Barack Obama’s crunch time
Last week on Friday I was positively praying for the US bank Bear Stearns to collapse spectacularly. Not because I hate the bank or wanted the death of capitalism or wanted to bring on recession to all of us, mind you. No. It was because I was uneasy about the revelations that emerged about Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright.
To recap: Revd Wright was caught on tape giving sermons calling America the ‘US of KKK-A’ and all sorts. Obama is close to him and the implication was he supported those comments. Can’t imagine that going down too well with a campaign designed to unite people. Anyway, Bear Stearns collapsed and all weekend the talk has been of recession and Iraq. But Wright’s words are Obama’s Achilles Heel and they have the potential to derail his campaign badly, even at this late stage. And if you don’t believe, see these polls.
Of course, his opponents don’t care that Obama’s speeches have always sharply been at odds with his pastor’s views. They have repeatedly tried to fling mud at him, claiming he (and his wife) weren’t patriotic enough etc. Rather than run away from the criticism, it looks like Obama is taking a gamble by making a big speech later today specifically addressing race politics. I hope it works. He has the damn thing in the bag almost.
So I agree with Jerome Armstrong of MyDD when he says:
Let me put it this way, Obama’s not going to change minds about what they see in Wright. The dismissal and repudiation of Wright must be addressed, and in a way so complete that there is no doubt that 20 years of a close relationship does not mean a thing. If Obama wants to keep Wright as part of his life, and try and convince that its a net positive, he’s going to pay a deep price.
Obama supporters, its time to pray.
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Filed in: Current affairs,United States
according to mickey kaus’ feiler-faster thesis what’s happening right won’t really make such a big impact anyway.
what will be crucial is what happens in the 2-3 days leading up to penn. if anything, the bear stern thing might be bad because it simply pushes forward the coverage obama’s going to get.
i’m hoping that hillary’s tax returns which she said will come out on Apr 14/15 have a bigger impact. of course its possible that her campaign is just using this as a decoy and when nothing dodgy is found with bill’s income from kazakh billionaires they’ll spin it as a positive thing.
What a pleasant situation for McCain.
Is this what it has come down to?
Hillary’s tax returns versus Barack’s mad bad pastor (“don’t worry, my 20 year relationship means nothing…”)?
I’m surprised it’s taken this long to come out tbh. In January I was talking to some one about this saying this Pastor will cause Obama a great deal of stress…
cjcjc, mccain might have a spiritual advisor problem as well.
http://eteraz.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/allah-was-a-demon-spirit-2/
also, i’d like to point out that if anything bear sterns will help hillary, as she does relatively better than obama among voters who are concerned about the economy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7piGy0u43c
obama denouncing wright and explaining his relationship with his church.
yeah, I was going to say – with all the focus on Wright, what about MacCain’s relationship with Hagee? That guy is worse.
Hagee worse than Wright? Not for the context in which it counts. Obama is running for president of the United States and not of Saudi Arabia, or some global Islamic leadership position. Wright’s problem is that he said what he said about America while residing in America. What do you think would happen to Hagee if he had been residing in Saudi Arabia when he issued his comments?
As an atheist I consider Hagee’s comments nutty but also having some resemblance to a reality where Islam is involved in at least one side of most of the world’s conflicts.
The big story about Obama’s church is not just his pastor but the entire congregation. Obama wants to lead the United States after surrounding himself for 20 years with people who obviously hate the United States. It would be like McCain attending Hagee’s church for 20 years and then wanting to lead Saudi Arabia. It simply doesn’t make any sense. Most Americans still think America is a pretty good place, even if we don’t like particular parts (e.g. The Bush Administration), and a man who surrounds himself with people who hate America might not be the best pick to lead America.
Also, I don’t recall McCain attributing much of the formation of his outlook to Hagee. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Obama’s association with Rev. Wright further demonstrates his lapses of judgement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/18/barackobama.uselections20082
Such is the danger of letting church and state get too close together. Do we really want to have the likes of Rev. Robertson, Hagee, Wright, et al having a meaningful impact on our politics?
Further, both Hagee and Parsley are people who simply endorsed McCain. McCain never called either man his “spiritual advisor.” He never attended sermons by these men, he wasn’t married by them, his kids have never met them (much less be baptized by them), and he’s never sought any type of advise from them at all.
Let’s see a receiving an endorsement from someone after meeting them recently vs. looking to someone for guidance and advice for 20 years. Hmm, yeah that’s REAL similar to Rev. Wright.
Give me a break. People like Shariq are just looking for some way to turn this back on the “racist” Republicans. Looking at things right now, Hillary (with Ferraro) and Obama (with Wright) are looking much more racist than the Republicans who put both Colin Powell and Condileeza Rice into the highest government position ever attained by a black person in this country.
Yes, Justin, but even if McCain had considered Hagee his personal spiritual adviser for 20 years that still would not be as bad. Hagee is anti-Muslim while Wright is anti-American, and we still live in America last I checked.
McCain has a 67% approval rating, higher than both Hillary and Obama.
Oh no Obama-maniacs!