Politico: GOP sees Rev. Wright as pathway to victory

[JMS]

I have a question. Who here listened to Obama's speech yesterday?

The follow-up to that is, if you did, do you think that what he said was wrong? If so why?

I didn't listen to the speech. I did watch quite a few of the clips and I read the transcript. I think it was a historic speech. It will go down in history as a great and historic speech.

I do feel strongly though that this issue is not a good issue for his campagne to be focused on. Obama can't be seen as the candidate of race, he must get back to the broader issues facing the country in order to win the nomination.

He has another major speech planned tommorrow on Iraq.. Good for him.

[BigMike619]

Who's talking about intimitation? That's your hang-uip not mine.I could careless.

As for racial profiling ,give me some systemic examples of the reverse?

As for colored-oonly signs I've seen them with my own eyes as a boy in Sumter and Chowctow County Alabama as a boy.Long as so-called desegregation.

Try again

you go to any go-go show as a white guy in DC and tell me you arent racially profiled as either a "wigger" or "out of place". I have had people come staright up to me and say, "What are you doing here white boy?" Thats in "Chocolate City".

Yeah, I have no hang up with you trying to be intimidating and telling me Im this or that. I deal with people like that on a daily basis. You should just relax a little and stop with the insults if you want to have an intelligent convo.

You were in the Deep south and it was the 60s. I am sure you did see that. Do you see them now? That's my point, dont get all mad at me for what some racist in Alabama did when I am sitting here having a conversation with you with respect, and like 2 gentlemen.

[Sweet Sassy Molassy]

I didn't listen to the speech. I did watch quite a few of the clips and I read the transcript. I think it was a historic speech. It will go down in history as a great and historic speech.

I do feel strongly though that this issue is not a good issue for his campagne to be focused on. Obama can't be seen as the candidate of race, he must get back to the broader issues facing the country in order to win the nomination.

He has another major speech planned tommorrow on Iraq.. Good for him.

I definitely think that Obama has done a great job of not making his race an issue. He was sort of forced to bring it up due to the recent events. However, I applaud him for not trying to use his race as a catapult, and I would have lost a ton of respect for him had he tried to. I have no respect for the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Joseph Lowery because they tend to use their color as a "bargaining chip", which I don't think is fair. I wont even get on the fact that they try to be the voice of black america when they could care less about helping anyone other than themselves and their pockets.

But I digress, Obama's speech was extremely powerful and I agree with you, he needs to quickly take the focus off race. The fact that he's making another speech about Iraq is good.

[JMS]

Who's talking about intimitation? That's your hang-uip not mine.I could careless.

:doh: , dude your talking past him. You want him to focus on what you are saying without listenning to what he is saying.

I think that was the genus behind the Obama speech. He didn't do that.

As for colored-oonly signs I've seen them with my own eyes as a boy in Sumter and Chowctow County Alabama as a boy.Long as so-called desegregation.

Try again

I saw them in Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina as a boy too. I also remember when Negro's became black and then became African Americns. I remember the civil rights marches on Washington. I remember the day Martin Luther King was murdered and a race riot at Langley High School in the early 1970's in McLean.

I remember when Michael Jackson and the Jackson five had a prime time national TV special in the early 1970's and what a rare and special event that was. A TV show on and about blacks.

I'm not sure BigMike619 who is ten years younger than I saw/remembers any of that.

[BigMike619]

:doh: , dude your talking past him. You want him to focus on what you are saying without listenning to what he is saying.

I think that was the genus behind the Obama speech. He didn't do that.

I saw them in Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina as a boy too. I also remember when Negro's became black and then became African Americns. I remember the civil rights marches on Washington. I remember the day Martin Luther King was murdered and a race riot at Langley High School in the early 1970's in McLean.

I'm not sure BigMike619 who is ten years younger than I saw/remembers any of that.

You're right I didnt, but that also lets me know that I am not responsible for them. Am I sorry they were there? You betcha, but that doesnt mean I owe anyone anything but the same that I give my son. Respect and respect.

