This editorial is very straightforward. The fact that ”Rev.” Wright is Obama’s “spiritual guide” should be a huge wake up call for any Dem who is supportive of Obama…..and can think for him/herself. The choices the Dem’s are facing is pathetic. Elaine
Obama dogged by pastor’s radicalism
Saturday, March 15, 2008
SEN. BARACK Obama’s pastor may pose a greater threat to his presidential hopes than his Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, or presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.
The wily Sen. Clinton has struggled to bring Sen. Obama’s soaring candidacy, with its uplifting themes of unity and hope, back down to Earth. For the most part, Sen. Obama has stayed on his positive message, although his campaign has been diverted by some negative, ill-considered remarks made by his outspoken wife.
Perhaps Sen. Clinton would have more success if she called attention to some startling passages from the speeches and sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the man Sen. Obama has called his friend and “spiritual guide.”
Recently, ABC News aired a story that featured a number of video clips from the sermons of Rev. Wright, who will retire at the end of the year as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Sen. Obama and his wife, Michelle, are long-time members of the church. The Illinois senator took the title of his best-selling book, “The Audacity of Hope,” from one of Rev. Wright’s sermons.
To put it mildly, the inspirational theme of “hope” does not figure in the passages from Rev. Wright’s sermons included in the ABC report. These sermons were infused with anger, racial bitterness and cynicism about America and its ideals.
In one segment, Rev. Wright railed against “white America, the U.S. of KKK A.” In another, he blamed the “government” for a host of social ills: “The government gives them drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants us to sing God Bless America? No, no, no! Not God bless America. God d—- America!”
Sen. Obama talks about reaching across the partisan divide. But his spiritual mentor clearly isn’t interested in bridging the divide with black Republicans. “They live below sea level, they live below the level of ‘Clarence Colon’ and ‘Condamnesia,” Rev. Wright said in one sermon.
The contrast between Rev. Wright’s bitter political vision and the warm/fuzzy campaign platform of his former congregant is so jarring it begged for a full explanation. After several mild attempts to distance himself from some of his pastor’s comments, the senator on Friday issued a fairly sweeping denunciation of Rev. Wright’s most extreme statements. However, Sen. Obama was silent about whether Rev. Wright would remain a member of his African-American Religious Leadership Committee.
This raises the question of why a candidate who has gotten so much mileage from the rhetoric of healing and hope would maintain any association with a religious figure who has damned America as unjust, racist and imperialistic.
Obviously, Rev. Wright does not speak for the senator and his campaign. Sen. Obama has made that clear. But the senator should know that presidential candidates are judged in part by the company they keep.
He can’t expect to easily dismiss outrageous comments made by a man he has cited as a major influence in his life.
The thinness of Sen. Obama’s public record and the airiness of his rhetoric invite greater scrutiny of his private associations. That’s one reason his wife’s musings about the state of the nation have attracted considerable attention on the campaign trail.
In her speeches, Michelle Obama describes a country that’s “downright mean” and “guided by fear.” She finds hope in her husband’s candidacy, but it’s hope grounded in left-wing politics, not the innate goodness of America.
It’s hard to reconcile some of her remarks with Sen. Obama’s expressed belief in the “greatness of our nation.” It’s impossible to reconcile Rev. Wright’s racial animosity with the candidate’s calls for the country to move beyond race.
Sen. Obama must deal more forcefully with this discordancy if he wants Americans to believe the sweet music of his speeches has real meaning and substance. He needs to completely disassociate himself from Rev. Wright, and while he’s at it, he should advise his wife to infuse her speeches with a little more of his optimism.
Lee ADDS: Although the Main Stream Media will downplay this obvious truth about Obama you can bet that Republican BLOGS will not! Also, Republican ads for McCain will tell it like it is!
