Was Barack Obama's Response To Rev. Wright Persuasive?

Yes. There was true pain on Barack Obama's face today and in his gestures. He'd been burned and we've all been there. Fortunately for most of us it is a private experience. For Barack Obama, it was all too public.

This is learning the hard way. But is there any other way to learn or be reminded how despicable politics can become? Is there any other way to learn that those who appear to be friends - especially in politics -- often are not?

We were reminded, too, by Obama's shock and sadness over his former pastor's recent speeches that competence is part of leadership, but only the entry cost. It is trial by fire that teaches us how to be strong and to endure pain personally and professionally.

How he comes through this will say much about him. And that's where his focus should be now.

If he had it to do over, perhaps he would have inoculated voters -- prepared them for what Rev. Wright might say and do. It's usually better to prepare people with counterarguments if you sense a detractor may attempt to do you harm. Instead, Barack took what he saw as the high road. He ended up taking it alone.

He needs to anticipate if Rev. Wright will speak up again. And prepare those who'll be listening. He didn't do that yet. It remains to be done.

This is where experience is a good thing. I get what he means when he asserts that experience can mean doing things the same way, but some forms of experience are truly critical to becoming a better leader -- to becoming versatile and politically astute.

I felt for him today, which may come as a surprise to those who prefer the choosing of sides on all matters political. I'd advise him to not be a purist in a pathological arena. What happened today is why most of us would never consider running for president. He's chosen to do so. He has to watch his back. He can't afford to be blindsided again. Being shocked once is understandable. Being so twice by someone he thought a friend will cause many to wonder if he is adequately prepared for the Republicans.

Questions remain. But his eyes are more open now. He took a difficult stand today. He was specific about the offenses and, as he said, "unequivocal."

That's to his credit. It must have been extremely difficult. Yet, he did it well.

Comments

[mychris52]

There has been a lot of criticism of the Reverand Wright about his allegations regarding AIDS. So I took a few minutes and did a web search, and lo and behold it turns out that there is more then an element of truth to the allegations, It is a history of deception and criminal behavior. All it takes
is simple web searh of "Dr. Robert Strecker". Then just follow the links and then I would love to hear comments about Reverand Wright.

[lavisiter]

Congratulations on writing a piece mostly from the heart. I do wonder; would she write about Hillary Clinton in the same way? I wonder what you think about the many high profile women who don't have the same kind of understanding and compassion for a woman (HRC) who's had to come up through these "pathological trenches." You said, "I'd advise him (Obama) to not be a purist in a pathological arena." I wonder, do you see that as it relates to HIllary Rodham Clinton, too? She's been "working" there for a LONG TIME and probably had to ratchet up even more defenses to survive so she could eventually thrive and maybe be nominated as the first woman President of the U.S. But there's a double standard for women. She's supposed to come out of the "patholical trenches" all warm and fuzzy, idealistic - a saint? Right. Well, I think we're lucky that she was strong enough, intelligent enough, driven enough, pioneering enough to have gotten herself and US this far she did it because she's good and would make a very damned good President!!!!

I wish Obama well. He's being humbled - facing his own mistakes. It will be interesting to see how it ALL plays out - it's ALL a positive experience and I'm grateful that things are getting more evenly flushed out.

[john85msy]

The hypocrasy is the MSM who is giving McCain a free ride with his associations with and endorsements from Parsons, Hagee and Lobbyist.

[PioneerKing]

It's amazing that McCain's main stream media are not calling McCain out for the hypocrite that he is and airing the comments that Rev. Hagee and the rest of the comments made by the "agents of intolerance," religious right who McCain has courted.
It's amazing that these same people said nothing when catholic politicians did not walk away from the Catholic Church.
Are Rev. Wright"s comments worse than an institution that protects pedophiles and asserts that the problem is "an American problem," although it is documented that worldwide the Catholic Church has protected priests who are pedophiles?
The children from the polygamist sects who are called lost boys also feel that the abuse they endured is worse than many Americans acknowledge and the child brides suffer rape without any of the outrage that has surrounded Rev. Wright.
Which is worse? The angry ranting of Rev. Wright or the scared lives of children who have been harmed by result of adults who are sheltered by religious institutions?
McCain's main stream media buddies who sold America the lies about the war really want McCain to win the election. They don't care that McCain will continue the Bush/Cheney policies because their sons and daughters are not the ones fighting the war and their 6 and 7 figure salaries are not being effected by the economy.
McCain"s buddies in the MSM would rather see another incompetent "good ole boy" in the White House rather than Clinton or Obama.

[Tulka2]

Was Obama persuasive? Yes. Simple. Move on. Anyone who is still thrashing this dead horse is either an idiot or has a vested interest in seeing someone else president. Or they are stupid. There is plenty of that going around.

