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<p>Yeah, and look what happens to them when they make incendiary racial comments. Imus got fired.</p>
<p>I think Wright is a kook, and a scary kook at that. JMO.</p>
<p>(Farmdad, I really liked your post on the previous page)</p>
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<p>What does that mean? You would think that with as much fame as Obama has built for himself, somebody, somewhere, sometime, would detail what exactly it was that he organized.</p>
<p>Besides, of course, lining up minority-owned charities to serve as shell development partners for his corrupt patron Anton Rezko to bilk the taxpapers of Illinois out of millions of dollars of low-income development grants for slums in Obama’s district. Obama organized the heck out of that deal.</p>
<p>How can you compare Wright to Imus? Imus was on the public airwaves, people who heard Wright heard him because they were members (or visitors) in his church. I don’t think people realize that Wright is highly respected, highly educated and travels in impressive circles. The first time I heard him speak was at Riverside Church in New York. I know so many people who attend his church in Chicago and I was eager to hear him. He was the ML King Day speaker at Amherst last year. This guy is not some street evangelist. I have a problem with white paranoia when it comes to race. I’m curious if any of you protested the racism of this country at all - demonstrations, boycotts, etc??? Or, is all of this about ensuring white supremacy?</p>
<p>Interestday, I’d love to hear your views on the historic racism of this nation. I dont’ know your age but what were you doing in the 60s during the Civil Rights era or afterwards. Since its clear that you are against any type of racism, prejudice, etc. What are you social justice credentials?</p>
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<p>I’m not supporting Obama because it is a joke to run for President with less than two years experience beyond that of a part-time state legislator with a career record that is unprecedentedly thin.</p>
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<p>Oh, I see. Anyone who doesn’t support your candidate is now wearing a sheet, burning crosses, and fighting for white supremacy?</p>
<p>Yet, you have the unmitigated gall to say that Obama supporters are not injecting race into this election. Your candidate has been playing the race card ever since the Malcolm X “bamboozled, hoodwinked” speeches in South Carolina. It worked. He’s got 92% of the black vote. Be happy. Praise the lord with Rev. Wright.</p>
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<p>My views on race are none of your business. However, since you feel it is your right to grill me:</p>
<p>I was in high school in the 1960s. I organized my church youth group and we tutored grade school children at an African American church in the Georgia city where I grew up.</p>
<p>I became a Democrat almost exclusively because of my support for the Civil Rights movement and I cannot begin to communicate to you how angry it makes me for you, and Rev. Wright, and Jesse Jackson Jr, and the Obama campaign to imply that I’m a racist. That, my friend, is precisely why I fully intend to vote for John McCain if Obama is the Democratic nominee.</p>
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<p>You’re the one who said that everyone who knows Wright knows that he is like a “shock jock”. That’s why I compared them.</p>
<p>And, Wright’s on the airwaves now - pretty often in fact, for better or worse. I still think he’s a kook. I don’t care if he hides behind religion to spew the ridiculous things he’s saying, it doesn’t make it justifiable. </p>
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<p>So, if someone didn’t protest by attending demonstratons, he is trying to ensure white supremacy? Okay - if that’s what you want to think. If that is your supposition, then that is kooky too.</p>
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<p>Here we go again, as a person in the ministry, who works with people in times of need, if someone were to ask me what scripture I rely on in these times, I’d have to think about it. There are many, and it all depends on the context of the situation - am I hurt, angry, sad, impatient, lost, scared, doubtful, etc.? The Psalms alone address each of these with different genres of Psalms, and I couldn’t rattle off the Psalm (maybe two of them I can by memorization) particular to any one of those situations.</p>
<p>" … That, my friend, is precisely why I fully intend to vote for John McCain if Obama is the Democratic nominee."</p>
<p>This kind of thinking is what I’m afraid of. I presently lean toward Obama, but will support Hillary Clinton with all of my heart if she becomes the nominee. … As for McCain, he’s not the cross-the-aisle maverick he likes to portray. He’s militaristic and his devotion to the war in Iraq could well send our country spiraling into further economic chaos. It’s costing us billions. His voting record is generally very conservative, including repeated votes against a woman’s right to choose. He’s cozied up to the worst president we’ve ever had–despite being slimed by him in 2000–and has also, in the past, crawled into bed with the Christian right while pandering to an ultra-conservative base. If you’re a Democrat, even a moderate one, no matter how much Obama, Wright, et al, disconcert you, policy-wise a vote for McCain would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Just my humble opinion.</p>
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<p>Should have thought about that before Obama sent his campaign co-chair Jesse Jackson Jr. on CNN the day after his loss in New Hampshire to accuse Senator Clinton (and by inference her supporters) of being a racist.</p>
