March 17, 2008
The Wright Questions For Obama
The Nation: Sermon Excerpts From Rev. Jeremiah Wright Damage Credibility Of The Senator
-
Play CBS Video
Video
Pastor Trouble Dogs Obama
Sen. Barack Obama denounced inflammatory statements made by his spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but did he act soon enough to stop the political fallout? Dean Reynolds reports.
-
Video
Obama Decries Pastor's Remarks
Barack Obama is at odds with his longtime pastor and friend the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose incendiary rants have touched off a firestorm of controversy. Dean Reynolds reports.
-
Video
Chance Of Dem Fallout?
Clinton supporter Leon Panetta addresses whether Democrats will divide if Barack Obama (who currently leads in the delegate count and public vote) does not win the nomination. Bob Schieffer reports.
-
-
Photo
Democratic president hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., makes remarks during a campaign stop at a Gamesa plant, Tuesday, March 11, 2008, in Fairless Hills, Pa. (AP)
-
Photo
Barack Obama pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. (CBS)
-
-
Photo Essay
Barack Obama
A look at the life and meteoric rise of the president-elect.
-
In The Spotlight
Campaign Watch '08
Check out the latest campaign ads in the race for the White House.
A few thoughts on the widely played excerpts from the sermons of Barack Obama’s pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago:
1. This is the worst crisis the Obama campaign has faced. It has done deep and perhaps long-term damage by calling into question the judgment and credibility of the junior senator from Illinois. And it badly undermines Obama’s claim that he is a figure who can bind up America’s racial wounds.
2. Senator Obama, whose campaign only last year said that he was “proud of his pastor and his church,” is now saying that he wasn’t aware of the angry, reckless, anti-American, and racially divisive comments by Reverend Wright. But that claim stretches credulity. Reverend Wright, after all, is not a stranger who is offering up a presidential-year endorsement. Wright has instead played a pivotal role in Obama’s life -- including marrying Barack and Michelle Obama, baptizing their two children, and inspiring the title of Obama’s second book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Senator Obama has been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since the early 1990s. Are we supposed to believe that the kind of venom and vivid hatred that we have all seen on display -- that God should damn rather than bless America, that this country created AIDS in an effort to foster genocide, that we had 9/11 coming to us, that America is the “U.S. of K.K.K.A.” and that Israel is a terrorist state -- is an anomaly for Wright? That the overwhelming majority of his sermons are expositions on the love of Christ and the need to break down the dividing walls between us? That Obama was utterly shocked to see Wright’s words strung together on cable TV? That he has seen a side of Wright in the last week that he never knew existed?
This is a pastor, after all, who traveled to Libya in 1984 to visit Muammar Qadhafi with Louis Farrakhan and presented a lifetime achievement award to Farrakhan only last year, calling the Nation of Islam leader a man of “integrity and honesty” and referring to him as “one of the 20th and 21st century greats of the African-American religious experience.”
The odds are a good deal better than even that Wright’s hatred is on regular or semi-regular display at the pulpit of Trinity United. The question now becomes: What did Senator Obama hear, and when did he hear it?
3. Reverend Wright’s toxic comments may help us better understand the remarks by Michelle Obama that she is proud of America for the first time in her adult life only now that her husband is running for president and that she considers America to be a “outright mean” nation.
If someone admires Reverend Wright as much as Michelle Obama seems to -- and she has spoken very well of him in the past -- then it’s reasonable to assume that they share some common values. People who attend the same church for a quarter century often share key attitudes and outlooks of their minister. That’s not always the case -- but it’s more often the case than not. And it is very rare that people who attend a church for more than 25 years hold views that are fundamentally at odds with their pastor.
It sounds like clashing cymbals to hear Obama’s rhetoric -- at once calm, reasonable, and unifying -- and then to hear the comments of two people who play among the most important roles in his life: his wife and his minister. People are right to wonder: What the heck is going on here? Did Obama embrace Wright and his church in an effort to gain legitimacy during his Chicago years -- and now wants to jettison Wright and his church in an effort to gain legitimacy during his run for the White House?
