Current Article

Excuses, Excuses, Now Hard Questions: [Updated]

By SusanUnPC on March 17, 2008 at 9:06 PM in Barack Obama, Race, Race Card, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

The transparent and inclusive candidate will have his moment of crisis in Philadelphia when he delivers his “Checkers” speech. Now the transparent candidate must be, well, transparent.

UPDATE: A friend sent more questions, which I’ve added, starting at #8.

How much money total over 20 years has Obama given to his church?
What percent of his charitable giving has gone to his church?
How many rabbis or Jewish leaders have received Obama’s church’s “Trumpet” award given to Farrakhan?
How many rabbis have been invited to speak from Obama’s church’s pulpit?
How many times a year did Obama go to church?
On what Sundays exactly did he attend services?
By the way, how many reporters have seen this magazine financed partly with Obama’s donations?
Does he intend to resign from the church?
Why was Wright a member of his campaign’s advisory committee?
Why was the offer to Wright to speak during the invocation of Barack Obama’s campaign announcement rescinded?
Did Barack have discussions with Wright regarding specific remarks Wright uttered?
Was Obama ever aware of Wright’s use of his pulpit as a political soundboard?
Is Obama prepared to state that he never heard controversial remarks from Wright? Or will he rely on the obfuscatory language he utilized in the Huffington Post essay?

Do you expect that Obama will answer even ONE of those questions tomorrow? No. Instead, we’ll be treated to more blather about hope, change, his mixed DNA, and the “we are one” baloney that no bedrock voting American will believe for a second. HE IS OVER. And the Democratic party had better realize it.

Barack Obama has lost 17 points in net favorability, and he’s in freefall. Look at the stunning conclusions of viewers of Jeremiah Wright in this racial graph, a fascinating innovative technology, that political expert Jerome Armstrong has posted at MyDD.com. But none of his excuses is going to help him. Beyond the ludicrious excuse from Obama himself that he never heard Wright’s racist comments, and didn’t have a clue Wright talked like that — here’s this from the clueless, lying Dick Durbin in “Durbin’s New Defense of Obama on the Wright Issue,” written today, March 17, 2008:

The Obama campaign has just wrapped up a conference call with reporters. On the call, top Obama supporter Sen. Dick Durbin claimed that “many” of the controversial statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright were made before Barack Obama joined Trinity United Church of Christ. “Many of the quotes that have been disclosed publicly were made by Reverend Wright at a time before Barack Obama became part of his congregation and in places where Barack Obama was not even present,” Durbin said. “[To] hold Sen. Obama accountable for speeches and sermons that were given before he joined the church is fundamentally unfair.”

To my knowledge, Wright’s statements “God damn America,” “America’s-chickens-are-coming-home-to-roost,” and “U.S. of KKK A” were made while Obama was part of the Trinity congregation [OF COURSE THEY WERE], although the senator says he was not present in church for any of them. I don’t believe Obama has claimed that they were made before he joined the church, and I’m not sure why Durbin is using that argument now.

The Obama campaign quickly ended the call after the second Wright question. [I'LL BET THEY DID.]

Square that baloney with this from Obama’s interview by CNN’s Anderson Cooper:

COOPER: So, no one in the church ever said to you, man, last week, you missed this sermon; Reverend Wright said this; or…

OBAMA: No.

COOPER: I mean, I think I read in your books that you listened to tapes of Reverend Wright when you were at Harvard Law School.

OBAMA: I did.

So he’s never heard Wright talk like that. His sorry-excuse-for-a-surrogate Durbin says he joined the church after Wright stopped talking like that.

But he listened to Wright’s tapes while he was at Harvard Law School from 1988 to 1991. And he says that he’s been a member of the church for 20 years, which means he joined the church in 1988.

And he NEVER heard Wright talk like that? Give me a break.

Ga6thDem

He’s becoming more poisonous by the day. A speech is not going to undo this. Besides, the narrative is already being set that it’s another “romney speech” that will keep the story alive even longer. Of course, I think the story has legs and the press is fascinated by it because it’s like watching a slow moving train wreck.

