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If Wright Were White
If Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his former disciple, Barack Obama were white, this would not be a story. Wright would not have gained the attention he did. He would not have been seduced to take his 15 minutes at Obama's expense. CNN would not have become the Jeremiah Wright show. Obama would not have had to make his umpteenth rejection of the man's comments. As Ezra Klein said:
Does anyone believe a long association with Jerry Falwell's church would have done anything but help McCain in the Republican primary, and gotten Democrats tagged as anti-religion when they tried to point out Falwell's nuttiness in the general? It's fine to be a Christian extremist in America. It's fine to believe, and say publicly, that everyone who hasn't accepted Jesus Christ into their heart will roast in eternal hellfire, fine to believe that the homosexuals caused Hurricane Katrina and the feminists contributed to 9/11, fine to believe we must support Israel so the Jews can be largely annihilated in a war that will trigger the End Times, fine to believe we're in a holy battle with the barbaric hordes of Islam, fine to believe that we went to the Middle East to prove 'our God is bigger than your God.'
White pastors have been spewing hateful bile and filth for generations. But it's white bile, and that makes all the difference.
It has been somewhere between hilarious and awe-inspiring to see Democratic liberals ooze on about Obama's spectacular chances. I was beginning to think I had been raised in a different country. In the America in which I was raised, there are different standards for black and white. In the America in which I live, a black man's statements are more quickly judged intemperate or arrogant or angry. In the America outside my window, a black man's very presence is often looked upon with suspicion. On the American streets I walk, a great many people with whom I come into contact--black and white--make erroneous assumptions about me that they would not make about a white man of identical educational and professional class.
But to hear the folks at DailyKos tell it, we had entered a different America--one in which the Republicans (the party with Karl Rove and Dick Cheney in it) and the mainstream press corps (the one with Chris Matthews and Mickey Kaus) were going to ignore Obama's skin color, and all of its historical associations, just because we assumed that they were just as interested in lying to themselves about what racist sons of monkeys they are as we were.
No such luck. They don't care and so have nothing to prove. There is no shaming the political/corporate press establishment because they harbor no doubts as to their ilk's political, moral and racial superiority. That is what allows them to enable the flouting of the Constitution, enrichment of friends at the public trough, torture and imprisonment of innocents, the deaths of tens or hundreds of thousands in their "recreational" war.
Wright is a not-atypical black preacher in his lust for the spotlight, and a not-atypical American preacher is his taste for the incendiary. However, Barack Obama is an utterly atypical Presidential candidate. His "peace, love and understanding" schtick never had a chance. The press and political establishment pulled out every stop to eviscerate the Clintons-- and the Clintons are white. Bill just happened to be trash, and so, they felt, might taint them by association. Imagine what the idea of Big Black in the White House does to their sense of self? Now convince me that during this election cycle there will not come another Jeremiah Wright--in spirit if not in person--if this one ever steps off the stage.
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Vote for Obama 2008
ALL IN THE FAMILY
We had a Father and Son for President (Bush)
A Husband and a Candidate Wife for President (Clinton)
We do not need the royal familes here in America, we need to see a change, not a tag team, we need an individual, one man to be the commander in Chief. Go Obama!
Well, thouse words addressed the issue at hand! (rolling eyes)
Leonce,
What is very interesting is the Clintons ( Bill is sometimes called the first black President), have yet to say one thing in support of the black church preaching traditions or Jeremiah Wright though both are no strangers to the Clintons. Jimmy Carter , truthful as always, said that this sort of preaching didn't bother him at all and he's heard it all the time in Plains, Georgia. Now why couldn't Bill Clinton had something like this and redeemed himself on our eyes....
But I really blame the lack of sufficient quality journalists in the MSM - most of them are happy to throw some video up and then talk their heads off. How can they talk sense hour after hour and day after day - so they talk nonsense and worse. That CNN would interrupt regular programming (incuding Larry King) to rerun Rev Wright's speech to the NAACP and the fiery introduction by the NAACP President is the sad state of affairs of MSM.
