Why did Rev. Wright do this?
By Bruce B. Brugmann
Bob Herbert, the Afro-American op ed columnist for the New York Times, had the most sensible answer I've seen in his Monday (April 29) column.
He waded right in with his lead:
"The Rev. Jeremiah Wright went to Washington on Monday not to praise Barack Obama, but to bury him.
"Smiling, cracking corny jokes, mugging it up for the big time news media,--this reverend is never going away. He's found himself a national platform, and he's loving it."
Then: "So there he was lecturing an audience at the National Press Club about everything from the black slave experience to the differences in sentencing for possession of crack and powdered cocaine.
"All but swooning over the wonderfulness of himself, the reverend acts like he is the first person to come with the idea that blacks too often get the short end of the stick in America, that the malignant influences of slavery and the long dark night of racial discrimination are still being felt today, that in many ways this is a profoundly inequitable society."
Herbert then gets to the question. "This is hardly new ground. The question that cries out for an answer from Mr. Wright is why--if he is passionately committed to liberating and empowering blacks--does he seem so insistent
on wrecking the campaign of the only Afican-American ever to have had a legitimate shot at the presidency."
Herbert says that "my guess is that Mr. Wright felt he'd been thrown under a bus by an ungrateful congregant
who had benefited mightily from his association with the church and who should have rallied to the former pastor's defense. What we're witnessing now is Rev. Wright's "I'll show you!" tour."
Obama rightly and firmly rejected Wright and his attacks. Now he should change the subject, get back to the real campaign and the real issues, and let his Afro-American and white surrogates carry on the dialog if necessary. Wright will be a killer swift boat issue only if Obama and his campaign allow it to become one.
I think he should take Clinton on in a Lincoln and Douglas style debate. I think he would win, given his oratorical skills, and it would help change the subject. But most important, Obama needs to reenergize his campaign
by injecting a strong populist appeal to his campaign theme of unifying and transformation. He needs to present the case that he has the grit and the intellect to beat the Republicans on foreclosures, the economy, the war, Iran, universal health care, the rising inequality in American life, and everything else that our despised president and his sucking up successor represents. He must offer leadership and offer real solutions and programs with passion and stick to the issues that really matter to the growing tide of Americans who are desperately angry and frustrated with Bush. That is the best way for Obama to deal with Wright and the Wright attacks to come. B3
Click here to read today's Bob Herbert column, The Pastor Casts a Shadow.
digg •
del.icio.us •
sphere •
google
•
Comments (2)
Obama's Chickens Come Home to Roost
That’s what Obama gets for his support and defense of the Rev Wright. Obama stated in his speech“Wright is like an uncle you love and respect” As imperfect as he may be, he has been family to me for so many years, I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community” Obama is now declaring himself shocked and disappointed at Wright's unrepentantly racist and anti-American views? Obamas obviously support his feelings of anti-America and white hatred that the church endoreses to stay for 20 years also why would a parent continue to raise their young daughters in that atmosphere .Obama can no longer plausibly claim innocence in this matter, because he is the one who has encouraged Wright by trying to excuse and explain his views. All of this is why it is no use for Obama to backpedal from his association with Reverend Wright, or to denounce him now, six weeks too late. It was Obama who sought to provide the Reverend Wright with immunity from criticism--and he can't complain when the reverend tries to take full advantage of that immunity. This is the final collapse of the noble promise of the Obama campaign. The man who had once put himself forward as the candidate who would transcend racial politics once and for all has ended up legitimizing a Christian equivalent of Louis Farrakhan--and injecting him into the American political debate. Wright “Calls for Justice and Repair,” followed a statement in which he declared that “The Biblical principle of true repentance is that the offended party is given compensation to make up for that which has been stolen from them, the losses that have been inflicted upon them and their families.” A reparations plan for blacks could extract several trillion dollars from American taxpayers’ pockets. THERES ABSOLUTLY NO CHANGE WITH OBAMA
Posted by Obama's Chickens Come Home to Roost | April 30, 2008 05:35 AM
A Hippie Speaks
Hi Bruce
Well, this last bit of media upheaval concerning Obama and The Reverend Jeremiah Wright has awakened me from my blog somnambulance. I’m back if not for good, at least for a few more outbursts.
Obama is definitely Presidential, by American standards.
This controversy over Reverend Wright’s comments has made me even more convinced that Obama is capable of performing as President of the United States of America. He’s got the back-pedal-and-spin moves down pat. And these are, it seems, essential skills to being an American President. Almost every other office holder for the last hundred years has had to “shuck and jive” for the American public’s vote.
Obama may have distanced himself with a little bit of damage control, but if you were to ask him personally, off the record, if he believed that America’s foreign policy brought about 9/11, he would tell you “yes”! And he would also voice more than a bit of concern over the government’s slow reactions to the AIDS epidemic.
There are many things about our government’s past and present actions, and the attitude of a large portion of our population, which I am sure make Barack burning mad when he is by himself away from the microphones.
I, and all of my intellectual friends, have been exercising our Freedom of Speech rights for years saying that 9/11 was a reaction to our government’s involvement in the Middle East. Of course, I can say that, as a white man who doesn’t need the uninformed voting populous. But a black man running for President has to denounce such ideas.
This is one time when I would hope that a President-elect would go back on his word after election. At this point, in order to stem the slow death of democracy, we need a President who will break all the rules of political correctness, patriotic rhetoric and worship of the rich.
Barack Obama is the closest thing we have to an independent person running for a job that needs an independent mind right now. It would be nice if revolution started at the top, but I’m afraid that is too idealistic.
I don’t think Mr. O can win an election in this country anyway, and I don’t think that, if he did, “they” would let him make the changes necessary to bring us back to respectability among thinking people.
It doesn’t take much intelligence to punch a voting card, just as it doesn’t take many brains to pull a trigger. The intelligence comes in deciding whom to choose or what to shoot at.
John McCleary, Author of The Hippie Dictionary
Posted by John McCleary | April 30, 2008 01:30 PM