<p>Re #257: Governorships don’t represent the “national” experience you referred to in #253, denigrating Obama for the lack of.</p>
<p>Governorships consitute accepted big-league experience for the Presidency. In fact, Obama’s plan was to serve one term in the US Senate, then run for Governor of Illinois, then run for President once he had the necessary experience and a record to run on.</p>
<p>He got talked into running because the Dean, Durbin, Kerry, and Kennedy wing of the party was desperate to find somebody to stop Clinton.</p>
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<p>No. I will definitely go to the poling place. I intend to cast a vote against John Kerry in every election until he’s out of office or I’m dead, whichever comes first.</p>
<p>I don’t know what I’ll do in the Presidential race. It will be one of the following:</p>
<p>a) Vote for Democratic nominee Clinton.</p>
<p>b) Write in Clinton.</p>
<p>c) Vote for McCain.</p>
<p>d) Not cast a Presidential vote.</p>
<p>I don’t think we slapped Kerry and Kennedy in the face quite hard enough in the primary, so if there were any chance McCain could carry Massachusetts, I would vote for him just out of spite.</p>
<p>BTW, how’d Kennedy do winning over the Catholic vote for Obama campaigning for him down in Pennsylvania. Ol’ Teddy is getting slapped around pretty much everywhere he goes these days. And, then to have Rev. Wright mock the Kennedy accent. With friends like the Obama crowd, I guess old Teddy doesn’t need enemies.</p>
<p>I’m fond of you, interesteddad. Even though you don’t always make sense to me.</p>
<p>Post 255 restates my point.</p>
<p>I am with I-dad on this one. Will definitely vote democratic for local and state elections. But want to send message to DNC and neo-libs to get their act together.</p>
<p>My last straws were Obama (and those neo-libs) painting Clintons as racists and he himself ridiculing the first two term democratic president in the last 40 years. By any standards those 8 years were the best years. Then there were other straws as well.</p>
<p>I am sure many posters on this board will call me racist.</p>
<p>epiphany, it was on the news yesterday, but it is not on today because after they did the research they concluded that she was not the main force behind the invitation.</p>
<p>I am beginning to think that the whole thing was a set up for Obama to throw Rev. Wright under the bus. Rev. Wright has been invited by the Press Club on numerous occations, but he has never accepted any of their invitations.</p>
<p>Axelrod (Obama’s chief strategist) hired a PR firm for the church when the story broke out initially. I think in the strategy meetings they convinved Rev. Wright to take one for the team. Obama titled his second book after one of Rev. Wright’s sermons, Rev. Wright baptized his children, for him to suggest that Rev. Wright is a different person now just does not make sense to me. </p>
<p>I might believe that he does not subscribe to Rev Wright’s controversial views, but I am very sure that he new about them, and he tolerated it when he needed to win the his senate seat.</p>
<p>The leaders in the Democratic Party make my old high School student council look competent, and that is not saying much. Perennial all looser team flip-flop John kerry, I have no clue Howard Dean, Do Nothing Nancy Pelosi, Ultra liberals John Kennedy and Patrick Leahy and the usual bench warmers.</p>
<p>I believe that Obama was drawn to the large congregation of people in Chicago who were actively involved in prison ministry and ministry to the people on the streets and that he saw in Wright the same kind of leader as King (who also said harsh and uncomfortable things in strident ways), believing, as he said in his race speech, that Wright was the model of that generation but that he, Obama, was of a new generation, trying to rise above race on the shoulders of those who fought so hard. It is ironic and terrible that now Obama is being brought down by someone whom he truly felt helped pave the way for him -</p>
<p>Lots of ministers are far more liberal than their congregants and try to provoke them into action; Jesus, after all, was radical and called people to action. It’s the political comments about Farrakhan and the gov’t killing blacks with AIDS and the US being terrorist that are not true and offensive that are damaging Obama in the eyes of many (especially thanks to our horrendous media - the folks at Fox in particular which rightfully reports this but wrongly doesn’t equally report disturbing facts about relationships held by McCain and Clinton). </p>
<p>On the other hand, Wright was a Marine and served 6 years. As he points out, neither Bush, Cheney or Clinton served the country at all in the military…So I give him a lot of credit for that. But he is out of control now. And he should be muzzled. It appears that he has been concerned about his own legacy but screwing Obama - and the country - in the process. He simply doesn’t see it, I think. Everyone has their own inner circle whom they listen to. Some people were prodding him on, I suppose. I am glad Obama spoke out. It clearly was very hard and painful for him. Wright was like a father-figure - performed his wedding and his kids’ baptisms - but it doesn’t mean he shares the political perspective at all. It just means it has been hellish personally and politically for him. I am still 100% supporting Obama. There’s a good piece I am trying to link to and hope it works:</p>
<p>[Bob</a> Cesca: Have You Left No Sense Of Decency? - Media on The Huffington Post](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Have You Left No Sense Of Decency? | HuffPost Latest News)</p>
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That is scary.</p>
<p>Have you though about Rev. Wright been hurt about Obama saying that he is like a crazy uncle?</p>
