"The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments."
Does the word "disingenuous" come to mind?
So, Obama, who wrote pp. 274-295 about Wright in his 1995 autobiography, had no idea that Wright was an anti-American leftwing crank until early 2007?
Yet, ABC reported yesterday that the "God Damn America" soundbite is from 2003:
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
We know that Obama gave $27,500 to Wright's church in 2005-06 alone. But, maybe Obama really isn't the regular church-goer he claims to be in all those campaign ads and speeches. But, you don't think he ever talked to anybody who heard Rev. Dr. say these things?
C'mon, unlike Obama, Wright is an exhibitionist who likes to leave a paper (and digital) trail. And, unlike Obama, Wright likes to make himself clear.
Obama's oratorical style is a blend of Wright's black preacher man style with David Souter's care not to leave a controversial paper trail.
C'mon, Wright has always been Wright. In 1984 he went with Farrakhan to visit Gadaffi in Libya when the Colonel was the world's leading supporter of terrorism. Wright has always been a leftwing radical and that's a big reason that Obama chose him out of all the dozens of South Side preachers he had known in the 1980s.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
Posts
72 comments:
Are you sure Michelle didn't choose that church? Or that Barak's motives weren't more pragmatic than ideological: this was the biggest and most influential institution in his district? And since when is Obama's oratorical style based on Wright's? I see no similarity whatsoever? Plus think about all the crazy things guys like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have said over the years. I never saw Republicans walking away from them.
BTW, what is that amazon address for making a contribution? Not for this post, but some of the ones before.
Off topic, but here's Spitzer's sweetie in a rap video:
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=62734
Questions:
(1) Doesn't she look like a younger and somewhat hotter version of the ex gov.'s wife, Silda Wall S.?
... Somewhat hotter -- She doesn't look anywhere near $4300 worth of ecstasy to me.
http://www.pagesix.com/photo/
eliot+spitzer+and+wife
(2) Is this Ashley/Kristine woman possibly Jewish?
(3) Is Mr. Spitzer wearing eye makeup in some photos?
Enquiring minds want to know.
The following is from an April 2007article in the New York Times. Note that many of the issues that are just coming to light for the general public have been known for some time, including by Obama himself. Obama stated that Wright’s blaming 9-11 on past actions of the USA (including during World War 2), was just an example of Wright being ‘provocative.” I’m sure that explanation will go over well (but don’t expect the media to dwell on Obama’s previous attempts to distance himself from Wright’s comments without distancing himself from Wright).
Note also that the Rev. Wright stated that at some point, Obama will have to distance himself from Wright and his statements. Looks like that time has come.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/us/politics/30obama.html?_r=3&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print
Congregants respond by saying critics are misreading the church’s tenets, that it is a warm and accepting community and is not hostile to whites. But Mr. Wright’s political statements may be more controversial than his theological ones. He has said that Zionism has an element of “white racism.” (For its part, the Anti-Defamation League says it has no evidence of any anti-Semitism by Mr. Wright.)
On the Sunday after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Mr. Wright said the attacks were a consequence of violent American policies. Four years later he wrote that the attacks had proved that “people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West went on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns.”
Provocative Assertions
Such statements involve “a certain deeply embedded anti-Americanism,” said Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative group that studies religious issues and public policy. “A lot of people are going to say to Mr. Obama, are these your views?”
Mr. Obama says they are not.
“The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification,” he said in a recent interview. He was not at Trinity the day Mr. Wright delivered his remarks shortly after the attacks, Mr. Obama said, but “it sounds like he was trying to be provocative.”
“Reverend Wright is a child of the 60s, and he often expresses himself in that language of concern with institutional racism and the struggles the African-American community has gone through,” Mr. Obama said. “He analyzes public events in the context of race. I tend to look at them through the context of social justice and inequality.”
Despite the canceled invocation, Mr. Wright prayed with the Obama family just before his presidential announcement. Asked later about the incident, the Obama campaign said in a statement, “Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church.”
In March, Mr. Wright said in an interview that his family and some close associates were angry about the canceled address, for which they blamed Obama campaign advisers but that the situation was “not irreparable,” adding, “Several things need to happen to fix it.”
Asked if he and Mr. Wright had patched up their differences, Mr. Obama said: “Those are conversations between me and my pastor.”