What we really need is a President who can make MSM accountable - then we would have politicians who are accountable. It definitely is not going to be McCain or Hillary who will bring about change.
"If Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his former disciple, Barack Obama were white, this would not be a story." ~ Ezra Klein
So that is the best you can come up with? It's wrong to criticize this guy because that guy does the same thing and that guy is one of them and not one of us!
Oh PLEASE!!!
Falwell & Wright are two people extremely passionate about their beliefs and they mean well, then again, so did Hitler.
I could not give a **** that candidates know people like them. Who can say that they have not met or know a person with the same distorted values that these men hold.
What's really sad is that we have a man who wants to swear (maybe on a holy scripture) that he will uphold and protect the rights granted by the constitution, yet he starts to distance himself from a family friend instead of his friends beliefs.
He should have stood by his friend and the constitutional right to "express" those views no matter how F'ed up they appear. But also state that he would never agree with those view points.
He should have stood just as tall with his viewpoint as Wright has.
He has shown us his true color.... Yellow. We don't need a coward in the White house.
Obama stood by Rev. Wright back in March. Rev. Wright acted totally ignorant on Monday, there is no defense for that foolishness.
Wright has a considerable legacy feeding the poor, helping those with AIDS and stimulating millions of dollars for his community. The poor and the sick rely upon his ministry for tools in their healing. Wright is culture bound but no more so than in the Euro-American community and probably less so. Music Critics in New York familiar with the African-American community have commented for years about the way that community has nurtured Classical European Art, whether it was Roberta Flack and Brahms or Nat King Cole. They claimed more per capita classical performing art in the homes of Harlem than elsewhere in the city. Once I got to know that community I didn't find it hard to believe. Especially when I went to the mansions of the Euro-American super wealthy and found only a fancy sound system. Wright was wrong about classical culture as he was wrong about jazz in the Euro-American community but so what? The man has had a significant life and now at the end he gets a house and a kick in the butt? That's culture? American culture is why we are in Iraq, don't believe in science and believe in the in the Rapture. I don't believe the temporary government is as important as the healing of the people and the development of an empowered total population. Wright has worked, like the Zionists in Israel, to empower his population. Being external to both, I support the survival of both. Digoweli
I readily admit that I allowed myself to buy into Obama's message that America, at its core, is a fundamentally decent country. I allowed myself to believe things had really changed. It's called a dream, and I've now awaken back to the reality of America. The sad thing is that if this nomination is taken away from Senator Obama--WHO EARNED IT FAIR AND SQUARE--African Americans will look upon Reverend Wright as prophetic, and say he was right.
Obama is not saying things have really changed, he's saying that we can change things by being involved and informed about the process. We can change things in America when we start focusing on whats in our individual best interest instead distractions and shiney objects.
"whats in our individual best interest instead distractions and shiney objects."
Like telling us that financial institution's and the people need our help to save them from a mortgage crisis. That people should not have placed themselves in a position to buy something the cant afford or companies not providing credit to big risk clients.
Well Duh! weren't we told as children, You don't try to buy things you cant afford.
It's just FUNNY Obama is now the one telling us that. He could not afford his house or additional property but did not have to go to a bank, just to a crooked friend that paid off the additional amount.
"We can change things in America when we start focusing on whats in our individual best interest instead distractions and shiney [sic] objects."
WE or OUR interest INDIVIDUAL
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"whats in our individual best interest instead distractions and shiney objects."
Like telling us that financial institution's and the people need our help to save them from a mortgage crisis. That people should not have placed themselves in a position to buy something the cant afford or companies not providing credit to big risk clients.
Well Duh! weren't we told as children, You don't try to buy things you cant afford.
It's just FUNNY Obama is now the one telling us that. He could not afford his house or additional property but did not have to go to a bank, just to a crooked friend that paid off the additional amount.
"We can change things in America when we start focusing on whats in our individual best interest instead distractions and shiney [sic] objects."
WE or OUR interest INDIVIDUAL
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Posted April 30, 2008 | 03:21 PM (EST)