old europe wrote:Foxfyre wrote:I think Obama's 20-year association with Wright, calling him his spiritual advisor, guide, mentor, putting him on his campaign staff, and then claiming he didn't know anything about Wright's racist, anti-American views simply doesn't hold up as credible.
Your argument would be more credible if you could stick to the truth, Foxy. Did Obama, in fact, say
"he didn't know anything"?
No. This is what Obama has said:
You can criticise Obama on the basis of what he actually said. Fine. But if you make up stuff, your argument is really not very credible.
And your argument would be more credible if a speech addressing the problem was the only evidence we had. Those still capable of looking at it objectively are willing to look at all of it. Rox posts a link to a video of a 'typical Wright sermon' which she has no way of knowing what is or is not typical. CNN, ABC, and other news sources have listened to a LOT of Wright tapes and agree that the message is more often racially charged and anti-American than not.
But in light of Obama's speech, the following remains his problem:
Just What Did Obama Know About Wright's Past Sermons?
March 15, 2008 6:15 PM
In his Friday night cable mea culpas on the incendiary comments made by his spiritual adviser Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., repeatedly said, "I wasn't in church during the time that these statement were made. I did not hear such incendiary language myself, personally. Either in conversations with him or when I was in the pew, he always preached the social gospel. ... If I had heard them repeated, I would have quit. ... If I thought that was the repeated tenor of the church, then I wouldn''t feel comfortable there."
Obama told CNN that he "didn't know about all these statements. I knew about one or two of these statements that had been made. One or two statements would not lead me to distance myself from either my church or my pastor. ... If I had thought that was the tenor or tone on an ongoing basis, then yes, I don't think it would have been reflective of my values."
But according to a New York Times story from a year ago, the Obama campaign dis-invited Wright from delivering a public invocation at Obama's candidacy announcement.
"Fifteen minutes before Shabbos I get a call from Barack," Wright told the Times. "One of his members had talked him into uninviting me."
In a phone call with Wright, Obama cited a Rolling Stone story, "The Radical Roots of Barack Obama," (the name of which has curiously been changed on the RS website) and told him, according to Wright, ""You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we''ve decided is that it''s best for you not to be out there in public."
That story included the following passage: "The Trinity United Church of Christ, the church that Barack Obama attends in Chicago, is at once vast and unprepossessing, a big structure a couple of blocks from the projects, in the long open sore of a ghetto on the city's far South Side. The church is a leftover vision from the Sixties of what a black nationalist future might look like. There's the testifying fervor of the black church, the Afrocentric Bible readings, even the odd dashiki. And there is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a sprawling, profane bear of a preacher, a kind of black ministerial institution, with his own radio shows and guest preaching gigs across the country.
Wright takes the pulpit here one Sunday and solemnly, sonorously declares that he will recite 10 essential facts about the United States. 'Fact number one: We've got more black men in prison than there are in college,' he intones. 'Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!' There is thumping applause; Wright has a cadence and power that make Obama sound like John Kerry. Now the reverend begins to preach. 'We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional KILLERS. ... We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. ... We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. ... We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means!"
The crowd whoops and amens as Wright builds to his climax: 'And. And. And! GAWD! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS S***!'"
This was more than a year ago.
So ... what did Obama know then and what did he just all of a sudden learn?
- jpt
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/just-what-did-o.html
And here is one of several video clips in which he said that he didn't hear Pastor Wright's more controversial comments and he would have quit if he had.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj4gPXj4JPk&feature=user