Mr. Wright, who has long prided himself on criticizing the establishment, said he knew that he may not play well in Mr. Obama’s audition for the ultimate establishment job.
“If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me,” Mr. Wright said with a shrug. “I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen.”
FINALLY,the fraud Obama is getting exposed. By the way,CNN is ignoring the story almost entirely-where's Roland Martin now? "Taken out of context" being the phraseword used by Obama's defenders...
I think one of the learning points of Rev. Wright's rant is that most of white America is getting its first taste of how blacks talk and act when they believe that only blacks are around.
For years it was been a standard cliche that whites use racist language when blacks are not around but no one in the media will ever suggest that blacks routine use racist langauge when no non-blacks are present.
To born again democrat:
To a lot of Christians, it doesn't look so great when a man who is the father of two young children "pragmatically" chooses a church for his family that spews ridiculous garbage. And if he chose the church for its membership rather than its leadership, why did he choose to use the Rev. Wright as his personal spiritual leader?
From a Christian point of view, Obama should have been looking for the Church that came closest to the religious beliefs and values he believed to be correct. If Obama does NOT believe that the government is responsible for HIV, 9/11, and for the high rate of drug involvement of blacks, why does he want his kids to be exposed to these messages?
Where is Flip Wilson when we really need him?
Wright says Jesus was a black man oppressed by white Europeans...beautiful. His "Christianity" is just a black version of Wotanism.
Wright is a leading light of black preachers...hmm,anybody wonder why crime rises. I'm sure the killers of Lauren Burk and Eve Carson were baptized by someone of similar ilk.
Wright's "chickens coming home to roost" sermon was on the Sunday after 9-11[!]. With a little footwork by an ambitious journalist, it should be easy to determine if The Candidate was in attendance.
The “chickens have come home to roost” is taken straight from Malcolm X, before Malcolm X had broken with the Nation of Islam. I think Malcolm X used that phrase when JFK was assassinated.
Just like Obama thinks he is using Malcolm X’s lines when he tells black audiences in the south that the Clinton’s are trying to “hoodwink” and “bamboozle” them and play the “okey dokey.” Actually, those lines were used by Spike Lee in his movie version of Malcolm X (starring Denzel Washington), but weren’t actually used by the real Malcolm X.
On the Rezko/Obama front: s**t gets deeper. Barry keeps changing his story. What's Obama hiding exactly?
Let's not forget the pedigree of Wright's "chickens coming home to roost" reaction to 9/11. It is the same as Malcolm X's reaction to President Kennedy's assassination.
Malcolm added, "Chickens coming home to roost never made me sad. It only made me glad."
How dare he criticize America and not be called a "terrorist sympathizer"! How come I keep running into these ultra-reactionary blogs on the 'net?
Michael Savage has a couple audio links at his site; the quotes don't do them justice.
It goes without saying that John McCain needs one very tight, very well-timed TV ad to win the presidency. Something like:
[FAUX REPORTER]: Sir, do you support Obama for the presidency of the United States.
[FAUX CITIZEN]: No, I do not.
[FR]: Can you tell us why?
[FC]: Barrack Obama spent 20 years going to a preacher who said, "God damn America", who said [white people this, Jews that, etc, etc, etc]. Why should he be president...if he goes to a preacher who said "God damn America".
Obviously, I'm not an ad writer, but done properly, this will finish Obama in one stroke.
And we're stuck with McCain.
Perhaps the most disturbing and offensive thing about this whole relationship is that Jeremiah Wright is evidently what Obama considers to be Authentically Black(tm).
The Three Steps to Undoing the Obama as Messiah Myth:
1) Wife Michelle comes out and says she never in her adult life has been proud of America until now.
2) Pastor of 20 years Jeremiah Wright is revealed to be a ranting racist/anti-American lunatic, with video clips on Youtube to back it up.
3) Go past the rantings of a racist to the actions of some other friends of Barack - Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, the former memebers of the Weather Underground and convicted murderers at whose Chicago area home Barack held a meet-and-greet back in 1995.
Throw in Obama's nutty left-wing mother and grandfather and what you get is the portrait of a far left radical - we used to say "Communist" - running for president.
What bothers me about the whole story is this: when I Googled "Jeremiah Wright" this morning I got hundreds of links, but all but a few of them were on conservative sites like NRO and FoxNews.
