Oct 15, 2008
McCain, Advisers Split On Wright Attacks
Politico: Despite Calls From Aides And Conservatives, Republican Is Unwilling To Attack Obama On Controversial Pastor
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Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ and former pastor of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses a breakfast gathering at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, April 28, 2008. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the former pastor of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. speaks at the Detroit NAACP's 53rd annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner Sunday, April 27, 2008. (AP)
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Wright's Words Wrong, Divisive
"Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong, but divisive."
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Timeline
Obama And Rev. Wright
Key dates in the relationship between Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
John McCain is at odds with many of his top advisers over launching a renewed attack on Barack Obama's ties to his long-time pastor and mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, according to campaign sources.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and several top campaign officials see a sharp attack on Wright as the best - and perhaps last - chance to rattle Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill. ) and force voters to rethink their support of him. But McCain continues to overrule them, fearing a Wright attack would smack of desperation and racism, the officials said.
With McCain unlikely to budge, GOP officials are hoping groups outside of the campaign will finance an ad attack on Obama-Wright ties. It is unclear if any conservative group has the cash to bankroll a serious effort, however.
“Wright is off the table,” said one top campaign official. “It’s all McCain. He won’t go there. His advisers would have gone there.”
The aides argue that the 20 years that Obama spent in the fiery Wright’s pastoral care-and his later assertion that he knew nothing of his former minister’s more extreme statements-provide an opening to challenge Obama’s judgment and honesty in a relevant and politically resonant way.
“He was a central figure in Obama’s life, shaping Obama’s thinking, and he made the extreme radical comments that are borderline anti-American,” the campaign official said.
But McCain will not allow it, according to campaign sources.
“There’s a slippery slope in politics on the racial divide, and Senator McCain made it very clear early on that he did not want to get into that area,” a top Republican official said. “I don’t want to be known as a racist, and McCain doesn’t want to be known as a racist candidate.”
Among those who think Wright is fair game is McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who told conservative commentator William Kristol for a New York Times column last month: “To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that - with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave - to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”
In his famous speech on race, delivered in Philadelphia in March, Obama condemned Wright’s use of “incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.”
Wright, who married the Obamas and baptized their daughters, has shown no remorse for his videotaped tirades - most famously, “God damn America,” which he said several times in a row. At the National Press Club in April, he said: “I said to Barack Obama last year, ‘If you get elected, November the 5th I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people.’”
In early June, on the brink of clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama tried to put the controversy behind him by announcing that he and his wife, Michelle, were leaving Wright’s former church, Trinity United Church of Christ, “with some sadness.” Obama said it had become clear statements made at the church “will be imputed to me, even if they conflict with my long-held, views, statements and principles.”
The McCain campaign’s decision to cordon off the use of Wright from ads and debates has provoked simmering consternation among many leading Republicans and conservatives, who believe the pastor’s fulminations might be the single most effective weapon McCain has left against Obama.
“McCain felt it would be sensed as racially insensitive,” the official said. “But more important is that McCain thinks that the bringing of racial religious preaching in black churches into the campaign would potentially have grave consequences for civil society in the United States.”
Asked about the issue during the firestorm over it last March, McCain told Sean Hannity on Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes”: “I think that when people support you, it doesn’t mean that you support everything they say. Obviously, those words and those statements are statements that none of us would associate ourselves with. And I don’t believe that Senator Obama would support any of those … I do know Senator Obama. He does not share those views.”
Conservatives who want McCain to focus on Wright contend that the omission is another sign of a campaign that is unwilling to play tough enough with the Obama juggernaut.
As the top Republican official said: “There is a future beyond this election.”
By Mike Allen
Copyright 2008 POLITICO





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See all 707 CommentsThe worst of which is:
That he was a Collaborator with the Viet Cong
Who by his own admission,
The Testimony of Other POW''S,
And other Republicans!!!
The War Hero Myth Is a Crock
Nothing But Spin
Anyone who wants to see the Truth
About Mccain
Do a search on Google
key words:
MCCAIN COLLABORATOR
You will find he betrayed
His Country and Fellow Servicemen!!!!
