Obama Disowns Wright
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Race, ReligionAfter yesterday’s performance by the reverend, you knew it had to be coming. And while this isn’t the same as throwing Wright under the bus, it does suggest that Obama understands how far off the reservation his former pastor’s views are.
From TPM comes this from Obama:
The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church.They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs. And if Rev. Wright thinks that that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well. And based on his remarks yesterday, well I might not know him as well as I thought, either.
I don’t know if this will be enough to diffuse the situation, but it’s certainly a start. Time to put some major distance between him and Wright once and for all.
One additional note, I have to think that Obama will ultimately benefit from Wright coming out and saying this stuff now instead of the general election. Basically, if this same stuff had dropped in October it would have done a lot more damage.
More as it develops…
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Race, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
[...] Just a followup on what I shared earlier. [...]
April 29th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Wright was great with Moyers. Why couldnt he have just left it at that?
April 29th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I think it was the fact that he said Obama was just acting like a politician, No Mr Wright if Obama had been acting like a politician he wouldn’t have defended you last month he would have thrown you under the bus.
I think Obama got ticked off at being stabbed in the back by a friend he defended
April 29th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
That is what happens when you pick insane, evil assholes for friends…the friendship hardly ever works out. A lesson that Obama should seriously take to heart in dealing with the middle east — a place where Wright’s kind of inflamatory stupidity and bigotedness is the norm. Again, the issue is only partially about the relationship itself between Wright and Obama — the issue is more about Obama’s poor judgment manifested in being friends (voluntary family) with someone like Rev. Wright. 20 years…and he didn’t know — strains credulity doesn’t it.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
OK here is a question. Wouldn’t Obama have been better off flat out disownig Wright back in the day, instead of doing his beating around the bush routine with the “race speech”?
Remember how that was supposed to be a seminal moment for our democracy?
Is it safe to say it was woefully inadequate to the actual situation? Sure, having a balanced discussion about race in America is an important thing to do. But the issue was NOT the entire history of race relations, it was a single lunatic. Obama’s not playing that one straight has rightly come back to haunt him.
ON another unrelated note if Justin or any other Donklephant team member sees this: Is there any reason Bloglines isn’t recognizing your RSS feed anymore?
April 29th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Rich:
With african americans being Obama’s most consistent voting base, I disagree he should have disowned Wright from the onset. THAT would have been interpreted as a pure political move, not a personal one. It would have put some distance between him and his base, and hurt him nationally.
Dos: Do you really believe a 26 year old has that kind of judgement when it comes to picking a pastor? Do you really think he believed back then that something like this would play such a large role? Obama needed a father figure, and he found one in Rev. Wright. Misguided or not, one can hardly blame him for a decision made at such an age.
That said, I think it finally gives Obama an opening to put an end to all this. While the right ring neo-cons are spinning it as a empty political move, I think that reason heads (vs. Rush’s ditto heads ) see it for what it is – a painful seperation between a man and his pastor. This time limits the Wright gate to another week or two for the republicans as we move into the GE.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
If I were Obama I would BEG this guy to go on some sort of humanitarian-related excursion OUT OF THE COUNTRY for the next 8 months. I would donate money to that trip! Maybe the DNC should fund it — it would definitely be for the good of the party!
April 29th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Do you really believe a 26 year old has that kind of judgement when it comes to picking a pastor? Do you really think he believed back then that something like this would play such a large role? Obama needed a father figure
This is surely the spin here. The Chicago press has had no trouble showing that Obama picked his church in a bid for street cred for his “community organizing” activities. It also seems clear that Trinity was deemed acceptable because of its peculiar ideological component…and not the clarity of its “theological vision.”
And as for Obama’s potential to “lose the black vote” all I can say is any candidacy for national office that is contingent upon winning 90%+ of the black vote and not having that slip to a mere 75%+, is skating on some pretty thin ice indeed. Obama’s most pressing need was always going to be to appeal to moderate white voters…whoever didn’t realize that on Obama’s staff should be fired.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Rich:
Fair enough – interestingly, Obama’s gains before variousgate was primarily in the white voters. Remember when his problems used to be not white votes, but hispanic votes?
He’s lost/loses votes when up against Clinton. It will be interesting to see how he fares when its not woman vs. man, white vs. black.
And andrew sullivan has some interesting thoughts on why he picked Trinity. Worth a good read.