McCain, Advisers Split On Wright Attacks

(The Politico)  This story was written by Mike Allen.

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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

[mimi1267]

drcool4u,

What we KNOW is that you don''t have a clue as to what you''re talking about and are apparently too lazy to do your homework rather than believe every smear campaign that the Far Right Republican party puts out there.

You say:
1. Community Organizers register people that don%u2019t vote of their on volition
2. Community Organizers get loans for people that can%u2019t pay them back
3. Community Organizers exploit disinterested people for their on objective
4. Community Organizers like democrats keep people on welfare programs to secure their

You need to get something straight. Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies. Throughout our history, ordinary people have organized for change from the bottom up. Community organizing was the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women''s suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek.

[mimi1267]

Obama''s not playing the race card. Palin on the other hand has repeatedly played the gender one.
The following link is good for a laugh...Talk about talking out of both sides of your mouth!

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card

[mimi1267]

Who said ?
"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government", "and I won''''t be buried under their *** flag."

The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that''s the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.")

[aceshigh333-2009]

Obama can raise taxes on Exxon,etc. But, Who the tax will get passed to ??? Joe, the Plummer. Your looking at a wealth distubution from the middle class to the wealfare class. Raise taxes on the top 5%, you''ll see it on the bottom 95%. The top 5% will not loose money that''s why they are at the top 5%. Look for higher prices on goods and services....

[abbe91]

Who said ?

"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government", "and I won''t be buried under their *** flag."

[grammawhamma]

oops...sorry about the double post.

[grammawhamma]

Rev. Wright should have been the turning point in this election. Not because he is black, not because he preaches hatred for the USA and not because of his deragatory remarks about the Clintons, etc.

This election is not about Rev Wright...it is about Obama. Obama called this guy his mentor. He said he could never disown Rev Wright. Then only a few weeks later Obama disowned Rev Wright when he realized it might jeporadize his political career. That showed to me that Obama will step on and crush anyone (even his so called mentor) to crawl up the ladder of success. I cannot trust a man who stabs his friends in the back to gain success. Hillary had it right when she said "Shame on you!" to Obama.

[grammawhamma]

Rev. Wright should have been the turning point in this election. Not because he is black, not because he preaches hatred for the USA and not because of his deragatory remarks about the Clintons, etc.

This election is not about Rev Wright...it is about Obama. Obama called this guy his mentor. He said he could never disown Rev Wright. Then only a few weeks later Obama disowned Rev Wright when he realized it might jeporadize his political career. That showed to me that Obama will step on and crush anyone (even his so called mentor) to crawl up the ladder of success. I cannot trust a man who stabs his friends in the back to gain success. Hillary had it right when she said "Shame on you!" to Obama.

[brownbuilder]

GUYS IT IS TIME TO UNITE BEHIND OBAMA; ALL THE MUD SLINGING AND SELF HATRED FROM YOUR TALKS AT THE DINNER TABLE WILL NOT HELP ANY. YOU SAY YOU LOVE THIS COUNTRY THEN UNITE BEHIND THE NEXT PRESIDENT.OBAMA.
GOD BLESS AMERICA

[egresor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d
vROBLortBQ&eurl=http://hotair.com/archiv
es/2008/10/07/cnnobamaslyig-about-willia
m-ayers

you can''''t just cut and paste ( code problem )

works if you copy one line at a time

Posted by drcool4u

sorry sir

i''m at work and cannot listen to it as we have no sound working on this computer.

will check it in the A.M. tho

and i don''t mind one bit having pertinent facts being presented, but most of them are scurulous charges not based in facts or twisted to fit an agenda. (strain at a gnat and swallow an elephant)

those deserve NO respect!