4. Senator Obama and some of his supporters have made the plea that he not be made “guilty by association.” What people are asking for is not guilt but responsibility by association -- especially an association this long, this deep, this important.
And on the matter of “guilt by association,” here’s a thought experiment. Assume that the spiritual leader and pastor of the church George W. Bush or John McCain attended was, say, a white supremacist or an anti-gay bigot. Do you think that there would be any hesitancy among the press to push the “guilt by association” storyline? I rather doubt it.
I ask because on Thursday CNN’s Anderson Cooper and some of his commentators were visibly unhappy that they were forced to spend valuable time talking about the Wright issue rather than, say, health care or education policy. Anderson and the others clearly viewed it as distasteful and a distraction from a full airing of policy issues. (To Cooper’s credit, by Friday he had changed his tune and was making the case for why the story was relevant.)
5. We actually have an example of how the MSM plays the “guilt by association” card when it comes to certain political and religious figures. In the 2000 campaign George W. Bush spoke once at Bob Jones University; it was an event used to bludgeon Bush with for the rest of the campaign and into his presidency. And, of course, Bush did not attend Bob Jones University, financially support it, or consider Bob Jones to be his spiritual mentor or close friend for 25 years. Yet these things mattered not at all. Bush spoke at Bob Jones University -- and so to many in the press, he was joined at the hip with it. The association between Reverend Wright and Senator Obama is far deeper in every respect.
Until now Barack Obama has run a remarkable campaign and has shown himself to be a man of apparent grace and class, an apostle of hope and unity. But recent events are starting to eat away at the image of Obama. Nothing has done more damage to him, however, than the comments of his pastor Jeremiah Wright. What Obama has said by way of explanation is neither reassuring nor persuasive -- and before this story plays itself out, much more damage to the reputation of Barack Obama may be done.
The words of Jeremiah Wright are acidic -- both in their own right and in what they are doing to the Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. For his next sermon Reverend Wright might consider meditating on the words of James: “the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” To these words Senator Obama may simply say, Amen.
By Peter Wehner
Reprinted with permission from National Review Online.




- 1
- 2
- next
See all 91 CommentsI truly believe they make themselves pro American but, they do not follow some American ways. They chose to tear people down just by association, not talk about issues.
O.K. I hold them accountable for this war and the poor economy because they voted for Bush and/or because they are republicans. They aligned themselves with a poor candidate and it%u2019s a problem with me and I''m sure with most Americans. I question their poor judgment and their association to Bush. Your judgment put our troops in harms way. I''m sure most Americans feel the same. The war was not wise. You need to explain your screw-up!
Stick with issues. Sounds so ridiculous. It''s like Robin Givens should be the heavyweight champion of the world because she was married to Mike Tyson.
You conservative renounce and reject your president and party for poor judgment. That is the big issue.
.
A very nice summary of the true foundation of hussein. Clearly, he''s a divider - not a uniter. The only item left out of this execellent article is Wright''s constant advocacy of "black values" - i.e., as so appropriately described by Ferraro, special treatment for blacks and, simultaneously, condemnation of whites. He''s been preaching that vile, bigoted and hateful approach for decades. There can be no doubt that hussein has been a part of it over that time.
/
It''s absolutely relevant - the NRO says this issue brings bigotry, judgment and credibility to the fore and I wholeheartedly agree!
So given that 75% of all whites, latinos, asians, and biracial people have a preference for whites and harbor hostility to blacks, and even 50% of blacks have a preference for whites and harbor hostility to blacks, but 100% of people like to think they''re race-neutral, how many of you are really willing to put YOURSELVES to the same tests that you seek to subject Barack to? It goes to objectivity and truth.
Peter Weiner, the test is here: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Study?tid=-1
How unbiased, how committed to truth, and how much character is in all of you?
There''s this curious tendency of people in the media to keep saying this again and again - ''this could be fatal'', ''this is serious'', ''will his campaign survive'' - combined with a complete void of any research into factors which would shed light on the issue.
