That was what the Obama campaign said to Obama's pastor when disinviting him from the announcement of his Presidential run. Times, March 6, 2007:
Mr. Wright said that in the phone conversation in which Mr. Obama disinvited him from a role in the announcement, Mr. Obama cited an article in Rolling Stone, “The Radical Roots of Barack Obama.”
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.”
I guess Reverend Wright's Unity
Pony is on back order too?
I don't think the story is what Reverend Wright said; personally, I don't give two shits about it, except insofar as it shows why pastors shouldn't mix themselves up with ambitious politicians.
But how the Obama campaign handled it? That's a story. Looks like Wright should have been "in the process of retiring" [translation: Voluntarily leaping under the bus] a little earlier.
UPDATE Interestingly, Wright was born in Philly. It seems unclear what "the process of retiring" meansaaprentlyu "retiring" and preaching the last sermon aren't the same thing.
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I checked
The Unity
Pony
is still out of stock:
http://www.correntewire.com/somebodys_ge...
Damn you, Hillary!
whole campaign was based on soothing white racial fears &
stereotypes---and reinforced and affirmed them. Obama has run a campaign that totally strengthes and enables white racism. It's sad.
A reminder -- NYT -- A Biracial Candidate Walks His Own Fine Line -- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/us/pol...
"... Mr. Obama began his campaign as “the alternative to guys like me.” But in recent months, Mr. Sharpton said, “he’s been calling us.” ..."
Jesus says: Drop them like a hot potato
when they're hurting your chances at worldly success.
That was right after his "If you want to be Caesar, you can ignore everything else i say", right? ; >
Obama: All crazy talk shall cease
Looks like Obama is singing a different tune. From the Baltimore Sun
That is a lot of people that will soon be "forcefully" stopped from speaking out. Is he saying, you can join my cool kids club, but no crazy talk allowed. I don't know, but I think they call this kind of demand censorship.
& notice how he namedrops RFK but blames the 60s for Wright's
attitude. It's incoherent.
"structurally impossible to fight for him"
interesting take on all this--OpenLeft-- http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do;jse... -- "...If Obama had led on this or any other fight, we could easily make the argument that the Wright discussion is a distraction from his leadership qualities and badgered various elites for their lack of focus on substance. But now there really is no argument. Wright is saying things that are politically difficult for Obama the brand to handle. ...
But Obama is not a part of any progressive fights, so there's no independent organizing going on on his behalf from people who actually understand the right-wing media and how it operates. He's decided he's a post-partisan politician, and when a politician makes that choice, it's not just a disincentive for partisans to fight for that person. It becomes structurally impossible to fight for him because the incentives get all out of whack. ..."
this is too much
When Obama said he he didn't attend church the day he said all that, fine. I would give him the benefit of doubt. But for him say "Wright never made incendiary statements in his presence" down right laughable.
In the 20 years Obama has known Wright, he has never said any of it. On a one-to-one basis sure, but in all his church sermons. I find that hard to believe. This would mean either Obama hardly went to church or Wright had a special church service each Sunday just for him and that I find hard to believe.
Who is he really trying to fool. The more he opens his mouth, the more he is digging his own grave.
But Obama is all seeing and all knowing!
All things are "present" to him!
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Has Wright been campaigning?
I heard on the news on the way home last night that Wright had campaigned for Sen Obama from the pulpit, calling him "Jesus" and talking down Sen Clinton.
This is illegal if wingnut evangelical preachers do it, and it's illegal if lefty UCC ministers do it. If he really did this, he might be getting a visit from the IRS soon.
the IRS is already investigating them, i thought--something
about political speeches.
Yes, apparently Obama is The Baby Jesus and HRC is not black
Yes, Wright compared Obama to Jesus Himself and in a sermon he railed against HRC, in particular, for not ever being able to know the pain of being a black man and how she fits the mold of rich white people who run the world* (He fails to note that perhaps--just perhaps!--misogyny has affected her in some negative way). There's also yet another sermon in which Wright says Bill treated blacks the way he treated Monica: he rode 'em "dirty."
*Here's the link to the HRC isn't black and, thus, bad video.
Wright or Wrong
Reverend Wright forced Barack Obama to address his [Wright's] Black feelings, Black thought, and Black judgment. Empiricaly, Obama does not know the black experience... he did not know what Wright was talking about. Wright's comments rolled off Obama's back b/c he is not a Black American -- he thought he was above it all...
It is almost painful to watch Barack Obama’s apology for his Spiritual Advisor/Mentor… but, this discussion is long overdue... There is no way Barack Obama can sail to the Presidency of the United States of America without acknowledging the struggles and resistance of his biggest supporters -- Black Americans! Obama didn't bother to give a Victory speech in Mississippi! The gods do not like hubris...
Here is an afterthought that might turn a swirling eddy of muck… Bob Dylan's, "Last Thoughts on Woodie Guthrie" is the Postmodern "Leaves of Grass"... It should be Barack Obama's theme poem instead of a song -- following this Reverend Wright gaff... or even Hillary's theme poem for pluck in spite of hubris… It [poem] speaks to all Americans now... "And where do you look for this hope that you're seekin'… You find God in the church of your choice… You find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital…” That’ll work -- maybe.
June Jordan's pointed question, "Who set things up like this?" comes to mind... HRC and Ferraro -- it's Sundown!
The whole gaff reminds me of ...
of the same mess CA's Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante was in when right wing nuts decided to make an issue about Bustamante's membership in MEChA when he was in college.
I agree with you that this discussion is long overdue. To be honest, I don't think it will occur because it is easier to sweep it under the rug and hope another Jena incident doesn't occur for a long long time. And if it does occur, it will be watered-down.
