Obama Finally Steps In It

The media is (finally / belatedly) abuzz with video of Barack Obama's pastor in Chicago, Rev Jeremiah Wright. Wright is a "black liberation theology" preacher on the South Side of Chicago, and the videos of him are truly disgusting to watch. He basically hates America. He said at one point "not God Bless America! God Damn America!" and then went on to repeat the G-D-A phrase over and over for emphasis. To wild applause. And it goes downhill from there.

So finally the media are sitting up and playing these videos as much as they can, and finally Obama has had to answer for them. The reason he has had to answer for them is that he has been attending that church for nearly 20 years, and is very close to this pastor. Wright married Barack and his wife Michelle; he baptized both their children; he provided the inspirational title "The Audacity of Hope" of Barack's book. Barack has described Wright as his spiritual advisor and still says they are very close. Result: The guy turns out to be an America-hating racist and you have to answer for it.

No one has yet suggested that Obama holds the views espoused by Wright, but I believe it is heading in that direction. Sean Hannity has already pointed out that wife Michelle seems to have similar, if toned-down, opinions. She recently got herself and her husband into all kinds of trouble when she mentioned in two separate speeches that for the first time in her adult life, she was actually proud of America. Conservative pundits started to knock her around for it, but didn't hit too hard because she's not the one running and it hardly seemed fair, plus there was the question of whether her comments were isolated or if she had held them for some time.


So it is fair that Obama must respond to this, and everyone seems to think (except Democrat shills) that he needs to also repudiate the man and have nothing more to do with him. As someone said this afternoon, "he's not running for state senator; he's running for President of the United States." It seems clear that Obama should, without any hesitation, cut off all ties to this man and repudiate everything he says. Surprisingly, even in one-on-one interviews and given chance after chance to do so, Obama has instead chosen to repudiate the comments, or the sermons, of the preacher, but only those in which these kinds of things were said and not in any way to reflect poorly toward the man himself.

I am always interested to find out what the Left believes about issues like this, to see whether it makes more sense than the conservative position with which I always identify. What I've found so far is, like usual, the Dem's are making very little sense. Democrat activists who are out there defending Obama are suggesting that the video clips we see are selective and that he doesn't ever preach like that at other times. They also point to Obama's claim that he never heard of these comments in particular, or even that this pastor had a proclivity for delivering such incendiary sermons. This despite his two-decade close relationship with his pastor. To me this is just not credible. I don't think Obama is racist the way Wright is; but the problem is I don't know about his wife's feelings on this, nor do we really know Barack. Have Wright's sermons and teachings "sunk in" with the Obama's? And if so, how will those beliefs manifest themselves if he is elected president?


As to the "selected video" complaint, it's true we don't know when they were all filmed, but does it matter much? There are a lot of videos, and he's saying hateful stuff in all of them. What are the chances we only have those few where he does that, and he's preaching peace and love for all humanity all the rest of the time?

Another strategy the Democrat pundits are using is to try and compare Obama's relationship with his pastor to various endorsements that John McCain has recently received from admittedly controversial people. On "Hannity & Colmes", liberal Alan Colmes complained about an Ohio preacher named Rod Parsley, who endorsed McCain and who has said some inflammatory things about gays and apparently Muslims. Colmes's point is that unless conservatives believe that McCain should repudiate Parsley's comments, then Obama shouldn't have to repudiate Wright's comments. Colmes asked this of a couple of his conservative guests and of his co-host Sean Hannity, but none would answer.

After seeing video clips of Parsley and reading his page on Wikipedia, I don't see why they would hesitate to answer; there's nothing serious there. Parsley is shown making statements like, "in essence, the Supreme Court...legalized the perverted act of sodomy," and "this is not about homosexual rights or lesbian rights. This is about the destruction of the very covenant...," as well as "in other words they are intending to pervert God's original intention." McCain has apparently said Parsley is a "spiritual guide" for him, so in Colmes's argument, he is tainted by these comments. My response would be, so what? Most conservatives would agree with all those statements anyway!

Calling homosexuality a perversion is hardly the same evil thing as saying that our country should be called the "U.S.KKK of A" and that it is "run by rich white men" who oppress blacks. Or that "the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color." But equating these two speakers is what passes for deep liberal thought and argument today. Pathetic and sad. Liberals are so invested in Barack Obama's presidential campaign that they can't call a spade a spade; can't admit when a guy is just flat-out wrong. That last statement by Rev Wright was made in April of 2003! How credible is it that Obama had never heard of it before, or that the guy who made the statement was not the same guy Obama knew so well, all these years?

Some believe this scandal is going to sink Obama's presidential aspirations. I'm not so sure, though I do think it will certainly damage him. I also don't think we've heard the last of this. Obama has not come out forcefully enough against Rev Wright, nor do I think he's likely to unless, as was the case today, he is forced to. This is not a new story, yet all of a sudden Barack Obama has clued-in to it, as though he didn't see it coming. Fox News' Major Garrett reported that as of this morning, when he emailed Obama's campaign chair about whether they felt Obama needed to do anything at all to further distance himself, or explain away, the Reverend's comments, the "one-word response" he got was: "No". So clearly, Obama's repudiation of Wright's comments this afternoon was not planned even as late as this morning, and the only reason he did it at all, obviously, is because the fire was starting to rage out of control. That is, for political expediency, not because he felt personally compelled. Again, sad and pathetic.