Round-Up of Blog Responses to Obama Presser (and buzz about a N.C. poll last night)
By SusanUnPC on April 29, 2008 at 4:05 PM in Barack Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
The good, the bad, the ugly, the utterly lame, and the completely stupid and/or delusional — along with some reports of polling done last night in North Carolina about Wright and Obama (hmmm):
Townhall.com (Mary Katharine Ham):
Someone Was Doing Wright-Polling in N.C.
Gee, I wonder why Obama, the anti-political posturer, disowned Wright today. My dad got a call last night that might explain. … It was a live call last night around 7 p.m., not a robocall. The woman on the phone identified herself as with a polling firm of some sort, but did not indicate that she was working at the behest of either campaign. … The call was 6 or 7 minutes long and started with “Are you a registered Democrat?”
[Then] the caller asked, “How closely have you been following the Rev. Wright story,” to which the voter could answer “Very closely,” “Somewhat Closely,” and “Not Closely at all.” … The next question was, “How has your view of Obama been affected by this story,” …
I’m watching MSNBC and Andrea Mitchell is asking NBC correspondent Athena Jones why Obama chose now to finally, unequivocally, part ways with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In her reporting wisdom, Jones is talking about how Wright offended Obama with his remarks yesterday at the National Press Club. I don’t think so.
My guess is it had something to do with the poll call I got last night. All questions were about the Obama-Wright relationship and whether that made me think more unfavorably about Barack Obama [and if] I was more inclined now to vote for Hillary since this blew up. Due respect to Athena, but she should do a little more reporting and actually ask Obama why he did what he did a few minutes ago.
I would put money on the fact that Obama saw the results of that snap poll and said, “My God, I’ve got to ditch this guy.”
Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish (Atlantic):
That was a very impressive, clear and constructive re-framing of the core message of his candidacy; and a moment given to him by Wright. No one will ever be able to say that Obama threw his father-figure and pastor under the bus. We all know that the reverse happened. We also know that this clear repudiation of Wright’s toxic, indeed “ridiculous” views on AIDS, 9/11 and permanent immiseration of people of color could not have happened unless Wright had made it necessary.
More Sullivan:
Skeptics may wonder whether Wright actually deliberately did Obama a favor. I doubt it. But a favor it unintentionally is. [...]
[T]oday, we found that he can fight back, and take a stand, without calculation and in what is clearly a great amount of personal difficulty and political pain. It’s what anyone should want in a president. It makes me want to see him succeed more than ever. It’s why this country needs to see him succeed more than ever.
Obama: “I Seek Daily to Imitate His Faith” …Until Today [...]
Obama threw the Reverend under the bus today.
This probably doesn’t fit anymore either:
“I could no longer disown him as I could disown my white grandmother.”Rev. Wright joined his white grandmother today: …
Denouncement of Rev. Wright, Redux (Plus: Disowning the Black Community)
He’s going all-out this time. Really should have thrown him under the bus the first time, Barry.
If you’d Sister Souljah-ed him instead of your grandma, maybe you wouldn’t be here now. [...]
He brushes off the “black liberation theology” question, saying he’s “not a theologian.” That’s a cop out, if I’ve ever heard one. [...]
[Chris] Matthews, ludicrously, argues that this will be good for Obama because, after giving this speech, people will be reminded by Wright’s ravings that Obama is on their side, not Wright’s. Fat chance. If Wright doesn’t shut up but quick, Obama’s sunk, no matter how much he rejects and denounces Wright.
The parts that I’ve heard so far didn’t quite live up to the headlines; he was really grasping for words and sounded a bit too measured in response to questions from reporters. The talking heads seem to like it so far, though; Chris Matthews is comparing him to Richard II.
Ok. Let’s be clear then: It wasn’t the fact that Wright has been spewing this same recycled crap for years that finally got Obama mad. It was that he finally realized it was hurting his campaign. And he was personally miffed by Wright’s insults against him.