[janmB]

THE MASK IS OFF. ITS NOT ABOUT WHAT WRIGHT SAID PEOPLE-----

ITS WHO WAS LISTENING FOR 20 YEARS TO I HATE AMERICA ---WHITEY AND JEWS -SPEECHES. MR & MRS OBAMA WAS LISTENING AND WENT ALONG WITH AWARDS TO MR FARRAKHAN.

HOPES TO DO FOR THIS NATION. CHANGES ----- PROMISES.
NO EXPERIENCE TO BRAG ABOUT----- AND PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO TAKE A CHANCE ON THAT ?
AS WELL. WHAT IS WRONG IS THAT PEOPLE DON'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES AND LISTEN TO THE MEDIA WHO WANTS OBAMA WHO WILL LOSE TO MCCAIN.

[formerobamarobot]

Excellent!
Someone else is awake.
Why is this man being shoved down our throats.
It is not only experience but character. obama has neither.
HE will lose not only to the republicans but all the hard working DEMOCRAT americans that built this country and still are the servers for the arrogant will vote elsewhere or sit on their hands and let the republicans have this election rather than let a racist arrogant stuttering inexperienced man waste our country.
The democrats have gone to heck in a handbasket.
WAKE UP AND LETS GET A CANDIDATE WHO HAS A CHANCE TO REALLY MAKE A CHANGE FOR ALL AMERICANS!!
That is HILLARY CLINTON!

[US55588144]

Anyone who doesn't realize that Jeremiah Wright's rants and raves at the National Press Club were planned and orchestrated to allow Obama to denounce him is at best very naive. The Republican ads in North Carolina showing Wright's earlier antics were hurting Obama. This was their way to distance Obama from Wright.

[formerobamarobot]

Excellent!
Someone else is awake.
Why is this man being shoved down our throats.
It is not only experience but character. obama has neither.
HE will lose not only to the republicans but all the hard working DEMOCRAT americans that built this country and still are the servers for the arrogant will vote elsewhere or sit on their hands and let the republicans have this election rather than let a racist arrogant stuttering inexperienced man waste our country.
The democrats have gone to heck in a handbasket.
WAKE UP AND LETS GET A CANDIDATE WHO HAS A CHANCE TO REALLY MAKE A CHANGE FOR ALL AMERICANS!!
That is HILLARY CLINTON!

[ghop]

ALL CAPS= SCREAMING. YOU SOUND LIKE A RAVING LUNATIC.

[Imrightyourewrong]

Are you kidding? What exactly was "I hate America" about what he said? What about hating Whitey or Jews?

[JustMyWords]

Some people hear only what they want to hear.

[Georgianna]

Please let this rest. It is a terrible diversion for the Obama campaign and what he hopes to do for this nation.

[Hesperion]

If a "Reverend" Wright opts to speak that out he is condemned. If it helps the fascists toward their goal they "use" him. They crafted this distraction and destruction to avert attention to the crimes they are committing meanwhile. Hillary is such a dupe that she has willingly participated in all this and can not see anything but her "win". She is a fool. Obama has allowed himself to get sucked into it when what he should have done is call them out for what they are and make the point that HE is NOT this Rev. Wright. HE did NOT create Rev. Wright. He has gone the route of "condemning" Wright which is in effect joining his opposers in this plot to discredit him AND seeming to take the position that a Wright has no right to speak his mind. So, Obama is also a fool. The only winner in this is John McCain who can go about bumbling through his ill-informed, misguided, militaristic campaign unimpeded by those who SHOULD be matching him point for point and blow for blow but are too busy bashing each other and playing along with this trickery. End result: Neither of them will win and we are finished as a nation and the republic is lost for all eternity down the sewer of finite imperial war. AMEN

[Hesperion]

If the people were to understand and suddenly demand reality, truth and justice and the commencement of real, remedial policies these charlatans would evaporate over night. I don"t anticipate that occurring however because the people have been trained now for 3 generations to believe they are powerless. They are enslaved by the false notion that they are somehow "free". If powerful people want a thing they take it and claim the people are not competent to decide. If that thing goes publicly wrong they remind that the people had been "free" to participate in the decision and therefore it is they that are to blame. One can scarcely dream of such a successful deception. The republic has been reduced to the greatest fraud the world has ever seen.

[Hesperion]

I have come to realize that these politicians have, themselves been a kind of sacrifice to this beast. They involved themselves for a host of individual reasons. They imagined all sorts of (very possibly) noble purposes in public service and found themselves gradually and surely being devoured and digested by this monster that surely possesses all of the parts of any creature's digestive system yet having an appetite that will eventually dispose of all and finally itself.

In some ways I find myself agreeing with Wright. This is my point. The pretense that nothing has gone very wrong in our country and swift confutation of anyone that might point that out has established itself as the norm. The fact is that truth is anathema to these people. No one wants to enter into a debate which might lead to the evaporation of the Great Myth.