Susan,

I haven’t seen you at mydd lately. Have you quit posting there?

http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

I’ve just been busy, and it’s a hassle to cross-post there with the archaiac software and the need to upload images to a universal image site. I should post this one though, huh.

http://noratings.blogspot.com/ Bud White

Fantastic post

John

The speech will be about OUR problems with race and OUR problems with religion and how WE need to come together before Our Nation (Barack Obama) is destroyed and all our Hope (Barack Obama) is gone.

I guarantee it- this speech will be all about how screwed up WE are if we don’t take this moment to redeem ourselves by electing Barack Obama president. It will be all about making us hate eachother for being the racists we didn’t know we were until Barack Obama told us so- and was backed up by Keith Olbermann, Donna Brazile, etc.

And it will be an Amazing, Honest, Unifying Speech which puts the Last Nail in Hillary’s Coffin– and never you mind that Hillary had nothing to do with this controversy, this has already been spun into Another Clinton Dirty Trick in order to deflect our attention from the actual issue- Obama’s support for a RACIST MINISTER AND HIS HATE-MONGERING CHURCH.

Angelight

WHAT MEDIA IS NOT REPORTING: RE: TRINITY CHURCH!
Rev. Thomas (Pastor of Mainly White Congreation of UCC) denounces e-mail smear campaign against UCC’s largest congregation – Written by J. Bennett Guess, Jan. 11, 2008

Obama, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, has been a member of Trinity UCC for 20 years.” “Trinity UCC is rooted in and proud of its Afrocentric heritage,” Thomas said. “This is no different than the hundreds of UCC churches from the German Evangelical and Reformed stream that continue to own and celebrate their German heritage, insisting on annual sausage and sauerkraut dinners and singing Stille Nacht on Christmas Eve. .” While Trinity UCC is predominately African American, it does include and welcome non-Black members. The Rev. Jane Fisler-Hoffman, Illinois Conference Minister, who is white, has been a member of the congregation for years.
“Trinity is a destination church for many members of the UCC, a multi-racial, multi-cultural denomination that is largely Caucasian,” Thomas pointed out. “When in Chicago, many UCC members flock to Trinity to share in and learn from its vibrant ministries, dynamic worship and justice-minded membership. Contrary to the claims made in these hateful emails, UCC members know Trinity to be one of the most welcoming, hospitable and generous congregations in our denomination.” [...]

Rev. Steve] Gray, a member of First Congregational UCC in Indianapolis (mainly caucasian), has worshiped several times at Trinity UCC and is most impressed by the overflowing sense of welcome it extends to visitors. “When you’re Euro-American, (White) the people [at Trinity UCC] are so exceedingly gracious, warm and welcoming. They hug you and say, ‘Welcome to our church!’”

This ramped-up smear campaign against the UCC’s largest congregation and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s home church — Trinity UCC in Chicago — has raised the ire of the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC’s general minister and president, who called the e-mail-driven claims “absurd, mean-spirited and politically motivated.”

The Main Stream Media has been filled with images and video of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial statements for the past four days, 24/7, which Obama has strongly condemned. My concern, however, relates to equal time. When Senator Obama, who, after all , is actually the Candidate, gave a speech in Indiana, addressing his faith, diversity, and unity, and Invoking Robert Kennedy, it has gotten such a tiny percentage of coverage in comparison to Rev. Wright’s controversial statements shown every hour in the hour. The main stream media has asked the questions how is Obama to deal with this controversy and when he does they give very little air time to his Answer, which he spells out beautifully in this Indiana Speech. This is just not Right.

On the Other hand we have an Interesting article on Huffington Post describing how a right-wing preacher is treated with similar contoversial remarks:

When Senator Obama’s preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father — Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer — denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.
Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father’s footsteps) rail against America’s sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the “murder of the unborn,” has become “Sodom” by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, “under the judgment of God.” They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama’s minister’s shouted “controversial” comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/obamas-minister-committe_b_91774.html

May be this is part of Obama’s mission, since he is a Unifying Force. In order to be a Unifier, one must get the people talking about those issues which stand and impede unity and discuss those issues so one can understand and overcome these issues.