<p>This is a guy who gave him a place to stand in the community when the people did not want to accept him. With the help of the community he was able to win a senate seat in that community, and he even did nothing for the community. He used that opportunity to get sweet heart deals from his buddies. He would not have been anywhere near Illinois state legislature had it not been Rev. Wright. Maybe, Rev Wright felt Obama has been very disloyal to him given all the help he has provided over the last 20 years.</p>
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<p>Especially in the Lone Star State, governorships have less power than one would think (unless you’re from Texas and know about state government structures)</p>
<p>NBC should hire Rev Wright to play Obama on SNL-he’s pretty funny although I’m sick of the media harping on him. I wish they would let up. It’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>tega - you are right; muzzle was an unfortunate verb. I wish we did not live in a youtube nation where any and everything is fodder for analyis 24/7. I am sure there are plenty of hurt feelings around - enough for both parties to justify - but it’s my opinion that Wright ought to have the wisdom and grace to allow Obama to continue on the path to a presidential nomination rather than take him down regardless of whether or not he helped him in the early days.</p>
<p>{block}"Perhaps onlookers were surprised by Obama’s harsh words, but Wright predicted such an outcome in an interview in The New York Times more than a year ago.</p>
<p>“If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me,” he said in April 2007. "I said it to Barack personally, and he said, ‘Yeah, that might have to happen.’ "{/block}</p>
<p>[Can</a> Obama close the door on Wright? - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/30/obama.wright/index.html]Can”>Can Obama close the door on Wright? - CNN.com)</p>
<p>This somehow link that obama knew the Rev Wright views all along and did not disclose. This is very sad that Barack claimed all along he did not know the Rev. Wright views.</p>
<p>…ouch. That puts the final nail in the coffin for me; I simply cannot believe, given that kind of public interview Wright gave (and there is absolutely no way Obama’s campaign, and by extension Obama himself, was unaware of it), that Obama didn’t know exactly who Wright was and what he was saying all along. The only explanation I can see for it is that Obama wanted to use Wright’s black credentials and hoped that his other issues wouldn’t expose themselves.</p>
<p>tega & 1of42 - I think you’re both right! (270 & 275).</p>
<p>It’s interesting to try to surmise what the nature of the Wright/Obama relationship is - and how it has evolved. We’ll probably never know how/why it got to this point (unless someone writes a book!), but it one of the most curious political developments I can recall. </p>
<p>Just how all of this will play out is another provocative subject…</p>
<p>If anything would give Hillary a shot at the nomination, this is it.<br>
Funny that her candidacy has been somewhat revitalized and, as far as I can tell, it isn’t the result of any trick she or Bill pulled out of their sleeves! (Or is it? :)).</p>
<p>Wonder if she has any chance…</p>
<p>Well, as I have said before (in this very thread, as I recall), I’ve been giving Obama lots of rope on this one - from the inception of this controversy I’ve defended him, as it seemed he was above what he was being accused of. I’m slightly ashamed to have been so effectively swayed by the saintly image he has projected throughout the campaign, but that’s water under the bridge.</p>
<p>I’m not particularly angry about it either, just a little bit disappointed - though I never fully believed the “Saint Obama, Visionary Leader” monikers he’s been attracting, I would’ve much rather that turned out to be the case than what we’re facing now. Especially because my own research over the past few days makes me think IDad is right about the math regarding Obama’s chances in November. I don’t think McCain will be as bad as GWB, and should probably be much better (he has a much narrower set of issues that he is an ideologue about, and is much more pragmatic overall in my opinion), but I would still prefer either Democrat - and unless something dramatic happens, I get the increasingly sinking feeling McCain could be the next President.</p>
<p>None of this Wright/Obama stuff is new. It’s been out there since Rolling Stone wrote about it in a feature story called, “The Radical Roots of Barack Obama” (they later changed the name of the on-line version to “Destiny’s Child”) back in Feb. 2007.</p>
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<p>The Rezko mess was out there too. Obama’s just gotten a free ride from his fawning admirers in the media.</p>
<p>CNN’s a perfect example. They barred all Clinton supporters from appearing. Yet, Roland Martin is so in the tank for Obama he has his own blog on Obama’s website. Appears everyday on CNN. Same with Donna Brazille.</p>
<p>Most of the on-air talent at MSNBC has to stop and smoke a cigarette after they do their Obama stories.</p>
<p>That’s Obama’s crowd. Yuppie beltway latte swillers.</p>
<p>I’m the biggest political junkie in the world. I watch cable news for a congressional election. I haven’t watched one minute of TV news since the end of January. Sworn off it completely. Never plan to go back. It’s a sewer. Disgraceful. The mainstream media is covering this election like the NY Times and Judith Miller “covered” the build-up to the Iraq invasion. Pure spin. Pure lies. Pure agenda. Disgraceful.</p>
<p>For all the handwringing over Roe v Wade and Iraq, I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the ultimate irony of the Democratic Party meltdown:</p>
<p>1) Obama wins the nomination with 92% of the black vote</p>
<p>2) Obama loses in a Dukakis-like landslide</p>
<p>3) McCain appoints one more Republican Supreme Court justice.</p>
<p>4) Affirmative Action is ended permanently in the United States</p>
<p>Oh, the irony.</p>
<p>Are you talkin’ about the same John Kerry who said this week that health care reform was off the table for the next President?</p>
<p>The John Kerry who got a spine transplant from a jelly fish? And his political instincts from a rock?</p>