Of those that were on the mainstream news sites, they were mostly relegated to blog sections of the online versions - no reports by NBC or CBS or the major newsclips.
But now that Barack has "condemned" the rhetoric of Wright, it's in all over the major news sites.
At any point CBS & NBC could've made this a major story. It's controversial enough to be THE leading story on the nightly news, with the anchor intoning with an ominous sounding voice: "A major revelation tonight about the preachers Barack Obama has referred to as his spiritual advisor of 20 years." They could drag the story out over days with all the newly discovered clips and excerpts of Wright's speeches, even after Obama "distanced" himself.
This could have especially been so with all the coverage of the primaries and with Obama leading. So when do they finally bother to report it? When they can say that it's no longer a story - because Obama has "distanced himself."
I've never believed in conspiracies, but sometimes I wonder...
Steve, all you say about the subject is true but you ought to realize that to some folk, myself inclusive, the fact that Obama takes this radical leftist is somewhat exciting.
Don't misunderstand me, I think there's a damn good chance that an Obama greatly influenced by a Wright (as he may or may not be - at this moment) could herald changes that would piss me off in unimaginable ways. But I'm not remotely certain of that. So far as I'm concerned, if Wright's influence injects a few shots-worth of Marxism into our economic system and into our culture then that would be a nice thing. (I'm sure that EVEN WERE he to initiate changes EXACTLY in accordance with my preferences, the masses would adopt them in stupid ways and with braindead philosophical underpinnings, which would still piss me off. But I'd rather we have Universal Healthcare for the WRONG reasons than cut-throat capitalistic pay-or-fuck-you-! healthcare for the, uh, wrong reasons.)
Yeah, so all of which is to say that I enjoyed Wright's speeches. It's kinna insane that Obama's received such a pass on the subject of his mentor's fire and brimstone leftism/africanism/whatever, but the few sentences that I heard I mostly enjoyed.
mnuez
www.mnuez.blogspot.com
Obama is worse than McCain. McCain is old, likely to serve one term, and lives to pick fights with people so he can achieve the moral purity of the Hanoi Hilton.
Obama is young and lunatic. Guy won't even wear the flag when it costs him NOTHING. THAT says it all.
The whole ballgame is now McCain's to lose. What he should do now is adopt the breezy, say-nothing style Obama has been getting away with.
Don't interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake. The Democratic party has made a very, very large mistake.
Wright is very light-skinned, you'd think he's a mulatto--look at this picture of him and Obama. I think he has to push radical views lest his congregation thinks he's not black enough.
The media will give Obama a pass. He will say he never heard about these remarks before and all will be forgiven.
it seems like you'd want to leave before you asked (seemed more like a demand) for god to damn america.
steve, you should use your search ninja skills to see if you can't flesh out the honorable rev. wright's family tree. i just can't believe all his grandparents would be black.
to born again dem...we are not talking about Robertson or Falwell. why do you leftie boys always change the subject. Falwell and Robertson are irrelevant to the discussion. don't change the subject....don't face what your guy is....a blithering hater. no, no don't change the subject again. favorite lib pastimes are: did to, did not did too ototootott
To slightly paraphrase Larry Auster's excellent bon mot on Obama: white liberals thought they're getting Sidney Poitier, but it turns out they're getting OJ Simpson.
- PA
What sucks is that I doubt the really black folks in Wright's congregation would come up with that stuff. It's always the angry redbones.
Why would Mr. Obama expose his children to an ideology that preaches wealth comes only from oppression? Wealth comes only from armed robbery in some form? Apparently many inner city African Americans find that plausible, and we can see how that plays out in crime statistics.
It is just bad judgment on Mr. Obama's part. That kind of ideology is as useless as the "immigrants are going to turn our blond babies brown" nonsense bounding around the far right.
The urban legends purveyed by pinky Wright sound like the down-market equivalents of the way college-graduate white Democrats used to pump themselves up for the next election by pretending to believe in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories, either not really believing or certainly not intending to do anything about them, but just kind of pretending, in order to lather the troops up for the big push.
Richard Hofstadter, call Consolidated Paranoia, and see which party is manning the phones.
Yeah, so all of which is to say that I enjoyed Wright's speeches. It's kinna insane that Obama's received such a pass on the subject of his mentor's fire and brimstone leftism/africanism/whatever, but the few sentences that I heard I mostly enjoyed.