Cee Hussein

This is pretty bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X77R_prkCkg&eurl=http://www.balloon-juice.com/

barbh

Great diary! Geez, I didn’t even realize that Durbin was out there saying that. Is he outright lying or what. I used to have respect for Durbin, out the window with that one, either ill informed and ignorant or an outright lie to protect BO.

I talked to my mom a while ago and asked her if she heard about the Wright issue on PBS, only thing she watches. She said yes, he said that his church was largely white! I said well I think you heard wrong. I looked up the transcript and he says that the UCC denomination is largely white, but my mom heard congregation…just words that bamboozle is all.

The whole problem with the Wright issue is how the general population will perceive these comments and vote accordingly in the GE if BO is the nominee. It’s too bad this didn’t come out in the media sooner. Vetting too late. It speaks volumes to judgment issue as does the real estate fairy in BOs life.
S.Markom

WHERE IS OPRAH?

In 1984 Winfrey joined that very same church but did not stay. She withdrew because of the sermons this hateful pastor gave.

Now you have to wonder why she disappeared from his campaign so suddenly and definatively.
n

she has not dissapeared, I believe she is campaigning w/him in indiana

S.Markom

If that is the case I would love to hear her opinion on the subject of this minister and why she left that church.

MarkL

Ya know, not every black guy is an expert on the subject of race. I am pretty sure Obama, while no slouch at INFLAMING racial passions, is going to find it difficult to put out a fire that he started.
douglasbot

Ladies and gentleman…we’ve got him!
Mel

Durbin said. “[To] hold Sen. Obama accountable for speeches and sermons that were given before he joined the church is fundamentally unfair.”

So Obama joins a place of FAITH and moral guideance without even checking out the place he is entering into? And people still want this guy as President?

Hey Durbin, we hold Obama true to his words of having BETTER JUDGEMENT that he claims to have!

To quote Michelle Obama: If you can’t keep your own house in order how can you keep the White House in order?

To Michelle Obama: If you enter into place of moral and ethical values filled with sermons of racial divide and hate America values, especially when the moral leader of the church you attend says Not God Bless America but God Damn America, then how can you enter into the WHITE HOUSE of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

Mel

One question I have is, was Rev Wright’s Christmas sermon the foundation for Michelle Obama’s two damning statements against the Clinton’s?

First being: Is it a ‘fairy tale’ for a black man to become President of the USA!

Second being: If you can’t keep your own house in order how can you keep the White House in order?

RMC

Meaning what? Look: these people are the ultimate cynics. Wright, Farrakhan, Obama B, Obama M, Axelrod, Daley, Plouffe, Sorox, the Wall Street backers – they don’t care about people! They have an agenda! Unfortunately with unpolished point men the true colours show through at times.

Take a second and look back over this ‘campaign’. Actually ‘campaign’ is a travesty of a word in this context. First we had two words; then we had the race baiting; then we’ve had this incredible AKP Media hype machine barring no holds to lie, cheat, or steal an election. We’ve had the bots threatening opponents, ripping up their signs, barring them from caucus locales – we’ve had over 2,000 complaints filed about what they did in Texas.

We had the NAFTA bull story where Obama backpedaled five times. Five successive lies. Worse: he told the Canadians his campaign about NAFTA was ‘words just words’. And still it goes on.

Do you see any similarities with political movements in other countries? Where prospective leaders 1) promise everything but in as diffuse a language as possible; 2) assemble and engender such a large following of fanatics who are programmed to stop at nothing? You see no similarities at all?

Why not in such case? Because you’ve been numbed to how your democracy has been dismantled the past eight years and you no longer appreciate what democracy truly is?

Democracy is not about bashing people. And calling women ‘botch’ and ‘batch’ and ‘beotch’ and who knows what else.

