Damage
Regardless of the confident assurances from the supporters of Barack Obama that the controversy over Reverend Jeremiah Wright is nothing to worry about, the candidate himself today signaled that he is very worried, indeed. He has thrown Wright under the wheels of his campaign bus, hoping to gain a bit of traction. Obama today called Wright's remarks "stupid."
Obama gave a sweeping speech on race last week in which he condemned incendiary remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but the words of the former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago continue to dog the candidate. Reflecting the campaign's concern about the fallout, Obama used a question about religion at a town hall forum as an opportunity to address the issue.
"This is somebody that was preaching three sermons at least a week for 30 years and it got boiled down … into a half-minute sound clip and just played it over and over and over again, partly because it spoke to some of the racial divisions we have in this country," Obama told an audience in this central North Carolina city.
"There are misunderstandings on both sides," the Illinois senator said. "We cannot solve the problems of America if every time somebody somewhere does something stupid, that everybody gets up in arms and forgets about the war in Iraq and we forget about the economy."
Short translation: "If I can't get the media off this and onto my chosen campaign themes, I have a lot of trouble." Wright now joins Obama's grandmother under the bus as the candidate lurches through the crisis. The bad news? The report also restates Wright's anti-America rhetoric. Obama has a real problem.
By martian, March 27, 2008 @ 9:38 am
You can see where he’s going with this – he’s trying to focus it down to the impression that Wright only ever made that one "stupid" inflammatory comment that has been played over and over on television. If he can force the impression that it was only a single "stupid" remark, he can defuse the situation.
What the Republicans need to do prior to the elcetion, assuming that Obama gets the nod for the Dems, is buy up every one of Wright’s video tapes they can get their hands on and prepare at least a dozen sound bites with Wright’s different themes of hatred and praise for Farakhan, visit to Qadafi, etc. Then build them into commercials that contrast his hate speeches with Obama saying "I could no more disown him than I could disown my white grandmother". Then play them repeatedly in every state in the country.
By TKelso, March 27, 2008 @ 2:50 pm
Yeah, Sen Barry-O, lemme get this straight. Obama: "…every time somebody, somewhere does something stupid…" That’s carefully phrased so as to cast Wright’s statements as mistakes, or lapses; as though they are exceptions which have been called out by the evil right-wing (please excuse the redundancy) media machine. So, the vulgar rephrasing of God Bless America by Dr. Reverend Wright is just a lapse, right? Surely he was meaning to say "God Help America" or something uplifting, right? His very recent insult to Italians was just a slip; he certainly meant to compliment them in some way, right? His statement that the U.S. deserved 9/11 was actually a reference to the need for improved 9-1-1 service on the South side of Chicago; am I getting this straight? I could go on, but I don’t have all day. Unfortunately for the right honorable gentleman from Illinois, Black liberation theology is what it is; and one thing it’s not is ambiguous. It’s difficult to imagine anything that would be more repulsive to Americans.