[Hesperion]

I have been hearing with horror how the "Rev." Wright has successfully been made the downfall of one who could have been great. I don't mean the man or what he may or may not have said or meant but the fact that he has been so deftly used. He is nothing that was made into something. Religions once again take center stage in a world that groans under the burden of supporting them. All creation cries out for their removal from influence yet they succeed all the more. This world now belongs to the opportunists and the profiteers. They may come with a carefully guarded code of distorted religion but they have the aim of power, wealth and control and that is all. Their only terror is of those who speak real truth because it is NEVER on their side. I was born into a land that had the promise and potential to fulfill great and longed-for destinies in the world and sold itself for thirty pieces of silver. In an individual that had committed such crimes proportional to his singularity, there would be condemnation indeed. But for a vast population of individuals that have committed these crimes in collect, I cannot even imagine in my individual mind what punishments and consequences this will invite.

[SCG2]

I'll tell you what's more persuasive, support of this war, torture, the bankruptcy bill, jobs, trade, taxes the environment, the military.

[ernestv]

Of course it WASN'T persuasive....
Rev. Wright who was minding his own business and did not seek out obama as member of his church... quite the opposite obama sought him out as his pastor who presided over his marriage, who baptized his children, and brought obama to Christianity
But for some reason the great obama never found out in 20 years of attending Rev. Wright's church the contents of some of his sermons... he just found out in the last 20 days not the last 20 years...
And now he's finally decided to throw Rev. Wright "under the bus" and in addition ruin the reputation of a man who did not seek him out... so now the media can talk about the deranged Rev. Wright... who before he became involved with obama was considered a scholar...
But as we know obama is always right... even if it takes him 20 YEARS!!!....

[john85msy]

You should stop drinking too much of that Right-Wing talk radio kool-aid.

[lennix]

lets not be stupid this time and stop change and listen to rich people that owns the media and what to keep us in the dark so we the real people keep fighting each other so we can keep the focus of of the real enemy which is the rich people in america that has bled us dry and got us beliving that the reason that we are poor becuase it's due to another race of poor people who have nothing too wake up and smell the coffee it's the same game divide and conquer thats be going on for years and we keep fallen for it becuase they know that all they have to do is play on are fears of others and give them a target away from them. please not this time.

[FOXYLADY]

I BET OBAMA TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY THESE PAST 20 YEARS TO TAKE A NICE NAP WHILE HIS MINISTER RANTED AND RAVED.........THEREFORE..........NOT NOTICING THE RADICAL AND RACIST THINGS HE SAID..............BUT..........HOW HE COULD SLEEP WHILE THAT SO CALLED PASTER SCREAMED AND YELLED IS BEYOND ME.............AS WITH OBAMA'S OBVIOUS INTELLIGENCE IT BEATS ME HOW HE COULD HAVE LASTED IN A CHURCH WITH A BIG MOUTH LIKE THIS BLACK PASTOR

[Imrightyourewrong]

This is a silly comment. This "indignation" about "YOU WOULD DO" is just silly. I'm a gay Catholic, yet I stay. Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, said a whole slew of offensive things...should I and all gay Catholics, or even any progressive Catholics, repudiate him? People are people. Nobody is 100% good. All "good" people say awful things, hold views we may consider wrong-headed, or a bit wacky. Often those same people have diametrically different views that demonstrate remarkable virtue...to use an oft-used but appropriate cliche: there are few total saints or few total sinners...most of us are both.

[SMAGGIE]

I don't think it makes any difference what the Rev. says now. It is what he has preached for many, many years and he truly believes those things. If Obama didn't believe him, why did he continue to keep him as not only his pastor, but a true friend? The only thing that matters now is that "everyone" knows the true Obama and surely they do not want him in the Presidents office. I love this country, always have and always will. My patriotism is with the United States of America 100% and I want a person who is 100% for the United States of America in the presidents office. Don't you? I think that every citizen here, should honor our flag, say the pledge of allegiance to it and sing our National Anthem as written, not change it. As for the word change, what would he try to do? He has no plans, as far as his speeches have said. He just elaborates on whatever Sen. Clinton has said. We need someone who can bring us back from the predicatment we have gotten into the past 7 1/2 years and Senator Hillary Clinton can do that. SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON IN 2008 FOR A MUCH BETTER 2009.

[My2cents2755]

Wright did tell the truth about when asked "Do you think the US is capable of starting AID"s in the US.

Look it up for yourself.

One of the least known facts of U.S. history is the government sponsored syphilis experiment conducted upon 399 African-American men from 1932 to 1972. Over the course of these five decades, the U.S. Public Health Service exploited African-American sharecroppers in its effort to determine if the long-term affects of syphilis were different for black people. During the trials, the doctors who conducted the experimentations intentionally denied these men treatment; never informed them of syphilis' destructiveness to their health; and ignored the fact that these men were infecting their respective wives and sexual partners with the disease.