2) What does this say about your judgment to superdelegates? “The person I saw was not the person that I’d come to know over 20 years…Shocked me, surprised me.”
Bullcrap.
Anyone with eyes yesterday saw that Wright’s was a finely-honed, time-tested act. …
They should be denounced? There’s a lot of “they” in that statement. The antecedent is “his comments.” It’s a strong statement, but it does stop short of denouncing the man. He’s denounced his comments before.
It is a jarring juxtaposition to hear a candidate denounce his own pastor while simultaneously talking about the need for mutual understanding and to bridge the divides between people. Denunciatiing while promising unifying feels like a logical contradiction, or at least a rhetorical one.
Maybe it is because I am totally and unrepentantly in the tank for Obama, but I just can’t get worked up over what his pastor said.
Obama Live Press Conference on Wright: Throws Wright Under the Bus
In the blogosphere, he’s getting headlines like “Obama Cuts Wright Loose, and “Obama Denounces Wright,” and “Obama Repudiates Wright.”
That’s what he needs for TV tonight and headlines tomorrow. But then, he will need to explain what Wright said yesterday that was different than he had ever said before.
My stray thought – if Obama is denied the nomination because of his relationship with a black minister, however angry/kooky, there will be Hades to pay in the Dem Party. Far better that Obama blow up because of his relationship with the unrepentant and very pale terrorist Bill Ayers.
UHH… : "Blow up" is a common expression indicating sudden and dramatic failure, not a literal explosion; with Ayers involved, a clarification seems appropriate.
You know the Obama campaign is seeing some baaaaad numbers over the last few days for Obama to come out and flip-flop on Wright: (via Michelle Malkin who liveblogged Obama’s speech)
[...]
So now that his campaign is getting hurt he throws his mentor under the bus as he did his grandma. What other way can you see it other then that? There is no way, no how, Obama did NOT know what Wright was like. His speech yesterday was no different then the sermons he spewed from his racist mouth for decades. Additionally, he says he is no theologian when the Church pushed that black liberation theology hard for years also. Puhlease.
And why now? Why not when the videos first saw the light of day? Or how the 20 years he sat in the pews?
As Michelle said, its all bullcrap.
:::::::::::::
P.S. Hillary is up 8 in Indiana. (PDF file)
P.P.S. From a pal:
>
> Since January, Clinton had led among Carolina whites by 14, 19, 17,
> 22 and 23 points. But today, suddenly: 31. In the Research Triangle,
> Clinton is up 9 points, week-on-week; Obama is down 3; a net swing of
> 12 points to Clinton. Among unaffiliated voters, Clinton has
> overtaken Obama for the first time in 2008, though the difference is
> small and within the sub-group’s margin of sampling error. The two
> tie among Moderates. Obama leads slightly among Liberals. Clinton
> leads slightly among Conservatives. There is enough cross-current in
> the political waters that SurveyUSA’s final pre-Primary poll, next
> week, may show more movement — though in which direction it is
> impossible to know.
>
SUSA
:::::::::::::
P.P.P.S. From today’s New York Times, “Eyes on Blue-Collar Voters, Obama Shifts Style,” prior to the press conference:
Mr. Obama, in an appearance with Chris Wallace broadcast over the weekend on “Fox News Sunday,” played down his problems among blue-collar voters, saying that Mrs. Clinton had done better in part because “they are less familiar with me than they are with her, and so we probably have to work harder.”
“I’ve got to be more present,” he said. “I’ve got to be knocking on more doors. I’ve got to be hitting more events. We’ve got to work harder because although it’s flipped a little bit, we’ve always been the underdog in this race.”
In interviews with several associates and aides, Mr. Obama was described as bored with the campaign against Mrs. Clinton and eager to move into the general election against Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee.
So the Obama campaign is undertaking modifications in his approach intended to inject an air of freshness into his style.
Every day, Hillary seems more and more energized while Obama is fading and looks like hell. He thinks he’s won, but she keeps nipping at his heels. It must be driving him mad.
by Ronald Scott
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