The Rev. Jeremiah Wright was an early concern, Obama aide admits

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: The Rev. Jeremiah Wright was an early concern, Obama aide admits

After he moved to Chicago in the mid-1980s to work as a community organizer, Barack Obama forged close ties with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- joining the pastor’s Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988 and using the topic of a Wright sermon, "the audacity of hope," as the title of his most recent best-selling book. But more than a year ago -- long before some of Wright’s more incendiary sermons became hot-button videos on YouTube, forcing Obama to publicly renounce his pastor last week -- the Obama campaign had a sense that Wright's sharp tongue might spell trouble for the Illinois senator.

That was the word anyway Sunday from Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, who acknowledged during a conference call with reporters that Wright was disinvited from Obama's official candidacy announcement on Feb. 10, 2007, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. Wright had been expected to lead an invocation of some kind, but never appeared. “There was no doubt that there was controversy surrounding him,” Axelrod said Sunday. “And we didn’t want to expose him … (or) make him the target and a distraction on a day when Sen. Obama was going to announce his candidacy.”

So if the savvy Obama campaign knew Wright was a problem a year ago, why did the Illinois senator, a parish member for two decades, wait until last week to disassociate and denounce the minister's inflammatory statements?

The topic is clearly uncomfortable for Obama and his aides, personally and politically. Axelrod's comments came only after prodding from a reporter and after he had initially suggested that Wright’s absence that day was due merely to the fact that the temperature was in the single digits. And even as Obama has condemned some of Wright’s rhetoric and distanced himself from his longtime spiritual advisor, doing so has not been easy. Wright remained on an African American religious advisory committee for the campaign until Friday....

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/03/throughout-his.html

[Cha]

1. This too will

pass.

[babylonsister]

2. Why the big headline, latimes? He was disinvited to the announcement

that Obama was running last year because of the hellfire and brimstone kind of preacher that he is, I suspect. Dishonest article.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Candidates have been deep sixed for a lot less than this.

[doc03]

5. Howard Dean yelled he was finished, Dennis Kucinich

said he saw a UFO, Trent Lott said things would have better if Strom Thurmond had been elected President years ago and he lost his Majority leaders position.

[doc03]

4. By Obama trying to distance himself from

Rev. Wright a year ago proves he knew his rhetoric was unacceptable. There is no way after going to his church for 17 years he didn't know any of that stuff went on. Just watch the video everyone was on their feet just eating up that racist crap. Could anyone listen to Pat Robinson's bull shit for 17 years and never hear any of the goofy crap he comes up with?