Honest, no-tongue-in-cheek. Can’t make this up.
NY Daily News: says we’s been had. The last couple of days we’ve been served up the Rev. Jeremiah Wright by an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter as head chef:
Is Jeremiah Wright a colossal disaster for Barack Obama or a press trick?
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright couldn’t have done more damage to Barack Obama’s campaign if he had tried. And you have to wonder if that’s just what one friend of Wright wanted.
Shortly before he rose to deliver his rambling, angry, sarcastic remarks at the National Press Club Monday, Wright sat next to, and chatted with, Barbara Reynolds.
A former editorial board member at USA Today, she runs something called Reynolds News Services and teaches ministry at the Howard University School of Divinity. (She is an ordained minister).It also turns out that Reynolds – introduced Monday as a member of the National Press Club “who organized” the event – is an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter.
On a blog linked to her Web site- www.reynoldsnews.com- Reynolds said in a February post: “My vote for Hillary in the Maryland primary was my way of saying thank you” to Clinton and her husband for the successes of Bill Clinton’s presidency.
The same post criticized Obama’s “Audacity of Hope” theme: “Hope by definition is not based on facts,” wrote Reynolds. It is an emotional expectation. Things hoped for may or may not come. But help based on experience trumps hope every time.”
[.]
I don’t know if Reynolds’ eagerness to help Wright stage a disastrous news conference with the national media was a way of trying to help Clinton – my queries to Reynolds by phone and e-mail weren’t returned yesterday – but it’s safe to say she didn’t see any conflict between promoting Wright and supporting Clinton.
[.]
But Wright should have known – and his friend and ally Reynolds, a media professional, surely knew – that bickering with the press can only harm Wright and, by extension, Obama.
I hope that wasn’t their goal.
No surprise then when we read that the Clinton camp when asked to comment on Wright’s new speeches said “It’s time to move on”– figuring they’d never be exposed.
Betcha a pint of Vermont’s finest maple syrup – 2008 production – that the Clinton camp was not left in the dark on Barbara Reynolds’ stagings.
via Huffpost:
Watch these Videos: Jimmy Carter Speaks Out on Wright, Obama, McCain:
Beyond Larry King, will Carter’s comments receive more exposure? We’ll wait to see.
Carter’s a class act in my view — wisdom of the elders.
Crabs in a barrel!
Grandfather used to say that the reason Negroes can’t get anywhere is ’cause they be like crabs in a barrel. You put a bunch of crabs in a barrel and when one of those crabs is able to pull himself up to a point that he’s ‘most ready to get out the barrel; the rest of those ‘ol crabs will reach up and pull him back down again!
Hmmmm. I wonder if the good Reverend got his “Brown Envelope” from Ms. Reynolds before his speech or after his speech?
the ‘crabs in a barrel’ adage, – your Grandfather must have met mine.
the brown envelope? definitely before the speech.
I had some sympathy for Rev. Wright when the controversy first aired but dnA at Too Sense is on to something:
That’s the rub. We have found our Judas and they are many.
What Rev. Wright conveniently forgot is the stereotyping: All blacks are the same.
it’s time for the “Sista Soljah” moment. It’s time for bus tire tracks on Wright’s shiny black butt. Several rows, and emphatically.
But with compassion.
Mr. AP called me and told me about this diary.
Christ Jesus, this is the dirtiest of dirty tricks.
I am tired of every last one of these preening Negroes: Bob Johnson, Tavis Smiley, Barbara Reynolds, and yes–Jeremiah Wright.
All of these old and old-thinking farts like things just as they are, because they can keep their hustle going. Barack Obama upstages them.
The unkindest cut is always from “your own.” Damn.
well let me cheer you up:
waiting for our BooMan to give us an update on states in play. Obama still leads in NC. It’s a toss up in Indiana. For Clinton the mother of all ….liars, it’s still insurmountable.
On the Wright thingy dust up; White folks are lining up, looking in to see black folks working hard to deny Obama, one of their own.
When Rush Limbaugh views it this way – change is sure a-coming. Can whites be asking: if blacks don’t want Obama, we’ll take him – after all he’s half white? I see a reverse Wright backlash playing out here. Just saying.
Here is to fighting Despair – Andrew Sullivan
Amen to that.
