The Reconciliator's Judgment

Barack Obama:  "more than any other candidate, I can bridge some of the partisan as well as racial and religious divides that have developed in this country that prevent us from getting things done."

But can that bridge reach to his own minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright?  And will Wright be willing to cross it?

The WSJ excerpts a Wright Jeremiad delivered in Jan 2006 at Howard University:

Mr. Wright thundered on: "America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."

His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . ."

Concluding, Mr. Wright said: "We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . ."

Lest you think the minister was just having a bad day, here is the Rolling Stone from Feb 2007 describing a Wright sermon in his own church:

Wright takes the pulpit here one Sunday and solemnly, sonorously declares that he will recite ten 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 SHIT!"

Hmm, if Michelle Obama has been listening to this for a few decades, one can understand why she has never in her adult life been proud to be an American.

Obama does not exactly pound the table in response:

A: I haven't seen the line [black people should sing a song essentially saying "God Damn America"]. This is a pastor who is on the brink of retirement who in the past has made some controversial statements. I profoundly disagree with some of these statements.

Q: What about this particular statement?

A: Obviously, I disagree with that. Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it's important to judge me on what I've said in the past and what I believe.

Cherry-picking?  Paul at Powerline pounces:

Worst of all is Obama's suggestion that Wright is the victim of "cherry picking." Wright's statment span a full range of issues including (just to mention some that have come to light so far) America's treatment of its citizens (some are treated as less than human); America's overall approach to the world (horrible enough to deserve 9/11); Israel and Palestine (Israel commits war crimes with U.S. assistance); World War II (it was criminal for the U.S. to bring the war with Japan to a successful conclusion the way it did); and HIV (he suspects the U.S. government of helping to spread the virus). As ABC News said, its "review of dozens of Rev. Wright's sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S." And let's not forget Wright's decision to honor Louis Farrakhan.

So there's no cherry-picking occurring here. Furthermore, the cherry-picking defense, even when plausible, has never been accepted when it comes to racism. Don Imus, for example, has received widespread condemnation for very occasional statements that showed racial insensitivity. Trent Lott was condemned for one statement praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign.

Mark Hemingway opens a new line of attack - where is the judgment?

How many times has Obama used "judgment" as a cudgel against his opponents this campaign? Well, choosing someone to offer your family spiritual guidance that isn't an anti-semite coddling, America-hating, race-baiting crazypants would appear to be a far easier decision than deciding whether to go to war. I anxiously await to see how Obama explains this aspect of his celebrated decision-making ability.

Mona Charen works with my fave, "when does the reconciliation begin?":

His entire campaign has been about "coming together," a post-racial consensus, etc. Any mention of his middle name was immediately condemned as ignorant fear-mongering. He has played the role of racial unifier with great skill and finesse.

But there is a great deal of evidence out there that he is anything but. The Reverend Wright is exhibit A. Mrs. Obama is Exhibit B. But there's lots more.

His wife is angry, his minister is angry - why can't Mr. Unity bring a little hope and reconciliation into their lives?  What has he been waiting for?

For folks who enjoy the smell of fear, check this Obama Talking Points Memo post titled "Is Wright a "Death Blow" to Obama?".  They aren't saying yes, but they sure aren't saying no; this is from a TPM reader and Obama supporter:

The Wright time bomb appears to be detonating, now that the horse race narrative has stalled and the media needs new material. The inadequacy of Obama's response is deeply discouraging. I was very excited about Obama, but I suddenly think Wright is going to deal a death blow to him on the "electibility" front. Michelle Obama's comments and now the man who lead him to Jesus is saying "God Damn America", and all BO can say is "I disagree"? He has to thow him under the bus and then back up over him again, but it does not appear that he will. Not clear it would even help that much, given the depth and length of their relationship.

How the heck does Obama roll the bus over his own minister and wife?  Film at 11!  And do enjoy the "Obama will survive and thrive" responses, which amount to, hey, its only his minister.  Good luck with that!  (No, not too swift of them).

Let's look for the good news - this is deflecting attention from the hospital earmark story.  The headline I am waiting for - "Barack Sleeping With Unregistered Lobbyist".

And while I wait, let me show you the original NY Times coverage of the latest from Jeremiah... nothing.

However, their website does include this timely AP story reassuring us that Obama has built lasting bridges to the Jewish community.