Democracy is NOT about one special interest group gaining an ascendance to power and then locking out everyone else.

Democracy is not about any centrism – not only black or African centrism but any type whatsoever – and that of course most definitely includes African/black centrism as well.

Democracy is about ‘elected public servants’ – not ‘elected leaders’. As Hillary eloquently put it, it’s about trust. You hire someone for a job. That’s it. You pick the person with the best credentials. Period. You don’t go looking for another bloody rock star. All this kissing babies and doing the jive step on Oprah – that is not how you demonstrate your qualifications.

There might be something wrong with the selection process but there’s something wrong with the people when candidates are chosen in this fashion and you don’t have to look far back in history to see how this has been done expertly by forerunners to AKP and done successfully as well. And you of course need not look even as far back as that to tally the collateral damage.

Is there something wrong with one of the candidates? Yes. But there is an even greater wrong amongst the people so thoughtlessly and willingly letting themselves be duped.

RalphB

You are so right. I’ve seen 1000s of dumb ass blog posts about how “vote for Obama because he’s got a great campaign” or “vote for Obama because he’s more electable”. Though I hope this Wright business finally kills that crap.

Who gives a shit if he’s electable when he’ll be a damn disaster as President. People shouldn’t be looking for their inspiration in a politician. With this country falling down the tubes, we don’t need a “leader” we really could use a competent “public servant” though.

That’s why I support Hillary. Not hope, not sex, not race, just plain old competence in a time when it’s required.

bert

And as far as I know the videos of those speeches were still for sale at the church web site. I guess he or none of th eother parishoners ever viewed them.

And to think I used to respect Dick Durbin.

TeakWoodKite

The Dream Act II ?

Andy

Great post Susan! I am intrigued about which sermons from Jeremiah Wright did Obama take in tapes to Harvard Law. I read he used them to learn his “oratory” skills…

I think I will skip the news tomorrow; I cannot stomach any more
the media excusing him and Wright and pretending everything will be alright after he gives his “great” speech tomorrow… Will be words, just words.
The hard facts lie on his 20 years relationship with this man. What’s that saying? Tell me who is your friend and I will tell you who you are?

I read (don’t have cable thank G’) that KO compared
BO speech tomorrow to that of JFK ???

They must be fumigating at MSNBC b/c these people lost their minds.
RMC

Looks like it’s time to play cowboys & Obamabots.
Terry

I tuned in to MSNBC tonight for the first time in weeks to see if the some of the luster had worn off BO – of course none had. The same ol’crew (Todd, Maddow, Robinson, Gregory, Mitchell, Fineman, Matthews, et al) had the same blind love. Even Fineman, when he critized BO, did so while slamming Clinton- he made some comment that BO was being “too Clintonian” in his parsing. Geesh. I lasted 5 mintues on the new show in Tucker’s slot, 5 mintues on “Softtoss” w/ Matthews and didn’t even bother with KO. MSNBC is like the Cold War era Politburo – where only folks who completely agreed with one another got together to reinforce their insulated view of the world.

Two BO supports I talked today defended their candidate on the ground that he didn’t really believe Wright, but that he had to attend that church for poltical reasons related to the southside of Chicago. Joe Scarborough later said something similar. This is an interesting defense of a guy whose candidacy is premised on the claim that he is not a politician. If BO is in fact not the anti-politician, then what is he? An empy suit? A liar? A phony?

I wonder how much longer Wright will remain silent. He doesn’t seem to me – given his bombastic tirades -to be the type to let anyone, even BO, bad mouth him as a crazy uncle who loses his mind once in awhile (and that is the best that is being said of him). Can Wright really be happy with BO’s harsh words regarding some of the sermons? The open letter from Trinity Church issued on Sunday seems to be a warning shot to BO to be careful. Throwing their beloved pastor under the bus may not sit well with them or the egomaniac which until recently ran that church.

MarkL

If I were a cable news host, I would invite Ferraro and Wright on the program for a friendly chat.

