...so I started my own. Nothing much. Just more from Obama, trying to do spin control... ...and shooting himself in the foot again. (It isn't clear yet if he shot himself in the foot before or after he stuck it in his mouth.) Linkage Aaand in other notes, the Democrats and their partisan supporters are sniping at each other: Linkie Ahhh.... Sweet, sweet, schadenfruede.
Here's some more Reverend Wright stuff. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/28/obama.pastor/index.html?iref=werecommend Excerpts from his church's paper (he was listed as the CEO, his daughter as the publisher): These were run in 2007. Obama is in full flight mode - he now says he would have quit Trinity if Wright was still pastor there.
Shit man, I dunno. Try to look at this objectively. Remember when Strom Thurmond retired? He was like, 243 years old. And from the South. So at one point in his life, he may have been a bit racist (in spite of having an illegitimate black daughter). Hell, at his age, he may have actually owned slaves. Well that was all (no pun intended) ancient history, and the man led a long and distinguished career, serving his country as a Senator. So at his retirement party, Trent Lott happens to say what a great guy he is. BAM! Just like that, everyone is screaming for his blood. "'Great guy!? GREAT GUY!?!?' The man was a racist. How could he be a 'great guy'?!" It wound up costing him his job as Senate Majority leader. All for saying something nice about an ancient dude who was retiring. On the other hand, here we have Obama, carrying the water for a guy who was saying racist shit as late as a couple months ago; calling white people evil, Jews evil, speaking out against America. Hate mongering. So how does Obama distance himself from it? "I feel badly that he has been characterized just in this one way. People haven’t seen this broader aspect of him." Can you imagine if George Bush said that about David Duke? And really, it's been far longer since Duke was involved with the KKK than since this "Pastor" Wright has been saying shit far worse. "Where was the foot-shooting?"
I like Trent Lott. He was trying to think of something nice to humour a hundred year old man on his birthday, and it blew up in his face. I didn't think he deserved the shitstorm that followed, and I don't think Obama deserves it now.
That was actually me. And I think we learned from Kerry that refusing to dignify a controversy doesn't make it go away.
Actually Lott said "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either." A rather dumb thing to say when Thurmond was running on a segregationist platform. I agree that Lott was just trying to say something nice to an old man, though, and that he probably had no idea what Thurmond even stood for back then.
Yeah. What Lott said was amazingly stupid. That's for sure. It essentially cost him his career and he has only himself to blame. Obama associates with people who hold the same views and calls them 'mentors' and gets a pat on the back for his tolerance. It makes perfect sense. Really.
Wow, Obama is so full of shit on Wright. http://www.slate.com/id/2187358/ From Slate, talking about the sermon that Obama took the title of his book from, and one of the first ones he says he heard Wright give at Trinity:
It's something of an oversimplification, but can tell me it's not true? Tell me the world isn't more or less run by greedy white people. Tell me that same world isn't full of people in need. C'mon, tell me. It'll be fun.
It's not true. The world isn't more or less run by greedy white people - at least, the black and hispanic and muslim and asian parts of the worlds aren't. A concentration of power, globally, is controlled by the whites, but that ain't our fault. Still some need all around, but a lot less need in the white parts. Which you regard as "greedy." Also, the excess fat is spread around a fair bit by those greedy, across the poor parts, to assuage some (outdated) concept of guilt, the burden to make up for our ancestors' era of colonization and exploitation.
You know, something Wright is desperately ignoring is the fact that so many immigrants of different cultures come to the US, and become VERY successful people. You know, 'non'-white people being successful.
It's hard to rationalize that thread title when a common denominator in this campaign is that nobody likes McCain, either.
