News and Politics Forum

I too was just considering how Wright has suddenly realized his own potential as a national fire brand within the black community. Another Sharkson (sounds better than Jackton ). His open comment that he'd go after Obama too if the man is elected because he'd represent a government that "grinds over people" confirmed it IMO.

I don't think the idea that this growing public fight between the two of them is contrived is all that far-fetched, but I'm not convinced of it yet either. It's an awfully risky strategy. Occam's Razor says that this might be exactly what it looks like; Wright seeking to carve out a power niche for himself (as he receives increased national and international shows of support from people who agree with him), and Obama trying to save face and look like the moderate "healer" he's been portraying himself as. I think Wright's increasingly radical behavior puts Obama on the spot at a time that it doesn't exactly benefit him.

The press is trying to paint Wright's assertion that attacks on him are attacks on the black church as code to that church for "Help!". I don't agree. I think Wright is trying to draw them in, but he's relishing the attention as a national figure now. And the crazier he gets, the more attention he gets.

Last edited by Seabird (04-29-2008 10:46 PM)

MC Escher wrote:

And no, I don't have a problem with Lesbians. I've got 20gigs of proof that I don't have a problem with Lesbians. I have a problem with THAT Lesbian.

All that aside...

I think we should be proud. We finally have a season of Political Comedy that exceeds even the antics of the French Parliament.

Yeah, but we're miles and miles apart from the antics of the Italian Parliament. Thank FSM.

zukiphile wrote:

Question:  Since this public separation has served them both well, is it reasonable to see this as choreographed?

Choreographed? By who?  Wright is trying to sell his book.  Obama is taking hits on all sides.

Remember there are two ways of being sorry:

Being sorry for what one did.  Making a genuine act of penance.

Then we have being sorry for getting caught.

Last edited by Veritas (04-30-2008 12:07 AM)

See, I'm looking at the opposite side: By Wright "calling out" Obama, he actually fortifies his position within the white America that got a bad taste from the previous association, thus propelling Obama back into the good graces of the enlightened masses.

For that matter, quid pro quo down the road within the administration, etc. is plausible.

And he has pissed off a lot(the majority) of African Americans with that move.

Turd_Ferguson wrote:

See, I'm looking at the opposite side: By Wright "calling out" Obama, he actually fortifies his position within the white America that got a bad taste from the previous association, thus propelling Obama back into the good graces of the enlightened masses.

For that matter, quid pro quo down the road within the administration, etc. is plausible.

I see what you're saying and to be honest I don't know how "the polls"are reacting to this whole thing or how they will in the fututre. But I think that the majority of the people that would react that way are already voting for Obama. Hillary supporters are going to use this as proof about Hillary being more electable in the general election. In the theoretical Hillary V. McCain polls, she's gaining ground and has passed him in some states. Obviously, take that for it's worth. It's opened more doors for Obama fall out of

In this case, I heavily favor the idea that the simplest explanation is the most probable.

Obama 'attended' this church for almost 20 years.  I say 'attended' because he most likely made regular donations, actually went to church once a month, and spent twice the amount of time advertising the fact he was a church goer.  I doubt he was actually present for even 50% of the crap Wright has been spewing in all that time.  I think this, because this whole angle of attack seems like something even a retarded campaign manager could have foreseen and prepared a defense for.  It was a genuine surprise to his camp, because in truth, Obama wasn't a regular attendee.

To suggest any kind of conspiracy here would be a bit of a stretch I think.  Wright was simply corrupted by his new found fame and the ability to reach a greater audience with his message.  From here on out, these are all self motivated actions on his part.

He's not particularly religious and Wrights church was a means to political power, although he genuinely is correctly defined as a New Black Realist that rejects the old gaurd Black Civil Rights Political Power Structure and their victimization peddling/conpiracy theorizing/hate&fear mongering.

He didnt attend church much, but fully knew that Farrakhan and Wright were 2 peas in a pod.  He even believes that Farrakhan and Wright have done much for the black community action wize, just that their tired rhetoric is not the way forward.

Seabird wrote:

Honestly, this is a hard thing to spin. Is he pandering to the religious element of his constituency by claiming to go to church when he didn't? Or is he lying about not having known about what kind of jackass Wright was and the kinds of things he was saying? Or did he both attend and know about the sermons and truly buys into the black liberation theology?

Am I missing a likely scenario?

D)  All of the above.

Seabird wrote:

...tap dancing.

racist

For some reason, I just don't get that spun up over Rev. Wright -- I think BO's association with him was a marriage of political convenience, and I think BO is way too smart to adopt Wright's shtick as his own.  For me, there's plenty of other reasons not to vote for him -- if we're keeping those reasons narrowly focused on associations & allies, Barry's & Michelle's links to William Ayers & his wife bother me a lot more than Rev. Wright.

Still, it's hard to argue with this:

Wright Out   [Jonah Goldberg]

I agree entirely with Andy below. You know who made this a racial thing? Not Sean Hannity. Not Fox News. Not Hillary Clinton. Barrack Obama made Jeremiah Wright a race thing. It was his big "race speech" that transformed a singular black preacher into the living personification of the "Black Community."

And you know what really bugs me about it? For all the gobbledygook about Barack's race speech "finally" starting a conversation on race, the whole reason Obama made Wright into a racial issue was so that people would shut up. He tried to scare people away from an inconvenient discussion about race. He said to pay attention to Wright would be a distraction. It would divert people from what really matters. And by "what really matters" Obama meant "getting me elected." The press got Wright's message: Don't you dare criticize Wright for this is black dirty laundry and an attack on Wright is an attack on all of us.

The press dutifully carried this water for the Obama campaign, proclaiming any mention of Wright to be out of bounds or even racist until it blew up in their face this week (as I mention in my column today).

But there are at least two problems with this. First, it is complete nonsense that Jeremiah Wright speaks for the entire black community or the black church, whatever that is.

But, second and more important, if that were true then shame on the black church and the black community too. I am so sick of hearing talking heads saying that Wright's sermons are nothing unusual in black churches as if that somehow makes what he says ok. It's as if something disgusting and untrue is outrageous if one person believes it, but it's suddenly respectable if lots of people — or lots of black people — believe it. Hogwash.

(Funny how it's not a defense of evangelical Christians to say of Pat Robertson's blather "that sort of thing is said in white churches every Sunday.")

Oh and one last thing, I'm not someone who constantly carps about how we need yet one more conversation about race in this country. But the people who do say that sort of thing the most seem to be the same people who want the conversation about Jeremiah Wright and what he represents to go away. That is outrageously dishonest. Unless of course your real aim is to have the same old conversation about race again and again and again, in which the only villain is white America and the only victim is black America, and all of the old cliches get one more fresh coat of Wrightwash.

(emph. mine)

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? … ZkYjdiY2M=

Kneecapped.

We as a nation will not be able to progress on racial issues until the Old Gaurd Black leadership perishes from this Earth.

The New Black Realism will then lead the way.  Obama when he is not pandering and licking boots for political power, is a New Black Realist.  His wife however.......

Last edited by EscapeVelocity (05-02-2008 01:08 AM)