Rev. Wright's Tour Begins

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, longtime friend of and pastor to Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, is getting back into the news, this time on his own terms and initiative. As Chicago Sun-Times' Lynnn Sweet points out, Wright is going very public in the wake of controversies stirred by taped remarks of some of his sermons, which included often replayed statements like "God damn America."

First up is an interview with Bill Moyers of PBS, which will air Friday evening. Next comes a turn at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Monday. According the The Caucus blog at the New York Times, Wright tells Moyers he feels the controversies are unfair. "I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious reasons."

Wright says the political reasons for the flap are clear. "I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ. And by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint? That's what they wanted to communicate." And, in a seemingly back-handed compliment, he says Obama has dealt with the issue the only way he can. "He says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they're two different worlds. … I do what I do. He does what politicians do." Stay tuned for more from Wright's interview.

[vincan-2009]

Reverend Wright is doing to best thing he can to take the hate out of the republican attackers. Wright is a Christian pastor and for all the years of his ministry has done no worse or no better than any other preacher. But just let the republican media and the Bill/Hill and McCain demons go after the worthy Obama. They both know he is the best person to be president. We don''t need McWar Monger or H. Clinton with her republican playbook. The real elitists are Clinton and McCain. Does McCain go to church. He definitely can''t keep his story straight on any matter but gets lauded by the press.

[KYJurisDoctor]

For Obama''s sake and for the sake of the rest of our country, maybe the Reverend can shut up NOW!

[blkpresident]

Hillary-Steinem ''08?

Wonder who these broads would tap as Secretary of Defense, Jane Fonda? Stick up for America Indiana and North Carolina and don''t let lil'' missy destroy our country.

[stevepam-2009]

Youtube Hillary Clinton Peter Paul

[ladyoamerica]

that goes for clinton too. anyways...

nice talking/debating with you. its cool that we were able to do so over such a big issue as race without the other person going down to name calling as i have seen 90% of debates do.

[ladyoamerica]

my point is obama needs to get over his race and not let that play for him and he needs to tell wright to shutup and disown him for his unpatriotic statements, and he needs to display his patriotism as so many examples have been given that he isn''t patriotic and his wife needs to be proud of her country long before now if shes going to be its first lady. and obama needs to stop talking about whites and blacks as if we were seperate people cause last i checked we are all Americans.

[ladyoamerica]

fine, ill allow that i dont know obama in person and can''t say that he isn''t a decent human being, but i will stand by the fact that i was going to vote for him until he said his little comments lumped with the rev and his wifes comments about america and whites. if someone wants my vote, they need to be patriotic, get our troops home, but don''t bash the current gov system at the same time, support our troops, and not give a dam about what color they are. clinton and obama seem to care very much about race atm, and im sick of it, and im sick of the mud slinging ads, im sick of people bashing our troops and current goverment on top of it all. im sure being president is a hard job but you really shouldn''t condemn the current one until you have experienced yourself, i dont agree with bush but i also dont agree with bashing him and bashing our troops.

[ladyoamerica]

how about this.

I think some blacks are racists to whites. maybe most. because of something our ancestors did to yours. grow up, get over, this is a new generation.

Also black men got the right to vote before white women. so don''t try that one on me.

and this, before blacks were the indians, also prosecuted by white men, and guess what they are still worse off than blacks, i have cherokee indian in me as well. they aren''t even considered part of this country, can''t vote and etc, and the indians were here before any blacks or whites! run off their land and killed by the thousands.

what happened, happened. let bygones be bygones, get over the frakkin past. I think obama doesn''t like whites and i think that because of the statement HE said.

My favorite manager is black, and i have 3 other men i work with that are black and they are great guys! but get this i had a black customer come in who didn''t want my help because i was a white woman! he wanted one of the black men to help him. im sick and tired of this race bull. People need to get over what color they are.

[ladyoamerica]

stop typing in all caps, it makes it difficult to read and "yelling" isn''t going to get your point across anyways. it only looks bad.

[ladyoamerica]

obama is the one who made the comments about whites, categorizing us into one group of people who all believe the same thing. i say frak that, this whole issue about being racist is ridiculous.