservative Cat, Nuke Gingrich, Faultline USA, Allie is Wired, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Global American Discourse, Wolf Pangloss, Tilting At Windmill Farms, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS