The Trinity United Church accomplished something that has eluded Hillary Clinton thus far in the campaign – they stopped Barack Obama’s momentum. I watched Obama’s interviews last night on both CNN and Fox, and frankly it insults my intelligence to hear him say that he never heard that hate speech from Wright “repeated”. The journalists involved, especially Major Garrett who was acting like a prosecutor anyway, should have asked Obama to define “repeated” as it applies to this situation. I take the meaning as Obama heard Reverend Wright say all of these things at least on one occasion.
It is hard to believe that Obama did not hear this rhetoric on a regular basis. If Wright’s hateful rants were so infrequent, then how did ABC and Sean Hannity procure the video so easily? Furthermore, I am tired of Obama’s narrow repudiations of those who preach hate. First he narrowly renounced Farrakhan after being prodded by Hillary Clinton and now, if you listen closely, his repudiation of Wright is done in exactly the same way. I have stated before that I don’t generally believe in guilt by association but now there is a very discernable pattern that has developed in regards to Obama and his association with racists.
The good news for the Hillary Clinton campaign is that the Trinity United Church stops Barack Obama’s momentum dead in its’ tracks. The way this story is unfolding, I now predict that the Obama campaign will completely implode to the point where Hillary dare not even consider for the VP slot. Obama will get crushed in Pennsylvania and North Carolina will be closer than it otherwise would have been. Indiana may tip towards Hillary while Kentucky will be a blow out win for Clinton. Perhaps more importantly, Hillary Clinton now has a rock solid case that can be made to the super delegates and previously pledged delegates to Barack Obama. The Democratic Party needs to think long and hard about Obama’s association with racists and how that could make Obama the worse possible Democratic candidate in the general election. Of course, should Clinton ultimately prevail, that would cause a huge rift between the African-American community and the Democratic Party.
The GOP simply needs to stay quiet and allow events to play out. Do not look a gift horse in the mouth by injecting yourself into the argument. This campaign season is highlighting the fact that racism is alive and well in the Democratic Party. The GOP should quietly Reverend Wright for exposing something that has been there all along. Again, the Trinity United Church stops Barack Obama’s momentum.
March 15th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Just think for a moment if a GOP candidate attended a church in the South that had a pastor who spoke the kind of hateful, racial stuff this guy did. That candidate would be crucified in the press. So far the press has still treated this pretty lightly. As far as I know, Wright is still the spiritual advisor to the campaign. Why has he not been fired?
March 15th, 2008 at 9:03 am
He is most definitely not the Antichrist. I can not longer state that is not the rest of the adjectives in your statement.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:45 am
The poor kids over at Obama For America are in a tizzy. You are simply not allowed to ask any questions about this incident. They repeatedly accused me of being a Hillary supporter even AFTER I told them (more than once) that I was a Republican. I’ll post the thread later. It is funny.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Dear God,
Please let Barack Obama be the Democrats nominee for President. I won’t ask for anything again.
Thank you for your consideration.
March 15th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Poco,
Which post are you referencing?
March 15th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Kudos to Obama for strongly responding to the controversy over Wright, including even making an appearance on Hannity and Colmes last night.
Now when will McCain refute Hagee?
March 15th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Poco, it’s funny how the attack on Obama has shifted, a week ago he was a Muslim, now he’s being attacking over his church and minister (Christians). How is it that a “Muslim” is being attacked for supporting a Christian minister.
So what’s the argument next week, that Obama was never Bar Mitzvah’d?
March 15th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Bob, rest assured, we’ll find something :p I thought that McCain did distant himself from Hagee? The difference is he never called Hagee his mentor or write a book after his sermons, much less go to church with him for 20 years. Its a difference of degree.
March 15th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
This is all you have to know about the Hagee situation. (I’m Catholic btw and supporting McCain)
http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1404
March 15th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Jason – thanks, I had not seen that previously.
March 15th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
BTM, did you see Obama on H&C last night? What he basically said was that he’d known Wright for over 20 years, Wright has a reputation as a well-respected preacher and has built a church from less than 100 parishioners to over 8,000 and they worked together in the 80’s on community outreach programs.
He said that most of what the media is reporting is new to him, these weren’t normal statements for Wright and weren’t in-line with what he knew of Wright’s character. He then went on to repudiate Wright and say that if he had heard these sorts of statements he would have left the church.
The media has pieced together a few outlandish statements, but others are saying as well that these are the exception, not the norm. I think Obama did the right thing these last 24 hours.
March 16th, 2008 at 12:06 am
“He drove the white members of his congregation away 20 years ago”
including overweight white women? in my neck of illinois it is quite popular for gorgeous aa guys to marry plump caucasian women.
yet another thing i don’t understand about men.
March 16th, 2008 at 12:14 am
I think this becomes more of an issue in the general election, if Obama is nominated. This is exactly the kind of thing that will sway independents away from the new guy and this won’t go away easily. People don’t really get Rezko. They don’t really care about the so-called plagiarism. Black Separatist Church. Now that scares the hell out of centrist voters.
Lisab, uh, there was a rap song a decade ago about that the preference of that community for plumper women. To each his own. In Beverly Hills, 105 pounds is considered about right. In South Central, more like 170. There’s someone, for everyone.
March 16th, 2008 at 6:57 am
Bob,
We already covered that. Let’s be original. Hagee was not McCains’ personal pastor for 20 years. Sorry, nice try though.
March 16th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Blog-hole, if you were stuck trying to defend the record of the Bush administration for the last 7 years, you’d look for a boogie man too.
Meanwhile, anyone paying attention to the global financial markets right now? Monday is going to be a very very rough day.
At least Henry Paulson FINALLY has a plan to curb unscrupulous lending practices, two years after Ron Paul sounded alarms.
March 16th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
“Lisab, uh, there was a rap song a decade ago about that the preference of that community for plumper women.”
you mean …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zER7SSti3A&feature=related
March 17th, 2008 at 5:06 am
We’re not saying he was never inspirational, David Dukes and Adolf Hitler were inspirational as well. We’re just saying that he clearly hated America and blamed white people for killing blacks with the AIDS virus, etc.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Geepers, Bob, you just don’t get it. This speech is extremely offensive.
The woman is an allegory for Americans and the United States. She is sitting on top of the world in Obama’s anti-American view, a paper tiger who under close examination is actually in rags with a broken social order [the harp].
Then there is the African-centric view of Obama’s church, which puts African interests ahead of the United states in their brochures and website. You see signs of it here:
“The world on which she sits [American hegemony] seems on the brink of destruction. Famine ravages millions of inhabitants in one hemisphere [African continent or more generally, hemisphere used as a metaphor for black people], while feasting and gluttony are enjoyed by inhabitants of another hemisphere [USA or white people]. This world is a ticking time bomb, with apartheid in one hemisphere [Africa/black] and apathy in the other [USA/white].”
Bob, thanks for sharing this speech. I hadn’t gotten to it, and now we find that it reinforces what we have all been wondering about Obama. It is a smoking gun that relates an anti-American and anti-white viewpoint to Obama directly, a speech that he cannot claim that he never heard. It inspired his book title. Amazing.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I think we should post this in the main area at RP with a special thanks to Bob Abouie for helping us!
March 17th, 2008 at 10:56 am
The Republicans are LOVING this. It looks like McCain is pulling ahead in the polls over Obama and Clinton. And he doesn’t even have to do anything. Just watch Obama get torn to shreds and watch Hillary get more unlikeable each day.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Bob,
73% of Americans believe that Wright’s rhetoric is racially divisive. He is viewed favorably by 8% of the population. That makes Bush look like Superman by comparison.
Thanks again for the research assistance. We will make certain to properly credit you in a way that makes it crystal clear that you did the necessary digging on our behalf.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Here is the kicker; I just heard Juan Williams interviewed by Laura Ingrahm. Even he thinks Obama is done. I was very surprised because he is usually pretty partisan, but he was disgusted by the Rev. Wright’s statements. He also said that Obama didn’t do enough to distance himself and that this story is going to have legs. Finally, he thinks that in the generals this story may kill Obama’s chances. The Reagan-Democrats, etc. are not going to go for this kind of stuff.
At first I was skeptical that this story would be the one to bring Obama down, but now I’m not so sure. Either way, McCain is definately helped by it.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Oh I dunno, BTM. If this forges the Hillary/Obama dream ticket (in that order) this will still be tough to beat. I agree that if Obama is shut out entirely, this will split the Dem constituencies irreparably. If the Dems are dumb enough to put him on top, I agree that Obama will be beat.
Has anyone considered that there will probably be riots if the Dems emerge from convention without Obama on the ticket?
March 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Think about it in these terms. So far we have seen about 30ish Democratic voters in this primary season (or we will by Penn). In the generals we expect to see about 140 million voters. One thing that you can take away from that is that the moderate/independant/Reagan Democrat group is going to decide this election one way or another. Before the Wright story I was actually very concerned they would break for Obama/Clinton. I’m much less so now. In fact, I expect Clinton to win Penn by at least 15%. If this is the case, the whole dynamic of this race has changed once again.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
McCain, I think there will be riots if Obama doesn’t come out on top of this ticket, not just if he’s shut out.
Now, the Dems have a HUGE problem because this Rev. Wright story definitely has legs. Obama is going to have a hard time distancing himself. The questions will dog him for weeks to come. Why did you keep going to the church after those anti-American comments? Will you continue being a member of the church (retired or not, it’s still Wright’s church)? Do you consider Rev. Wright a mentor? This is so easy to spin against him that it makes Swiftboat look complicated. Just imagine the ads, “How well do you know Barack Obama? Did you know his minister for 20 years said this…” cut to Rev. Wright repeating “God Damn America”.
These questions will affect how a huge % of white independents will vote. Rev. Wright scares the bejeezus out of white independents.
I don’t think Obama is done. He’s come to far to quit. But he has a lot of work to do to get rid of this taint.