RalphB

“then what is he? An empy suit? A liar? A phony?”

Yes and those are his good points.

Mel

OT After weeks of negotiations, the Florida Democratic Party said Monday it will not hold a second primary in the state.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, an Obama supporter, said Obama would like to see Florida’s delegates counted in a way that would not alter the overall outcome heading into the party’s convention.

But, he said, Obama wants to “give Florida the opportunity to vote.”

Daschle rejected the one-half person formula that seemed to gain traction last week as prospects for a second primary grew more remote.

Daschle once again is saying it all, Florida, you are not worth anything even though 1.7 million of you voted! You were not Bamboozled by our chosen King!
chris

The other weird thing that hardly gets touched on is that in his inflammatory rant about Hillary Clinton, Wright essentially says that she hasn’t had it rough. My victimhood trumps your victimhood.

The whole assumption seems to be that sexism is a lesser problem than racism (as if we should rank bigotry) and that sexism is something to dismiss and not even bother with.

Obama hasn’t said Word One about the sexism directed at Hillary Clinton. Given Obama’s 20 year spiritual advisor’s rant, I now have to assume that the whole “Hillary Clinton ain’t never been called a nigger” thing is reflective of Obama’s view that the discrimination women experience doesn’t come close to what blacks go through, thus it is no big deal.

Clinton apologizes over and over to blacks. Will we see an apology for Wright’s anti-Hillary rant from Obama?

I would like to see Obama address the matter of sexism in this campaign directly.

MarkL

and how has Obama suffered?
He’s had a great life.

Dawnelle

The ironic thing (I think) is perhaps the fact so MANY Obiwan Media fans keep saying “wait until he’s had a chance to give his speech tomorrow on race relations, etc”

like WAIT until we have a chance to be Bamboozled again? I’m allergic to his Obama-dust. It doesn’t work on me. No speech ever has.

What’s the point now? It’s OUT there. IT can’t be taken back. This will only bring MORE attention to it for at least another week where his numbers will continue to plummet. I agree his chances in NOV are zilch. Problem is he’s gonna fight to be the nominee at the convention so I guess I’ll just start practicing typing President McKook right now.

sigh
Hope

I can’t wait to watch him bumble his way through this minefield tomorrow. I can just hear him stuttering as he lectures re race relations. I bet this is going to go over like a lead bomb. Only the truly naive are going to eat this one.

Preaching, preaching, preaching!
Ad nauseum!

Andy

I wonder…. who is he giving this speech to?

That is who does he have in mind for his audience?

I’ll skip the next 24 hrs news cycle… I refuse to give him a platform for this issue.

Obama: your 20 years relationship with Wright is inexcusable. Don’t sermonize me. Period.

http://tersaona.net MoodSwingeR

We’re sorry… no questions.

There will be only speech.

When Leader speaks, we can only listen.
http://lesstalkmoreactivism.blogspot.com/ whoframedrudy

Great questions. I’ve got some more.

Who is a better orator, Jeremiah Wright or Obama? Did Obama learn oratory from Wright — how to manipulate a crowd, cadence, rhythm, etc.?

As the hot new State Senator, did he ever discuss racial politics with Wright privately (not sitting in the pews)?

Did he ever discuss foreign policy with Jeremiah Wright privately?

Does he believe the U.S. was justified in using nuclear weapons against Imperial Japan?

Since two of your senior advisor (Power, Goolsbee) are on record saying your campaign rhetoric will not be policy, why should the American people believe your race speech is anything more than a campaign ploy?

Note: I learned today that President Kennedy’s father was anti-semitic. I never knew that before. Obama’s surrogates are dredging up ancient Kennedy family dirty laundry for damage control talking points: “We don’t blame Ted Kennedy for his father’s anti-semitic bigotry.” That’s how they repay Teddy for ‘passing along the Kennedy torch’ to Obama.

TeakWoodKite

President Kennedy’s father was anti-semitic..big time!