What''s with the need to say this? My sense is that it''s people''s way of saying ''I''m terrified at the thought of a black person actually becoming President'' . . . it''s very primal really, but people just look almost sub-human when they just repeat this without seeking to inject rational thought into their assessment. True, the NRO always act like this, but WOW I''m shocked latinos like Geraldo are like this too . . . who knew?!?
Like some of the fears people have expressed about a black person becoming president (when Barack is actually half white) is that Osama would be granted a pardon, Barack would laugh and cheer when people throw themselves out of buildings in the next 9/11, Barack will wage genocide against whites, etc . . .
latino candidate - open the floodgates, massive grants of amnesty, merge with Mexico (right?)
same-*** candidate - children getting the wrong message about ''sexual perversion'' (evangelicals tend to group homosexuality with beastiality, child molestation, orgies (?))
female candidate - vulnerable to attack, or conversely destined for armageddon as the female seeks to prove her toughness, masculinization of women
Posted by SamTheTVCat
No, but it does show he apparently is a bad judge of character. Even if Rev. Wright felt this way personally he should have kept it to himself. He just isn''t Obama''s pastor he is his mentor which, in my eyes, makes him even more of an influence over Obama. You wouldn''t pick a person as your mentor if you disagreed on issues that most would think is important especially if I were running for the highest office in the land. Rev. Wright calls home, where he has built quite a sizable congregation, in a country he apparently hates. It''s a little hard for most people to swallow that fact alone.
Posted by kennergirl at 04:15 PM : Mar 17, 2008
Also, the fact that he was asked to be on Obama''s African American Religious Leadership Committee showed he was still seeking spirtual guidance from him and Obama is either a liar or stupid or he thinks we are stupid if thinks that we believe he did not know this side of his pastor after 20 years.
Conversely if you support Hillary, applying the same standard you just held Barack to, doesn''t a vote for Hillary effectively endorse the idea of infidelity?
You think you''re different and you''re not . . .
kennergirl, AJMarine1 - are you both ''''Conservatives''''? I know AJMarine is, so how then do you vote for somebody who''''s mentor is Jerry Falwell and Rev. Hagee?
Posted by SamTheTVCat at 04:47 PM : Mar 17, 2008
Hi Sam, I like to think of myself as and Independent, I voted for Carter twice, Bush twice, and when Dole and Clinton ran, I voted for a third party candidate; so what does that make me?
As far as Falwell and Hagee, they are nut jobs too.
I''m just asking the question, if Obama is elected, is his pastor a man you want wishing in his ear as a mentor, and do you believe that he didn''t know his pastors views before now?
McCain was not a member of either minister''s church, and he denounced their remarks.
Everyone decide if this is the same thing or not.
Did Barrack lead in any small way, in that church? It certainly doesn''t look like he did, or those types of rants mighht have been eliminated years ago, and never had the chance to blow up in Obamas face.
Hagee has already come under fire for his anti-Catholic remarks. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said McCain should "retract his embrace of Hagee," and said Hagee "has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church." Chris Korzen, Executive Director of Catholics United, said "We hope Senator McCain will take the principled position of publicly and unequivocally distancing himself from Pastor Hagee''s anti-Catholic comments. Intolerance and bigotry do not belong in American politics."
http://tinyurl.com/22jyk3
While the 20year difference versus and endorsement is a distinction, I don''t see how it''s one that''s relevant to the question a candidate''s values. Because Barack''s never shown an anti-white platform in his 12 years of public service, so what would be his motive to change now? Desire to ensure re-election by pleasing the voters who put him over the top? That same vulnerability would then exist with McCain and Hagee''s armageddon scenario, made an even greater threat given his ''bomb bomb Iran'' ditty.
PPS I still feel like when people say things like ''do you see the issue'', ''do you get the issue'' what they''re saying is really that they are terrified of what a black President might do in office . . . that''s surely part of the firestorm. The guy on CNN Headline News even admitted that about 2/3 of emails felt the same way . . . that''s right in line with Harvard''s finding that 75% of whites, latinos, and asians harbor hostility towards blacks. In which case, race relations are likely to continue to flare up throughout the campaign . . . it could actually be a great opportunity to have a collective healing . . .