Anything that I "should" do to appease some other race is not going to happen and it just gets old when I hear it time and time again about how racist we were and what we did. We would include me and I was not a part of it. Judge the man before you now, not the one that not even I know.

[Henry]

One more point. The entire reason the Presidential campagn has now disintegrated into a debate on race to my mind was engineered. Clinton was loosing this campagn when it was based on change. She was loosing it when it was based on experience. She was loosing when she tried to make it about who is better prepared on day one to lead or who had better judgement. I think she's finally found an angle with legs which trys to focus the country away from topics which frankly worked to Obama's favor. Hillary isn't keeping this story in the news, but she definitely knocked over the first domino on this huge distraction away from the issues. Clinton's are smart as hell.

Fact is Obama has never been running to be the first black President. Obama has always been runnning to be an the first American President who happenned to be black. That's why it was whites who first got behind him and supported him in victories in Iowa, Idoho, Alaska, Conn, Deleware, Kansas, Minnisota, North Dokata, Utah, and Nebraska... Focusing the country on racial devisive issues is an attempt to draw the country away from Obama. Don't let them do it. When this campagne started a whole lot of blacks were still supporting Hillary. Obama resinated first in the White community. This campagne has never been about race, it's always been about issues. Let's not allow that to change now.

I said this in another thread. The timing of all this is just to darn convenient for her for it to be a coincidence. If the GOP was engineering this, they'd have waited with it. Clinton needs a huge victory in PA now.

I think Obama is handling this about as well as he can be. But some damage has been done. Hopefully it's not enough for Clinton to sway the superdelegates. I trust her less now than I did before the primary started, something I didn't think possible.

[DjTj]

This really was well played by Hillary.

I don't know ... for all of Hillary's supposed political prowess, she still can't win enough delegates to take the nomination ... if she wanted to drop an Obama bombshell, she's about two months too late.

Reverend Wright's statements have been out there, they are pretty inflammatory, and the media just converged on it as part of a process of looking more closely at Obama. If Hillary had been in control, she would have used it earlier; the Republicans would have used it later.

I guess what I wonder is that although the words are inflammatory, should this kind of rhetoric from Reverend Wright shouldn't really be that surprising?

If we went to church with Elijah Cummings, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Bobby Scott, Charlie Rangel, John Lewis, John Conyers, James Clyburn, or other black Congressmen, would we hear the same things?

...somehow I suspect that the answer is yes - that the evangelical flourish of a black preacher in a black church will inevitably drift towards comments like those expressed by Reverend Wright. I think we all knew that at least some black people believed those things, and we have seen it on the national stage from Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, both reverends themselves ...

...it's not that we haven't heard these words before, but maybe we all wanted to forget that Obama is black, and that he has a connection to that world. I think what his speech tried to accomplish was to admit that he has a foot in that world of racial politics, but that his other foot is squarely in the mainstream, and his in-between position is an asset because he can reach across boundaries to try to build bridges ... I'm not sure he was completely successful, but it was a damn good speech.

[Henry]

You're right I didnt, but that also lets me know that I am not responsible for them. Am I sorry they were there? You betcha, but that doesnt mean I owe anyone anything but the same that I give my son. Respect and respect.

Anything that I "should" do to appease some other race is not going to happen and it just gets old when I hear it time and time again about how racist we were and what we did. We would include me and I was not a part of it. Judge the man before you now, not the one that not even I know.

Mike, you aren't the United States of America. The fact that you don't personally think or practice something doesn't mean that our culture is completely purged of it.

[BigMike619]

Mike, you aren't the United States of America. The fact that you don't personally think or practice something doesn't mean that our culture is completely purged of it.

I never said I was the USA. But neither is one race, so what's your point?

[Sweet Sassy Molassy]

I guess what I wonder is that although the words are inflammatory, should this kind of rhetoric from Reverend Wright shouldn't really be that surprising?

If we went to church with Elijah Cummings, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Bobby Scott, Charlie Rangel, John Lewis, John Conyers, James Clyburn, or other black Congressmen, would we hear the same things?

