obama

[Guest bruce tehan]

Obama Condemns Pastor's Remarks

By NEDRA PICKLER and MATT APUZZO,AP

Posted: 2008-03-18 14:43:11

PHILADELPHIA (March 18) - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday tried to stem damage from divisive comments delivered by his pastor, while bluntly addressing anger between blacks and whites in the most racially pointed speech yet of his presidential campaign.

 

 

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Alex Brandon, AP Issues of Race

On the Trail1 of 5 Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama confronted racial issues in a speech Tuesday, confronting an uproar over divisive comments made by his pastor and what he called "a racial stalemate [Americans have] been stuck in for years."

 

 

 

 

 

Obama confronted America's legacy of racial division head on, tackling black grievance, white resentment and the uproar over his former pastor's incendiary statements. Drawing on his half-black, half-white roots as no other presidential hopeful could, Obama asserted: "This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected."

 

Obama expressed understanding of the passions on both sides in what he called "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years."

 

"But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races," he said in a speech at the National Constitution Center, not far from where the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

 

Obama rarely talks so openly about his race in such a prominent way, but his speech covered divisions from slavery to the O.J. Simpson trial to the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina. He also recognized his race has been a major issue in the campaign that has taken a "particularly divisive turn" in the last few weeks as video of his longtime pastor spread on the Internet and on television.

 

Obama said the sermons delivered by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright "rightly offend white and black alike." Those sermons from years ago suggested the United States brought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on itself and say blacks continue to be mistreated by whites.

 

While Obama rejected what Wright said, he also embraced the man who inspired his Christian faith, officiated at his wedding, baptized his daughters and has been his spiritual guide for nearly 20 years.

 

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said, speaking in front of eight American flags. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother — a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

 

Obama said he knew Wright to occasionally be a fierce critic of U.S. policy and that the pastor sometimes made controversially remarks in church that he disagreed with, but he said he never heard Wright talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms. The comments that have become a source of debate recently "were not only wrong but divisive" and have raised questions among voters, he said.

 

"I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and YouTube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way," he said. "But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man."

 

He said he came to Wright's church because he was inspired by Wright's message of hope and his inspiration to rebuild the black community.

 

Obama said Wright's comments have sparked a discussion that reflect complexities of race in the United States that its people have never really resolved.

 

"We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country," Obama said. "But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow."

 

Obama said anger over those injustices often find voice in black churches on Sunday mornings. "The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning," he said.

 

Obama argued that the anger often distracts from solving real problems and bringing change. But he said it also exists in some segments of the white community that feels blacks are often given an unfair advantage through affirmative action.

 

"If we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American," Obama said, drawing a rare burst of applause in a somber address.

 

Obama said one of the tasks of his campaign to be the first black president is "to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America."

 

 

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2008-03-18 06:54:32

Read Related Blogs and Articles

[Guest Guest]

And to think it was just last Friday the man had never heard him speak in these racially divisive tones. Or thats what he said on his deflect the conversation tour over the weekend. But I guess your change the topic speech is different than your that tour anyways.

THE MAN IS A DELETED LIAR.

His pastor can say it so can I.

[Guest Guest]

Dear Media: Please Fact Check Obama

 

Flipping the channels I am seeing the media fawning in awe over Obama's speech on race. Chris Matthews even compared his speech to Abraham Lincoln.

 

It seems that, once again, the media have fallen for an elegant farce. They lavish over his oratory skills and pretty phrases, and ignore the meat of it. If you haven't heard the speech yet, make sure to watch the video with a blog reaction roundup.

 

Once again the media fail to comb through the rhetoric and ask the questions that need that remain unanswered. For example, if Obama was so troubled by Wright’s words… why keep bringing his daughters?

 

The goalposts have definitely been moved. The least they could do is to call him out on his lie:

 

Contrary to his earlier suggestion, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) acknowledged in his speech Tuesday that he had heard “controversial” remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

 

“Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy?” Obama said. “Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely — just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.”

 

Obama did not specify which statements.

 

In his first detailed response to the firestorm over Wright’s remarks charging that the United States is a racist country, Obama said in a posting on The Huffington Post:

 

“The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign.”

 

 

Once again the blogs do the job the media are supposed to do, while the media play games. Well, at least one liberal talking head talks a little sense.

 

 

[Guest Shamrock]

What if Wright's comments were made by someone name, oh, let's say Don Imus ??

[Guest Guest]

But just to show this is not a racial thing calling him a liar I'll be happy to share Monday's Hillary lie of the day.