I still haven''t decided who I will vote for.
I wish Obama had more experence, I think he will raise taxes, or at least let the Bush tax cut run out, and if you want out of Iraq, he looks like he is headed that way.
Hillary says she has experence she does not, I think her policies are close to socialism,taxes will go up, she now says she will leave Iraq, and I shudder at the thought of Bill wondering around the White House with nothing to do.
As far as McCain, you will get more of Bush.
Who to vote for, who to vote for?...........I guess there is always Nader.
Probably for all of them their VP and cabinet choices might bring some much-needed breadth and depth. People might almost want to vote for a McCain/Crist ticket, almost HOPING McCain might suddenly retire :o
I just hope whoever gets in does their best and has the countries best interests at heart.
I was a life member of the United Church of Christ. I was a member of the consistory which is the non-clergy board of directors that is in charge of each church''s goverance.
We had monthly meetings, we had a yearly annual meeting. In the Congregational tradition governance was up to the members.
As a 20 year member of his church Sen Obama had the opportunity to be on the consistory. Was he. He also had the opportunity to attend, speak out and vote in annual meetings.
Silence is concurrance.
Rev. Wright was also a member of Obama''s campaign staff.
Silence is concurrance. What could Obama have been thinking. How could Wrights'' rants be construed as good ministry.
I have now watched Wright''s video''s. I remember the church service I attended the Sunday after 9/11. We were in shock, we were greiving, we were looking for Gods Grace. What could Wright have been thinking. Worse what could Obama have been thinking. Reality is Retzko and Wright tell us alot about Obama.
The bloom has come off the rose.
To somehow try to suggest it is a black thing is a BIG LIE ! ! !
So is J. W.
That is how he can say G.D. America in church and the people cheer.
He is dammning them too and they cheer.
They are brainwashed. Is Obama brainwashed too ?
As a voting Democrat from the old school of Bill & Hillary Clinton, Mondale, Ferarro. I''''m happy to learn that Governor Rendell has come out with a vengence for Hillary in our GRRREAT State of Pa.
The old guard is alive & well here. They''''ve expressed the belief That The Shepherd Boy Obama is a Democrat out of line, not sure what that means, but it is clear that the Governor has connections, and assured us that Hillary will win Pa.
Each day his constituents gather together at the summit to find new ways to distain, mock, belittle, ridicule, and start rumors circulating concerning Obama. His camp is encircled & he is outnumbered. He has to go it alone! Somehow, we''''ve been told that Pa, NY,OH, NJ, & MA are superdelegate states and since Rendell was president of the DNC, I''''m sure he knows the ropes. We don''''t understand this but it sounds like a pretty slick trick.
We''''ve been told that Our Great White Hope is in Hillary and that she is entitled to the nomination and nothing is going to stand in HER way. I trust this will be good news for Bill, most Pa & all voters across this Great Nation of ours, & the Mainstream News. We are not biased here in Pa.
This is fun & we''''re just warming up here in Pa. It''''s Polka time so lets Roll out the Barrel & start the count down for Hillary.
Sen. Clinton was always projected to win PA. from the very beginning. Sen. Obama will campaign in PA. of course, but never expected to win in PA.
If you run your mouse over this article without clicking to open, it is advertised as written by "The Nation" wheras it is truly written by "The National Review". A little different take on the world in these two perspectives.
I am convinced now that because of this constant race baiting McCain, war monger that he is and no economist, will win the Presidency and the Democrats may lose both houses.
I know I am discouraged from voting for anything CLinton and I''m a die hard progressive (that''s Liberal for you NRO idiots).
Unless Barack can get this pastor to sincerely have second thoughts about the hate-filled anti-American rhetoric and how it might have been adversely influencing the congregation, I''m not sure this is going to go away. People are probably going to get very animalistic I would guess...