Here’s hopin’.
I’m trying, I’m trying. But there’s some poll–SUSA–that say that Hillary is only down by 5 points in NC. Maybe it’s an outlier. Hope so.
But I just have this feeling that there are so many people aligned against Obama who want things to remain as they have always been–including the civil rights establishment, and that is a saddening realization. Julian Bond, Barbara Reynolds–I grew up revering these people, and they are clinging to Billary for dear fucking life. It is one sorry spectacle, I tell you.
They must feel like their status of being our “representatives” will end when his presidency begins. And I do not begin to give a damn, I really don’t. Either get with the program or get lost.
So to make myself feel a little better, I just made a huge online donation to President Barack Obama.
one half of me would love to see Clinton defeated, yet the other half urges, nah – let her have it.
The Debtberg and shit awaiting the next prez I wouldn’t want for my No: 1 enemy.
Guess who gets the blame?
I was of that opinion, but, in truth, I doubt very much we’re going to be crippled by the economy when 2012 rolls around. The recession will begin before the election this year, and the public already knows it’s been had. In fact, the public sees the economy more accurately than the politicians. By 2012, we should be back on our feet.
I hope you’re right, but I’m preparing for hard times just the same.
Nothing wrong with preparing for hard times. I am, too, under the “Better Safe than Sorry” banner.
will you agree that the economy cannot recover until housing is well on its feet and how will $200/bbl oil impact prices?
Inventory over hang: foreclosed homes are empty and:
Reuters: Fannie Mae chief sees no mortgage recovery until 2010
and that’s optimistic-…three to four years to clear inventory of unsold, unoccupied homes
I’d certainly agree that housing’s got to stabilize before things return to normal, which is why I’m so relieved to see the price declines accelerating in the Case-Shiller report today (down 14% YoY). We still have quite a long way down, but the faster we get through it, the better. If we get to a point where prices are roughly in line with pre-bubble prices, we’ll be fine. I always thought we’d be done with the crash in 2011. 2010 strikes me as perhaps just a bit too early, and 2012 strikes me as too long, but that’s just my gut feeling.
Once the housing market is cleared, I think the real problem is one of rebalancing things in favor of the working class (cutting this bullshit of taxing the Buffets of the world at 15% while Joe AutoMechanic gets taxed at 30%, wiping out corporate welfare, passing universal health care, starting a worker program on infrastructure, etc). If we can accomplish that, I think the fundamentals on our industries are good enough to deliver.
In any event, like I said, the recession is going to arrive before the election. In fact, it’ll probably be official by then, judging by the noises Martin Feldstein has been making, so Bush will get the blame.
Re: Oil. I’m not sure how we’d deal with $200 oil. I’m not really sure where I think oil’s going in the short run. (My knee-jerk reaction is “up,” of course, but if demand softens sufficiently, prices could fall back some.) Let me get back to you on that.
The truth is that corruption is colorblind. I’m sure a lot of people, black and white, stand to lose with Obama becoming president. The country’s moving beyond them, and they know it. No sense wasting energy on people who don’t get it.
I wouldn’t worry about the SUSA poll for now. As I recall, The Great and Powerful
OzSUSA has been pretty weak polling races in the South. (We’re an unpredictable lot. What can I say?) Hillary tends to outperform polls in the North, Obama in the South. Black voters will show up, and whites will give Obama a decent showing. Maybe not quite as good as Virginia and Georgia, since all of this Wright bullshit is being thrown in just a week before the election (need time for the shock value to wear off), but nothing like the 20%-ish scores of the more backwards southern states.Nice.
Here’s a great little diary over at dkos by LarsThorwald that lays into those who despair, wail or fret over the events of recent days. It’s a buck-up-the-troops thing that kicks booty. Well worth a 2-3 minute read.
It is time for Mr. Obama to do the Sista Soljah thing. He must throw ol’ Jeremiah under the bus, and then drive the bus over Jeremiah. He must destroy this man, in a friendly and compassionate manner. This narcissistic bozo Wright, who clearly has delusions of grandeur, needs a serious, but well-phrased put-down, which elevates Barack.
Hold on tight to your keyboard.
