Open Thread (with Reviews + a Request)
By SusanUnPC on March 19, 2008 at 5:29 PM in Barack Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
8:15 p.m. PST UPDATE: Taylor’s fundraiser for Hillary is going great! “Keep the Cash for Clinton Coming.” “$10 Bucks for Hill — Everyone can afford $10!”
NOTE: WE HAD TO TAKE DOWN DCMEDIAGIRL’s post briefly. Hope to have it back up soon. (Better explanation: It was a technical issue to do with the server — it got a little hairy there for a while / we think it’s resolved, and I’ll re-post DCMediaGirl’s piece in an hour or so. (Saved all of your comments too!) – SusanUnPC, 7:10 pm PST)
POST OF THE DAY (the week?!):
“For A Smart Man, Obama Sure Doesn’t Know A Lot Of Things”
– If you don’t all go and read this article, I’m going to be sore with all of you! I expect comments on it, and soon!
Bonnie Erbe, a syndicated columnist who hosts her own PBS show, reviews Obama’s speech at U.S. News & World Report: “Obama Speech Falls Short.”
Michael Gerson, Washington Post columnist, also finds that Obama’s speech fell short of its goal: “The problem with Obama’s argument is that Wright is not a symbol of the strengths and weaknesses of African Americans. He is a political extremist, holding views that are shocking to many Americans who wonder how any presidential candidate could be so closely associated with an adviser who refers to the ‘U.S. of KKK-A’ and urges God to ‘damn” our country’.” [MORE from Gerson below.]
Taylor Marsh would appreciate our support for her fundraising effort FOR HILLARY CLINTON (!) today starting at 5 p.m. PST.
MORE from Gerson’s Wa-Po op-ed:
Take an issue that Obama did not specifically confront yesterday. In a 2003 sermon, Wright claimed, “The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color.”
This accusation does not make Wright, as Obama would have it, an “occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy.” It makes Wright a dangerous man. He has casually accused America of one of the most monstrous crimes in history, perpetrated by a conspiracy of medical Mengeles. If Wright believes what he said, he should urge the overthrow of the U.S. government, which he views as guilty of unspeakable evil. If I believed Wright were correct, I would join him in that cause.
But Wright’s accusation is batty, reflecting a sputtering, incoherent hatred for America. And his pastoral teaching may put lives at risk because the virus that causes AIDS spreads more readily in an atmosphere of denial, quack science and conspiracy theories. …
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What else is going on in the world?
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- An account of the steady growth of President Clinton as a master of the game of nations.