Salo

Joe was more anti-British thn anything else. He’s the main reason that the US didn’t suppot the UK against the Nazis. He’s half forgiven for that he’s a paddy.

ruhla

If BO wanted to be a racial uniter, he could have started in this own church. Per the video, the congregation, especially the young people, were really into Wright’s messages of hate. This also disproves Barack’s assertion that Wright’s sermons were from the old generation and really weren’t taken seriously.
http://jonesalley.blogspot.com Milo Johnson

I’m not an Obama supporter, but come on, “mixed DNA?” Human and what, exactly?

RalphB

maybe Hope Fairy

ritamary

What fun it was over at Obamington Post this afternoon. People were commenting on “Poll: Majority Of Voters “Less Likely” To Vote For Obama Because Of Wright.” They were saying they would never vote for Obama now and if he is the candidate they will not vote at all. Obamazoids are going ballistic saying those who won’t vote for Obama are cowards and traitors. Obamazoids have such a special aptitude for winning hearts and minds…

John

I actually heard a poll the other day on POTUS which said that 11 percent of respondents said they were MORE LIKELY to vote for Obama after reading Wright’s comments. Can you imagine that? I think 56% said they were less likely- but how do you listen to Wright and think “yeah, now I’m more likely to vote for the guy who listens to this vicious hate monger?” Jesus.

Salo

Irony. I’d be inclined to leave a joke answer if offered it as an option.

http://thehorizontalworld.blogspot.com/ Mary Jo Kopechne

Someone HAS to ask him those questions. Do any of the msm have the balls to do so? Maybe someone at Fox. Really, after his speech tomorrow, when he’s done teaching us about race in America. What arrogance.
http://cujo359.blogspot.com Cujo359

On that list of questions,

#1,#2 – don’t care. I’m often amazed at how much people give to their churches. What’s a good or bad value for this church as opposed to, say the Roman Catholic church?
#3,#4 – these are interesting, although there are many possible ways to achieve some sort of balance in their treatment of Jews and Muslims. Perhaps a more generalized followup like “OK, what have you done to reach out to Jews?” might be in order.
#5,#6 – while this might be considered evidence of how much Obama knew about Wright’s opinions, I find it hard to believe he wasn’t aware of at least some of them.
#7,#8 – not sure this is all that interesting.
#9 – very interesting question, although it’s pretty clear that Wright has had some major influence on Obama’s thinking. Perhaps a followup would be “How has Wright influenced your thinking?”. Don’t expect that we’ve read the book, BTW. Consider this the first lesson in Obama 101.
#10 – #13 – hopefully, some of this will be answered, at least. I’m not holding my breath, though.

I agree that Obama needs to avoid the impression that he’s being disingenuous. Nearly any other answer, short of “Yeah, burn the mutha down” is probably going to be acceptable if it’s honest. My guess is that Obama and Wright do have honest disagreements about race relations. As you’ve observed, this is something of a generational thing, plus Obama’s childhood seems to include being around a great many different kinds of people.

http://cujo359.blogspot.com Cujo359

Correction:

As ~~you’ve~~ Taylor Marsh has observed,
John

And why do you have to “guess that Obama and Wright do have honest disagreements about race relations?” Well, it’s because Obama has never told us what those disagreements are.

All we know about their relationship is that it’s very, very close, and it involves Obama giving Wright a big sackful of money every year. You can “guess” all you want. That doesn’t cut it for me.

miriam

I heard the Obama speech will be on MSNBC, so that’s one strike against it right there. We will be treated to the whole crew over there–Mathewson, Olbermann, Maddow, etc. expounding on how great it was for him to do this. The whole damn set up is simply a PR gimmick so it can be said that now he’s cleared everything up, it’s time to move on. It will have become old news. And we’ll be hearing no more about it except “Obama already answered that.”

Will it work? It may if the media is determined to sweep it away. What do you think?
JoeySky

From the comments that I had with Obama supporter in myDD, I think tomorrow Obama will say that the video clips have been taken out of context.