Read Rush Limbaugh’s take on Wright’s resurfacing
(HT: The Daily Dish)
THIS JUST IN
Politico reporting: Obama to hold ‘big press conference’ on Wright
It’s on now.
I have no idea how to listen to it.
I’m sorry–I had to step away from Boo because I have some work to finish.
But to tide you over, here’s an AP story–the Associated Press, that is! :<)–on the presser, just updated:
Obama denounces former pastor
Candidate calls Wright’s recent comments ‘wrong and destructive’
The Associated Press
updated 2:55 p.m. ET, Tues., April. 29, 2008
HICKORY, N.C. – Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday he was outraged by the latest assertion by his former pastor that criticism of his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church.
The presidential candidate is seeking to tamp down the growing fury over Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his incendiary remarks that threaten to undermine his campaign.
“I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Obama told reporters at a news conference.
After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted his sermons, Wright made three public appearances in four days to defend himself. The former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has been combative, providing colorful commentary and feeding the story Obama had hoped was dying down.
“This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright,” Wright told the Washington media Monday. “It has nothing to do with Senator Obama. It is an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition.”
Obama told reporters Tuesday that Wright’s comments do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church.
“The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago,” Obama said of the man who married him.
Wright criticized the U.S. government as imperialist and stood by his suggestion that the United States invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against minorities. “Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything,” he said.
In a highly publicized speech last month, Obama sharply condemned Wright’s remarks. But he did not leave the church or repudiate the minister himself, who he said was like a family member.
On Tuesday, Obama sought to distance himself further from Wright.
“I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia explaining that he’s done enormous good. … But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS. … There are no excuses. They offended me. They rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced.”
“At a certain point if what somebody says contradicts what you believe so fundamentally and then he questions whether or not you believe it — in front of the National Press Club — then that’s enough,” Obama continued.
Wright recently retired from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He became an issue in Obama’s presidential bid when videos circulated of Wright condemning the U.S. government for allegedly racist and genocidal acts. In the videos, some several years old, Wright called on God to “damn America.” He also said the government created the AIDS virus to destroy “people of color.”
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thanks for the link AP..
It’s a total divorce – Decree granted:
Andrew Sullivan’s take. Sullivan’s cheering I respect…Sully has a large domestic audience and international as well.
Obama Divorces Wright
A terrible decision on Obama’s part.
thanks for dropping by.
Imho, Obama’s presser is getting strong positive coverage from news service, picked up by MSM and international media:
and in the not too friendly blogosphere:
Well of course the media is petting Obama on the head. He did exactly what they wanted him to do. He did what they always try to get Democrats to do: to disown their allies and to declare Left-leaning people to be outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. This is yet another scalp for the right-wingers and the media. Rev. Wright came to their house and challenged the media and the media won by beating its chest and forcing Obama to back down. It got Obama to cry Uncle and now I am sure it will go around praising him for taking their advice . . . for a very short while.
Then they will be back with more of the same . . . only emboldened further. I’m ashamed that my fellow Left-leaning compatriots are such complete cowards that they can’t even handle a silly little controversy like this with a little bit of self-respect. They cave-in to the childish bullies on the right and in the media every time. At least Rev. Wright took them on (“Are they calling my patriotism into question? Dick Cheney got 5 deferments!”)! The Democrats cut and ran yet again. Sickening, really.
Wright is NOT Obama’s ally. He is Obama’s enemy.
Obama is a huge threat to Wright. Wright has preached black oppression. Obama is not oppressed. He is just effective. For Wright, this is a terrible moment, and he has decided to tear Obama down to demonstrate that blacks cannot succeed, are oppressed, blah, blah, blah, the old racist black shit.
Obama did the right thing. I would have stepped on Wright’s face, myself. Obama needed to get the racist shit behind him, and demonstrate that a “supporter” who got out of line does not run the show. OBAMA runs his own show, and if you try to use Obama to sell your books, he will stop you. Like I say, I would have stepped on Wright’s face.
I come at this very differently, but we arrive in the same place.
You’d be crazy not to believe that there’s not discrimination against Black people. You’d be crazy to not to believe that people do in fact believe that “different is deficient.”
Wright is a smart man. Very smart. And he’s very progressive–eschewing homophobia, for instance.