I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, for some if not all. I spent a good bit of time around John Lewis when I was living in Atlanta, and Elijah Cummings used to be at my grandmother's church in B-More all the time. And I can say that I've heard similar things come from the churches they've been in, because I've been there when it's been said. Again, as I've stated earlier, I think that people are quick to say, "Everything is cool now, there's no need for those statements.", instead of saying, "You know, black people must not feel that things are as good as I thought they were, I wonder why?". Obama was 100% correct when he said that open dialogue needs to happen. I blame both sides of the spectrum for the reason they haven't happened. As I said earlier, I can understand where Rev. Wright is coming from with his statements, the problem I have with his statements, however, is that they actually hurt the open dialogue that we should be having, more so than they have helped. Granted, his statements were to his congregation and they weren't necessarily in an open dialogue. I think if people really cared to get an understanding it would probably be a better idea to ask Rev. Wright to explain his position, and encourage an open dialogue as opposed to dismissing him as a nutjob.

[JMS]

You're right I didnt, but that also lets me know that I am not responsible for them. Am I sorry they were there? You betcha, but that doesnt mean I owe anyone anything but the same that I give my son. Respect and respect.

You are certainly not responsible for them. I saw some of them, just the tail end of them and I'm not responsible for them either. Ask yourself this though, 10, 20 years latter, did you benifit from them? As a race? even individually? I think that's a less clear issue.

That doesn't make you responsible, that doesn't even say you could or should now make up for it. But I think the least you could do is listen and acknowledge that there are still people out there who are still touched by those distant events and even more recent more isolated events which bring up those memories.

Anything that I "should" do to appease some other race is not going to happen and it just gets old when I hear it time and time again about how racist we were and what we did. We would include me and I was not a part of it. Judge the man before you now, not the one that not even I know.

Well it is our history. It doesn't matter that you don't like to hear about it. The fact is people who talk about it are remembering reality, and to silence them is to manufacture a false chrononoly of events. I'm not saying or advocating for redresses and I'm not talking about responsibility. I'm saying listenning and understanding is part of how you could define respect.

[JMS]

I said this in another thread. The timing of all this is just to darn convenient for her for it to be a coincidence. If the GOP was engineering this, they'd have waited with it. Clinton needs a huge victory in PA now.

I think Obama is handling this about as well as he can be. But some damage has been done. Hopefully it's not enough for Clinton to sway the superdelegates. I trust her less now than I did before the primary started, something I didn't think possible.

Yep I agree with you... Clinton's are smart as hell. They are great polititions. Watching Obama deal with this mess so well also speaks well for him. But this issue is not a good topic for him. He can't allow himself to be labeled as just a Black candidate, he's got to remain the American candidate.

[TheLongshot]

Yep I agree with you... Clinton's are smart as hell. They are great polititions. Watching Obama deal with this mess so well also speaks well for him. But this issue is not a good topic for him. He can't allow himself to be labeled as just a Black candidate, he's got to remain the American candidate.

Which is why the speeches he will give in the near future will have little to do with race. This was a good way to close the door for the time being and move on.

Jason

[JMS]

I don't know ... for all of Hillary's supposed political prowess, she still can't win enough delegates to take the nomination ... if she wanted to drop an Obama bombshell, she's about two months too late.

Your assuming she had this bombshell two months ago. Your assuming she was desparate enough to use it two months agao. Remember by throwing a handgrenade at the feet of the two pillars of the Democratic party, she could be bringing down her own house.

Reverend Wright's statements have been out there, they are pretty inflammatory, and the media just converged on it as part of a process of looking more closely at Obama. If Hillary had been in control, she would have used it earlier; the Republicans would have used it later.

It came out days after Geroldine Ferara said Obama was lucky to be black, and then went on a dozen national broadcasts defending her position.

...it's not that we haven't heard these words before, but maybe we all wanted to forget that Obama is black, and that he has a connection to that world. I think what his speech tried to accomplish was to admit that he has a foot in that world of racial politics, but that his other foot is squarely in the mainstream, and his in-between position is an asset because he can reach across boundaries to try to build bridges ... I'm not sure he was completely successful, but it was a damn good speech.

The fact is Obama's campagne has never been about race until the last few days. This is a political strategy to get the other side off message and force them to defend ground which hurts them. The only person benifiting from this is Hillary.

Still I will admit, Its a hypothisis not supported by evidence other than my suspicions.

[JMS]

Which is why the speeches he will give in the near future will have little to do with race. This was a good way to close the door for the time being and move on.

Jason

Well you mean he's going to try to close the door. Wait for the other shoes to drop. I can't remember in my lifetime when class and candor has been an effective defence against a hatchet job. We may be seeing modern history being made, or we may be witnessing just another in a long line of engineered political manuvers which end someone's career.

[Hooper]

I really like McCain, but watching him in Iraq... wow, he looks older than ever. And even a little confused. And he's admitted that the economy isn't really his strongpoint. If the Clintons don't completely destroy their own party in their effort to catch Obama... well, I just think the Obama-McCain debates are going to be ugly.

[Kilmer17]

"well, I just think the Obama-McCain debates are going to be ugly."

I couldnt disagree with you more.

I think that we might actually see true debates of ideas.

2 men who can debate their positions without making the other, and the others followers, feel like he hates them.

I think an Obama v McCain campaign will go a long way towards healing some deep political wounds on both sides.

[Midnight Judges]

I really like McCain, but watching him in Iraq... wow, he looks older than ever. And even a little confused. And he's admitted that the economy isn't really his strongpoint. If the Clintons don't completely destroy their own party in their effort to catch Obama... well, I just think the Obama-McCain debates are going to be ugly.

A lot of McCain's perceived weaknesses are strong points to me personally. I like a politician who can admit he doesn't know everything. I also like McCain's temper. Some people work better under pressure. Sometimes people deserve to be yelled at.

Being confused about Iraq is not good though. This is supposed to be one of his strengths.

[TheLongshot]

Well you mean he's going to try to close the door. Wait for the other shoes to drop. I can't remember in my lifetime when class and candor has been an effective defence against a hatchet job. We may be seeing modern history being made, or we may be witnessing just another in a long line of engineered political manuvers which end someone's career.

That's why I added "for the time being". Course, the Republicans have their own skelletons as well with Hagee, so maybe they will drop it knowing that the same game can be played against them.

Jason

[Henry]

I never said I was the USA. But neither is one race, so what's your point?

You seem to be equating your personal experience with the totality of racism in this country. You're not racist, therefore it doesn't exist. You've experienced racism from blacks, therefore it's as pervasive as racism from whites. I'm not sure that's the best way to gauge race relations in the country.

I don't think anyone is expecting you personally to do anything to appease anyone, except perhaps understand where other people are coming from. Other people who may have different experiences than you.

[ChocolateCitySkin]

Exactly. I've stayed away from some of these debates, because I don't think some of the people on here really want, or care, to know how a lot of black people actually feel about the state of this country. Not going to say all feel that way, but I listened to what Rev. Wright said, and I didn't necessarily disagree with what he said. People aren't looking at the point he was making, just the words he said, and that really annoys me. Regardless, Obama's speech yesterday touched me, because he said what needed to be said, and I applaud him for it. However, when I look at how people still spin what he said in an effort to shine negatively upon him, it frustrates me even more. Because it just proves even more that people really don't want open dialogue, we don't care about it. So **** it.

He talked to people like they were adults. Unfortunately, this is politics where spin wins. What he did was historic... unfortunately, this country may still have too many ignorant people to actually understand what he was saying.

[ECU-ALUM]

That's why I added "for the time being". Course, the Republicans have their own skelletons as well with Hagee, so maybe they will drop it knowing that the same game can be played against them.

Jason

Bingo! I was hearing the same thing on a lot of the Talk radio shows this morning saying if McCain is smart he will not touch this subject at all.

[Sweet Sassy Molassy]

"well, I just think the Obama-McCain debates are going to be ugly."