 

And while we are at it take a look at how shillary praised the Bosnian war of her husband.

 

Hillary Shot At in '96? No Media Mention of Bosnia 'Sniper Fire'

 

In a speech on Iraq policy delivered Monday at George Washington University, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recalled facing “sniper fire” on her 1996 trip to Bosnia to visit U.S. troops on a peacekeeping mission. But reporters traveling with the then-First Lady made no reference to any “sniper fire” at the time, and pictures of Clinton arriving at the main air base in Tuzla don’t show anyone ducking or covering.

 

 

Here’s how Clinton began her speech:

 

Good morning. I want to thank Secretary West for his years of service, not only as Secretary of the Army, but also to the Veteran's Administration, to our men and women in uniform, to our country. I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn't go, so send the First Lady. That's where we went.

 

I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base. But it was a moment of great pride for me to visit our troops, not only in our main base as Tuzla, but also at two outposts where they were serving in so many capacities to deactivate and remove landmines, to hunt and seek out those who had not complied with the Dayton Accords and put down their arms, and to build relationships with the people that might lead to a peace for them and their children.

A Nexis search found hundreds of stories on the election-year trip, but no mention of any hostile fire or snipers. A CBS report did mention that the First Lady was required to wear a flak jacket for her safety; a report by Sharyl Atkisson for the March 25 CBS This Morning showed Mrs. Clinton arriving at the main air base at Tuzla not running with her head down, but smiling and walking alongside daughter Chelsea.

 

As for a lack of a ceremony at the air base, Atkisson reported Clinton was greeted by the acting President of Bosnia and “an eight-year-old Bosnian girl who says she can't remember a time before the war and by a class of seventh-graders who have been pen pals with the children of US troops.”

 

The little girl was shown telling Clinton: “Thank you, because you’ve given us a lot of help, and I want all the best in Bosnia.” Nobody was covering their heads or hiding.

 

The AP’s Ron Fournier noted that Mrs. Clinton was “protected by sharpshooters” when she traveled beyond the Tuzla Air Base, but made no mention that they were needed in his report on Clinton’s next stop:

 

Protected by sharpshooters, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived by Black Hawk helicopter in a military zone Monday to deliver a personal “thank you” to U.S. soldiers. “They’re making a difference,” she said of the 18,500 Americans working as peacekeepers in Bosnia.

 

None of the stories mentioned the drama of landing under fire that Clinton referred to on Monday. So either Hillary faced “sniper fire” — and no one at the time thought shots fired at the First Lady were newsworthy — or she is exaggerating the dangers of her Bosnia trip to bolster the image of herself as a potential commander-in-chief. Either way, reporters who were on the trip should make the reality of the situation clear.

 

Sinbad, who joined Mrs. Clinton on the trip, doesn’t remember anything especially dangerous. “I think the only ‘red-phone’ moment was: ‘Do we eat here or at the next place,’” he told the Washington Post.

 

As for the trip itself, in the March 26, 1996 New York Times, reporter Mike O’Connor asserted that Hillary “charmed American troops” and quoted the enthusiastic reaction from one New York-area soldier: “She’s the greatest First Lady we’ve ever had! I’m ready to spend another year here now.”

 

But O’Connor also found soldiers who were less than enamored with Hillary Clinton: “Asked what he would like to tell Mrs. Clinton about his assignment, Specialist Ingersoll, of Williston, N.D., said, ‘I wouldn’t talk to her, because I’d probably say something rude.”

 

Excerpts:

 

Hillary Rodham Clinton charmed American troops at a U.S.O. show here, but it didn't hurt that the singer Sheryl Crow and the comedian Sinbad were also on the stage.

 

In her appearance at Tuzla Air Base, the First Lady told a couple of thousand of the 19,300 Americans serving in Bosnia that they were using military power to advance United States interests and values. She said they were part of "the kind of peacekeeping mission every American should be proud of and support."

 

"I just hope you have some feeling of how proud and grateful all America is," she said.

 

Today's visit came as some troops, living uncomfortably and often dangerously, continue to wonder about the value of their mission.

 

During her daylong visit to American forces at three bases in northeast Bosnia, Mrs. Clinton repeated that the United States had a genuine interest in keeping Europe stable. In addition, she said, the effort to stop the war here is the moral and right thing to do.

 

Among the troops, reaction to the visit ranged from great enthusiasm to only mild interest....