You know, I love this whole Wright controversy. I love that people are talking seriously about the issues he raises. I love that we have a legit presidential candidate who is intimately familiar with and at least somewhat influenced by that point of view, even as I do not of course embrace it myself. It's one thing that does make me think Obama is different from all the other politicians on his level in more than just the superficial ways. No previous candidate comes from a church like that. Most of Wright's message would be incomprehensible to the patrician twits who usually vie for the office. The greatest thing is, none of this is really hurting Obama. Even the political grandstanding about it here seems halfhearted.
...and if this is true, it should be of some concern. Certainly, if Obama's momentum and credibility are truly untouched by this flap, it underscores a double standard that will be a bitter pill for pop-liberals to swallow. Trent Lott crashes and burns over a glib, harmless commment, Obama enjoys a pass on a lifelong association with a racist shitbag, whom he calls "mentor" and "friend". There's definitely a trend. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican Governor, allegedly patted a few hinies during his career as an actor(which, I imagine, he actually did), and the Leftie spin machine cried "bloody murder" during his campaign, and women's groups were calling for his head on a pike. Bill Clinton, a Democratic President played "hide the salami" with an intern in his employ while in office, and liberals from every corner of the 'net were giving him an, "atta boy" and a hearty slap on the back while women's groups did everything but shrug and say, "We can't blame you, we've had lunch with your wife." While it's been no secret that Republican politicians have fallen far short of the mark for credibility and conduct set by it's own spin machine, this Obama/Wright lather confirms that hypocrisy is every bit as much a liberal shortcoming (perhaps worse, because liberals are supposed "to know better") So, either Obama zombies who have granted him pardon for this tawdry bit of press are stupid, , or so desperate to have someone in a position of power that agrees with their mindset that they don't give a damn about what his or her previous behavior says about his or her character. Again, another of the growing number of reasons to vote, "None of the above". (And it's on the ballot. Just write it in.)
Where's this happening? " OMG He's a hateful racist!" isn't talking seriously about anything. I was running late for work, and didn't bother to clarify. My bad. I would say the world is run by greedy rich people, and that while most of the greedy rich people in America are white, it's their wealth that defines them, not their race. The "people in need," I don't think that needs to be elaborated on. I doubt anyone is going to claim there aren't people in need (to some degree) in the world, or in America. Michael Moore, before he lost his damn mind, used to focus on the rich and greedy screwing over the little folk. Things like GM closing down already profitable plants and moving them to Mexico to increase profits, or times when governments gave corporations money and tax breaks in exchange for them creating jobs, and the corporations cut jobs anyway. For what it's worth, I'm 3/4 white, and I never have contact with the other 1/4 part of my heritage, except when I'm chasing away native panhandlers.
That's the low end of it, and constitutes much of the halfhearted political grandstanding I referred to before. But even that gets people thinking about things like racism who otherwise wouldn't. But I've also seen plenty of thoughtful comments here and elsewhere about black churches and politics, racial/partisan double standards, etc. And there's the unavoidable fact that you have to confront Wright's beliefs in order to condemn them. Overall I think this whole story has resulted in a slight increase in the level of discussion.
And that's the kicker. I'm not even so pissed that Obama want to turn a blind eye on this guy's teachings so much as so many of his voters are. At the very least, Wright is a stupid, stupid man who needs to exaggerate an issue to get his point across (not unlike certain posters here), but so many that seem to think HOW R WRIGHT WAS RACIST, HURR will go into a tirade on how stupid and ignorant Bush is. And they're right. Bush *is* as dumb as a box of bricks. But so is Wright and with Obama only being a Senator for one term...yeah. There's nothing else to judge him with. Like high school. If all the cheerleaders you see (even if it's maybe two or three out of a a fifteen plus member squad) are evil bitches; or if all the nerds you come across are anal retentive; or if all the Drama club are whiny, self-absorbed little emos, what other conclusion would one make about people hanging with them? That doesn't mean the conclusion is necessarily correct, and I'm trying not to slap a "guilty by association" label on the one candidate that seems half-way decent, but when he's still a virtual unknowns...sorry, can't blame the general public for being leery.