I couldnt disagree with you more.

I think that we might actually see true debates of ideas.

2 men who can debate their positions without making the other, and the others followers, feel like he hates them.

I think an Obama v McCain campaign will go a long way towards healing some deep political wounds on both sides.

I agree with you there. I've always liked McCain, and have always felt that he was more about getting results as opposed to playing party divisive games that do nothing but hurt the country and it's people. I feel like both he and Obama would care more about the issues more so than gossiping about each other's personal lives, and the people in it.

[Thanos]

Pastor Wright: This Too Shall Pass

A Commentary by Dick Morris

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Will the Gospel According to Jeremiah Wright sink the Obama candidacy? Not very likely.

Let's start with two basic facts:

(a) Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has already won the Democratic nomination. It's over. Regardless of how the remaining primaries and caucuses go, including Michigan and even Florida, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) can never catch Obama in elected delegates. His current lead of 170 pledged delegates will not be overcome no matter what happens. Even if Clinton beats him by 10 points in each of these primaries, he will still lead among elected delegates by over 100. The superdelegates will not override the will of the voters unless Obama is in jail. They will not let themselves in for a civil war by overruling a black man who is beloved by the young by going over the heads of the electorate and naming the candidate that lost the primaries as the nominee. Regardless of how damaged Obama may be by the Wright tapes, it will not provide sufficient cover or cause for them to do so.

( Wright's rantings are not reflective of Obama's views on anything. Why did he stay in the church? Because he's a black Chicago politician who comes from a mixed marriage and went to Columbia and Harvard. Suspected of not being black enough or sufficiently tied to the minority community, he needed the networking opportunities Wright afforded him in his church to get elected. If he had not risen to the top of Chicago black politics, we would never have heard of him. But obviously, he can't say that. So what should he say?

He needs to get out of this mess with subtlety, the kind Bill Clinton should have used to escape the Monica Lewinsky scandal — but didn't. As the controversy continues, Americans will gradually realize that Obama stuck by Wright as part of a need to get ahead. They will chalk up to pragmatism why he was so close to such a preacher. As they come to realize that Obama doesn't agree with Wright but used him to get started, they will be more forgiving.

While he lets this fact sink in, he needs to continue to distance himself from Wright by characterizing that kind of anger and animosity as a thing of a generation past. He needs to compare the progress of which whites are proud in discarding the racism of our forebears with his own pride at being a post-racial candidate. He needs, again and again, to reject what Wright says and emphasize his belief in America and the validity and morality of the American Dream.

As the controversy matures, he can increasingly depict those who fan its flames as trying to live in the past and re-fight the civil wars of race that have divided America.

All these themes were evident and articulately presented in Obama's Tuesday speech on race.

What Obama needs not to do is to resort to the kind of Clintonian fudging that animated his interview with Keith Olbermann. By saying “I wasn't there” and “I didn't know” and “I didn't hear him say it,” he will invite contempt and derision. If he were to continue in that vein, he would buy himself a controversy akin to that which drowned John Kerry in the facts and allegations of his service in Vietnam. People will surface to say, “I sat next to him, and Wright said such and such,” and Obama will be hostage to everybody's subjective memory.

But if he handles the situation with subtlety and lets what he cannot say — that it was opportunism that led him to stay in that church — sink in among the electorate, he can and will survive this battle.

And let's remember one other thing: The Democrats will increasingly realize that he will be their nominee and, in continuing this battle, they are eating their own.

[Henry]

"well, I just think the Obama-McCain debates are going to be ugly."

I couldnt disagree with you more.

I think that we might actually see true debates of ideas.

2 men who can debate their positions without making the other, and the others followers, feel like he hates them.

I think an Obama v McCain campaign will go a long way towards healing some deep political wounds on both sides.

I totally agree. I would love to see Obama vs. McCain. Two very strong candidates coming from opposite sides of the political spectrum, willing to debate merits of ideas as opposed to slinging mud. I think it would be a fascinating couple of months.

If only Obama can get past Hillary first.