That is because Marxism thrills the Jewish soul. And attacks on the dominant culture thrill your soul, mnuez. And, yes, that's "kinna insane".
Hey, mnuez, how about fire & brimstone speeches from Iranian, Lebanese or maybe even Palestinian imams? How do you enjoy those? Even just a "few sentences". How about "God Damn Israel!" for starters. How do you enjoy that, mnuez?
Mr. wright is ostensibly "whiter" than 50% Obama. The size of his head is also pretty impressive and quite atypical of AAs. Perhaps he approaches much greater than 50% white admixture.
Sen. Obama failed to handle a straightforward query in one of his interviews ("would you have quit had you known about these comments"?).. Waffled on the response instead of coming out with a straight "yes". Which leads to the reasonable conclusion that in fact he knew about his pastor-mentor's views and attitudes for many years (which is why he had problems in saying yes swiftly). It strains credulity that he could have not known. He must have known and he must have rationalized it. This reminds me of the legalistic Clinton denials about having "sex" with Monica (which rested on the definition of the term). This approach also seems very legalistic and quite possibly false.
re:"Obviously, I'm not an ad writer, but done properly, this will finish Obama in one stroke."
No doubt.
Re:"And we're stuck with McCain."
And that's the part that worries me. The dems are beholden to the blacks and feminists. McCain and the GOP are beholden to AIPAC and the NeoCons of PNAC. Get ready to spend a 100 years in Iraq. :-(
OF COURSE the media will give Obama a pass - he's their candidate after all.
But will the 527s? I doubt it. There'll be solemn, disappointed fatherly voice-overs (even better, thoughtful, worried motherly voice-overs), Wright sound bites, Michelle sound bites, planes crashing into towers, etc.
If they really wanted to finish Obama they'd put one together and run it all over the place before the superdelegates do their thing and make the Dems do their dirty work. Conversely, if the Dems really want to give McCain the WH, but look all martyry and halo-ed at the same time, they'll refuse the spade work and offer Obammy as sacrificial lamb in November.
"for killing innocent people"
OK, I'm not going to judge whether the US military really needed to kill as many people as it did during its wars over the decades.
Leaving that aside, as far as I know, there are far more innocent whites being killed by blacks in the US and Africa than the other way round. Yet listening to Wright you'd think the blacks are about to be annihilated. What a distorted sense of reality?
david davenport sed:
"(1) Doesn't she look like a younger and somewhat hotter version of the ex gov.'s wife, Silda Wall S.?"
Dave, this is old hat. You can read this in any decent psychology book. Usually men will have affairs (if you want to call that a swing with a hooker) with women who are younger carbon copies of their wifes. Nothing new here. Its obvious Spitzer is not a grown up man. I guess the first years with his wife were a gas, but then the kids arrived and all that and he could not adjust.
"that it is a warm and accepting community and is not hostile to whites."
This is easy to test. Check if there are any normal whites there, I'm not talking about white radicals.
The MSM has been giving Obama such an easy ride that the moment something more testy comes up, which they could not hide, everyone is flustered. Of course they will try and extract some recants from Obama and then hype those as being more than required, but anybody who is not walking around all day with a toothbrush in their mouth (which would be about 10% of the American population) should be able to see through this.
Anderson Cooper spent an hour on this story last night on CNN. I believe this has suddenly gotten legs from a story on ABC that I saw Tuesday or Wednesday. Certainly the media's natural reaction is to give him a pass, but if a feeding frenzy starts they'll all pile on.
The Democrats are driving themselves off a cliff with this guy. What makes them think the people of this country are going to vote for someone basically unpatriotic?
Anonymous: Go past the rantings of a racist to the actions of some other friends of Barack - Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, the former memebers of the Weather Underground and convicted murderers at whose Chicago area home Barack held a meet-and-greet back in 1995.
It wasn't just a one-time meeting - there is documentation now of at least a 13-year relationship [1995-2008] between Obama and Ayers.
