The Dust up over Wright is pure and simple racism

[gabeana]

In my ethnic studies course this morning I brought up the re-emergence of Wright into the primary again.
I brought up the Rev Hagee who McCain has actively sought support from, we all know this is the man who has said some vile things
We have Clinton who is a member of a conservative DC based Fellowship that has a connection to fascism of the 1930's. In its present form it believes in a democracy where only the rich and well connected shall govern.
How about Bush's connection to Roberston and Falwell who have made reprehensible comments. Or Bush's grandfather connection to the Nazi's, actually money laundering for the "cause". His grandfather was connected to the money men of the failed planned coup of Roosevelt. These issue were never consistently brought up or if at all.
I had a student argue with me (which I encourage) He is a republican and he said it is not right to blame bush for something his grandfather did. My literal response was "no shit sherlock, thank you for making my case." I don't believe McCain really believes Hagee message, I don't believe Clinton is a secret fascist nor I do I think Bush should be blamed for what his grandfather was involved in, but then why is Obama held to a different standard, did Obama say any of this stuff that has America hiding under the blankets
In the 2004 election how often was it brought up -- the Bush connection to the Saudi Royal family? Was it consistently played over and over in news cycles? No it wasn't.

So again why is Obama under fire for something his pastor said if McCain is not consistently under fire for Hagee or Clinton for her fellowship, who advocate against separation between Church and State.That is scarier than anything Wright has ever said.

If that is not utilizing fear, prejudice and racism then what is it.
And what does it say for a certain segment of progressive/liberals that condone this message?

Very soon all the so-called Dem's who have taking joy in the wright dust up will have take a long look at themselves in the mirror after Obama garners the Nomination.

Before you Hill supporters say Hillary has been attacked unfairly did she not say she ducked sniper fire, we now know is a lie,
did she not say she was always against NAFTA but now we know she was a supporter from the beginning, or she was a major player in the Family leave act even-though it was signed a week after Bill took office. Thats fair game after all these came from her mouth but I say again did the words Wright say come from Obama's mouth and if it is guilt by association shouldn't McCain and Hillary have to be guilty by their associations?

[Maddy McCall]

1. No it's not. It's about Obama not planning well for his campaign...

this is the one little loose end he couldn't sew up.

Did he actually think that John and Jane Q Public would not see Wright as an issue?

[gabeana]

3. why haven't McCain and Clinton been asked the

same things? You are definitely one of the crowd who is going to have to take a long look at themselves after Obama gets the Nomination.

[LVjinx]

50. Uh, why would Clinton and McCain be asked about their going to Wright's church for 20 years?

They didn't.

[nomorenomore08]

4. Maybe he did screw up in the planning, I don't know.

But I think a better question would be, why do John and Jane Q NOT see Hagee (or Hillary's connections) as an issue? This is largely the OP's point.

[gabeana]

7. thanks for having my back

I'm glad you noticed that this poster avoided the question, it is a common issue with the people who approve of the method of race baiting

[Tim4319]

24. It's called double standard!

If you are black and get caught with an ounce of crack, you get time. If you are white and get caught with an ounce of coke, you get community service.

[nomorenomore08]

27. Yeah, because we all know crack is SO much more dangerous than powdered coke.

Just as a black, left-wing preacher calling down the wrath of God is SO much more dangerous than a white, right-wing preacher doing the same. :sarcasm:

[DerekJ]

8. "Obama not planning well for his campaign..." LOOOL .. No Hillary was the master planner, that's why

she is wining...
Oh wait.

She is not.

[Cali_Democrat]

9. Why hasn't Bush been asked to denounce relationship to the Bin Ladens?

Pappy Bush was with some of the Bin Ladens on 9/11. Most Americans probably aren't even aware of this. Where's the outrage? Where's the 24/7 M$M coverage of this association?

The same goes for Hagee, Falwell, and all the other crazy white pastors.There is a double standard. When the crazy white pastors denounce America and say gays caused 9/11, it's fine and dandy. When a black pastor says US foreign policy caused 9/11, there is 24/7 outrage from the media.

Blacks are on thin ice in this country. The sad thing is that Wright is right about 9/11.

[screembloodymurder]

19. Wow!

That's a great point.

[jody]

11. "One little loose end he couldn't sew up"? What about his Muslim school years & support for banning

handguns and semiautomatic firearms?

Those will be used against him ad nauseam if he makes it to the GE.

See Islam an unknown factor in Obama bid (March 16, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

[anigbrowl]

32. Yeah, I question his judgment in allowing himself to be sent to public school in Muslim country.

When is he going to apologize for that? It's been 40 YEARS!!!

[jody]

43. Don't get mad at me. Why don't you or BO refute the LA article? If it's true, then BO needs to say

"I was sent to a Muslim school when I was young but I heard nothing that was said just like I went to Wright's church for 20 years and heard nothing that was said" or something else to give his version of what the LA Times reported.