Rev. Wright church is full of love and hope. Obama will bring up a piece of the sermom audicity of hope, and show how beautify the preaching was. He will say that there are many good things about Rev Wright and Trinity church. The church has done a lot of help the poor people.

He will say that the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding. I’m not sure how much he will be able to plug the hole in his ship with his speech.

MarkL

If he does that, he is sunk.

DisenfranchisedVoter

I’m not a religious person but I do believe in karma. This is for all the times his campaign went after the Clintons and her surrogates and voters and dared to call them racists and Archie Bunker voters. I am hoping that his speech does not bamboozle most of America who isn’t a total Obamabot. I have a friend who is an Obamabot and he wrote in his blog that if real life were the West Wing that Obama would be president. This is the fantasy world that Obamabots live in. They want real life to be the West Wing and they think Obama can carry that out with his love, hope, and change B.S.
Obama is no longer a legitimate candidate. He refuses to give FL and MI voters the chance to have their voices heard in this process. I believe karma will come back in a big way if he takes the nomination by doing this. Is it fair that because of a date change for a primary that millions of Americans could actually be disenfranchised by their own political leaders? Is it fair that because of this stupid decision made by the DNC, this will determine who will be our nominee?
I am not a religious person. But I pray tonight that Obama does not change minds in Philadelphia tomorrow. I pray that more people will call him out for the fraud he is and that his negatives go up again by the end of the week. Say a prayer everyone.

Cee Hussein

DFV,

People realize that the DNC made the rules and Clinton wants to change them now that she’s losing.
Also, save your prayers. Americans are not as narrowminded and as hard-hearted as the people who have gravitated to this site.

Larry,

Please save your blog!

christian aaron

gawd, i so agree. Larry, please take back your blog. i only came here after this amazing speech to see the kind of hateful bile Hilary’s supporters would be throwing at it, and once again, can’t believe my eyes. this used to be a sane blog.

apparently, my way of thinking is not welcome here. i am apparently either an Obamabot, or an Obamanista, or something of the like because i am inspired by the particular politician i support. interesting…. MOST of the posters here sicken me. goodbye once again… i mean, i can’t even come here to see some sane policy analysis about security as it’s all obscured by the petty hatred and unbelievable microscopic, narrow-minded parsing. if you turned that microscope on your own candidate, you know what you would find… that is, if you took a step back and didn’t take their defenses of any of those perceived offenses or weaknesses as Gospel. but you do… cuz they’re from YOUR candidate. it is sickening. you folks here seem to be many of those who “will not vote for Obama” if he is the Democratic nominee. now, i know why i support my candidate. but i would certainly vote for Hillary over the R. is that the difference here? i’m sorry, but you folks are over the top in your fanaticism… please don’t talk about people deifying Obama. look in the frikkin mirror and know thyself.
Donovan Fraser

no shit.

HD-Rider

I’ve read some great posts on this website this morning. Wanted to share below info.

Geraldine took one on the chin for Obama, the hypocrite…for all his “uniter” b***s***, he’s just another lying politician.

A recent post on Taylor Marsh’s website exposes Obama’s hypocrisy….the poster provided the links, and I looked up the quotes. The first one is from his own senate website…

“Obama acknowledges, with no small irony, that he benefits from his race. If he were white, he once bluntly noted, he would simply be one of nine freshmen senators, almost certainly without a multimillion-dollar book deal and a shred of celebrity. Or would he have been elected at all?”
http://obama.senate.gov/news/050626-when_it_comes_to_race_obama_ma/

“Mr. Obama has pointedly acknowledged that he benefits from his race, noting last year that a new white senator from Illinois would hardly have stirred comparable interest or intrigue. So Mr. Obama has embraced his role, but he has strived to be defined by more than color alone.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/washington/24obama.html?_r=1&sq=obama%20third%20senator%20reconstruction&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&scp=10&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1205814418-c8BhsJNXK3fLbHSn/StHLQ

My apologies for not hyperlinking to sources, but I’m getting an error msg on the page.