War Cries -- A More Perfect Union
I posted the following on several blogs, including Corrente -- whom I thank for an opportunity for commentary in this space:
“Barack Obama is not an authentic African American. His father was from Kenya = African, and his mother was Caucasian and from Kansas = American. He was raised in Honolulu and schooled in Indonesia!
He was not here during the Civil Rights Movement. His African American footprint knows nothing about Emmett Till, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, the Scottsboro Boys, the Niagara Movement, Jim Crow, W.E.B. Dubois, MLK, Malcolm X, the Black Power Movement, upwards of 100 plus lynchings of Black men, women and children every year from 1863 to 1965…
Empirically, Barack Obama’s appreciation for the African American experience is vicarious. Hillary Clinton may have a clearer understanding of the African American experience than Barack Obama.
Unfortunately, Black Americans are so HUNGRY -- they'll eat anything! Again, we're paying in the front of the bus, stepping off the bus to go and sit in the back! Because... why? So -- Barack Obama can walk through the front door? Never again -- under any circumstances... The affirmation of authentic Black Americans [decedents of slavery) is not a negation of African Americans – but the distinction merits acknowledgement. The distinction will not be ignored.”
Barack Obama made the distinction I demanded in his “A More Perfect Union” speech and I am satisfied. Either the gods or Jeremiah Wright forced him to address the obvious or I am an oracle! I knew Obama was the metaphorical Columbia University student who goes to a Harlem church on Sunday, looks past the splendiferous hats and muffles laughter at sociopolitical Christian sermons that are… war cries in a language congregants and spectators understand.
I submit that Wright’s sermons were -- war cries like Northern Cree’s ”Stay Red” sound like war cries to me. But, I am not offended -- perhaps because I don’t understand the language or the burden.
I am reminded of Ayn Rand’s salient point on primitive forms of collectivism, “The respectable family that supports worthless relatives or covers up their crimes in order to “protect the family name” (as if the moral stature of one man could be damaged by the actions of another)…”
There are a lot of war cries being sung. They are fitting and appropriate theater while moving toward a more perfect Union. So... now what?
Right wing radio and
Right wing radio and commentators seemed to like Obama before the primaries. It seemed a mystery. But since Super Tuesday, they have turned on him on a dime.
If you think Hillary, Bill and Geraldine are racist or at least racial in their criticisms of Obama, this Wright thing has given the the right just what it needed. From Michelle Malkin:
"'Black liberation theology' (with all its attendant anti-American pathologies) is Jeremiah Wright’s bread and butter. Wright knows it. His congregation knows it. Obama knows it."
Monica Crowley on ABC, (when reading blogs, I keep her on in the background to drown out my tinnitus) went on for almost 3 hours about how we have to believe that unless Obama more or less hangs Wright from a tree and burns his body, we (we who I wonder) will have to believe he is saying the things Obama believes but won't say publicly.
He's really just a better dressed and more well spoken Al Sharpton. That unity pony becomes a zebra with sharply divided black and white lines. Listeners of robocop radio just hate anti-american, anti-semitic, revolutionary black people.
It looks like Obama has finally become black enough for the wingers. Hillary did warn him.
Difference: long-term relationship with his spiritual mentor
This is not like Bustamante and MEChA. Wright is not merely some pastor, but a man whom Obama, a religious man, has chosen to be his pastor for over 20 years; he has selected him to administer his wedding and the baptismal of his daughters (i.e. this man is a trusted and influential member in Obama's life). And Wright has not merely expressed strong, pro-black, anti-racist views (see: Farrakhan admiration; 9/11 remarks, which had to have been cruel to the victims' families; attack on HRC for not being black). Either Obama tolerates these beliefs or agrees with them. Regardless whether Obama supporters or even most Democrats find them acceptable (I doubt it), it'll hurt him badly in the GE since it inflames the right and undermines Obama's campaign: his image as post-racial, safe.
hobson
They've been waiting for Obama to become the likely nominee to attack him (Previously, they had been some of his strongest defenders against those supposedly evil Clintons). Wright is just the beginning. I think Rezco will be front and center.
Trinity UCC
I wonder how many white Democrats have appeared at Trinity to be introduced to the congregation? How many white Democrats have appeared at similar black churches wanting to be introduced to the congregation?
We want to be real careful with this one.
CNN's announcing black pastors are furious w/Obama,
and condemning him for dumping his church and mentor so fast for "political aims"...
This story is only just starting to grow, and Rezko has yet to go to trial.
There's hours and hours more video, and there is worse, according to some people online.
Exactly.
It's not about what the pastor said - it's about all those reasons people have to wonder what Obama thinks. Not so good for drawing independent and Republican voters, which was his strategy. Now what?
Fox has it already--
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/16/...
"... “Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe,” the leaders of Trinity United Church of Christ wrote Sunday in a statement distributed to the media.
Claiming that Wright’s 36 years as pastor of the church — the largest United Church of Christ congregation, with 8,000 members — is being demeaned, Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, said, “It saddens me to see news stories reporting such a caricature of a congregation that has been such a blessing to the UCC’s Wider Church mission … It’s time for us to say ‘No’ to these attacks and declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends.” ..."
Mr. "Unity
" is now the narrow political one.
Exactly, DCB, care is indicated
Plus, read Digby's post here.
Don't focus on Wright. Focus on Obama. It's not only the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do. For example, if the UCC ministers are pissed at Obama, that says a lot more about him then dredged up tapes. There's a difference between listening and doing, eh?
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi