Just for kicks, check out Howard Wolfson's response to the New York Times in this news brief, and then try and figure out why all of us at the Atlantic think the rest of the item is pretty darned cool.
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This is silly. The Politico broke this story last night before the NYT and they got the photo from this blog: http://truthabouttrinity.blogspot.com/ Someone in Obama's campaign then, stupidly (in my opinion), pushed this story further to the NYT. They should have just left it alone because it was already coming out... 
the shoutout to Atlantic editor James Bennet?
Why should Obama have to leave anything alone. Apparently, unless you hit people over the head they can't focus on the context of Rev. Wright's words or his position in the religious community. Of Course, Hillary doesn't want people reminded that Bill was impeached for lying about illicit sex, or had illicit sex in the White House when Hillary was there, or repented of having illicit sex in the White House when Hillary was there and considered Wright a prominent enough National religious leader that he should be asked to the White House to hear from Bill himself that he had repented that he had had illicit sex in the White House with a young intern. Perhaps, that is why the photo is cool.
I have no clue but I'd be pissed as all get out that the NYT decided to peg this to the Lewinsky scandal, lol. Talk about instant heartburn.
Because Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Al Gore were all there?
According to a recent study by Hadaway and Marler, there are over 330,000 Christian churches in the United States. Clinton invited barely 100 pastors to this prayer breakfast to publicly atone for Lewinsky affair. One of them was Wright. And snivveling Howard Wolfson's comment is "Oooooo, a picture" while behind the scenes the campaign authorizes using the Wright controversy to woo superdelegates? Ty-pi-cal!
Because three years later to the day, America's chickens came home to roost?
How long ago was it that the Clinton campaign released a picture of Obama wearing traditional Muslim clothing in Somalia? And now Wolfson doesn't care much about pictures? On the face of it it would seem like quite a turnaround, but we have seen many similar turnarounds from the Clinton campaign, so it just seems like business as usual from them.
What this shows is that Rev. Wright is indeed a respected pastor of many great accomplishments, who was worthy of being invited to the White House. He is just being trivialized by people like Rush Limbaugh and Hannity, and the media are playing along. Wright put his life at risk in fighting for this country; how many of his critics did? Wright has spent thousands of hours serving the poor, the sick, the downtrodden, such as AIDS patients. How many of his critics have? It is grossly unfair to paint this guy as some sort of demon or turn him into a pariah. He expressed some very extreme political views on some issues, but in America we are supposed to have that right. And how are we supposed to come together if we just demonize those with whom we disagree? That is Obama's gift; he can take people with diverse views, views we do not always agree with, and bring these people together. That's the only way we'll get solutions to our problems, people.
Marc, you should have one of your caption contests for the picture.... Here are some of mine: "I did not have spiritual relations with that pastor" "God Damn Linda Tripp" "Mr. President, it looks like your chickens are coming home to roost."
Wolfson and company seemed to think a simple "picture" was worth a lot when they circulated the one of Obama in Somali garb. Typical hypocrisy from the campaign that knows nothing but. Karma's a killer, Howie.
I haven't heard anyone taunt with an "Ooooo..." since I was in grade school. The thing this picture illustrates is that Wright is NOT some fringe, radical lunatic, but part of the religious mainstream.
Humore aside there is another issue here worth considering. Black people like Wright really helped bail Bill Clinton out when he got in trouble. But has Bill Clinton returned the favor by how he has acted in this campaign? When wright came to support Bill Clinton in his greatest hour of need, do you see Bill Clinton similarly standing up to defend Wright against the caricature that the media has presented of his career? Forget about calling the Clintons racists... They are selfish people who use others but don't return favors and never put their necks out for anyone but expect everyone else to put their necks out for them.
Well stated RKA. That is precisely how the photo struck me as an African American and former Clinton supporter.
When Wright was a marine, he helped operate on LBJ and received a commendation from LBJ's personal physician. http://truthabouttrinity.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-pastor-received-commendation-for.html But you are not going to hear the media examine that are you? Because they have one purpose and one purpose alone: to hit Barack Obama. Frankly, it is the media who lacks patriotism. They turn our politics into a Jerry Springer circus because they want ratings, while real people get hurt by the dysfunctional government that results. They oppose Barack Obama because they want the circus to continue. I don't see any evidence that political reporters love their country, frankly.
RKA, you should have your own column. You are spot on: the media does not do a service to the American people in the way they operate. The media is not concerned with the truth, or presenting a full "fair and balanced" story. Almost all media seems to operate on the principles of tabloid journalism. We should all remember that as we go forward, that we cannot really trust our press. That's a sad thing.