PMS

One could conclude then that he is a self-hating racist. May be something to that.

Comparing those remarks and Ferraro’s remarks would be a good question for the PA debate. I won’t hold my breath.

John

I promise you that this will be the context of Obama’s speech:

1. I am a Committed Christian.

2. America still has a race problem.

3. I am not a racist, but pretty much all white people are.

4. Racism is destroying our country.

5. Let’s fulfill the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.

6. The only way to heal our nation is by electing me President.

We will hear nothing about the Rev. Wright, unless we hear that his words are the result of a thousand years of racism and that the anger of those words are evidence that we need to elect Barack Obama. We’ll probably hear about “insidious racism” in “the campaigns of other people” (wink wink nod nod pick up the baton and run with it Keith) but how he won’t go negative because that will betray his message of Hope and Change and Unity.

And all over the US, hundreds of thousands of Obamabots will have spontaneous orgasms, many of them live on MSNBC.

rjj

good one. looking forward to your treatment of the actual speech.

SUGGESTION: Anybody like the idea to have a thread for abstracting/reducing campaign speeches into a numbered or bulleted list as John did in the above – (but real ones, after they are delivered)? Something like “So what did he/she say?” Caveat: could cut both ways.

Cee Hussein

Pitiful. Clinton is STILL losing in spite of all of this.

What are you folks going to do IF (which I doubt) you so damage Obama that you have to live with McCain?

Salo

The problem here is that the press ought to have made a big deal of this before Iowa. They had the material readuy to go at that point. It’s allowing Democrats to vote blindly and this is the result–A wounded inevitable candidate we can’t now ditch.

The Press have blackmailed the Democratic constituency.
http://www.oohnuance.blogspot.com madamab

If Obama is the candidate, McCaca will win.

Don’t blame this on Hillary. She didn’t wave her wand and make him be a member of that church. She didn’t force him to campaign as if he is the new Messiah, with all of the attendant religious hysteria. She didn’t make him befriend Reszko.

These are Obama’s own flaws that are bringing him down.

Until the Wright thing, I was still holding out for a dream ticket, with either Barack or Hillary at the top. It seemed the best way to avoid a brokered convention.

Now I don’t see him having any future at all. He should have waited till his next term to run for President.

Given the level of support that he is capable of engendering, I have to say: What a waste.

Donovan Fraser

what, and there isn’t huge pile of shit involving John McCain? he’s the perfect candidate??? Oh please …..you could make a series of movies on how disturbed and angry and MOSTLY out of touch with reality this colossal Bush ass kisser is.
is this the Blog’s conventional thinking? if MY candidate doesn’t win then fuck sanity? ALL OR NOTHING????? Hillary or I’m voting for insane McCain? there are other answers….

If you vote for John McSame ( BECAUSE Hillary or Obama loses) you deserve the America you will inherit.

too bad the rest of us will have to live on that sinking ship with you.

Pingback: Make Them Accountable / Media
PaVoter

My question is : Why can’t I find any mention of the specific charities who have received the $150,000 of money Rezko donated to Obama’s campaigns?
Could the Trinity Church be at the top of that list?
pat johnston

Please keep the boycott of msnbc and cnn going. Go tow.w.w. Taylor Marsh Broadcast live and sign a petition by Bud Whiteseveral other people. Also I saw a video of Obama copying a speech from Malcom x and several other people that he copyed word for word. So much for those inspiring speeches I want to send this to the campaign so Hillary can use this. Don’t forget to sign the petition so we can level the playing field.
http://olympics.poetryman6969.com/ poetryman69

Getting yourself pastored for 20 years by a radical hater shows bad judgment. Lying about it when asked by the media shows dishonesty. Now we know the real reason why you refused to wear a flag lapel pin and why your wife has never before been proud of America. If we take you at your word, you spent 20 years in the company of a man, and never once figured out that he was a virulent racist. A president of the United states cannot afford to be that obtuse. Request for presidency denied.

–klqtzz
David

“And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.”
William Shakespeare