Obama's Speech

[CathrynRose]

Your comment could be construed in more than one way.

How so?

 

[bsnyder]

Yes

Sorry, but I don’t' believe there is a racism hierarchy.




I don't keep track of or agree with everything that Jesse Jackson has ever said.

It's not a matter of a hierarchy.

But by your logic, Jesse Jackson is a racist, against blacks.

 

[bsnyder]

Bingo.

20 years ago, 19, 18, 17, 16 15, 14, ....you get the idea.

Get married by him... have his kids baptised by him.

This upsets me. I cant believe this isnt disturbing to some of you. Cuz no matter how this ends up, he's still my dang senator!!!

Bring his kids to sit in the pews and listen on Sunday mornings....

I really can't get over this part. Or that other parents who are Obama supporters aren't questioning that judgement, even just a little bit.

 

[Chris2597]

There was an article in our local paper written about Obama's church when the campaign first started. The article stated that Obama's church had 10 things that were needed to be a member in good standing or something to that effect....The 10 things were very anti white. I tried to find the article but can't find a link.

 

[LoraJ]

I really want to know why so many people are afraid of Obama. He's been forthcoming with every criticism. What else do you want? He has handled every crisis in his campaign with dignity and in a diplomatic way. Makes me want to have him as president more than ever.

So what are you afraid of? Who cares what his pastor said? I sure don't care. So many right-wing ministers who are very involved in the republican party have said worse and no one seems to care. Even with the ones that McCain has hanging around, I have faith that he won't try and change the constitution into the Bible. I believe McCain is smarter than that.

Because of Obama's pastor's feelings, what do you believe Obama will do when he is president? I want to know. What on earth are you so afraid of?

 

[bsnyder]

I really want to know why so many people are afraid of Obama. He's been forthcoming with every criticism. What else do you want? He has handled every crisis in his campaign with dignity and in a diplomatic way. Makes me want to have him as president more than ever.

So what are you afraid of? Who cares what his pastor said? I sure don't care. So many right-wing ministers who are very involved in the republican party have said worse and no one seems to care. Even with the ones that McCain has hanging around, I have faith that he won't try and change the constitution into the Bible. I believe McCain is smarter than that.

Because of Obama's pastor's feelings, what do you believe Obama will do when he is president? I want to know. What on earth are you so afraid of?

I'm not afraid of him. I just don't believe he's going to heal the racial divide. He wouldn't even stand up to his church on the lies it perpetuates.

I want to know why he would willingly subject his daughters to hate-speech and lies? And I want to know why you don't think that reflects on his judgement.

 

[DISUNC]

Because of Obama's pastor's feelings, what do you believe Obama will do when he is president? I want to know. What on earth are you so afraid of?

I think Obama will do the same thing as president, as what he did with his Pastors hateful speaches.....NOTHING!

 

[LoraJ]

I'm not afraid of him. I just don't believe he's going to heal the racial divide. He wouldn't even stand up to his church on the lies it perpetuates.

I want to know why he would willingly subject his daughters to hate-speech and lies? And I want to know why you don't think that reflects on his judgement.

I think he empathizes with people and why they believe things the way they do, but I don't think it makes him believe things any differently.

What hate speeches and lies did he subject his daughters to? Even if they did hear something objectionable, I would hope he is the type of person to open discussions with them, explain why they may believe that, but why it isn't true.

But I think the girls are a little young for that.

 

[LoraJ]

I think Obama will do the same thing as president, as what he did with his Pastors hateful speaches.....NOTHING!

What makes you believe that?

 

[bsnyder]

I think he empathizes with people and why they believe things the way they do, but I don't think it makes him believe things any differently.

What hate speeches and lies did he subject his daughters to? Even if they did hear something objectionable, I would hope he is the type of person to open discussions with them, explain why they may believe that, but why it isn't true.

But I think the girls are a little young for that.

So, does he agree with Rev. Wright's statements, or not?

– September 2001: “The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.”

– September 2001: “We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.”

– September 2001: “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because of stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own backyard. America is chickens coming home to roost.”

– April 2003: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike laws and wants them to sing God Bless America. No! No No! God damn America … for killing innocent people. God damn America for threatening citizens as less than humans. God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and supreme.”

– December 2007: “Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich, white people. Hillary would never know that.”

– December 2007: “Hillary ain’t never been called a ******. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”

– Jan. 13, 2008: “Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain’t! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty.”

– “Fact number one: We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college. … Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run.”

