I Don't Know What You Did Last Summer

Barack catches a break [but Ambinder and Sully need to give me a break - see below] - the NewsMax reporter who claimed Obama was in the church nodding in agreement during yet another of Jeremiah Wright's speeches has a space-time problem.  From NewsMax:

Contrary to Senator Barack Obama’s claim that he never heard his pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. preach hatred of America, Obama was in the pews last July 22 when the minister blamed the “white arrogance” of America’s Caucasian majority for the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.

However, Barack spoke that Sunday to a La Raza rally in Miami - here is video from his website, a Washington Times story, and the speaking schedule - Barack was due up at 1:30 PM.

This does not resolve Obama's central problem - he is telling the nation that

"We’ve got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding. But what I continue to believe in is that this country wants to move beyond these kinds of divisions."

but there is no evidence that, over the course of twenty years, he has moved his own minister past anger and bitterness.

However, if Obama was not attending church the specific day NewsMax claims he was, this gotcha is gone, and Obama's ludicrous claim that he was unaware of Wright's incendiary black separatism has not yet been disproven.

Props to Mickey Kaus for this.

MORE:  Planes, trains, and automobiles?  From Chicago to Miami for a 1:30 scheduled speech?  I could believe Obama flew in Sunday morning, but to have time to go to church first?  Per NewsMax, it was a Sunday morning sermon.  And there is a one hour time difference between Chicago, so even the 7AM service would be a tight schedule.  Hmm, in by 8 AM (Eastern time), out by 9 (C'mon, don't tell an old Catholic that the early service isn't the quick one), private plane for three hours to Miami - EZ!  Or at least, not utterly implausible.  Pretty high level of energy and commitment from Obama, though.  Show us some plane ticket receipts!

[Or don't - Obama was in Chicago Sunday AM and did have an event scheduled, but that event was not a church appearance.  Or so the Obama people say.]

FWIW, Obama spoke to a rally in Manchester, NH on Friday, July 20.  Chicago is an air hub, so he may have gone home that night.  But geez, playing "Where's Obama?" is absurd - Wright delivered twenty years of this stuff.

GIVE ME A BREAK:  Marc Ambinder and Andrew Sullivan go off on William Kristol, who recited the NewsMax reporting in his own column.  Ambinder:

Bill Kristol's New York Times column about Barack Obama this morning contains a major, prejudicial error.

Paragraph five:

But Ronald Kessler, a journalist who has written about Wright’s ministry, claims that Obama was in fact in the pews at Trinity last July 22. That’s when Wright blamed the “arrogance” of the “United States of White America” for much of the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks. In any case, given the apparent frequency of such statements in Wright’s preaching and their centrality to his worldview, the pretense that over all these years Obama had no idea that Wright was saying such things is hard to sustain.

Let give some praise to Ambinder, who has the honor to present the Kristol's NewsMax cite in context.  Reading the full paragraph (my emphasis added), it is clear that Kristol quite reasonably believes that one swallow does not a springtime make, and that trying to demonstrate whether Obama was in attendance for specific inflamatory sermon is a mug's game.

Did Kristol bow it?  Apparently.  Was it a "major" error?  He could have easily submitted the column with the NewsMax cite omitted and changed almost nothing else.

This is what Kristol makes of the Wright connection:

This doesn’t mean that Obama agrees with Wright’s thoroughgoing and conspiracy-heavy anti-Americanism. Rather, Obama seems to have seen, early in his career, the utility of joining a prominent church that would help him establish political roots in the community in which he lives. Now he sees the utility of distancing himself from that church. Obama’s behavior in dealing with Wright is consistent with that of a politician who often voted “present” in the Illinois State Legislature for the sake of his future political viability.

That is essentially the Matt Yglesias "defense"; if Ambinder has offered an interpretation I can't find it.

THE NEWSMAX NON-DEFENSE:  Groan - NewsMax has a clarification:

...Our writer, Jim Davis, says he attended several services at Senator Obama's church during the month of July, including July 22. The church holds services three times every Sunday at 7:30 and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Central time. While both the early morning and evening service allowed Sen. Obama to attend the service and still give a speech in Miami, Mr. Davis stands by his story that during one of the services he attended during the month of July, Senator Obama was present and sat through the sermon given by Rev. Wright as described in the story. Mr. Davis said Secret Service were also present in the church during Senator Obama's attendance.