MCCAIN COLLABORATOR
Rev. Wright''s racist hate group only preyed on people of color ! ! ! Who cares ? ? ? They are only poor people of color in Chicago ! Who cares ? ? ?
Nation of Islam too ! Who cares what they do to the people of color in jail !
People of color in jail ? Who cares !
The middle class ! ! ! They are the ones we care about ! ! ! They are the ones that count ! ! !
Those are the real attacks I think of...
I''m sorry. Did I plagiarize?
And Obama get away with it, because the liberal media are supporting and shielding Obama.
What if MCCain had a fund raisor at MC Veigh house ?
Obama will bury him in just one debate. Let him bring it on! McCain''s chances for even gaining any ground will vaporize the moment Barack shoots down the topic.
Let the misguided portion of the Republicans keep deluding themselves that there is anything to those accusations. The more they stray from the issues the more they lose. The moment those accusations are confronted near election time, the only chance they will have is to throw in the towel.
That just goes to show what mental midgets these people are. That''s why they are easily led by the leash by their Neo-Con masters. What those Neo-cons don''t know is somebody read their playbook and so far, all they''ve done is REACT TO THE PLAY set before them by persons a whole lot smarter than them. Persons that can get this country out of this rut and rot created by certain corrupt Republicans. They have destroyed their own party.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations, President Obama and Vice-President Biden.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
Let them wake up to the wasteland called Wassila, where Palin allowed Wassila''s natural lake to rot where fishes can no longer live - Lake Lucille.
Tout Palin, so the nation will find out HOW and WHO supported her to win Alaska''s top post...AIP...
YES! MAKE OUR DAY!
2. Our army is so streched, we have used our resources on people who have their own oil/resources and who don''t like us
3.our own economic mess has had a global ripple effect, and eg the olympic stadium in England will suffer just as many other imp projects coz the terms were negotiated before the financial meltdown and would have to be revised
Rev wright just but ranted away in his church and i don''t think that Barack used to religiously go to church,
its a none issue that will eat away at the precious 90 min of the debates if invoked
Hypocrites.
Posted by PitbullPalin
I wouldn''t vote for Palin to be the town''s dog catcher much less the VP of the United States. She is the reason that McCain''s poll numbers are sinking faster than a rock in water. Had he chosen a more qualified person, he would probably still be in this race. Palin is a joke! Most of America see''s that.
Posted by ozonmojo
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Please - enlighten us - what "fate" is that??
Posted by john43218
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
you must remember that America has people of all the reliigions, and as hard as it is to believe it''s not unconstitutional to be a muslim nor is it considered treason
im yet to hear the IRS say that they are collecting taxes from only Christians
Posted by john43218
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
you must remember that America has people of all the reliigions, and as hard as it is to believe it''s not unconstitutional to be a muslim nor is it considered treason
im yet to hear the IRS say that they are collecting taxes from only Christians
Posted by john43218
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
you must remember that America has people of all the reliigions, and as hard as it is to believe it''s not unconstitutional to be a muslim nor is it considered treason
im yet to hear the IRS say that they are collecting taxes from only Christians
"McCain and his advisers may split on the issue of Jeremiah Wright.But the American public at large already knows very well the toxic nature of his relationship with Obama.Is it too much to expect the voters to act on that knowledge without a reminder from anybody?If it is,they deserve the fate that is in store for them."
And if you really believe that, you do not deserve the benefits that are in store for you when Obama wins. But better that you should reap what you did not sow than that the rest of America should reap what McCain sows.
Posted by Simon9999
Because their religious leaders and self-porclaimed "mentors" are not hate-mongers who preach that "God will bless you for whatever hateful thing you can do to the whiteys".
Obama has been around these types of hate-mongers for his whole life, now some people want to put him in the most powerful position in the world? I just have to say they have $hit for brains.