1995, Ayers hosts Obama coming-out party:
Obama once visited '60s radicals
politico.com
1999-2002, Obama & Ayers serve together on Woods Fund and funnel $1 million to a Rezko associate:
Obama's Bill Ayers problem
marathonpundit.blogspot.com
Obama helped ex-boss get $1 mil. from charity
weareillinois.org
Obama worked with terrorist
wnd.com
Ongoing & continuing "friendly" relationship between Obama family & Ayers family:
Hannity: Like a Dog With a Bone
noquarterusa.net
Axelrod throws Ayers ball on ex-terrorist
marathonpundit.blogspot.com
"How dare he criticize America and not be called a "terrorist sympathizer"! How come I keep running into these ultra-reactionary blogs on the 'net?"
Anonymous is right, Steve. How dare you criticize a black man for his racism, anti-Semitism and lunatic conspiracy theories. Just stop thinking and vote for Obama. He'll tell us what to do.
When Clinton wins Pennsylvania, people are going to ask questions about the racial divides in the Democratic primary. Then the Obama house of cards will collapse.
I am writing in Gerldine Ferraro's name for President. When she said "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they are attacking me because I am white" And added sarcastically "How's that?" I knew she was the only political figure in the public forum who is not terrorized by the politically correct masxim, "Thou shalt not notice race, unless you are a minority."
What next? Worrying about Catholics who attended a Mass given by a priest who buggered choir boys?
Except Anon both Hillary and McCain oriented 527's will be poring over videos to look for something inciendary and Obama applauding.
He's toast.
anonymous (one of them):
I'll admit being a member of a church whose American leadership apparently covered up a hell of a lot of pedophilia, and which advocates a lot of political positions with which I disagree (open borders, higher minimum wages, opposition to use of birth control, opposition to gay marriage). I'm not sure everyone chooses churches based on the political beliefs of the church or its leader.
That said, I believe a lot of prominent Republicans condemned Fallwell and Robertson for making Old Testament Prophet-worthy post-9/11 comments. (I think these centered around the idea that 9/11 was our nation's punishment for failing to do whatever it was they wanted us to do.)
Indeed, one way you can tell when someone has a really overriding ideological view of the world is that they will explain *everything* in terms of the good/bad guys in their model. Thus, some lunatic blowing away his wife and kids is caused by The Patriarchy and the mysogenistic culture, or by capitalism and the oppression of the proletariat, or our growing police state at home and empire abroad, or our failure to kill and conquer and terrorize sufficient numbers of Muslims, or whatever.
Two things:
1. I think the contrast between the unsupported charges in the NYTimes article about McCain and the lobbyist (criticized even by NYT allies) and the complete missing of the boat by the major outlets of the obvious scandal of Wright proves beyond reasonable doubt the differing approaches to Dems and Repubs by the MSM. Apparently anonymous sources talking about an 8 year old "appearance of impropriety" is front-page news but years of anti-American vitriol (including visits to Libya, awarding lifetime achievement awards to Farrakhan, etc) spewed by Obama's campaign advisor, pastor, spiritual advisor, baptizer of his children, inspiration for his book, converter to Christianity, wedding presider, etc is not news.
2. If this were out of character, perhaps it could be shrugged off, but I think the "Obama hates America" narrative has legs. Consider: a. His wife was never proud of her country until a month ago, even though her husband (who's grandmother is a poor Kenyan) was elected US Senator , she received the best education in the world, has a high-paying job, etc; b. he pointedly refused to wear the flag lapel pin; c. he had to defend himself against charges that he didn't salute during the National Anthem; d. his pastor refers to America as Amerikkka, says "God Damn America", etc. e. his friends attacked America though terrorist actions, f. He called for the complete withdrawal from Iraq by this month, which in retrospect looks like an increasingly wrong decision.
Essentially, Obama has allied himself with the Blame America First wing of the Democratic party but has sucessfully (mis)represented himself as a centrist. But now the chickens are coming home to roost. If Dems think that he might be too anti-American, wait until the general election, especially compared to a war hero like McCain.
The worst development for Obama is that Iraq is getting much better. It was a clear liability for Republicans last summer. By this summer it could be a net benefit for Republicans. It turns out that Americans disapprove of being in Iraq, just of losing in Iraq.
The media is not the gatekeeper anymore. Too many smart people read the 'net, people who influence a lot of their friends, co-workers, and family members.
To paraphrase Rev J. Wright " God Damn the media." And let it burn.
Apparently one of my posts didn't get approved, but two of its predictions seem to be coming true:
1) Fox will drag this out slowly.