Speaking of the media, it seems to me that Joe Scarborough on MSNBC comes across as kind of a white racist in the way he often talks about Obama and race. And it's amazing to me how many white people in the media have the gall to kind of downplay the history of racism in this country. Their attitude is kind of like, well, it's working out well for me, so why all the fuss? The beauty of Obama is that he's trying to elevate our thinking, and at the same time reach out to all of these people with very divergent views and bring them together. You can only be a uniter if you unite imperfect people who otherwise would reject each other. Jesus noted that a physician comes to heal the sick, not the well. A uniter comes to unite those who otherwise would not come together. That is part of Obama's genius.
CM...thanks for the compliment.... I have a diary over at Dkos if you are interested in reading my rantings on various subjects....
I wish I thought Obama was going to bounce back from this, but I really think he lost the white working class vote over all this. From what I'm seeing, among those folks the talk is all about how he "threw grandma under the bus," and now that last slip about her being a "typical white person." It's awful, and insane. Because the grandma-under-the-bus is not how I read that bit of the speech. I saw him saying this, too, is part of me; this, too, is part of all of us. I heard understanding for what most white folks, if we're honest, really DO feel when we see a strange black person coming down the street (especially a young male one). And for all the hyperventilating about Wright, if you see some of the more extended excerpts from his sermons that Trinity is YouTubing (here and here) , I think it really shifts the emphasis. This guy isn't a hater, and he sure wasn't gloating about 9/11 for instance. He was actually meditating on a Reagan official's words, who said on Fox News that the "chickens are coming home to roost." Anyway. It's really grotesque how this thing is obscuring both Obama and his church. I think he's going to be sacrificed for our racial pieties and anxieties, and it makes me sad.
Joe Scarborough, who grew up in Mississippi, is shocked SHOCKED that anyone would make any kind of comment on the racial insensitivity of white people. He's never heard ANY white person say ANYTHING untoward about black people, even when his public school was being integrated in Mississippi. Got it? He's completely on the level on this subject, just like his buddy, Pat Buchanan.
scarpy - Those are my fears, but I think between now and November, maybe it will be time to do some damage control. It really does amaze me that news producers don't reel in O'Reilly and the 24 hour news networks replaying these videos ad nauseum without context. They shouldn't NOT play them, but they shouldn't continue to steer the news stories of the day either, especially this week of all weeks. This lack of context and perspective is about a journalistic step or two removed from the "Excellence in Broadcasting" network.
Scarpy, don't worry too much. Obama has time to get these voters back. They're current reaction is knew jerk, but by the time November rolls around, it is unlilely this is going to be on a lot of voters minds when the economy tanks and John McCain does not know anything about the economy. While you may not get a lot of white working class people to ever really understand or fully acept Obama's ties to such a church community, I think that in the end once the general election is engaged, many of them will eventually come around...coming to like Obama, or at least seeing him as the lesser of 2 evils. This garbage is coming out at the best possible time for Obama...when he already has he nomination virtually sewed up, but long, long, long before the next voting or before the general. If this stiff broke in October, we would have more reason to worry. 6 months is eons in politics and the worst is over. John McCain has yet to get any meaningful incoming yet on him....but just wait...there is plenty of ammo. 100 years war. Getting Iran and Iraq mixed up. Admitting he knows nothing about the economy. Those low info white working class voters have seen the worst of Obama, but they have yet to see anything more of McCain than what the doting media have thus far presented of him. That will change. Don't let the nervous nelly concern troll pundit class scare you too much....
Socctty & Scarpy - I think also what is being lost in the lack of context & reporting by the media is this assumption that the clips that they are playing is what went on in that church 24-7 for the past 20 years. I don't know if I entirely believe that Barack Obama didn't hear stuff like the stuff we've heard in these clips (FYI - I don't care if he did), but I don't see him and his worldview developing in a church where this type of thing was the only thing going on. It does not make any sense to draw this conclusion, but it is the key conclusion that the media's reporting rests on.
I'm an Obama supporter--and a very, very white man (with every stereotype that implies). Relax. This was always going to happen. That Obama actually is black, and whether the country can deal with it, were always going to rise to the surface in this campaign. He knew it all along. Better now than in October. Have faith. In order to become president, against the grain of this country's history, Obama will need to do extraordinary things. Not just once, as in his recent beautiful speech. But over and over again. But he is an extraordinary man.