First, the original story is written as though the writer attended just one service.  But more importantly, if the best the Mr. Davis could come up with after attending "several" services was one "United States of White America" moment, maybe Obama really did sleep through or miss the worst of Wright.

Now, maybe he went to a service, saw Obama wasn't there, and skipped out.  And on the other side, both church service tapes I sat through have objectionable moments.

Well, I have an idea for NewsMax - get it right the first time, 'kay?  We want drip, drip, drip from Obama, but thanks for sharing.

WHO IS THIS REPORTER?  NewsMax's Jim Davis has three bylines in his career there (1, 2, 3), one of them shared, if I can trust their own site Google search.

All of this is a helpful reminder of why I use NewsMax for transcripts and not much else.

 

Comments

[hit and run]

What in Heaven's name can Obama possibly say in his speech tomorrow to make this all go away?

He's gonna say it's our fault.

Remember -- tomorrow you are not his target audience. Obamatons are not his target audience.

And even persuadable voters are not his target audience.

First, before anything else, he has to try and put the media back under his spell.

The "major address" is his best forum.

Where's that Ezra Klein quote when you need it...oh yes, here it is

Obama's finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don't even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair.

And it only gets more reverential from there...

Everything he does, everything he needs, starts with a media that worships him.

He may not be able to get it back -- but it is his only hope. (heh, I like that, Obama is in need of hope)

[clarice]

A super duper delegate and hemlock....What's interesting is this:I think he figured that there was no one who'd tough the black liberation theology with a ten foot pole..and I see the Dems are very reluctant to go there..but Blacks like Elder and Brown and Williams are not at all afraid to discuss it and call b.s. on those who've been its enablers for so long..

[clarice]

***touCh the black liberation************

[clarice]

Hit, even the media knows it cannot prevent the ads showing him praising wright juxtaposed with clips from wright's speeches..and they will be on tv all October..They allow themselves to get elevated again only at the cost of the very last shred of credibility they have left.

[hit and run]

Jane:
I think Morris is right, which makes this even more delicious. Obama will be the nominee and the party leaders will decide that he is unelectable and they have to throw it to Hillary. There will be blood in the street.

JANE!!!! I love you!!! My thoughts exactly...well, the blood won't be in the street.

Oh, and Patterico, I got your Super Duper Delegate right here.

A race of biblical proportions

[centralcal]

Well, I don't know if I am late to the party or when the picture went up ... but y'all really have to see the praying Obamamessiah picture at Politico dot com.

And so it begins, the media beatification... oh, the suffering.

[clarice]

I heart Hit and the VIHH.

[centralcal]

Pandora opened the box and all the ills of the world spilled out.

I wonder if Obama's campaign folks are feeling like this is what they have witnessed?

[Jane]

Centracal,

It doesn't matter. He's done. He may be done in September or he may be done in November, but he's done. Americans will not go there.

To unravel Reverend Wright would take the same amount of attention as understanding the Scooter Libby trial.

The public won't do it. They have heard enough. And regardless of what Obama says tomorrow, March 13 will always be the day he lost the election.

[clarice]

Yes,Jane. I just heard the latest defense from the religion writer for Newsweek (Imagine that job!) he went into all the good stuff the rev does/says but even she confessed that stuff was not reconcilable with his statements.
C'mon --he took over a dying parish, cozied up to Farrakhan and adopted as much as he could of that crazypant's work in order to build up his own standing and congregation..

[clarice]

The Newsweek writer is a Woman so it should read **She went into...*

[Sue]

As Ted Williams said, it is not uncommon to hear about what was done to black people in black churches. I don't think anyone would blink an eye at a "typical" black church service. Unless you were raised in a staid, stuffy Episcopelean (sp?) church. I keed. I joke. You can't erase the history of what was done to them. And that is how they are going to try and spin this. The right Rev. Wright is "typical" in black churches.

[clarice]

That will certainly offend many Blacks and will not win over defecting whites/Jews ,Hispanics and Asians--I think.

[Sue]

Great. The new governor of NY confesses to an affair. After being sworn in. Drudge has it.

[Sue]

Not as juicy as it sounds. Wife had an affair too. Marriage was on the rocks. Decided to make it work. People need to move on on this one, I think. Unless there is something else we aren't aware of.

[clarice]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/03/17/2008-03-17_gov_paterson_admits_to_sex_with_other_wo.html>What's in the water?

[centralcal]

Ladies (Clarice, Jane, Sue) you are all correct (I didn't want to say *right*, grin).

But, you know what is troubling me more about all of this than who wins or loses comes November? It is my little aside about Pandora. Race relations are not perfect in 2008, but they have come a long, long, long way. Y'all know ... that journey... of a thousand mile? And, with one fell swoop of a Messiah-nic candidate how much is being undone?

Obama will not be President of the UNITED States of America. Michelle will not be first lady. But, what have they and their campaign wrought for the country?

Nothing good. Nothing good.

[Sue]

C-cal,

The thought crossed my mind today that we are in for a bumpy ride. If McCain blows Obama out of the water, it will be because he is a black man. If McCain wins by a hair, it was stolen, and a black man will be the loser, not goofy Al Gore. Either way, race relations will take a hit. Unless Obama wins. Scary thought that.

[clarice]

Maybe--Maybe it's long past time that some light was shed on the hidden real hate masters shielded so far by the media and the Dem supporters. Really, the hate on the right is so defanged these days but on hte left is appears to have been growing and growing in the dark.

[fdcol63]

I'd like for Obama to explain just how Wright's comments help Trinity's worshippers to accomplish this item from their "About Us" page:

3. A congregation actively seeking RECONCILIATION.

http://www.tucc.org/about.htm

Wright's rhetoric does nothing but perpetuate divisiveness and racial tension, preventing any "hope" of reconciliation and "change that we can be proud of".

[clarice]

I mean the University of Chicago theology school actually teaches this Black liberation theology carp as if it were worthy of study at a major university. I think it's also taught at Princeton.
Can you imagine a course in the KKK or a white liberation theology? I can't.

[centralcal]

Me either, Clarice!

And, as to your earlier link, all I can say is oh brother! Good f'ng grief! And, please, profanity police, my emphasis is on the grief!

[Elliott]

Okay, H&R, I recently made a similar discovery in the library of a small and remote monastery, which I am not currently at liberty to identify.

John 18.33-40

33 Then the Republican leaning independent entered into the town hall meeting again, and called Obama, and said unto him, Art thou the transcendent leader of hope and change? 34 Obama answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? 35 The RLI answered, am I a Bush voter? Thine own party and the chief progressives have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?

36 Obama answered, My campaign is not of Washington, if my campaign were of Washington, then would my lobbyist contributors insist, that I should deliver to them earmarks: but now my campaign is not from hence. 37 The RLI therefore said unto him, art though a transcendent leader then? Obama answered, Though sayest that I am a transcendent leader. To this end I was born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness [not to the ranting of Jeremiah the Baptist*, but] unto the change. Every one that is of the change heareth my voice.

38 The Republican leaning independent saith unto him, What is change? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Democrats, and saith unto them, I find in him no substance at all. 39 But ye have a custom, that I should cross over and vote for one of you at open primaries: will ye therefore that I nominate for you the transcendent leader of change? 40 Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Hillary. Now Hillary was a monster.

*I have consulted with many experts, all of whom agree that the bracketed text was inserted many centuries after the rest of the text was written.

[PaulL]

I don't know what you're all doing here, several threads down from the top. At any rate, glasater linked to the Newshour interview with Obama, and it sort of previews what Obama will say tomorrow. My excerpt:

****
MS. IFILL: Anybody watching this campaign for the last week to 10 days would think it was all about gender and race between what Geraldine Ferraro said and what your former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, said. Do you look at this and think that maybe with a woman and a black man running against each other that this was going to be an inevitable conversation?