2) Barack or Michelle might be proven to have attended one of Wright's more crazy sermons.
Wright laced into America's establishment, blaming the "white arrogance" of America's Caucasian majority for the woes of the world, especially the oppression suffered by blacks. To underscore the point he refers to the country as the "United States of White America." Many in the congregation, including Obama, nodded in apparent agreement as these statements were made.[...]
Wright laced into America's establishment, blaming the "white arrogance" of America's Caucasian majority for the woes of the world, especially the oppression suffered by blacks. To underscore the point he refers to the country as the "United States of White America." Many in the congregation, including Obama, nodded in apparent agreement as these statements were made.
*What next? Worrying about Catholics who attended a Mass given by a priest who buggered choir boys?*
If someone spent 20 years supporting a preacher who PREACHED THE VALUE OF BUGGERING CHOIR BOYS, that would be a rather immediate reason for disqualification.
Hint: Learn to use your brain.
Conversely, if the Dems really want to give McCain the WH, but look all martyry and halo-ed at the same time, they'll refuse the spade work and offer Obammy as sacrificial lamb in November.
And so the closet racists are exposed.
Looks like the Internet webzines are all over this one. Check out World Net Daily's posting. They have an audience of 9 million.
Looks like this biracial buffoon and bigot is toast. Er, uh, a goner.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=59044
"That is because Marxism thrills the Jewish soul."
Eh? Maybe the self-loathing Jewish soul. Marx was a Jew-basher, made particularly nauseating by his high appeal to those who fancy themselves "tolerant". What was that he said? "It is the nature of the Jew to be a huckster. The Jew's only god is money." Something like that. Pretty much everybody who read that would be appalled, if anybody actually read Marx any more (instead of reading the Marxian spin invented by Closed American Minds).
Marxism has exactly the same effect on the self-loathing Jew as it does the self-loathing intellectual and self-loathing affluent person - it gives you a way to pretend to make yourself holy by flagellating your identity ideologically. "Oh, isn't it just horrible that my people sometimes look out for and respect each other? Oh, we'd better quit marrying each other and start dissolving ourselves in the ocean [of gentiles, proletariat, or non-intellectuals]. Then all will be well." You don't even need to support the practice of smart people marrying smart people - just mention that it happens - and you'll be branded a "Nazi". Ask Charles Murray.
No self-loathing, no Marxism among elites. No support among elites, no movement. Socialism is the anti-intellectualism of intellectuals.
Watching Obama's evasive plausible denial non-denial (a denial he can deny in the future should yet more evidence arise) reminded me of Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman" moment.
The funny thing was that he sounded almost as Obamarrific as when he fatuously yammers on about hope, change and nothing of substance.
Obama is not as convincing a liar as Clinton yet, but the kid has chops.
If it doesn't cost us much, what's wrong with being in Iraq 100 years? We've been in Germany and Japan for about 63 years. And Korea about 53 years.
Conversely, if we leave Iraq and it costs us "big time" then it seems a fool's errand.
Iraq has oil, lots of it, and is next door to Iran giving us lots of leverage over them short of outright war if we want it: sponsoring counter-terror, assassinations, a few discrete bombing runs. Iranians will squawk but who cares after 1979 or their outright killing our guys in Iraq? There are no rules anymore, see 1979. As long as it won't cost much more, why not?
Unless of course you believe (as Wright and Obama and Dems believe, defeat is morally good for you).
----------
Interestingly enough, Mark Steyn responds to Derb over at NRO's the Corner and believes that Obama is just dumb. Not a "con man" but a guy who could not see how Wright would be a huge problem and had him scheduled for his campaign kick-off ceremonies. And would not do something with this guy early on when it would have counted.
"Derb wondered the other day whether the Obama campaign was a massive "con job". But it's worse than that. If he were a con artist, he'd be like every other opportunist pol contemplating a run for the presidency: he'd be slick enough to know from the get-go that the Reverend Wright was a guy he needed to keep at way beyond arm's length; instead, he named his big pre-campaign hey-world-here-I-am book after one of his sermons. That suggests Obama didn't even appreciate Wright was a potential problem. Which, in turn, suggests a candidate as disconnected from reality as his pastor is."