Posted by gocubs58
I think he is confused. If we survived 8 years under GWB (barely) we will do fine under Obama/Biden. I think Obama has the chance to be one of our greatest Presidents of all time. He has my vote (and I am from the GOP)
Posted by john43218
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you must remember that America has people of all the reliigions, and as hard as it is to believe it''''s not unconstitutional to be a muslim nor is it considered treason
Posted by Xzonz
This has nothing to do tiwh taxes or the constitution. It has to do with hate. Hate for all those who do not believe as you do and do not have the same color skin as you have. Obama has followed his mentors all his life who have preached you should "take flesh from the whiteys, and god will bless you".
Get educated, then you will have the ability to make an informed decision.
Obama/Biden 08
Posted by jcnbma1
This is classic :)! This is the best nick name that could have been given to her. The Disasta from Alaska, I like it. It is even better than, "20 Jan 09, The End of An Error"
The worst of which is:
That he was a Collaborator with the Viet Cong
Who by his own admission,
The Testimony of Other POW''''S,
And other Republicans!!!
The War Hero Myth Is a Crock
Nothing But Spin
Anyone who wants to see the Truth
About Mccain
Do a search on Google
key words:
MCCAIN COLLABORATOR
You will find he betrayed
His Country and Fellow Servicemen!!!!
MCCAIN COLLABORATOR
Does John McCain "pal around with terrorists?"
Certainly McCain''s continuing "association" and relationship with the convicted Watergate burglar and domestic terrorist G. Gordon Liddy might suggest that is the case, if we are to apply the standards drawn by the McCain campaign.
In 1998, Liddy gave a fundraiser in his Scottsdale, Arizona home for McCain''s senatorial re-election campaign -- the two posed for photographs together; and as recently as May, 2007, as a presidential candidate, McCain was a guest on Liddy''s syndicated radio show. Inexplicably, McCain heaped praise on his host''s values. During the segment, McCain said he was "proud" of Liddy, and praised Liddy''s "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great." From the program:
Article at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-bernstein/ayers-and-the-mccain-g-go_b_134256.html
this is a quote from presidential hopeful John Mcainn;
%u201CHannity & Colmes%u201D: %u201CI think that when people support you, it doesn%u2019t mean that you support everything they say. Obviously, those words and those statements are statements that none of us would associate ourselves with. And I don%u2019t believe that Senator Obama would support any of those %u2026 I do know Senator Obama. He does not share those views.%u201D
Posted by dragonfly4u
Come on people, this is old news. It didn''t work with Hillary and it won''t work now. I think there is more important things to be concerned with. I, have sat in church myself and heard my pastor say things that I don''t agree with. Haven''t we all? This is a non-starter and simply a distraction and I am not the least bit interested. I want to hear about issues and ideas, not this bull "S". This is one of the reasons I have been turned off on McCain.
Breaking news:
www.spinnersgonewild.com
A high number of blacks arte being arrested daily. Just check your local paper. Black arrested for drugs - Black arrested for murder - Black arrested for rape - Black arrested for stealing - everyday, it is the same thing and now Blacbama will give them free reign to commit further crimes. Cosby had it right when he stated you cannot take the JUNGLE FEVER out of these Spinners
Posted by LIBScrew at 01:35 PM : Oct 15, 2008
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LOL!
u made my day! ha! ha! ha!
yes its what happens to any society which lacks education jobs recreation.most black neighbourhoods lack proper schools many are jobless and many dont have money for recreation, thats why we have all this kind of problems
Breaking news:
www.spinnersgonewild.com
A high number of blacks arte being arrested daily. Just check your local paper. Black arrested for drugs - Black arrested for murder - Black arrested for rape - Black arrested for stealing - everyday, it is the same thing and now Blacbama will give them free reign to commit further crimes. Cosby had it right when he stated you cannot take the JUNGLE FEVER out of these Spinners
Posted by LIBScrew at 01:35 PM : Oct 15, 2008
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
LOL!
u made my day! ha! ha! ha!
yes its what happens to any society which lacks education jobs recreation.most black neighbourhoods lack proper schools many are jobless and many dont have money for recreation, thats why we have all this kind of problems
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