– “We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional killers. … We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. … We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. … We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means.
And … And … And! God! Has got! To be sick! Of this ****!”

He takes his own children to church to hear this stuff and yet he's going to heal the racial divide? What planet are people living on????

I'm sure the speech was fine, for those who are already caught up in the Obama hype. But that's not who the speech was aimed at. It was aimed at people like this, that he talked about, in his speech:

So when [whites] are told to ... that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Hmmm, who would tell them such a thing?

Obama, that's who - in an earlier paragraph of the speech dissing his own grandmother:

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street ...

I don't think it's going to play well with that audience. JMO, of course.

 

[Buckalew11]

I wonder if the Pastor's retirement came at the "right" moment for Obama's campaign. Seems like it eases people's minds that he no longer has him for a pastor but has a new one now. I'm betting they'll be watching everything this guys says like a hawk so they will not have to do such damage control.

I doubt they thought anything about their DDs being subjected to such hate. After all, Michelle is only just now "proud to be an American". If they'd have been worried about the hateful messages their DDs (and they) were being subjected to, they would have got their coats and walked out.

You don't walk out when you agree with the message. In fact, you hang around for 20 years.

 

[LoraJ]

So, does he agree with Rev. Wright's statements, or not?

Probably not all, but maybe some. You should ask Obama. Even I agree with some of the statements made.

 

[bsnyder]

The new pastor, riffing on the rap music industry:

But then something happened in 1984 at the same time that Time Warner/AOL and SONY and MCA realized they could make money off of this music, guess what, we will give you a contract and distribute your song if you put in the N-word, if you put in the H-word, if you put in the B-word...so when we talk about gangsta rap, we are not talking about something that came from the street, we are talking about what came from the corporate boardrooms...

"And the same time that gangsta rap rises, we also have crack hitting the streets...I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it's mightily strange that gangsta rap and crack hit the same time in our community."

Shorter version - it's not the rappers' fault. The corporate "man" makes him say those bad words.

 

[basas]

It was a good speech, but at the end of the day, as others have said, it was just words. Actions speak louder than words and his actions over the past 20 years have been quite clear. Just because he is charismatic does not mean we should give him a free pass. Bin Laden might be able to give a great speech on his love for American culture and how it can co-exist peacefully with Islam, but should we believe it just because it is well written or well presented? He acts as if all race-issues will disappear after he takes office which is about as realistic as believing he can unite the country as the most liberal senator there is. How can he unite the country when he proposes ideas that half the country opposes? How can he make race relations better if he sees nothing wrong with an anti-white pastor preaching hate in front of his children? Sure he can speak but his actions don't match his words and without action to back them up, they are meaningless. He cannot erase his past actions no matter how many "great" speeches he gives. While his speech was interesting and well written, it doesn't change any of the past 20 years of support for this racist, hate-filled Pastor.

Frankly, the excuses for this pastor's talk throughout this thread are what I find most alarming and telling about race relations in this country.

 

[LoraJ]

It was a good speech, but at the end of the day, as others have said, it was just words. Actions speak louder than words ad his actions over the past 20 years have been quite clear. Just because he is charismatic does not mean we should give him a free pass. Bin Laden might be able to give a great speech on his love for American culture and how it can co-exist peacefully with Islam, but who is going to believe it? Obama cannot erase his past actions no matter how many "great" speeches he gives. While his speech was interesting and well written, it doesn't change any of the past 20 yeas of support for this racist, hate-filled Pastor.

What exactly are Obama's past actions that you are concerned about?

 

[va32h]

September 2001: “We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.”

Actually I thought the exact same thing about 9/11.

9/11 is really the sacred cow to end all sacred cows isn't it? It is just not permissable to even suggest that anything ever happened to anyone that might be nearly as tragic as 9/11. Does that make me a hateful, horrible person? Because I don't think 9/11 cornered the market on human suffering?

I have no idea how Hillary Clinton grew up but I know she makes about ten million bucks a year now, which makes it hard for me to believe she understands what my life is like. Although I would disagree that Hillary doesn't know what it's like to live in a country controlled by white men - as women have had to fight their way up just as much as any other minority.

I don't think the government is using AIDS to decimate the black community and I don't think the government is involved in the drug trade. Black helicopters and all that are not my style.

But I don't see anything offensive about pointing out that 9/11 is not the only time in the history of the universe that people have been unjustly killed. Or that a millionaire might be out of touch with the financial struggles of the middle class.

 

[bsnyder]

Probably not all, but maybe some. You should ask Obama. Even I agree with some of the statements made.