Disconnected from reality. One of the problems with Reps is that Dems are so bad they are not much of a challenge. This is why we've been stuck with McCain instead of guys like Fred or Romney.
Thanks of a Grateful Nation Go Out to Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright.
Obama is full of crap. His preacher is a full-blown race hustler. His wife is a bitter angry affirmative-action baby. Obama is nothing more than a sweet-talking con man. Nothing more.
Rasmussen's tracking polling showed a huge swing Saturday, from Obama leading by 8 points to Clinton being ahead by 1 point (and that's an average of the previous four days, so a 9 point shift in the average represents an absolutely massive change in the most recent data). If Rasmussen is accurate, Hillary very well may pull off an upset, which will fracture the Democratic Party (Hillary will have "swift-boated" Obama, his core supporters will contend).
Maybe Bush was right, 2008 just might be a wonderful year for Republicans after all. Too bad it's McCain that benefits. : /
Has a spoof of will.i.am's song/video been put together using samples from Rev Wright? Anything on Youtube?
"God Damn Amerikkka. Yes We Can!"
"To slightly paraphrase Larry Auster's excellent bon mot on Obama: white liberals thought they're getting Sidney Poitier, but it turns out they're getting OJ Simpson."
Obama won the Heisman Trophy and then murdered his wife? I haven't checked that far into his record but a glance at Wikipedia doesn't confirm this. As a matter of fact, as far as I know Michelle is doing quite well.
What next? Worrying about Catholics who attended a Mass given by a priest who buggered choir boys?
No...unless he repeatedly did it in front of the congregation, worked it into his sermon, and sold videos on the parish Website - in that case, yes that's next.
And so the closet racists are exposed.
If you're a regular having fun: yes, I was smiling as I typed that.
If you're not a regular, and you are being serious: I'm not a closet racist, I'm flamingly, flamboyantly, openly racist (not that there's anything wrong with that); and yes, I'm smiling as I type this.
"If Dems think that he might be too anti-American, wait until the general election, especially compared to a war hero like McCain."
And wait also until the general election when McCain is saying "I have heard the American people. They want the border secured first and we'll do that" and BHO is talking about bringing the 12-20+ million "out of the shadows".
For the record I don't trust McCain on the illegal alien issue any more than I trust Obama or Clinton, but that's because I have followed this issue closely for years. Most 2008 general election voters haven't.
The question people have to ask Obama is:
You disagree with Pastor Wright on many issues. Yet, you remained with his church and very close to him until recently. Why did you never switch to any other pastor who you agreed with more? One that wasn't so racially focused?
Has anyone seen the music video .
I am continually disturbed by my own personal emotional reaction to this. It simply short circuits all logic and reason, and looks at Obama as a great savior. Imagine for the other liberals out there who engage in group think. Not hard to see why he does well in caucus states.
Steve, you definitely deserve plaudits for pointing this out far before anyone else did. Shame not one else listened.
We could have just nominated Biden and avoided this whole mess.
No, I think Obama actually believes all the stuff Wright says. Otherwise he would have dumped him or created an incident far sooner in advance.
He's now pushing the line that "God Damn America" is a "black thing" and anyone who criticizes that is "racist." Once again playing the race card.
But ... if Blacks can play the race card, so can whites. And if it's OK to hate whitey, then it's OK to hate other races too. Politically, the support for a post-racial candidate will only sustain itself if the candidate IS post-racial. Falling back into Sharpton-esque race card playing, as Obama has, is the sign of political weakness and portends the destruction of his coalition.
Probably not by Hillary -- superdels are afraid of riots and the racism card. But by McCain, and perhaps also the destruction of Blue Dogs who will have to defend "God Damn America" and other fun soundbites (or video of Obama nodding along) and thus be easy prey for Reps.
Voters now have a clear picture of Obama. It's "God Damn America."
[Dr. King and others understood that to use guilt/outrage over racism required specifically a color-blind ideology to gain acceptance from Whites. Malcolm X may have got lots of zing in the black community and his example followed, but it's why Black leaders never get anywhere. Politics is the assembling of a winning coalition and blue collar whites don't feel racially guilty like wealthy white yuppies.]
If it doesn't cost us much, what's wrong with being in Iraq 100 years? We've been in Germany and Japan for about 63 years. And Korea about 53 years.