 

Sgt. Errol Kennedy, from New York City, whooped to his friends: "She's the greatest First Lady we've ever had! I'm ready to spend another year here now."

 

But two soldiers next to him said they would just as soon go home now and let Sergeant Kennedy do their work....

 

Some soldiers, especially those living in the worst conditions or those whose duties do not allow them to see many of the Bosnians who benefit from their efforts, say they do not fully understand the objective here.

 

"I joined the Army to defend my country," said Sgt. Michael Tucker, one of the friends of Sergeant Kennedy. "There's no one threatening America here, and we don't have a fight here."

 

Some feel they are exposed to unreasonable discomfort and risk compared with the likelihood of a permanent end to the war.

 

Two soldiers, Specialist Brent Ingersoll and Specialist Grant Johnavan, both of the Third Squadron, Fifth Cavalry, based about an hour and a half's drive northwest from Tuzla, were talking about the impending visit last Friday. They were not impressed.

 

Asked what he would like to tell Mrs. Clinton about his assignment, Specialist Ingersoll, of Williston, N.D., said, "I wouldn't talk to her, because I'd probably say something rude."

 

"Unless she can get us sent back home, there's not much she can do for us," he said, wiping rain from his face. "When she leaves, she'll go back to her family, maybe have a drink, and relax. We can't do any of that."

 

[Guest Guest]

Double Life of Barack Obama

 

By Thomas Sowell

 

There is something both poignant and galling about the candidacy of Barack Obama.

 

Any American, regardless of party or race, has to find it heartening that the country has reached the point where a black candidate for president of the United States sweeps so many primaries in states where the overwhelming majority of the population is white.

 

We have all seen the crowds enthralled by Barack Obama’s rhetoric and theatrical style.

 

Many of his supporters put their money where their mouths were, so that this recently arrived senator received more millions of dollars in donations than candidates who have been far more visible on the national stage for far more years.

 

That’s the good news. The bad news is that Barack Obama has been leading as much of a double life as Eliot Spitzer.

 

While talking about bringing us together and deploring “divisive” actions, Senator Obama has for 20 years been a member of a church whose minister, Jeremiah Wright, has said that “God Bless America” should be replaced by “God damn America” — among many other wild and even obscene denunciations of American society, including blanket racist attacks on whites.

 

Nor was this an isolated example. Fox News Channel has played tapes of various sermons of Jeremiah Wright, and says that it has tapes with hours more of the same.

 

Wright’s actions matched his words. He went with Louis Farrakhan to Libya and Farrakhan received an award from his church.

 

Sean Hannity began reporting on Jeremiah Wright back in April of 2007. But the mainstream media saw no evil, heard no evil, and spoke no evil.

 

Now that the facts have come out in a number of places, and can no longer be suppressed, many in the media are trying to spin these facts out of existence.

 

Spin number one is that Jeremiah Wright’s words were “taken out of context.” Like most people who use this escape hatch, those who say this do not explain what the words mean when taken in context.

 

In just what context does “God damn America” mean something different?

 

Spin number two is that Barack Obama says he didn’t hear the particular things that Jeremiah Wright said that are now causing so much comment.

 

It wasn’t just an isolated remark. Nor were the enthusiastic responses of the churchgoers something which suggests that this anti-American attitude was news to them or something that they didn’t agree with.

 

If Barack Obama was not in church that particular day, he belonged to that church for 20 years. He made a donation of more than $20,000 to that church.

 

In all that time, he never had a clue as to what kind of man Jeremiah Wright was? Give me a break!

 

You can’t be with someone for 20 years, call him your mentor, and not know about his racist and anti-American views.

 

Neither Barack Obama nor his media spinmeisters can put this story behind him with some facile election-year rhetoric. If Senator Obama wants to run with the rabbits and hunt with the hounds, then at least let the rabbits and the hounds know that.

 

The fact that Obama talks differently than Jeremiah Wright does not mean that his track record is different. Barack Obama’s voting record in the Senate is perfectly consistent with the far-left ideology and the grievance culture, just as his wife’s statement that she was never proud of her country before is consistent with that ideology.

 

Senator Barack Obama’s political success thus far has been a blow for equality. But equality has its down side.

 

Equality means that a black demagogue who has been exposed as a phony deserves exactly the same treatment as a white demagogue who has been exposed as a phony.

 

We don’t need a president of the United States who got to the White House by talking one way, voting a very different way in the Senate, and who for 20 years followed a man whose words and deeds contradict Obama’s carefully crafted election-year image.