I am especially intrigued by this, with emphasis added:

In the private meeting in Cleveland with 100 Jewish leaders last month, Obama talked about his 2005 trip to Israel, his views on a Palestinian state and regional Middle East security. He was quickly questioned about his own pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and an award his church magazine gave last year that said Farrakhan ''truly epitomized greatness.''

Farrakhan is intolerable to Jewish voters because of a history of anti-Semitic remarks, like calling Judaism a ''gutter religion.''

Obama, who has rejected support from Farrakhan, assured voters his Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago does not endorse such messages.

''I have never heard an anti-Semitic (remark) made inside of our church. I have never heard anything that would suggest anti-Semitism on the part of the pastor,'' Obama said in a transcript of his remarks released later. ''He (Wright) is like an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don't agree with. And I suspect there are some of the people in this room who have heard relatives say some things that they don't agree with -- including, on occasion, directed at African-Americans.''

Nothing sounding like anti-semitism ever heard from Wright?   Here is Wright at the Howard University Chapel, as reported by the WSJ:

His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . ."

Hmm.  Wright traveled with Farrakhan to meet Qadaffi, which is certainly suggestive.  And Ed Lasky of the American Thinker has more, all suggestive, but anti-Israel is not anti-semitic. 

Tricky - someone needs to find an unambiguously anti-semitic quote and then get past Barack's obvious "I wasn't there that day" defense.

Oh, well - here is an early Times story covering Barack's Presidential announcement and the subsequent dust-up between Timeswoman Jodi Wilgoren and the Rev. Wright; he was not happy with the way she covered his "disinvitation" to Barack's announcement and includes this:

I do not remember reading in your article that Barack had apologized for listening to that bad information and bad advice.

Very politic of Barack to want to have it both ways.

Well, as I ramble, let me toss in two great quotes from the Times piece.  First, Al Sharpton on under-bus-tossing:

In recent weeks, word of Mr. Obama’s treatment of Mr. Wright has reached black leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton and given them pause.

“I have not discussed this with Senator Obama in detail, but I can see why callers of mine and other clergymen would be concerned, because the issue is standing by your own pastor,” Mr. Sharpton said

Stand by your Min.  Well, Al would say that.  Here is Barack, leaving us wondering just what he has been hearing from Wright while in church:

According to the pastor, Mr. Obama then told him, “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 does address the judgment question raised at the outset.

WALKING THE LINE:  Matt Stoller of MyDD addressed the Wright-Wilgoren dust-up contemporaneously:

The larger context here is twofold.  There's a lot of anger among black leaders in this country over Barack Obama because he isn't showing enough deference to their place in the political system.  At the same time, this leadership is struggling to remain relevant in the face of a serious disconnect between younger African-Americans and an older generation.  It's partially a class issue, with upwardly mobile blacks, poorer disempowered blacks, and a new class of wealthy blacks detached from the Civil Rights era leadership.  If these groups are responsive to Obama's message, it means that the older leadership is losing its base. 

Comments

[clarice]

HEH:"How the heck does Obama roll the bus over his own minister and wife? Film at 11! And do enjoy the "Obama will survive and thrive" responses, which amount to, hey, its only his minister. Good luck with that! (No, not too swift of them)."

I wish I'd taken notes on it, but Fox just ran a very very anti-Israeli sermon not before made public. (How many more will show up? Lots, I think.)
At some point, Obama's going to end up saying he slept in the pews every Sunday.

I hope this doesn't cost him the nomination. It will definitely kill him in the general. In fact, I think it'll cost the Dems votes no matter which of these two losers gets the nomination.
(Podhoretz has a good note out with which I agree..Hill hasn't dropped out, not because she can't do the math but because she is hoping for an Obama implosion that turns the tide.)

[clarice]

I ,too, thought Heminway's bit was the best, TM.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

This is just great for the Dems. Obama's nutter Minister--who thinks Jesus was a Black, not a Jew--makes him unacceptable to about 70% of the electorate.

So, what's a super-delegate to do? Take the nomination away from Obama at the convention and tick off the solid Black vote? Or, drink the Kool-Aid?

[Rick Ballard]

How is this going to play in the Dem plantations? Rendell and Ferraro (close RW supporters) started it and fanned the flames but the many Revs who use Wright style rhetoric to fill their coffers have to be very careful about nipping at cankles 'cause they know RW has a payback streak that will result in a fall in 'walking around' revenues should she win. Where can they focus their paranoid ravings without risking damage to their bankrolls?

