Palin Plays The Wright Card

Speaking to Bill Kristol, the conservative New York Times columnist, Sarah Palin continued her assault on Barack Obama's character. This time she aired criticisms of the Senator's former Reverend, Jeremiah Wright.

"To tell you the truth, Bill, I don't know why that association isn't discussed more," Palin said, "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."

The remarks provide yet another sign of how invested the McCain camp is in turning the narrative of this campaign away from economic and towards personality issues.

And yet, taken on its own, the line is jarring in its chutzpah. Palin, for starters, recently bemoaned the media "elite's" obsession with trivial gotcha games that distract from discussions of substance. Now, she is doing it herself.

More jarring, however, is that Palin and the McCain campaign have, up to this point, gone to some efforts to avoid the subject of religious affiliations. That's because Palin's spiritual past contains, like Obama's, stark political liabilities. At her old church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, Palin discussed both the Iraq War and the construction of the $40 billion Alaska national gas pipeline as projects touched by God. Her old pastor Ed Kalnins suggested that people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would not be accepted in heaven and argued that terrorists and Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith." A guest pastor at that church personally blessed Palin by asking Jesus to protect her from the perils of witchcraft.

More recently, Palin's attended a Wasilla Bible Church sermon conducted by the founder of Jews for Jesus, David Brickner, who made several remarkable claims about terrorism in Israel.

"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real," he said. "When Isaac was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment -- you can't miss it."

Palin, by all accounts, didn't "get up and leave" the pew.

Comments

[pointyheadprodigy]

The society which gave birth to the ideals we refer to as America would have had NO PROBLEM with Reverend Wright having the freedom to speak his mind regardless of whether or not they agreed with the tenets of his discourse. But if you want to go there then read Naomi Wolf's book, Give Me Liberty", or just read for yourself the speeches that Abraham Lincoln gave circa1865 and see if it doesn't change your opinion of the good Reverend's behaviour. If it's wrong for him then you need to change your opinion of Abraham Lincoln who said very much similar things.

The FACT that Reverend Wright has the courage to speak out like that in this time of sheep and geese MAKES him a BETTER american than all of the back-patting sheep and geese (like so many of us).

Incidentally this opinion is dearly held by a bleeding heart liberal and an adamant atheist. An American nevertheless.

[mexamerican]

why the hell are you even putting wright's picture up?

[iPolitics]

John McDeperate

[egal]

Yes, but Palin's WHITE. It's ok for white people to disparage our allies and agree with horrific crimes against others in a blind and unpatriotic show of patriotism--everybody knows white people are American and loyal and wise, so they aren't corrupted by their pastors whose beliefs they overtly share, only blacks who didn;t even hear the sermons in question are tainted by such hatred.

Because they're not white.

It's the only salient difference, and even though color isn't a valid judge of character, no more than blind support for even the worst atrocities is patriotism, those like Palin have hatred and white-washed-crypt hypocrisy so entrenched within their hearts that they can't even see the reality outside of their skewed insistences and lack of understanding of the English language and Christianity both.

[victorsays]

Didn't we go over this for 2 months? What the heck is wrong with McCain and Palin.

[JCB360]

If you support Barack Obama and Joe Biden and are tired of all of the republican lies, smear campaigns and swift boat politics, please visit this website

www.republicansareliars.com

[scrutiny1]

What about Palin's witch doctor pastor who tried unsuccessfully to exorcise her of demons? What about that?

[mobear]

KNOW THE TRUTH, NOT THE BIG LIE YOU HAVE BEEN FED.
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/06/527-ad-fighting/

[stateretiree]

When you have No Plan for America, you resort to slime politics. Maybe Ann Coulter needs to write a book about Godless Republicans, as it seems he is being thrown out the window so McCain can win the Presidency!

[goldiekins]

I don't think McCain's campaign has very much or they wouldn't be going back to this Wright and Ayers stuff. I have attended my church for many years, like 30, and on Sunday's that I miss I don't know what was talked about in the sermon, and usually nobody tells me, unless I would ask. Sometimes, the minister says things I don't agree with, and I don't get up and leave, well not all the time anyway. Twice I have left a church, the first time the minister said he believed in abortion, and the second the minister said she did not believe in the virgin birth. I had actually attended these churches quite some time before they revealed their inner most thoughts, and when I learned of it, I left. One Sunday in my present church, the minister did a back flip, up on the stage. Talk about surprised, and what was the reason for that? But I still go there. People cannot predict what a minister will say or do. After watching Rev Wright speak, he acts a little nutty to me. My concerns are regarding the Iraq war and the economy and what the heck are they going to do about those.

[TrevorAlan]

Because she hates extremist religous types.

[Ockham]

The hypocrisy, it blinds me so.

[TheGeicoCaveman]

!!!! WATCH McCain and Cindy LIE to AMERICA about not going negative !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60k9IZ1LRC0

http://mudflats.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/palin-2006-vetting.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BA_9QJRrE

[mickeysteib]

Remember capabilities such as analysis and communication capabilities! The "bottom of their class" gang has messed things up enough with simplistic ideas worth more for manipulation than for doing the hard work our leaders have neglected: on intelligence reports to keep from misplacing our power, on regulation-deregulation to keep from falling prey to Keating Five type action and giant bailouts, on diplomacy to keep from losing our standing in the world, and even on flight manuals to keep from losing planes. Capabilities such as analysis and communication capabilities work toward getting the right advisors and coordinating ideas to build back our countries strength. We need those who understand how manipulation from special interest lobby groups uses simplistic ideas to take advantage without dealing with the more complex results that may weaken our country, both here and abroad. We have been taken advantage of in several important areas: the economy, the fight on terrorism, and the diplomacy in our world Lets not continue to be distracted with simplistic ideas that manipulate and distract rather than help build back our strength as a nation.

[jusion]

Jeremiah Wright is not exactly peripheral to Barack Obama"s life. He married the Obamas and baptized their children. Those of us who made the mistake of buying the senator"s last book "The Audacity of Hope" discovered on page 127 that in fact the phrase comes from one of the Reverend Wright"s sermons.
Jeremiah Wright has been Barack Obama"s pastor for 20 years " in other words, pretty much the senator"s entire adult life. Did Obama consider "God Damn America" as a title for his book but it didn"t focus-group so well?
Obama is meant to be the man who transcends the divisions of race, the candidate who doesn"t damn America but "heals" it " if you believe, as many Democrats do, that America needs healing.
Yet since his early twenties he"s sat week after week listening to the ravings of just another cookie-cutter race huckster.
God has blessed America, and blessed the Obamas in America, and even blessed the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose bashing of his own country would be far less lucrative anywhere else on the planet.

[McChimp]

Oh wow, Reverend Wright said G O D D A M N America!!! Oh my God, what a surprise!!!

What else is there, Obama has radical connections to Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko?

Suddenly I feel that I have gone back in time and we're back in the primaries again, when will John and his Repub sheep followers learn that beating on a dead horse won't win you points?

[DrYRHead]

No they will not learn to NOT beat on dead horses. After all, they are Repugnants. As for acquaintances, I wonder what kind of skeletons are still lurking in John or Sarah's closets? I mean realy! If the GOP is getting that petty, maybe we should be just as petty and dig up the rumors about that lobbyist that John was said to be having an affair with back in 2000. Of course, John, also, asked for this lobbyist and her friends to get favors. Affair rumor aside, the ethics violation is still an issue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/20/john-mccain-affair-links_n_87690.html