Hillary Clinton Compares Jeremiah Wright To Don Imus

Yesterday Hillary Clinton spoke publicly about the controversy surrounding the remarks of Barack Obama's longtime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, telling the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend." She also brought up Don Imus, saying:

"You know, I spoke out against Don Imus, saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that. 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."

Imus was eventually fired from his gigs as both a radio and television host last April after referring disparagingly to African-American members of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to speak out on the Imus matter, calling for his dismissal while NBC was still deliberating on the matter. Obama told ABC News:

"I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus, but I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."

Clinton: Wright 'would not have been my pastor' [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]
Obama: Fire Imus [ABC News]

Comments

[carmenjonze]

Jeremiah Wright is cuter.

[rzan]

I think she is just doing more and more damage to her campaign. Is there no one in her campaign who can give her some good advice? If this is the best she can do to drum up votes, then she really is in trouble.

[pbitondo]

So, she questions why he didn't leave the church. It's personal. I question why she didn't leave the marriage, but it's personal. Marriage and relationship to the church is a personal parallel. Both offer the good and the bad and you either stay with it or get out. However, those are personal issues which shouldn't even be brought up. I listened to three complete sermons by Jerimiah Wright and if I lived in Chicago, I would probably go to that church. Why, why is this a political issue?

As a former Hillary supporter, I have recently come to the following conclusion: Obama is in it for the country and Hillary is in it for the power. I changed to Obama after voting in the primary. I'll give him my vote in November.

[Bulbul]

Wrong comparison, Don Imus is a shock jock and the Rev. is the preacher..
Don hates Hillary, true , but he is not preaching anyting, just stating his opinion, it is a free country and he can say what he wants.

Also looks are just looks, all of the smiling pictures of Rev. gives the impression of a doting grandpa... Wrong !

Hillary supporter speaking...

[tiredofhillary]

This is such BS. Hillary, it won't work! The African American vote that you trashed is coming back to you.

Hillary, why don't you listen to more than just a snipid of the 10sec shown on MSM. You will find that he was telling his congregation what he heard someone say on a news show a day or two before.

This is one reason you will never be president. You use people until they no longer serve your purpose. You've been to the black church and even tried to "talk like black folks", so you for one (since you're so close to the AA community) should know what happens in the black church. Stop playing games. You lost this race over a month ago.

[rzan]

She has seen the entire sermon, believe me. She is just pandering to the those poor souls who will not or are unable to look beneath the surface. There is no comparison between Ken Imus' comments and Reverend Wright's. She has to know that.

[robXdion]

Greta Van Sustern already tried this comparison and Al Sharpton ATE-HER-ALIVE. There is nothing Rev. Wright said that calls for hatred against whites. In the sermons Rev. Wright always said "We" and/or "America" therefore including himself. Some whites just feel accused because a black man is saying this.

[BlackmaninAmerica]

Rev. Wright was quoting many US officials when he was making these statements, especially the chickens coming home to roost and the g.d. America comment. I am surprised Sharpton didn't call her out on it. Most people working at Fixed News are right wing tools bent on keeping people uninformed and many Americans fell for their swiftboating hook,line and sinker.

[dolberg]

Bottom line: Obama will win and the Huffingtons and Kos's will chear.
Then, of course, McCain wins in the general elections, because most Americans will not vote for a candidate they perceive as too extreme and lacking any qualifications to boot.
How'd the Ned Lamont thing work out for you, Connecticut primary voters?
Add Obama right there with Kerry, Dukakis and McGovern.
Uggh...4 more years.

[Barbarossa03]

So are you suggesting that he make-up his experiences like Clinton did on her trip to Bosnia? He could tack-on his wife's hospital experience to give him the leg-up on the Healthcare issue like Hilary includes Bill Clinton's years as President as her experience.

[dolberg]

Wow, what a new and isnpiring tack.
Can Obama supporers actually make a case for him having any qualification to be president other than these trite anti-Clinton comments?

[BlackmaninAmerica]

I think as long as the economy is in the tank and McSane is praising more years in Iraq, Obama has a good chance at making history. Don't count Obama out because after all he is a Senator. He didn't get there as some kind of token candidate. As long as McCain continues having his senior moments, I think many Americans will start to take notice.

[ronday]

At least Rev. Wright while wrong about some of his contentions did not intentionally deceive his audience.

I thought Senator Clinton was running against Senator Obama, not his pastor.

Mmmmm, anybody got any tapes of Senator Clinton and her pastor? Does she even have a pastor?

What religion is she anyway?

[MrsJones]

LOL...I've been asking this same question for the past few weeks! This morning the pastor of the church she and Bill attended in DC was on (MSNBC?) defending Wright, because he said among other things that he has known the man and his works for many years--unlike those who only 'know' him from soundbites. (My FIL, also a pastor, who knows Wright, defended him as well. ) However, he said the Clintons were active members when Bill was in the White House, no discussion of her attending since she's been a Senator...She's mentioned the pastor of her church when she was a child...no other references to an actual church or pastor...

