Jeremiah Wright, Obama's Pastor, Leaves Obama Campaign

Politico reported Friday night that Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's controversial former pastor, is no longer with his campaign. Wright's comments about 9/11 and other inflammatory remarks have drawn increasing scrutiny and media coverage in recent days.

The statement from the Obama camp:

Spokesman Tommy Vietor emails:

"Rev. Wright is no longer serving on the African American Religious Leadership Committee."

MSNBC adds that it remains unclear whether Wright left voluntarily or was asked to leave.

Obama did not clarify whether Wright volunteered to leave his African American Religious Leadership Committee, a loose group of supporters associated with the campaign, or whether the campaign asked him to leave.

Obama made the rounds on the network news shows Friday night, speaking on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Watch his interview on MSNBC with Keith Olbermann.

MSNBC

Comments

[WorkingClass]

Rev. Wright is right. Obama should stand by him.

[uglybetty]

I don't believe Obama has the guts to stand up for him ,even though I wonder if those are'nt really Obamas beliefs also !!

[bison1]

Listen to Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons. Listen beyond the words. Try to hear the message. Is he damming America or is he damming an America that would allow social injustice to occur? Is he damming the nation, or is he damming some of the worst aspects of this nations history? Flips this on its head. He sees this nation as a blessed nation, but he is damming the wrongs of within our society.

He is advocating radical humanism. He wants out nation to value the lost of every life. He was not blaming the 9/11 victims. As a Christian, his prays went out to them and their families. But he, like Ron Paul, and many others want us as a nation to rethink our foreign policy– so that we are in shock and awe with the lost of any body’s life– even the life of our enemies. We must bat an eye for the lost of anybody’s life. All of our lives have equal worth and value.

Since the inception of Christianity, it has been a liberating force, but the message must be spoken in the language of congregation so that it can be heard.

[OtayPanky]

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

I'm an independent - and as far as I'm concerned all three of them need to reject and denounce any of the nut jobs who would sully their campaigns - whether it's Rev McWhacko (the white one), Rev McWhacko (the black one), or Geraldine Ferracist.

A good old fashioned political enema never hurt anyone - and let's the rest of us know that our candidate of choice isn't entirely deaf.

[jriegel]

Whether it's the dirty tricks mentality of the Clinton campaign or the sophomoric behavior of the extreme right, Senator Obama will be ambushed all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But I firmly believe he will make it there. And for the first time in a very long time, we will have a President who is visionary, brilliant, calm - and who believes that collaboration and coalition are the means to a rejuvenated America of opportunity and global respect. We cannot afford to have an interventionist like McCain or 'politics as usual' represented by Senator Clinton. Both are strong in their own way but neither have the combination of talents that Obama has. And it is just this combination of talent and skills that we so desperately need in our country.

Pastor Wright echoed notions, ideas, and hostilities that have been debated in universities and homes across this country for as long as I can remember. To me, it wasn't what he said but how angry he was when he said it. It is fact that we've been accused of ignoring atrocities. Some say it's even true. And our role in the Middle East is one that we have to address, settle, fix, adjust, etc. That Hillary Clinton doesn't know what it's like to be a black woman is certainly true - and how could she? None of us who aren't black have any idea of what it would be like to suffer this discrimination. Is it possible to be angry enough at your country to damn it. Probably so, if your experiences have been such that you'd have a reason for it. The number of black men in prison? Disgraceful in its obvious discrimination.

But Senator Obama isn't angry and he isn't Pastor Wright. And he didn't say the things that Pastor Wright said. I've seen people get really mad in my life because I come from a big family of passionate ideas and opinions. And I was raised in the 60's when if we hadn't gotten really mad as a country we wouldn't have the freedoms we have today - or the perspective about war. So, leave Wright alone. We live in America and people are allowed to get mad and stand on the pulpit, bully or otherwise, and rant their opinions. And leave Obama alone for he cannot be responsible for what others say or feel. Senator Obama did what he needed to do by denouncing the Pastor's comments. Lastly, Obama is patient and calm in a crisis - how much we need these attributes in the leader of our country.

[bison1]

You have a point about the angry, but we must not forget that there is angry in our nation. But then again, was it angry or emotion--- after all he was preaching, not talking.

[WorkingWoman]

Too late, bad boy. The skinny is out. Over 20 years with this hate-monger racist. It's over. Only a matter of time until we find out how deep BO is in with Rezko. $250,000 and counting.

[sklfcats]

Really? That is good news. I can't stomach Barak one more minute.

[MRb1000]

LOOK MAN TAKE YOUR PILL AND LEAVE US ALONE

[eniobob]

Now that Barack has said he did not approve or accept the comments of Reverend Wright will McCain have to do the same thing with John Hagee?

He seems to be getting a pass.McCai­n that is.Or is the main steam media in a quandry?
Not being a position where they have to deal with a Black Man up close and personal?

[johnnygoodwud]

obama is indeed clearing the decks of the rezko/wright situations. come debate time, i think he will go after hillary for not releasing her tax returns, her white house papers, her earmarks, and most importantly the donor list of the clinton library. six months after her husband bill pardoned convicted tax evader mark reich, reich's wife 'donated' $500K to the clinton library. hillary's brother also sold pardons for $500.000. don't believe me, still in denial, just do a google search.

[rwferr]

I think we have heard the Howard Dean Scream of this election. Its over for Obama.

[angst2000]

I agree that getting this out in the open as early as now is a good thing. I'm thinking that this might actually be a brilliant campaign strategy, if it ever is. It's timing was done at the height of the Ferraro flap and there has the effect of canceling out each other. The timing is 6 weeks before Pennsylvania which means there is plenty of time to address the issue(s). Effectively, at this point all issues have been brought out in the open. No more Jeremiah Wright, no more Rezko, tax papers released, earmarks or pet-project lists released. Everyone can truly see and affirm Barack's honesty and integrity. Barack is freer than ever compared to Hillary who's been secretive about a lot of things. Brilliant! Go Barack!

[dkewyne]

This is why we need to vote for Hillary. Obama and his wife are anti American liars. Hillary cares deeply for our country, and will do the job right. Obama and his cronies will destroy this country.

[HanSolomente]

Hey, I know people are not into common sense these days, but does anyone want to discuss that some of the issues he brought up have some truth to them?


Now let me start off by saying I love America and don't believe we 'deserved' the attacks of 9-11. With that said, there is a intelligence term called "blowback". Essentially blowback is the result of foreign policy we have made over the years coming back to haunt us. It's not about whether those policies were right or wrong, it's how they were perceived by the rest of the world.


For example, 9-11 is a case of blowback as Osama Bin Laden used our policy decisions in the first Gulf War to put bases in Saudi Arabia as a reason to rally his troops and Al Qaeda. It was his rational for 9-11. Now obviously I don't agree with him, but that doesn't change the fact that he believes it and so did many more radical Muslims. Now that doesn't mean we should back down to these people just because they see the world differently to us, but ti does mean we need to take into account how they perceive our actions and what the possible ramifications of those actions might be. An easy example of this is the current Iraq War.


Many of us from day one knew Cheney was just waiting for an excuse to get Bush to go into Iraq. And many of us also knew that, like it or not, the Arab world would perceive this as the USA occupying an Arab country, and terrorist recruiting would sky rocket as a result. Well guess what? That's exactly what happened. They don't hate us for our freedom, they hate us for our foreign policy. They may be wrong, but that doesn't mean it isn't what they believe. We will be seeing blowback from the Iraq War for years to come, and when that happens you can say it's because they hate our freedom or you can deal with the problem like a rational adult.


The American people need to stop acting holier than thou and look at our foreign policy decisions over the past 100 years with more of a world view. You don't have to hate America to want to see it live up to it's full potential. We make mistakes, our country and it's people are not perfect. We need to address our national mistakes as a country in the same way many Democrats are asking Hillary to take responsibility for her Iraq vote in this election. Loving your country means recognizing it's faults, pointing them out, and trying to fix them. I say the Pastors comments were inflammatory and wrong, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't any truth hidden within his statements. It's time to be a Country of substance again and not a Country of sound bites, divisiveness and finger pointing. The freedom of speech in this country allows the Pastor to say whatever he wants and as Americans can we please elevate ourselves to either agreeing with the man or not and not turn ourselves into the Patriotism Police. Thanks.

[BlueAsh]

The Daily Kos has an interesting take on the matter: Why is it that Wright's sermons get scrutinized ad nauseam but Huckabee's sermons never were? And he was a candidate for over a year!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/15/114311/053/117/476858

[Steamboater]

Too little, too late.

[Bboyshoes42]

Boy, with the advent of this I have to say that media is definately more than making up for their "Obama Love" formerly held. I cannot in my mind see how these people that support a candidate are being charged as if they are the candidate. What about all the right-wing nut cases that are now supporting McCain? Are we going to make McCain denounce the AEI?

[doneflyin]

Everybody's all over Obama's preacher man for what they call hate speech when in December, 2001 I listened to one of St Louis's most popular Presbyterian ministers make statements that made my mouth drop.
In this lovely, very expensive suburban church with an upscale membership, the minister said that nobody in the twin towers was an innocent victum. He indicated they were guilty of something, I don't know what. I don't get this kind of thinking but his audience did as they vocally agreed!

Then he went on to say how excited and happy he was about all the escalating violence in the MidEast as it was a good sign that Christ would be returning any day now. Happy? Excited?
I was horrified. I took this personally too as I had lost co-workers on those flights.

What kind of nut would say this and what kind of nuts believe it?

I walked out of that frigging church and never went back.

Truth is all over this country in mainstream churches, fundie churches, white, black whatever,
this kind of garbage if being peddled and being believed.
Obama's pastor is just one of many.