But–and I will use an old-school term here–he showed his ass on Monday, and more than a few Black folks knew it. It was all about HIM. I, I, I; me, me, me.
All of his good works, his progressive Christianity, his speaking out on behalf of those who do not get a fair shake–all of it was sacrificed on the alter of his pique and ego on Monday. And damn him for doing so–not just on behalf of Sen. Obama, but for the voiceless, too.
We don’t have time for his narcissistic, self-absorbed shit.
This campaign is not about him, and really, not even about Obama–it is about changing the disastrous course this nation is on with a more common-sense, progressive course. And if Wright is too stupid to get that, then I won’t just won’t “throw him under the bus,” I’ll come back with an 18 wheeler and finish the job.
There is much too much at stake for bullshit.
Wright, a smart man, knew damned well what he was doing and with whom he was doing it with. You tell me how 8th year Howard loud mouth Malik Shulu Shabazz gets an invite to the flippin Press Club if this wasn’t a complete setup. Seriously?
A stupid buffoon if I ever saw one. Stereotypical is not a good look.
But that was all a freak show designed to hand the nomination to Hillary was not a mistake. Rev. Barbara Reynolds knew FULL well what she was doing. They wouldn’t have hit the front door if she didn’t want them there. Or, in purely racial terms, Reynolds was all too willing to pack the crowd with buffoons and other black bogeyman (Marion Berry) against another Black man to help Hillary?
Here’s the damned shame of it all: The African American community still has external challenges to fight. Like, duh, right? But. The very people who are supposed to “change” these things are too hung up on being our “representatives.” They like the status that Billary’s croutons they bring home to us little people are bigger and tastier than the crumbs we’re used to getting. And this suits top-down Billary very well. She doesn’t do bottom up very well. She’d much rather meet with the representatives of the little people. And she’s so clueless, she doesn’t get that that was the reason her “it takes a president to get it done” reply was so offensive. She. Is. Not. Queen.
The promise of President Barack Obama is that those things change. The promise of President Barack Obama is that he can cut out some of the middle man or woman. He’s not promising that he will waive a magic wand and life will be beautiful, but that working together, we’ll change our politics. That means that in order for it to work, we have to get off our asses and be involved. Take some ownership.
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is a view that I LOVE.
there is no doubt of prejudice against blacks, problems they have etc.
So what?
Obama is not running to be the president of Black America. He is running to be the president of the US. That means blacks and whites.
He cannot fix the problems of the black america. He might do something about the US as a whole.
He needs to be post-racial, and that is a threat to Wright.
So we agree.
You know that old Cole Porter song?
Hmm … Friendship?
Maybe not. It sure isn’t Delovely.
A friend helps a friend. Wright’s actions were destroying Obama. Ergo: Wright is Obama’s enemy.
Wright decided that his agenda, the agenda of racism, the agenda of black oppression, was more important than Obama’s agenda, which essentially states that race is less important. If Wright was not stopped, his racist stupid agenda won.
Obama has stopped him, or so I hope.
The LA Times is on this, too. This may break a little wider than I thought. But I think it might have to compete timing-wise with Obama speaking out on Wright. On that, John Cole has a kind of a unique take.
Thanks. That’s a great catch and good it’s being more fully exposed by the larger media.
Clinton has also been pushing the Ayers Weather Underground guilt by association. This should also be exposed.
Interesting. Anarchy can be a bit controversial, I hear.
I wonder too, if some of the stuff we’re seeing coming out of Hillary’s camp now is Bill’s harder-edged influence at work: go-for-the-jugular type stuff. If Bill’s calling more of the strategic shots, Hillary may wind up in some really deep doo-doo. Bill’s more like “Wild” Bill these days.
Here’s some encouraging news, Politico reporting:
Obama won in Hill war for super-delegates
Hopefully the Hill SD’s are squared away, then.
And on Clyburn, everybody knows how much weight he carries, so his comments are a good sign, especially since he’s officially neutral, I’ve read.
from Chicago, the homebase of both men:
CBS2Chicago: Pastor vs The Pol: Did Wright Mean To Hurt Obama?
Chicagoans Who Know Both Men Tell The Story Of Betrayal; Controversy Continues On Despite Obama’s Best Attempt To Cut It Off