<p>The Democratic leaders in my state (Kerry, Kennedy, etc.) should have thought about that before disregarding the overwhelming majority of Democratic voters in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>I don’t think we’re allowed to post You Tube videos here anymore, and I can’t refind the link anyway, but after watching almost the entirety of Wright’s press club talk, somehow I found Farrakhan’s 2008 Saviours Day speech. It was a beautiful and eloquent tribute to his desire to support Obama as a candidate for President. I thought the guy was going to cry. Farrakhan specifically said he did not want to become a stumbling block in Obama’s path, so he was going to be very careful what he said so as not to hurt the election process. The whole thing was very emotionally uplifting. Why can’t Wright do that instead of being so constantly in your face and confrontational? Maybe it’s cause Farrakhan is older now and a cancer survivor; he’s mellowed and I found it a pleasant surprise.</p>
<p>It really does seem like Wright actually doesn’t want Obama to win, or else he is so egotistical that being repudiated for political gain has caused him to seek revenge. Maybe Farrakhan is seeking revenge quietly, but at least it doesn’t appear that way. He seems to be making an honest effort to stay out of the way. Wright’s interview with Bill Moyers was nice. He should have left it that way. But he has this incessant desire to constantly cross the line and be incendiary, and it’s going to be Obama’s downfall for better or worse.</p>
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<p>Farrakhan knows how incendiary it would be for the press to report that Obama attended and helped organize the Nation of Islam’s Million Man March.</p>
<p>mercymom–Wright’s problem (one of them) is that his ego appears to be enormous. He seems to crave the spotlight, no matter what the cost.</p>
<p>interesteddad–I don’t recall anyone in Obama’s campaign calling Hillary Clinton a racist, but I could be wrong. Both Obama and Hillary’s campaigns have had embarrassing, hurtful gaffes made by their “representatives.” Geraldine Ferraro played the race card too, as I remember. I don’t for a minute actually think she’s a racist, but she put it out there–as has Bill a few times. </p>
<p>I’ve been a fan of Hillary Clinton’s for years. They don’t make them any smarter or tougher. But, I never believed her to be electable to the presidency. Simply too many people have an overpowering, (and I think, irrational) negative reaction to her and would never in a zillion years cast a vote for her. My hope was that Obama would be prove less divisive and that some of those much-needed “Reagan Democrats” might be lured back to the party. Well, he is certainly a much-flawed man, which the Clinton campaign has spent months exposing without mercy. We Democrats, indeed, eat our own. Interesteddad, I can pretty much guarantee you that we’ll have another 8 years of Republicans in the White House and war in Iraq.</p>
<p>For anyone who missed Anna Quindlen’s column in the current Newsweek, it offers some very good reasons not to vote for McCain.</p>
<p>[Quindlen:</a> McCain’s Principles | Newsweek Voices - Anna Quindlen | Newsweek.com](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/132860]Quindlen:”>Quindlen: McCain's Principles)</p>
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<p>Good. Maybe another eight years of ineptitude will finally convince the Democratic party to clean house, get rid of the perennial losers at the DNC and figure out how to position the party to win elections. They certainly clueless right now, attempting to win the White House with a “coalition” of old hippies, latte drinkers, college kids, and African Americans.</p>
<p>Good lord, how many elections can people like Donna Brazille and John Kerry and Ted Kennedy lose? And, yet here they are, running Michael Dukakis AGAIN. Do you know how easy it will be for the Republicans to destroy Obama? They don’t care about offending black voters.</p>
<p>Here’s my prediction:</p>
<p>Obama wins nom, loses election to McCain.
McCain loses to Hillary in 12 (she will win the nom then even if Obama runs again…too hard to come back the next time, if you lose 1x than you lose the chance)</p>
<p>“It really does seem like Wright actually doesn’t want Obama to win, or else he is so egotistical that being repudiated for political gain has caused him to seek revenge.”</p>
<p>Here’s one theory: election of Obama to be president would be a major repudiation of Wright’s core message - that blacks are victims of a white, racist America that still has a slave mindset. Because of that victim status, they need special assitance which he and the other black leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will fight for - as long as these leaders are properly compensated with mansions in gated communities. If America actually elected a black man to be president, this whole theme would take a major hit.</p>
<p>Not a bad prediction except that I don’t think Hillary will run again. </p>
<p>After the way they have been treated by the national party, I don’t expect Hillary or Bill to lift a finger to help Democrats outside of their homestate of NY in the future…something that I’m sure will make the Howard Deans, Donna Brazilles, and John Kerrys of the party very happy.</p>
<p>Did anyone else catch the NY Daily News editorial that noted, "The Rev. Jeremiah Wright couldn’t have done more damage to Barack Obama’s campaign if he had tried. And you have to wonder if that’s just what one friend of Wright wanted.</p>
<p>Shortly before he rose to deliver his rambling, angry, sarcastic remarks at the National Press Club Monday, Wright sat next to, and chatted with, Barbara Reynolds. </p>
<p>A former editorial board member at USA Today, she runs something called Reynolds News Services and teaches ministry at the Howard University School of Divinity. (She is an ordained minister). </p>
<p>It also turns out that Reynolds - introduced Monday as a member of the National Press Club “who organized” the event - is an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter. "</p>