There's the rub (Stoller's musings notwithstanding). The current crew of Dem black overseers know damn well that BHO's chances have always been minimal just as they know that RW will get even if she wins.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a conundrum and a pity. I sure hope they get it all straightened out by McCain's inauguration.

[SteveMG]

There is a large generational gap in the black community between those who fought in the Civil Rights movement and that generation that came after it. Let's face it: folks like Rev. Wright have every right to be quite angry. Imaging serving your country in the military and then coming back and then being forced to use separate bathrooms or dining facilities? And even worse? Being called "nigger" and "boy" in front of your children?

That doesn't excuse his inflammatory and absurd and ugly rhetoric; but it does explain the sources of his conduct.

Apparently, Obama was trying - or is - to bridge both. Difficult balancing act.

If he pulls it off, he'll be president. If not this time, the next.

Count on it: he's going to be president of this country in our lifetime.

[clarice]

Well, he hasn't set foot on the Bob Jones University campus.
Doesn't lookl like he's winning them over at HuffPo though my tolerance for reading much there is limited.

[kim]

Perhaps he could Steve, but first he has to be honest with himself, and I don't see that happening yet.
====================

[clarice]

Fox says Obama told the Chic Tribune he received more money for his early campaigns from Rezko than he earlier reported and admitted to multiple lapses of judgement in the real estate deal with him.

[kim]

He's living in a haunting house.
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[clarice]

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/03/obamas_incredible_denial_conce.html>One minister's view

[Jane]

He's done. That's my prediction. He's absolutely done. Now the issue is the timing. Will his devotees move to Hillary? This would have been better to come out after PA. But Hillary couldn't wait that long.

I love the Rezko admission. Obama thinks he can mask that admission within the horror of the Wright story. And he probably will. But he is done.

[centralcal]

Some of the videos go as far back as 2001. . .what if there is a video with Michelle and Barry in attendance? That should be a big concern to his campaign.

[Rick Ballard]

RW is playing a little hardball now. She did try to get the pathetic media to do their work before she started firing those high inside pitches.

Clarice,

The minister's letter is, IMO, 100% on the mark. BHO wasn't chained to a pew any more than anyone held a gun to his head to get him to take Rezko's dough. He's a gifted speaker with a modicum of charisma who happens to be a cheap political hack willing to trade influence for money. RW had to have had him pegged within 20 seconds of hearing him open his mouth for the first time.

She's pretty familiar with the type.

[MayBee]

Are there any links to the Rezko admission yet?
I just got back from getting my hair cut, so I haven't looked around.

[MayBee]

Oh, found http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-obama-rezkomar15,0,848648.story>it.

[clarice]

Yes. Jane I suppose his damage control team advised him to get it all out at once. Won't help.

He can't tell the truth so this will continue. The truth is he has not a religious bone in his body and joined the church and linked up with Wright for 20 years because it was politically useful to do so.
Period.
He knew damn well the kind of guy he was.
Everyone there must know, but if you want to be a poll from the South Side, you need him.

[Jane]

He's done. I can feel it.

The only issue is timing. I would have preferred this come out after PA, but Hillary obviously isn't working under my timetable.

[clarice]

I feel it, too, Jane.

[Crew v1.0]

I continue to insist that Sen. Obama is not post-partisan so long as he continues, against all evidence to the contrary, to hound Democrats who support OIF by labelling the liberation of Iraq as the worst foreign policy blunder in a generation, or whatever the hell the talking point reads to say. It is not, and so long as he whines that it is, he is providing compelling evidence for the thesis that he is just about as "post-partisan" as, say, Tom DeLay or Harry Reid.

[kim]

Butter doesn't melt in this guy's mouth. He'll stick around for the convention despite this mess, just as Hillary stuck around when it appeared hopeless.

The Democratic Party is suffering the cognitive dissonance it deserves, and in my not very humble opinion, asked for.
============================

[kim]

Imagine what they could have done as the loyal opposition for the most honest and competent administration we've had lately. Instead, they've trashed Bush unmercifully, with the ignorant and gleeful chorus of the media in abettance.

Historians will write of popular delusions, and the madness of crowds.
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[bgates]

Let's face it: folks like Rev. Wright have every right to be quite angry.
How long does that right last? I would think his disgust at the horrible unfairness that is American life would have started to ebb the minute he drove the Porsche off the dealership lot.

[Jane]

So Fox says that CNN is not even reporting the story, same with the networks. Anyone watching?