Anyway, for all those condemning Obama for having a 'relationship' with Wright for 20 years and think its fair to question why he didn't leave the church based on the little you know about the church and its pastor, is it also fair to condemn Hillary for having a 'relationship' with Bill for 30+ years and question why she didn't leave him when he repeatedly broke their marriage vows, lied and humiliated her on an international stage? I don't think so. It was a *personal* decision based on what *she knows* about her husband--not what the public sees and the press reports.

[BrooklynLager]

Reverend Wright stood by her AND her husband the morning the Starr report came out.

[shotgunjohnny]

I didn't realize it was hate speech.

[nellie]

I didn't realize that Jeremiah Wright was running for president.

[SharonB]

Bill Clinton used Wright to get him out of the mess he made by using Monica. Now that they are no longer needed, they have both been tossed out with the coffee grounds and orange rinds.

[cpeterz]

i am from toledo ohio, and there are plenty of people who don't want mccain in office in the midwest .
there are also plenty of people who made many of the same arguments against the invasion of iraq as rev wright. did in his sermons.
sadly, there are also plenty of bigots who never wanted obama as president simply because he is not white. i would like to know what "bigoted shit" (as one blogger so eloquently put it) came from wright. i think the people who were already uncomfortable with obama's name and race are the one's who have seized on this pastor as justification for their hate.
is it ok that mccain's advisor called the catholic church "the whore of babylon", or that 4,000 soldiers and untold iraqi people have died?
perhaps don imus is not a big deal to people who don't have black daughters to explain his remarks to.

[letuckerchicago]

Her shamelessness is breath-taking. I'm sure Rev. Wright is questioning his decision to accept the Clintons' invistation and help rally around them during LewinskyGate. There's clearly no reciprocity when from the Clintons when there's power to be acquired.

[rojo7449]

As are they. He clearly went there for the photo op based on what he says about them publicly. How shameless would a "man of the cloth" have to be to show up as an instrument of forgiveness and spirituality and then turn around and scream obscene sermons about the people.

[Denni]

How ridiculous. Clinton supporters are kidding themselves if they don't know how badly this damages CLINTON, not Obama. The smoke will clear on the Wright issue, and Clinton's hand holding the match makes things worse for her.

1. Wright was commenting from Ambassador PECK's interview.

2. There are MANY OTHER speeches from Wright that show this was NOT the topic of weekly sermons (not that Clintonistas are prone to truth).

3. Clinton is DONE... no matter the outcome, she's DONE.

[liliperl]

This issue is primarily not about whether Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. So, your argument is beside the point. Let's not shift the focus. Sen. Obama has clearly multiple standards and value judgments when it comes to race/racism. Think of his speech on race last week and what he said regarding of the Imus-case at that time a year ago. The point is that Pastor Wright's language is unacceptable under any circumstances, just like Imus' comments were not accepted and had consequences. We do need to listen to the Pastor's archived ceremonies. Within or without context his language is inexcusable. Period.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

Thank you, I found a person on this site who know the truth. I starting to doubt if I needed to keep reading these comments or go one more step don't log-on to this place. It was showing a sound bite was all people needed to go off the deep end with blind hate on false judgment. these people are willing to vote for mccain to kill more of American kids in a war that for oil not being safe.

Governor Ronald Reagan signed the abortion act. When he became President, he change. Any abortions policies senator Obama may or may not have votes for he will burned again by the same people, yet they seen no harm voting for mccain for more soldiers being kill. The mother only have for 18 years, what is the difference with pro-life if you are only saving to kill or be killed in a war base on oil that another country own and we want it at a cheap price. It's not cheap if someone child 's life is involved. Wake-up America. We are heading over the line to self destruct. I am speaking to say I don't want to go there. Please think about our actions. If don't want to vote for Obama don't, do you think it necessary to preach hate at the same time. Does it make you feel better? do you want more to think like you do?

[BlackmaninAmerica]

It will take Edwards, Pelosi or Reed endorsing Obama for Billary to get the message. They are bent on trying to get McCain elected so Hillary can win in 2012. The funny thing about it though is that Americans will remember her shamelessness and won't elect her then either.

[LivingStardust]

Criticizing the government is the highest form of patriotism. Without those critical of government, we'd still be British subjects. End of story. The only connection this has to Imus is that both men were jumped on by race-baiting nitwits who had a personal agenda to promote. Our Federal government SUCKS. It is an undemocratic, corporate controlled, graft machine. If you think that makes me unpatriotic, you are welcome to challenge me. Be forewarned. I have first hand experience at how dysfunctional the system has become having seen Katrina up close and personal. I can also channel both Thomas Jefferson and Bruce Lee. At the same time. But to you hammerheads who think being critical of the government is unpatriotic, I invite you to shut the hell up or admit you are secretly monarchists hoping for a Republican king. However, you need to drop the "unpatriotic" bullshit you are trying to sell.

[TERRYKEITH4]

The truth! And well said! Thank you LivingStardust.