SEN. OBAMA: You know, I'm not sure if it was inevitable. I think that there's no doubt that race and gender are powerful forces in our society. They always have been. And I think it would have been naïve for me to think that I could run and end up with quasi-frontrunner status in a presidential election as potentially the first African-American president that issues, race wouldn't come up any more than Senator Clinton could expect that gender issues might not come up.

But, ultimately, I don't think it's useful. I think we've got to talk about it. I think we've got to process it. But we've got to remind ourselves that what we have in common is far more important than what's different and that if we're going to solve any of these problems, we've got to come together and bridge our differences in ways that we just have not bridged them before.

MS. IFILL: Is that the speech you'll be giving tomorrow in Philadelphia?

SEN. OBAMA: That will be a major focus of it.
****

I don't think that's quite going to do the trick, Barack. Sounds like the same ol' okey-doke to me.

[centralcal]

PaulL: I have only one comment.

UGH!

[Sue]

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/>Gateway Pundit has a great roundup of how the media treated Bushs' speech at Bob Jones University in 2000 and how they are treating Obama's pastor. Check it out.

[Rick Ballard]

Bravo, Elliot. Well done.

[Sue]

I'm here because everyone else is here. ::grin::

[hit and run]

Elliott, brilliant!

I'm here because Obama hasn't told me to change threads.

[centralcal]

Sue, I saw that too, this afternoon.

Look guys and gals, I think most of us here (trolls not included) are a pretty eclectic bunch and have our heart and minds properly engaged. We just have to keep speaking up and speaking out -- to friends and relatives (of all races and ethnicities).

Jeez! I am Irish and who knows what else; married an Italian (100%); have grandchildren that blend in Portugese, German, Mexican heritage. Black (African) - chances are the answer would be "probably."
This "race" issue should be HISTORY. But, it isn't. What a lot of carp, to quote from one of MY mentors.

[Sue]

I don't normally do this, well at least not very often, well hardly ever (did I cover all my bases in case someone finds an instance where I did do it?) but I thought this was funny from a commenter at Hot Air...

What I find hilarious is that barry’s alibi for the day he was accused of attending a racist, anti-American sermon was that he was giving a speach to a racist, anti-American organization.

[Elliott]

Thanks Hit and Run and Rick.

The monk who copied the text must not have been very bright since we would expect "Am I a Kerry voter?"

brilliant!

Is this a clue as to your beverage of choice for the evening?

[hit and run]

TM:
Go balloons!

Bye balloon...

[centralcal]

Sue - too funny!

[centralcal]

"I felt like such a plonker."

Hit, I am sure you can interpret this into Americaneze for us?

What is a plonker? Is Obama a plonker?

[hit and run]

centralcal:
Hit, I am sure you can interpret this into Americaneze for us?

He felt like a Jon Carry.

[centralcal]

ha, ha, ha, ha!

Halp us Jon Carry .....!

[ben]

According to Rasmussen
"Negative attitudes towards Clinton remain more firmly entrenched than for the other candidates—35% have a Very Unfavorable opinion of Clinton, 29% say the same about Obama, and 18% hold such a negative view of McCain."

I posted this on the other thread, illustration of how Obama's negatives are going up, only 6% away from the queen of negatives..although I am holding out for when they tie at 50%...

[clarice]

That was good, elliott!

Anyone know what "go balloons!" means..

[hit and run]

2004 dem convention had a balloon and confetti malfunction where the balloon guy was caught on an open mic...

"Go balloons! Go balloons! Go balloons! I don't see anything happening! Stand by confetti. More balloons! Come on, guys, Jesus! No confetti yet. I want all the balloons to go! Go confetti! What's happening to the balloons? We need all balloons! What the f -- are you guys doing up there!?"

[Elliott]

Thanks, Clarice.

The search engine is telling me it is the start of the humorous monologue unleashed by the guy in charge of the balloon and confetti drop at the 2004 Dem convention.

[clarice]

Thanks--I thought it might be that but didn't know how to google it that didn't turn up a lot of birthday party favors..gosh TM is subtle and witty..That's a great new motto, isn't it?

[MayBee]

That was his motto for a long time after the 2004 election. I remember that because of it, I used to get this site and Balloon-Juice confused.