Clinton: Wright "Would Not Have Been My Pastor"

Sen. Hillary Clinton has reintroduced the issue of Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright today. First, she mentioned the controversy during a conversation with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a wide-ranging interview today with Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporters and editors, said she would have left her church if her pastor made the sort of inflammatory remarks Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor made.

"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."...

"You know, I spoke out against Don Imus (who was fired from his radio and television shows after making racially insensitive remarks), saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that," Clinton said. "I just think you have to speak out against that. You certainly have to do that, if not explicitly, then implicitly by getting up and moving."

She repeated her remarks later today during a press conference, and followed them up by saying:

I was asked a personal question and I responded as to what I would have done... and I feel very comfortable with that. I don't think that's negative."

Watch:

The Obama camp has responded to Clinton's comments:

"After originally refusing to play politics with this issue, it's disappointing to see Hillary Clinton's campaign sink to this low in a transparent effort to distract attention away from the story she made up about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia. The truth is, Barack Obama has already spoken out against his pastor's offensive comments and addressed the issue of race in America with a deeply personal and uncommonly honest speech. The American people deserve better than tired political games that do nothing to solve the larger challenges facing this country."

Comments

[DemsDeBreaks]

01:03 AM on 04/01/2008

No, Mrs. Clinton, you don't choose your family, but you do choose what man you want to stay married to. I don't find Bill's adulterous affairs "proof" that Hillary is an adulteress. Or, any of Bill's proven-by-a-grand-jury lies proof that she is a liar. Yet she wants us to believe that Obama is a bigot and anti-American because of a few unfortunate sound bites from Obama's retired pastor. Catholics, hold onto your hats if Hillary ever gets you in her sites -- Based on this logic, I'm sure you'll all be painted as pedophiles.

Mostly I find it disgusting that she is throwing so many rocks from her glass house.

[DemsDeBreaks]

11:47 AM on 03/27/2008

>>"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."

[IslandGyal]

03:14 PM on 03/26/2008

I must admit, the media is doing a better job this week of not playing the Rev. Wright language. While they continually show it, they have not been playing the are rarely playing the audio.

[sharpz111]

02:11 PM on 03/26/2008

What about Hillary's membership of the 'Family'?

This article by Barbara Ehrenreich may be a little sensationalist but its interesting this hasn't been made an issue by the GOP, although I'm sure there is potential in the general by 502s...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-ehrenreich/hillarys-nasty-pastorate_b_92361.html

[BrooklynLager]

12:51 PM on 03/26/2008

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Are people actually considering voting for someone who doesn't understand the First Amendment? First it was the flag burning bill, now this.

[Mia319]

12:33 PM on 03/26/2008

Hilllary is a bitter woman who seems to feel America owes her the presidency for putting up with Bill's philandering throughout their marriage. As for experience, Coattails Clinton would be nowhere if she weren't married to a governor and ex-president. Look at her apology for misspeaking, or lying, to call a spade a spade. Bitter, angry, sarcastic--just what I want in a president!

[batspaul]

11:17 AM on 03/26/2008

Mrs. Clinton is being untruthful. You DO , in fact choose your family, at least in the case of your spouse. Mrs. Clinton made the judgment, the choice, to remain married to a man who, after repeated, corroborated accusations of infidelity surfaced in the most public way, then cheated on her in the Oval Office, was caught, lied about it on national television, and was caught in the lie. For me, that is irrelevant to her candidacy. By the same token, I do not feel that Mr. Obama's decision to remain in the congregation of the pastor who brought him to Christianity, despite some repellent speech by that pastor, is relevant to his candidacy. Senator Clinton should have responded honorably: "I will not comment on the religious affiliation of another candidate." If you accept her oblique attack "He would not have been my pastor," then you, in fairness, must ask yourself of Mrs. Clinton's marriage to serial philanderer Bill Clinton, "Would he have been my spouse?" If you accept Chelsea Clinton's statement Mrs. Clinton's credibility re Bill's scandals is "none of your business," then Senator Obama's relationship with his pastor deserves the same respect.

[robeson]

11:05 AM on 03/26/2008

After being 'transformed' by seeing MLK in 1963 Hillary became a Goldwater Girl in 1964, Barry Goldwater the anti-MLK.

"Speaking at Selma's First Baptist Church on the 42nd anniversary of the bloody "Sunday" freedom march there, Sen. Clinton declared: "As a young girl [age 16], I had the great privilege of hearing Dr. King speak in Chicago. The year was 1963. My youth minister from our church took a few of us down on a cold January night to hear [King]. . . . And he called on us, he challenged us that evening to stay awake during the great revolution that the civil rights pioneers were waging on behalf of a more perfect union."

Young Hillary Rodham answered that challenge the next year as the 17-year-old class president at Maine East High School in the Chicago suburbs. She described herself in her memoirs as "an active Young Republican" and "a Goldwater girl, right down to my cowgirl outfit." As a politically attuned honor student, she must have known that Goldwater was one of only six Republican senators who joined Southern Democratic segregationists opposing the historic voting rights act of 1964 inspired by King."

A strange story indeed.

[Marge133]

10:25 AM on 03/26/2008

So Hillary would certainly leave her church or speak up if she heard offensive comments? How about when she worked as a corporate attorney at Walmart? Did she speak up or leave her high paying job when she was in meeting with Walmart when they discussed disallowing employees the right to form unions?
Where was her courage then?

[susan66203]

10:16 AM on 03/26/2008

This is just another example of how the Clinton camp responds to every thing. A day late, a dollar short and completely inappropriately. I was a Clinton supporter until last week and now with this on top of what was going on last week with them....well, now I'm sure I made the right decision to change candidates.

[mickyx65it]

09:59 AM on 03/26/2008

Let's remember the facts. It was Hillary who wanted and started the negative campaigning. Remember the kitchen sink theory? So Hillary's supporters can not complain about the reaction to her negativism. That is what Hillary wanted, that's what Hillary did, and that is what Hillary looked for. And what is good for her, is good for the rest of us. We are all entitled to react to Hillary's negativism. Now the contest is not against McCain, which will come later. Now the aim is to finish the bich. And the Hillary camp cannot and should not disenfranchise her critics.

[lissielu]

09:46 AM on 03/26/2008

Hillary Clinton is a political whore.

[nerakami]

09:46 AM on 03/26/2008

The huge distortion with the Rev Wright. story is that he WAS lashing out against the American government.... (with correct and not so correct accusations) but NOT against other races. I am now hearing that he is anti-racist.... we can say he is, anti-government (well this one anyway) but nothing in his "blips" was anti-racist. It seems we are allowing ourselves to be led around by whatever agenda the media pushes at us. We are so passionate about this presidential candidacy but yet, not willing to take the time to ascertain information correctly. If we are going to use this Rev Wright situation to vote against Obama, then I feel we should at the very least, listen to the entire sermon of Rev. Wright. It puts it into a completely different context than what Fox News has been pushing at us.

I hope that as Americans, we can still be clear sighted enough to determine when our Government has erred gravely. For instance, George Bush has made the bone-head move of the century by invading Iraq. If we lose our focus of what our government is doing then they will continue to lie, cheat and not give a hoot about the will of the people, as Dick Cheney has just indicated...

whether Rev Wright was correct in his declarations is questionable, the fact that he screamed it out as clear as day, is each and every American's obligation to hold our Government accountable...

[AZDemocrat500]

09:40 AM on 03/26/2008

Has anyone seen the USA Today poll, 28 Percent of Hillary supporters will not vote for Barry (Obama) and will switch to McCain. Keep up the Hillary attacks Obama Post, have you heard of unintended consequences.

[Hotshortie]

10:07 AM on 03/26/2008

Obama only speaks in respect for Hillary Clinton. He does speak on their differences on issues but he had never hurt Hillary. He is trying as hard as he can to run a clean campaign. He's on vacation right now, so if you think about it, he hasn't said a thing in a week. Obama asks us to look for the best in ourselves, not the worst.

[SaskiaStars]

10:12 AM on 03/26/2008

thank you for the post

[LBM]

11:13 AM on 03/26/2008

Obama speaks through his surrogates just like every politician. He doesn't have to say the words, they say it for him. Don't think that he doesn't strategize with them about how to attack her best and make her look worst. His problem with the Hillary voters isn't about how negative he is, it's about his lack of experience, his lack of judgement especially when choosing advisors, and his readiness to be President. Hillary didn't have to say anything about any of those things, it's apparent when you hear him debate and when you hear the things his advisors say. They are the ones you should be blaming for his problems.

[SaskiaStars]

10:10 AM on 03/26/2008

Has anyone seen the Gallup poll showing Obama at 48 and Clinton at 45 among dems? Has anyone heard that 55% of the likely voters polled said that they would not vote for Clinton under any circumstance?

[EinChicago]

12:22 PM on 03/26/2008

Yeah. But they are about a year out of date. Nice try.

[AnninCA]

09:34 AM on 03/26/2008

Whew! Bosnia off the front page yet? :)

I noticed the surrogates are out in force today. Dick Morris is going to give himself a heart attack if he doesn't get over his resentment of the Clintons.