Barack really can''t - that''s just the reality. If he comes out tomorrow and demonstrates more compassion and understanding of his preacher (who really is a bigot) than for the people who don''t want a black President to in any way act like a ''black'', he''s going to be DESTROYED by the Right. I think that when you''re different from everybody else you can only realistically expect others to adapt a little bit and then the burden largely lies on the person who''s different to acclimate, and if one expects too much change to happen from the status quo they''ll just squish that person like a bug (?)
To be honest, even I didn''t believe it when Barack said he''d never seen that side of this preacher - if he tries to stick with that, I think he''ll also be screwed because the Clintons and McCain are much better known by people, and the suspicion level even without the freaky preacher would have already been higher for him. And I''m not sure the average person is really capable of distinguishing between a person with some negative qualities with also some positive qualities (either as individuals or collectively) - like this is country where only 28% of people actually got that there would be consequences for Iraqis if we invaded.
--"Here is a comment made by Paul Goode in another venue that deserves to be repeated:
"So let me get this straight...Barack Obama''''s pastor makes an ill-considered remark in the sanctity of his church, and Obama is called out in the public pulpit and made out to be somehow responsible for it. But, for the last 28 years, lunatic right-wing Christian ministers can spew anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-Arab, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-science anti-human bile from their cable networks and talk shows; summon the wrath of their god on the Muslim world; and call for the assassination of foreign leaders -- and the Republican presidents and politicians who consort with them not only get off scot free, they get away with branding the media as liberal. What a world..."--
Posted by CBS_Oliver
Okay, I''ve made the case for days that about why Barack isn''t the one who needs to be ''honest'' and address possible racism, it''s a question everybody needs to be asking themselves. But the reality is that politics are animal warfare, and the Republicreeps get away with this appaling behavior because they can.
"-"Here is a comment made by Paul Goode in another venue that deserves to be repeated:
"So let me get this straight...Barack Obama''''''''s pastor makes an ill-considered remark in the sanctity of his church, and Obama is called out in the public pulpit and made out to be somehow responsible for it. But, for the last 28 years, lunatic right-wing Christian ministers can spew anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-Arab, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-science anti-human bile from their cable networks and talk shows; summon the wrath of their god on the Muslim world; and call for the assassination of foreign leaders -- and the Republican presidents and politicians who consort with them not only get off scot free, they get away with branding the media as liberal. What a world..."--
Posted by CBS_Oliver"
Sorry, but the folks listening to this type of sermons were not running for President.
I frankly now believe that Obama must have sat through a number of similar sermons during the 20 plus years he attended this church. He never objected or took issue with the content. To me, a Presidential candidate, no matter his/her talents and/or failings, must love the USA and so show it. By failing to speak out or object in some way, Obama funked this test.
Also, if someone does think that the Republicans would not use this issue againist Obama, that person is extremely naive.
I now wish I had my vote back.
1) cocaine as a young man, known fact. Kids do drugs when they don''t feel good about themselves.
2) How does a man with a VERY white mother sit Sunday after Sunday in a church that is condemning "whitey" for everything?
3) Michelle looks more in charge than Obama, watch them together sometimes. She rules the roost. Pay attention next time.
4) Former muslim, atheist, and now christian he has no identity.
5) white/black? father left. He has no identity.
6) To saddle up to someone with a VERY STRONG message like Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a mentor, spiritual advisor, uncle like he has never known made Obama a sponge for any hate diatribe that he was integrated to. With Wright, Obama finally found his "roots".
Of course, without a strong identity of Wright and wrong, Obama has probably been brainwashed into most of the trash Wright has taught him. A young man with an absent father found a new teacher.
Do you really want a President with so many psychological issues? Scary.
The whole family needs some SERIOUS THERAPY that Michelle Obama CAN BE PROUD OF.
As for the charge itself, image McCain belonging to a church that gave an award and praise to the head of the KKK. African-Americans, and most whites, would be outraged. If the pastor in my church did that I''d quite on the spot. There are other churches.
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 91 Comments