Obama goes off on Rev. Wright
Update - 7:17 PM: I just got done watching both his opening statement and the answers he gave earlier today to the press about Rev. Wrights speech to the NPC yesterday. I dont want to overanalyze it, as most of what Id write Ive already said before, but its clear that Barack Obamas relationship with Rev. Wright has changed - and what has caused it has been the national outcry over not just the sermon clips the news media repeatedly aired a few weeks ago, but the renewed interest in the story thanks to Rev. Wrights Look at Me 2008″ tour, where clearly Wrights concern has not been about Barack Obama, but instead about how much free publicity he can get from the press.
In Obamas statement and Q&A session, his biggest issue was the fact that the Rev. was hurting his campaign. Thats understandable, considering Wright has for all intents thrown Obama under the bus by continuing to stir the pot. Reading between the lines of what Obama said today, I got the impression that his deepest regret was that he couldnt convince the Rev. to keep a low profile from now until the election. He even went so far as to assert that the man we heard yesterday at the NPC is not the man he met 20 years ago.
Horsecrap. This is about as believable as him stating when the sermon clips started getting widespread attention that he wasnt in church on the days the controversial sermons were made. Obama also told the press today that one thing Wright was correct about was that he was never Obamas spiritual mentor. WTH? Obama has highly praised Wright on more than one occasion (primarily before he became the front runner), and wrote a book and a popular speech which he pointed out more than once were inspired by his pastor. For him to try and claim now that Wrights and his relationship wasnt particularly close after all that is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who has paid attention to Obama in this race and who cares about a candidates trustworthiness and honesty.
It also sounds similar to the stunt he tried to pull at the much-discussed ABC News debate, where he tried to boil down his association with Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers as insignificant, asserting that Ayers was just a guy who lives in my neighborhood. And someone correct me if Im wrong, but isnt what he said today about the black church and how its not being represented by radicals like Rev. Wright a direct contradiction to what he said in his Philly speech? Ill have to go back and read the transcript.
I could go on and on, but someday someone out there is going to compile a list - in book form - of all the contradictory statements Obama has made about his relationship with Rev. Wright.
The bottom line is that Obama thought his big speech on race in Philadelphia over a month ago was going to be the end of him having to answer for Rev. Wright, and he figured that the mediots - who had shielded him as much as they credibly could prior to that, would move on. They gladly would have, had it not been for the self-centered Rev. Wrights latest round of fiery speeches and interviews, where he paints Obama as a politican who speaks out of both sides of his mouth, and continues to portray this great nation as full of nothing but white oppressors. Naturally, that is going make headlines.
Obama sounded upset today in his presser. He should have been, but more so with himself than Wright. Had he as forcefully denounced Rev Wright when this story first broke weeks ago as he did today, then maybe he wouldnt be in the position hes found himself in again as it relates to his former pastor. He couldnt find a way to put a positive spin on Rev. Wrights latest hateful remarks like he did the last time, couldnt convince the Rev. to keep it on the down low at least until the election was over, so he was left with no choice but to come out swinging the second time around.
Obama made his own bed over Rev. Wright, and now he has to lay in it - or, as Steve Sailor pointedly notes, lie in it.