By the end of the experimentation, at least 28 of the men had died of syphilis; over 100 died of related complications; at least 40 of their wives had been infected, and over 20 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis.

For more information on the Tuskegee Incident go to GOOGLE and read for yourself.

President Clinton apologized to the lone survivors for what the Public Health Dept did.
Read about it on Google.

Why didn"t Mrs. Clinton acknowledge this? Why won't the news anchor" bring this up?

Everyone should email all their news stations and have them ask the question
"Did the US forget the Tuskegee Incident"?

Is the US capable after all?

[Imrightyourewrong]

I feel very fortunate for you. It must be great to only have friends with whom you completely agree, who hold no views you disagree with. What a virtuous person you are to confront and distance yourself from all those people in your life who have ever said awful things, or held odd, and even what you considered awful views. Wow...look everyone...a true, unadulterated perfect living person.

[lizr]

Many in the church, so it was said on MSM last night, were surprised to hear of the Rev's more radical views.

You want to judge him, judge him on his own flaws, not his flaky pastor's.

And while you are at it, are you judging McCain for HAGEE's views? which are full of hate speech?

or is it worse because it's a BLACk minister.

As far as I am concerned this just shoudl remind us all that religion has NO PLACE being involved inour government.

it only causes people to fight amongst themselves.

Separation of Church and State!!

[Leonard]

for sure the nutty scary so called Christian far right Preachers have totally forgotten about separation of Church and State.

They also need to be reminded that it was the strongest fundamentalists when this country was founded that worked hard for that separation.

McCain also called his wife the C word in public...not a well put together man truly.

[nita873]

So, what you're saying is, you AGREE with and BELIEVE all the same things as ALL of your FRIENDS? I think NOT! If that's the case, then I feel sorry for you and I think it's a shame that you live in such a fish bowl.

God bless you and I hope you get some exposure to the REAL WORLD soon!

HAPPY OBAMA DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Grizzlies]

The question posed is rather or not Obama's response to Wright was persuasive? In a word, NO! Obama's disingenuous rhetoric has only been surpassed by Wright's inflammatory rhetoric. Obama is a first class politician who "says what he has to say" for votes. For example, "I can no more disown (Wright) than I can disown the black community." In short, Obama cannot "transcend racial politics" while he plays the non-racial game. However, I applaud this calculating, political response designed to win over the white vote.

[Looplinker]

Really now. Wright may be dillusional and a demagogue, but you must really be dillusional if you think that Obama in his 20 years of association with his spiritual mentor had no inkling of Wright's world view. One cannot deny that there was a 20 year long association between the two men. It is very possible that Wright's statement about Obama saying one thing politically while believing the exact opposite spirtually may be true. The fact that Obama had no problem with Wright until he announced his candidacy for the Presidency and the video tapes surfaced suggest that Wright may know more about Obama than we give him credit for.

The whole affair has shown that Obama demonstrated very poor judgment about his choice of a spiritual mentor. This is not a trivial deficiency. It speaks to character.

[mychris52]

When will all thesse bloggers wake up and listen to what is being said. First Wright has stated time and time again he is a preacher not a politician. All his quotes relate to the bible and are references to biblical passages. Check out America's history and tell me he is wrong about all the misdeeds of our past presidents. I guess it was OK to imprison American citizens, it was OK to drop A-Bombs, it was OK to invade Grenada,it was OK to invade Iraq, and kill god only knows how many innocent civilians, and the list goes on and on. He his saying you can't keep doing these things and not expect payback. This applies to his come home to roost comments.

[lokywoky]

It is very interesting to me that the Clintons have piled on this Wright controversy.

Talk about character....

When the Monica scandal broke and Hillary decided she and Bill would have counseling to try to save their marriage - guess who one of the spiritual counselors was that they called?

You guessed it!

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Hypocrites!

[Imrightyourewrong]

Character? You mean like McCain and pastor Hagee and his ilk? You mean like Clinton and Marc Rich? Linda Sue Evans and Susan Rosenberg were pardoned by Bill...and were Weather Underground members. The self-righteousness really needs to stop.

[ReElectNoOne]

I hope it is not plagiarism to repeat one's self in this forum but what I said in another post here a few minutes ago, bears repeating here as well... I said:

This is another case of where separation of church and state, politicians and preachers, should be practiced. They are mutually exclusive professions unless the preacher turns entertainer...as in the case of Rev. Wrong.

As much as he professes his "God Objectives" it is ever more apparent that his new found religion is entertainment ! Watch for him on talk shows and Saturday Night Live in the very near future.

The news media is already using him to sell tampons and shampoo. Can endorsements be far behind?

[Liverp2]

Are you ready for 4 years of the Obama Wright Show?