Distancing Yourself… Political Games
Via MyDD comes this tidbit: When he decided to run for president, Barack Obama had a conversation with his pastor Jeremiah Wright. Wright told Obama that if he got past the primary process, “he might have to publicly distance himself from me.” Obama replied that “yeah, that might have to happen.”
“I didn’t know.” “I never heard it.” “Not me, I’m innocent.” “Crazy uncle.”
His explanation isn’t much of an explanation at all. His decision to ‘distance’ himself from Wright wasn’t made because Obama felt insulted by Wright’s anti-Semitic and racist comments and sermons, he decided to distance himself from Wright out of political opportunism.
One wonders how pro-Obama bloggers deal with this stuff. To me, it’s pretty obvious that there’s only one way to accept it all, and that’s by believing that black racism isn’t that bad, not that bad at all. If Obama were white, and Wright as well, people everywhere would compare him to Ron Paul and that would have been the end of his campaign. See for instance how Andrew Sullivan responded to the fact that Mormons didn’t allow blacks to become members until 1978, and how he now responds to Wright’s racism.
It’s called being a hypocrite Andrew.
Perhaps there’s something else at work here. Progressive bloggers who support Obama may actually agree with what Wright said (link to Crooks and Liars where Nichole Belle writes that Wright “is not factually wrong in what he said”). Logically, they don’t find what he said to be very offensive. They don’t think it’s insulting, because they say the exact same stuff in private. It’s just that they’re smart enough not to say it in public.
Meanwhile, here’s yet another video of Wright in action. No, I’m sure that Obama never heard this stuff. Nope. Never.
Some quotes (from different sermons):
The government lied about Pearl Harbor. They knew the Japanese were going to attack.
They [the government] purposefully infected African-American men with syphilises.
Waging war for peace, is like raping for virginity.
Black men turning on black men. That is fighting the wrong enemy. You both are the primary targets in an oppressive society that sees both of you as a dangerous threat.
Look at the people standing up, shouting, applauding. Yeah – I’m sure Obama never participated in anything like that, huh?
As I said, the man is distancing himself from Wright out of political opportunism, not because he thinks Wright is wrong and insulting.
Lastly, here’s a funny take on it all (also Ferraro) from Jon Stewart at the Daily Show.
No they wouldn’t, the real picture is they ATTACKED Paul for no reason. They had to get rid of Paul to make McCain look better. But it didn’t work. We don’t want McCain, won’t vote for him. The democrats are in for a surprise come general election because of the republicans that voted for/ or against Hillary, Obama, McCain. Democrats think they took the country. Let them continue this non-sense. McCain took the nomination on PAPER the people don’t want him either.
Is there one single Presidential Candidate that is still in the running that does not have a supporter that they should run away from but don’t?
So really, what’s the difference. And that alone is the bad part with Obama – he is championing change. But Clinton, McCain – they have many more skeletons in their closets. When your looking at a billion dollars to get elected, there are plenty of debts to be repaid, and nobody is exempt.