Anybody see Reverend Wright’s speech before the NAACP tonight? What’d you think?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Great speech…it is even being praised on Hillary NEOCON central CNN, and don’t fall over..on FIX noise…let’s see how long it lasts….I have a feeling bringing Wright out in the forefront is a strategy by Axelrod and that publicity agency they recently hired…I think it is dangerous but it could really work…throw it back in their faces humanize Wright show that he is incredibly smart and a scholar and let the chips fall…it will be harder for even the imbeciles like Joe(dead intern) Skanboro et al to make a characature of him, with all this new info…..
Maybe I am dreaming but let’s see how it plays out!
I saw it and loved it. CNN has been covering it all evening. I think this is great for Wright and ALSO Obama. It is allowing Wright to redefine himself after he was so falsely defined by others with the loop of snippets from various sermons. And it’s taking away the Republican’s 2008 bogeyman. I just heard a Republican strategist freaking out about how “terrible” this is for Obama’s campaign because Obama should have just wanted the scary black man to go away. Soledad Obrien and the other CNN guy with her at the event sharpry disagreed because they say “the Wright story is not going away and he might as well make the best of it.” They loved the speech and now see Wright in such a better light now that they’ve heard it.
We’re all starting to get to know the real Rev. Wright. And he’s actually very likable. By the way, he’ll be at the National Press Club tomorrow. No doubt C-Span will have video, if not live, it will be on after congress recesses.
Keep in mind, Wright isn’t just doing this as a self-serving act, either. When the Wright controversy started, David Axelrod hooked Wright and his church up with a top Chicago PR firm, who took their case pro bono and this is part of a carefully crafted plan to restore the good name of Wright and his church… and by doing that, it takes away the bogeyman that the Republicans had been planning to use against Obama. From the introduction and the speech itself, I would caution anyone planning to use Wright as a political weapon that they’d better be careful. The national black church community and the NAACP is not going to tolerate these attacks.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Soledad look so fierce before.
Good for her.
I would love to read a transcript of the introduction and the speech itself, if anyone can find one.
Hard not to shout YESSS as Soledad made a good stab at getting it. I can’t help but want to celebrate that the Rev introduced humor, wisdom & courage where the pundits have tried to pidgeonhole him. He just brought the fight back to them and that was important.
In a few minutes, from 11 to midninght Eastern, CNN will re-run the whole thing in its entirety.
With the attack on Wright, the IRS filed against the national denomination, the United Church of Christ; their claim was that the church had engaged in politics by inviting Obama to speak at a national meeting–even though he was invited long before he made the decision to run for president, and even though his was in a series of speeches on how members’ religious beliefs affect them in their work.
The denomination’s law firm advised them that the charge was nonsense and easily refuted, but that specialized counsel was needed that would cost about $100,000. So a special appeal for funds began, so as not to use money contributed for good works, but the lawyers chosen to combat the IRS announced they’d be working pro bono on the case.
I figure I’m going to celebrate May as Be Kind to Lawyers month.
I love this story about the Ron Paul supporters out organizing the McCain supporters at the Nevada Republican convention.
That happened at our Congressional District level republican caucus and afterwards most of the Republican committeemen in the City of St. Louis decided not to run for re-election. The Paulites are certainly shaking things up.
Caught a bit of it. I think he’s done well. He did well on Moyers. This is a great thing for him. How sad for him to have possibly gone down in the public conciousness as that looped crap the networks kept showing. Now people are seeing Wright in his totality. He comes off as a positive influence both on Obama and in society. This guy’s contributed a lot. There’s so much about him people don’t know — good stuff. And of course, the more rational, thoughtful, and human he shows himself to be, the worse it is for Sen. Obama’s Republican rival — oh, and John McCain, too.
Well, this guy is now being trotted out on FOX News to call Rev. Wright ‘malignant’ and ‘vitriolic’. He’s a full-on nutter, and bought and paid for. But he’s good at what he does. He is going to do a lot of damage.
He’s billing himself as “Barack Obama’s nemesis”? You gotta be kiddin’ me. He’s been a stage musician and in biomedical research?! Well, he sure as hell sounds like an Obama expert to me!
Wright keeps on doing what he’s doing — and he should — and it’s going to look like FOX is paying Mr. “erikrush” WAY too much.
OMG! Who the hell is he? Yeah–some nutcase looking for his 15 minutes, and Faux is the perfect outlet for him. I thought it would be one of the usual suspects but he’s a new one. And he’ll be forgotten just as quickly. Tick. Tock.
Kinda reminds me of Matt Sanchez, gay porn star turned “marine” and conservative PR guru who complained about the liberals at Columbia hating on veterans like him. He became the hero of the conservative freak show for a few weeks until his past came out. These “conservatives” sure don’t vet their operatives very well, do they?
I think they quit before they got to the “vetting” part. I think they quit at “Hey, this guy’s BLACK, just like OBAMA–and WRIGHT, too! So, like… he can’t be accused of being RACIST, even though he IS on Fox! Right? Am I right…?”
(also, for the entertainment this evening, anybody who wants to see a prominent, self-loathing Obama supporter in full meltdown mode may check out Stoller’s update to the “Obama goes on FOX” hissy-fit he had earlier, no cover charge, no minimum. It’s kinda, well… dude’s lost it.)
Greg Sargent put up a post that was his typical kind of vapidness, and then we got to see Stoller and Sargent do the GOP circle-jerk, linking back to one another. Sargent’s post garnered over 600 comments, most of them slamming him for his baseless editorializing.
Rev. Wright will speaks to the Press Club on Monday or Tuesday.
Like the standing ovation and comments of attendees criticizing the media for always picking out to feed us negatives.
Not sure if this news is already out there in blogistan, but here it is…
http://thepage.time.com/...
Well, if you missed it last night – turn to MSNBC right now and see his speech to the National Press Club; he’s kicking ass!
Some of the commentary wasn’t helpful to Obama at all.
I don’t see why people think this is self-aggrandizement by Wright.
I am having trouble finding a link to Rev. Wright’s speech. I keep running into reactionaries talking about it? Also, if someone has a link to the Moyers interview. Thank you, I’m on the West Coast and I need coffee.
See him right now on any cable network!
Bill Moyers interview
You can check this site for the video.
I think this is going to be immensely helpful for Obama. CNN and Fox, at least, seemingly bought into their own propaganda and made the mistake of running this speech entirely uncut. When the Reverend revealed himself to be a thoughtful, if forthright, individual, they found themselves in a jam. Lying about what he said is going to be much more difficult now. Not only that, but their latest puppet, the Clintons, now look like fools. “I would not have stayed!” is going to be a millstone around her neck, mark my words.
You know I was wondering why CNN/FOX decided to run his speech in it’s entirety because it seemed rather counterintuitive to their ‘god damn america’ propaganda newsclip. But I think they must have somehow bought their own propaganda and they figured the public was going to see some crazy black man ranting and raving for an hour or so-talk about lots of egg on their faces if you ask me and I’m enjoying it very much.
Seems like Rev. Wright has more brains/humanity and heart in his little fingernail than does the whole bush administration combined.
With words and reason and logic and faith and knowledge.
And his belief and philosophy of reconciliation is amazing.
I think MSNBC led this morning with the headline something like “Obama’s Pastor Problem,” complete with two talking heads (one, I noted, was from the Washington Times, that bastion of fairness and impartiality) saying that Wright wasn’t helping Obama any with his appearances. When they interviewed a Clinton surrogate, to her credit, she essentially said, “Senator Clinton is out talking to the voters and listening to their concerns. She doesn’t have time for this nonsense, because people are a lot more worried about the price of gasoline than about Reverend Wright.”
Basically, everyone who can needs to push that this is a non-issue that takes up valuable time where we could be talking about the economy, health care, schools, energy, and the price of food, and instead we’re going round and round the mulberry bush on a topic that is of no import whatever and will be forgotten come November 6th.