What's good about being in any of those countries? What concrete benefit does the average American get from any of this? Here is an opinion piece from the LA times with a cost estimate of $3 trillion, and I doubt it even considers opportunity cost.
The war in iraq, which will enter its sixth year this week, is turning out to be the most expensive conflict since World War II, and the cost will fall especially hard on Californians. By the end of 2008, the federal government will have spent more than $800 billion on combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (government accounts make it hard to separate the two). On top of that comes a mountain of future costs: caring for war veterans (to date, more than 1.6 million troops have been deployed), replacing the military hardware that is being used and worn out in Iraq and paying interest on the enormous sums of money we've borrowed to finance the war. All told, we estimate that the cost of the war will easily reach $3 trillion in today's money.
Why don't you neocons fund these wars (that you tell us are so necessary) from your own pockets?
What do you think the dinner table converstaion was like between Barry and Michelle when the Rev (and BTW that picture a poster,uhm,posted made Wright look a little like Danny Bonaduce! Frightening!)-when Jerry made his post 9/11 comments? Can you possibly imagine Ma Belle being offended?? So did she and Barry have a fight about it? If Barry was soooo offended than he and Michelle must have talked about it? Did Barry confront the Rev about it? Point? I think Obama is lying about this,I think he knew aboiut the sermon,mightve even been there. One negative about this: a wacko like the good Rev talking about the palestinians only seems to enforce the legitimacy of our cancerous,IMHO, relationship to Israel. Peace in the M.E. would be beytter served if America was not such a lapdog for Israel.(let the attacks commence!:) )-Josh?
Obama won the Heisman Trophy and then murdered his wife?
The Obama as Poitier / Simpson analogy has to do with white liberals' hope that Obama transcends race, when in fact he is deeply mired in it.
OJ Simpson is an example of a nice, non-threatning black guy who turned out to be not so nice after all. As with Obama: his sweet facade hiding a Sharpton-sized chip on his shoulder.
- PA
"The Obama as Poitier / Simpson analogy has to do with white liberals' hope that Obama transcends race, when in fact he is deeply mired in it."
No white liberal that I'm aware of ever wanted OJ Simpson to "trancend race." They simply wanted him to score touchdowns. And I would say that comparing a man you have dislike for (for dubious reasons) to a man best known as a double murderer must call one's IQ into question.
"And so the closet racists are exposed."
If you're a regular having fun: yes, I was smiling as I typed that.
Well, the joke was about the supposedly "racist" nature of that term.
If you're not a regular, and you are being serious: I'm not a closet racist, I'm flamingly, flamboyantly, openly racist (not that there's anything wrong with that); and yes, I'm smiling as I type this.
I guess I would call myself a "race realist," but I also practice miscegenation :-)
There are rumors going around that Michelle Obama is visible in the tape of Wright's 9/11 sermon. (Wright's church has taken down a bunch of the controversial videos from YouTube, so this is difficult to independently verify.) If those rumors pan out, Barack is going to have some more explaining to do. Previously, Obama claimed he wasn't in church that day. He also said that he hadn't heard anything about Wright's 9/11 remarks. Not even from his wife?
Well, the joke was about the supposedly "racist" nature of that term.
Right...hence the smiling. :)
PA, don't you know you're supposed to take Hussein Obama's candidacy waaaaaaay too seriously to make apt comparisons?
Shame on you (shouldn't've bothered explaining yourself - Troof doesn't want to understand).
"college-graduate white Democrats used to pump themselves up for the next election by pretending to believe in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories, either not really believing or certainly not intending to do anything about them"
Excuse me, but are you comparing Wright's bizarre and obviously fanciful urban legends to decades of rigorous investigation, not to mention red herrings of astounding obviousness, that constitute a library of Kennedy assassination research? That it was a result of persons co-conspiring? For crying out loud, people on their deathbeds have outright confessed to involvement.
And by the way, it's mostly extremely well-educated people who have researched the Kennedy assassination. People too smart to accept the party line or anything the government puts out as an official story.
I'd compare OBH to Posner. Before Posner wrote "Case Closed" he asked the publishers what they wanted the conclusion to be and he wrote accordingly. To paraphrase Woodrow Wilson (or was it Teddy Roosevelt), the world is controlled by those whose power is so feared, they are barely mentioned above a whisper. Disraeli said something similar, but he was British.
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