Again, he doesn't have to win your vote. Those statements are not playing well with an awful lot of voters that he needs to win a general election. And I don't think his half hearted attempts to kind of sort of distance himself from them while not really distancing himself from Rev. Wright are going to do the trick.

I've had houseguests for the last week, and wasn't spending as much time on the political debate and websites as I normally would. But I did notice right away that when this news first broke, there was an awful lot of denial on the part of the Obama supporters, that this was any type of big deal. Some times I think a portion of the very liberal left is just tone deaf, to how a huge part of America views things very differently. And I think Obama has shown that same tone deafness with his handling of Rev. Wright.

 

[basas]

There isn't a reason to speak logical with an Obama-file... He's the second coming of Jesus. He does no wrong. If I was at a church and a Preacher started attacking gays, I'd walk straight out. I wouldn't say I condone his behavior. Obama gave an excellent speech and ATTEMPT to thwart the issue. His blind followers will turn the cheek and ignore his lies, hypocrisy, and deteriorating character.

If McCain had went to a church where the Preacher had made anti-black remarks, you better believe all of you Obamafiles would be all in a tizzy.

Ridiculous. Maybe Obama should have an email address where you guys can help him with the excuse making.

Well said!

 

[chris1gill]

What exactly are Obama's past actions that you are concerned about?

Maybe they are worried about what he's actually done:

As a member of the minority party of the State Senate for six of his eight years there, Obama wrote a health insurance law that covered an additional 20,000 children, a welfare reform law, an earned-income-tax-credit law for working-poor families, and death penalty reform that passed unanimously. During his last two years in the majority, he sponsored 780 bills, 280 of which became law.

Speaking more for the children:
Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a bill expanding two low- cost health insurance programs aimed at thousands of working poor families who make too much for Medicaid but too little to realistically afford private coverage.

The expansion of the KidCare and FamilyCare programs makes 20,000 more children and 65,000 more adults immediately eligible, the governor said.

And within three years, as the eligibility range continues to expand to higher income levels, another 300,000 adults will be eligible to sign up, he said.

“Tens of thousands of working families … are literally one illness away from catastrophe,” Blagojevich said at a bill-signing ceremony at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. “A good society, a compassionate society, doesn’t sit idly by and let these families fend for themselves.”

The bill was sponsored in the state House by Sandra Pihos, a Glen Ellyn Republican, and in the state Senate by Barack Obama, a Chicago Democrat.


Since Obama entered the U.S. Senate in 2004, he has joined Republican Richard Lugar in writing a law that funds the destruction or securing of loose nuclear and conventional weapons (shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, for example) throughout the world. He also introduced the first bill, that soon became law, to fund and address pandemic flu preparedness.

In one inspiring discovery, Obama and Clinton teamed up to pass a law that helps hospitals disclose medical errors. It goes a long way toward serving patients while reducing malpractice claims.

No, people aren't actually interested in what he's done or who he's helped, they just don't like the Dude

 

[chris1gill]

Actually I thought the exact same thing about 9/11.

9/11 is really the sacred cow to end all sacred cows isn't it? It is just not permissable to even suggest that anything ever happened to anyone that might be nearly as tragic as 9/11. Does that make me a hateful, horrible person? Because I don't think 9/11 cornered the market on human suffering?

I have no idea how Hillary Clinton grew up but I know she makes about ten million bucks a year now, which makes it hard for me to believe she understands what my life is like. Although I would disagree that Hillary doesn't know what it's like to live in a country controlled by white men - as women have had to fight their way up just as much as any other minority.

I don't think the government is using AIDS to decimate the black community and I don't think the government is involved in the drug trade. Black helicopters and all that are not my style.

But I don't see anything offensive about pointing out that 9/11 is not the only time in the history of the universe that people have been unjustly killed. Or that a millionaire might be out of touch with the financial struggles of the middle class.

Actually, I think the figure is more like 10.6 million dollars a year, 9th richest senator, well McCane is the 8th richest, so all's fair in love and money....

I agree with you on 9/11, the old adage, if we don't recognize our history we are doomed to repeat it comes to mind... How about we stay home and take care of our own instead of sticking our noses out where they aren't wanted. We go out espousing the views of Democracy when the world watches and laughs at ours, it looks quite bad from the International looking in. God forbid we should ever think about why we are perceived the way we are in the Middle East. We armed them, we initially trained them, we put Saddam in power, we forget all that.... history isn't something to be forgotten.