[kim]

That's funny bgates. Thirty years ago someone suggested that Medicare give every newly graduating MD a Jaguar to dampen future greed. Too bad it was a joke; it would have been cost effective.
==============================

[Jane]

From Politico:

Wright leaves Obama campaign

Spokesman Tommy Vietor emails:

"Rev. Wright is no longer serving on the African American Religious Leadership Committee."

That cuts Wright's only formal tie to Obama, and answers what was sure to be a question in Obama's interviews tonight: If Geraldine Ferraro had to leave the Clinton campaign, why is Wright different.

He's toast.

[Sara]

Let's face it: folks like Rev. Wright have every right to be quite angry.

Well he doesn't have "every right" to be angry with me. My ancestors lost their property and nearly lost their lives for getting caught being a stop on the Underground Railroad running through their Pennsylvania farm. They were on the forefront of the anti-slavery movement and were on the frontlines of the civil rights movement of the '60s and even before.

[Jane]

He doesn't have any "right" to be angry. How stupid is that? But hey, if you and he want to shoot yourself in the foot every day of your life, have at it.

[Layne]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......while everyone is spending time on THIS~~~~~~oil prices are going up!

[mefolkes]

Sara, you're right about not all of us "whites" not having a slavery stain on our ancestry. All of my people came to this country from Norway, and the one set of great-grandparents to come before the Civil War were ardent and vocal abolitionists. Norwegian immigrants by and large were abolitionists, and because of that sentiment they became Republicans. When war came, they marched off to defend the Union and defeat slavery. Anyone can read the history of the units raised in the Midwest and discover the large percentages of Norwegians and their valor. Other folks can trace back to recent immigrants who came shortly before the war, and who also fought valiantly for the Union. And, of course, those whose ancestors came after the Civil War can hardly be blamed for slavery. Lots of folks can take their ancestry back to old Yankee stock that opposed slavery. Just how much digging and analysis do we need on this white guilt baloney? What about the black folks with white slaveholder ancestry? The mind boggles. Even the generation involved with the struggle for civil rights is largely gone. Time to move on.

[mefolkes]

Oops, typos abound. I meant not all of us whites having a slavery stain.

[SteveMG]

Well he doesn't have "every right" to be angry with me.

His comments are directed at America, not you personally.

I agree that his anger is misplaced and obviously leads to conclusions and judgments about this country that are demonstrably false, unfair and unacceptable.

But how would you react having served in the military for your country, being a good person, and then coming back to that country and being called "nigger" and "boy" in front of your children? Being treated like trash day after day, month after month, year after year?

It's the only natural reaction by any human. And so it doesn't do any good to just say, "Reverend, you're a nut".

The great danger is that his views influence the younger generation of blacks.

As George Kennan pointed out in his famous "Mr. X" article:

"It is an undeniable privilege of every man to prove himself right in the thesis that the world is his enemy; for if he reiterates it frequently enough and makes it the background of his conduct he is bound eventually to be right."

Rev. Wright clearly hates America. And he makes it the background of his conduct so that he gets what he wants. That is, America hating him back.

[sherlock]

When the Mullah Wright invokes the spirit of Martin Luther King, I wonder if his parishoners think telling people from childhood that they are constantly oppressed by people with a certain skin color, and are thus entitled to strike back at anyone with that skin color was really what MLK's dream was all about.

[boris]

how would you react having served in the military ...

Those aren't the people venting this screed.

When it comes to trash talk and violence pretty sure blacks have more than caught up. IMO the disparity fell their way long ago.

[SteveMG]

Those aren't the people venting this screed

Rev. Wright served in the Marines.

And I'm talking about the general anger that many black Americans of the Civil Rights Era have about their treatment.

Their anger is legitimate.

How they use that anger may or may not be legitimate.

[willem]

Wright is wrong about the world's #1 killer. That lofty slot is reserved for the "progressive" governments of the world; progressive governments murdered by 4 times more of their own citizens than were killed in combat on all sides during the 20th Century. Nothing has led to more murder than the "progressive" dogma which permeates the "liberation theology" manufactured by Beria for useful idiots like Wright, Che, Castro, Chavez, Noreiga, Arafat and the rest of the cadre elite to exploit for celebrity, authority, and personal financial and sexual enrichment. The data are in. "Progressivism" is the temporal equivalent of Haeckel only with less intellectual rigor and a complete absence of scientific basis. Too bad we can't banish these clowns to the backwaters of the 19th Century where they belong. Wright is not spewing a harmless wrong.

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM