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

[MENTAL]

.
The racist pastor may be gone from hussein's campaign - but his bigotry, "black values" and condemnation of and hatred for "whi'te" America is still there - it's what hussein stands for.
.

[gplaw]

Why does religion matter? This moment is about the citizens of this nation. We must not allow any one person to ruin our movement. We decide who we want to lead this nation; and if we decide that we want Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John Mc Cain to be the conduit, we cannot be sidetracked by outside centrifugal forces. None of the lobbyist, spiritual advisors, or donors can stop us. We the people are the hope of this nation, we decide.

[flyguy14222]

Have to love the spin Obama is trying on this one. A 20 year relationship and now he tries to distance himself...­how convenient. Even some of you Obama supporters have to wonder about that.

[TruthBeTold4us]

Fox "news" has been running this all day yesterday and much of today, March 15th. What I'd like to know is where is the disclaimer from Fox that Rupert Murdoch is a supporter of Hillary Clinton's campaign?

On July 17th of 2006, Rupert Murdoch held a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at his Newscorp midtown tower in New York. Roger Ailes was in attendance.

In August of 2006, Murdoch played host to Bill Clinton at a Newscorp retreat in California.

Hillary defended Rupert's fundraiser in an interview with the London Financial Times. She said "He's my constituent and I'm very gratified that he thinks I'm doing a good job."

It was reported on the Huffington post in July of 2007 that Rupert Murdoch had donated $2300 and his son James gave $3400 to Hillary's campaign. Newscorp/Fox executives gave a total of more than $40,000 to Hillary's campaign.

How is that "fair and balanced" news when Murdoch is obviously backing Hillary Clinton?

[DaRight]

.......

Read Shelby Steele's book about race in America...

Obama WAS a BARGAINER.­....That is an African American that reassured Whites that he DOES NOT first assume they are racists until proven otherwise.­....

Jackson, Sharpton CHALLENGER­S...That is an African American that assumes whites ARE racists until proven otherwise.­.....

Obama's BIGOTED pastor and Obamas inextricable link to that pastor has made him have the potential to be a CHALLENGER in BARGAINER's clothing..­...

It will now be the GOP's mission to move him firmly into the CHALLENGER camp and marginalize him .......


MCCAIN WINS!



.

[Tankan]

Leaving, that's the fashionable thing to do!

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one!

[veracal]

He never should have had any role in the campaign. Obama and his camp knew how Rev. Wright's remarks would be viewed by a large percentage of Americans. This is a serious misstep for Obama.

[QuestionandThink]

I have read Wright's controversial words, and I wonder why everyone is so shocked. Is it really so crazy to suggest that the 9/11 attack was in some way related to past U.S. aggression overseas? After all, we all know that we have meddled in the Middle East for decades, that we funded Bin Laden in Afghanistan, that we openly supported oppressive leaders in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, and elsewhere, that we openly support Israel's brutal oppression of Palestinians, and that we actively enable our overseas businesses to oppress foreign workers. Wright's other well-publicized statement about drugs, prisons, three-strikes laws, etc. is even less disputable. In fact, I would say it is right on the mark. Wright's attempt to replace "God bless America" with "God damn America" is a poor attempt to be clever; iIt is certainly not the treasonous crime it is alleged to be.
This whole episode is just one more indication that Americans simply refuse to come to grips with our history of oppression. The fact is that we have indeed needlessly killed millions of people overseas, we incarcerate black youth at rates that are nothing other than criminal, we arrogantly demand blind allegiance from our own oppressed citizens, and we blame foreigners for not giving us their blind admiration despite our aggressive behavior. The real tragedy in this whole affair is that it could take down the one politician who can wake us from our self-imposed blindness and restore some ldegitimate allegiance and admiration. Damn our own igorance stupidity!

[fatherof5women]

of course, huffington post shows the slobbering olbermann kid gloves interview.­..not the others which were much more honest...

and where is the rezko article huffington promises on the home page?...yo­u click on it and it's another
article..

seems like ALL the wheels fell off the obama bandwagon.­..and the huffingtons of the world are in a panic...

too bad...obam­a almost fooled enough people....­almost...

[gregjones]

Rev. Jeremiah Wright Was Correct...­.Ask Bill Clinton !
THE FACTS ABOUT THE TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENT

Excerpt from NPR: July 25, 2002

The Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began the study in 1932. Nearly 400 poor black men with syphilis from Macon County, Ala., were enrolled in the study. They were never told they had syphilis, nor were they ever treated for it. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several illnesses, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue.

For participating in the study, the men were given free medical exams, free meals and free burial insurance.

At the start of the study, there was no proven treatment for syphilis. But even after penicillin became a standard cure for the disease in 1947, the medicine was withheld from the men. The Tuskegee scientists wanted to continue to study how the disease spreads and kills. The experiment lasted four decades, until public health workers leaked the story to the media.

By then, dozens of the men had died, and many wives and children had been infected. In 1973, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a class-action lawsuit. A $9 million settlement was divided among the study's participants. Free health care was given to the men who were still living, and to infected wives, widows and children.

But it wasn't until 1997 that the government formally apologized for the unethical study. President Clinton delivered the apology, saying what the government had done was deeply, profoundly and morally wrong:

"To the survivors, to the wives and family members, the children and the grandchildren, I say what you know: No power on Earth can give you back the lives lost, the pain suffered, the years of internal torment and anguish.

"What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say, on behalf of the American people: what the United States government did was shameful.

"And I am sorry." (Bill Clinton)

Visit: www.Blacks4Barack.org
(A Multi-Racial Organization)

[dutchess2]

Racists hating a decorated Marine who has 40 years of sermons, after hearing only 30 seconds..

Not a proud day for America.

[roncraw]

If there are any Obama supporters left I reommend staying near a bathroom as you have drank to much Kool Aid

[TruthBeTold4us]

Fox was playing this morning, noon and night yesterday. What I find interesting about Fox's coverage of this story is the fact that Rupert Murdoch HELD A FUNDRAISER for Hillary Clinton. How can Fox provide "fair and balanced" coverage when it's owner held a fundraiser for one of the Democratic candidates? Does that not show bias?

This is from MSNBC :
updated 7:09 p.m. ET, Fri., May. 12, 2006
NEW YORK - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox News Channel and other conservative news outlets have been skewering Hillary Rodham Clinton for years, will host a summer fund-raiser for the senator, mystifying some observers and enraging others.

Especially incensed are liberal activists, who for months have decried what they see as a shift to a right on Clinton’s part as the Democrat contemplates a run for president in 2008. They are stunned that she is associating with a man viewed as a cornerstone of the “vast right-wing conspiracy,” a term Clinton herself employed.

[msopine]

Gosh, I don't know what I'm more surprised at . . . a politician misrepresenting the fact that his ties to a shady character are much deeper than he claimed or that the Huffington Post is finally printing something moderately negative about the Obama campaign.

[Emmaboverry]

Oh, dear. John and I were hoping Pastor Wright would stay on. In any case, we've sent this little thank you on to MSM. Of course, we've already thanked Fox in person. They've been so terribly good to us.

Dear Media:

Thank you for your part in creating PASTOR-gate. Our fight against
the insurgent forces of Obama and his ranting Pastor will not be easy.
But with your help, we can do it.

The Clinton-McCain Campaign