I'm an Obama supporter--and a very, very white man (with every stereotype that implies). Relax. This was always going to happen. That Obama actually is black, and whether the country can deal with it, were always going to rise to the surface in this campaign. He knew it all along. Better now than in October. Have faith. In order to become president, against the grain of this country's history, Obama will need to do extraordinary things. Not just once, as in his recent beautiful speech. But over and over again. But he is an extraordinary man.
neilrlca - You're right. I have been blown away by the media coverage of this and how well the GOP (Hillraisers too?) have entrenched their talking points. Maybe I'm jaded, being a white guy raised in an impoverish black neighborhood (just call me the Jerk). I now live in a pretty religiously crazy part of New Mexico (where they burn Harry Potter books to great fanfare), and I have to say the whispers about Rev. Wright don't reflect the hysteria of the media. So maybe people are more accepting of religious crazies here. But it makes me wonder if the 24 news channels are pushing this harder than they should.
I concur that this was always going to happen. If it hadn't been Wright, it would have been something else. Pointing out that Obama is black was always going to be the easiest way to endanger his candidacy. And given that he really does have honestly left wing views on things like the war, civil liberties, and taxation, the right will pull out all the stops to trip him up. The irony is that HRC, failing to mount a successful attack on Obama from the left (health insurance mandates notwithstanding) decided to try from the right, aligning herself with some pretty unsavory dudes.
I (a 50-something white female Obama supporter) think you are exactly right, Matt. I had naively hoped that Obama's theme of unification would prevent the kind of ugly racism that has emerged this week. To assuage my growing depression, I've been working even harder at Obama HQ in Philadelphia. But his gutsy, brilliant speech shows that whatever the electoral outcome Obama's campaign will move us some way along the hard road of racial understanding.
My local Obama group is distributing a 9 minute clip of the "Chickens coming home to roost" video. After watching this, I feel like I've been living in the good old USSR over the last two weeks or so - the reporting has been so good you know. Not sure why ABC doesn't have a cable news outlet with such stellar investigating. Here's the email I received this morning: What Fox news or anyone has told us is that Rev. Wright was actually quoting what an American Ambassador - Ambassador Peck had said the day before on FOX NEWS! Put in context, there is nothing controversial here at all in fact IMO it is a very touching sermon given in the wake of Sept. 11. Please my fellow Obama Supporters, please forward to media outlets and as my folks as you know." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ
The Clintons had connections in Chicago, who surely gave them the word about who they should invite to Bill's mea culpa. If Rev. Wright were an untouchable, in the eyes of the Clinton camp and their supporters, they would never have invited him. *That* is the point. Actually, if they *did* have a problem with Rev. Wright it would be even worse. He was obviously invited so he would go back to church and tell his parishioners to go easy on Bill. If he was only a man who preached hate, why was it OK to sell out to him to save Bill's mangy hide?
That wasn't actually Howard Wolfson saying "A photo... oooo!" The "photo" part, while muffled, was actually verbalized. The remainder of the quote ("oooo!") was the sound of his head coming out of the part of his anatomy where he generally keeps it. I'm convinced that Wolfson spends his spare time indulging in historic re-enactments organized by Pat Buchanan in which the only thing the participants really argue about is who gets to wear the Prussian uniforms this week.
It certainly says a lot for Wright's hypocrisy and lack of Christian feeling that he's kissing up to Clinton at the prayer breakfast and no doubt saying something supportive and then going back to his congregation and saying what he said about Clinton and Lewinsky. What a disgusting man Wright is. How could Obama ever take him as a moral guide? BTW, has anyone looked at Wright's finances?
It certainly says a lot for Wright's hypocrisy and lack of Christian feeling that he's kissing up to Clinton at the prayer breakfast and no doubt saying something supportive and then going back to his congregation and saying what he said about Clinton and Lewinsky. What a disgusting man Wright is. How could Obama ever take him as a moral guide? BTW, has anyone looked at Wright's finances?
It certainly says a lot for Wright's hypocrisy and lack of Christian feeling that he's kissing up to Clinton at the prayer breakfast and no doubt saying something supportive and then going back to his congregation and saying what he said about Clinton and Lewinsky. What a disgusting man Wright is. How could Obama ever take him as a moral guide? BTW, has anyone looked at Wright's finances?
It certainly says a lot for Wright's hypocrisy and lack of Christian feeling that he's kissing up to Clinton at the prayer breakfast and no doubt saying something supportive and then going back to his congregation and saying what he said about Clinton and Lewinsky. What a disgusting man Wright is. How could Obama ever take him as a moral guide? BTW, has anyone looked at Wright's finances?
Politics is a "horserace" sez the media.
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It's really not obvious, is it?
Posted by Shoeshine Sal | March 21, 2008 7:13 AM