[anigbrowl]

48. Free Republic is more your style, I think.

You'll find an eager audience for you brand of BS.

[jody]

49. Why do you imply I'm a freeper? I'm a Yellow Dog Democrat. n/t

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

16. I guess he didn't realize he would be held responsible for Wright's behavior

Funny how that works. Imagine if Clinton was held to the same standard? Would you be blaming her for Bill's blowjob?

[crankychatter]

2. kicked

you don't need ME to tell you you're correct

the first and loudest protestors... proclaiming they're pure motives and "liberalism," are usually the biggest closet racists...

it's a dead give away

[babylonsister]

5. It sure looks that way to me. Great post, rec'd. nt

[MadBadger]

18. delete

[MyNameGoesHere]

6. I kind of see it as Obama losing his virginity. He is now just a politician.

Just like "she will do anything" to get elected Hillary.

[scarletwoman]

10. Spot on. It's about different standards being applied.

In this particular case, "different" IS "deficient".

sw

[Yossariant]

12. Balls. If this is what passes for religion in the black community: US vs. THEM, then

the racial DIVIDE in America is insurmountable.

[gabeana]

13. again why aren't McCain and Hillary being asked

about their controversial religious association? Why only Obama?

[Yossariant]

14. "He is my spiritual mentor." "I could no more disown him than I can disown the black community."

"Words matter."

[gabeana]

15. again you refuse to answer the question.

Has Hillary denounced the fellowship has McCain denounced Hagee, people and organizations a lot more unpatriotic than Wright

[Yossariant]

20. Here's your problem. I don't even know what you're talking about.

"The 'fellowship'?

Is that those Congressional prayer meetings?

If so, why in the world would she denounce them?

She should use them in an ad.

Hagee? McCain doesn't even go to his Church.

The racebaiting is a really, really, really bad idea for Obama and his followers and, especially, it's a really bad idea right now.

[gabeana]

23. to educate your self read this

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer-2.html

and there is a book coming out on this prayer group in May

Did McCain actively pursue Hagee endorsement?

[jody]

17. Why pour fuel on the fire by quoting BO? If you chant "Hope, Change" all the demons will vanish.

[gabeana]

22. Why do you refuse to answer the question?

Through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship. Her collaborations with right-wingers such as Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) grow in part from that connection. "A lot of evangelicals would see that as just cynical exploitation," says the Reverend Rob Schenck, a former leader of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue who now ministers to decision makers in Washington. "I don't....there is a real good that is infected in people when they are around Jesus talk, and open Bibles, and prayer."

Snip//
Jones, though, describes his theology as neoorthodox, guided by the belief that social change should come about slowly and without radical action. It emerged, he says, as a third way, a reaction against both separatist fundamentalism and the New Deal's labor-based liberalism.

Snip//

When Clinton first came to Washington in 1993, one of her first steps was to join a Bible study group. For the next eight years, she regularly met with a Christian "cell" whose members included Susan Baker, wife of Bush consigliere James Baker; Joanne Kemp, wife of conservative icon Jack Kemp; Eileen Bakke, wife of Dennis Bakke, a leader in the anti-union Christian management movement; and Grace Nelson, the wife of Senator Bill Nelson, a conservative Florida Democrat.

Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has "made a fetish of being invisible," former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.) The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.

When Clinton first came to Washington in 1993, one of her first steps was to join a Bible study group. For the next eight years, she regularly met with a Christian "cell" whose members included Susan Baker, wife of Bush consigliere James Baker; Joanne Kemp, wife of conservative icon Jack Kemp; Eileen Bakke, wife of Dennis Bakke, a leader in the anti-union Christian management movement; and Grace Nelson, the wife of Senator Bill Nelson, a conservative Florida Democrat.

Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has "made a fetish of being invisible," former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.) The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer-2.html

shouldn't that be discussed or you just like to make mindless smart ass comments because you are trying to cover for a lack of a thought process

[Yossariant]

25. Mother Jones is quoting Rob Schenck?!?

Operation Rescue? The guy who tried to hand a dead fetus to Presdient Clinton!

Man oh man! How desperate is Obama?

Pssst and FYI: Barack Obama also attends those Congressional "cell" meetings.

O8)

[gabeana]

31. yeah it is kind of scary for Hillary to be a member

with that guy I would say it is a big difference to have attended a few meeting especially for National Prayer breakfast than to be an active member wouldn't you?

[Jed Dilligan]

41. He was defending her association with the Nazi Fellowship. nt

[jody]

29. Yossariant answered in #14. Your problem could be reading comprehension, a factor over which I have

no control.

[gabeana]

33. DId you read what I posted directly to you

or are you too scared to read something you might not like? Hillary is a member of an organization with the likes of someone from operation rescue that does not bother you?

[Yossariant]

34. Did you read what "I" posted directly to you? SO IS OBAMA A MEMBER.

[gabeana]

35. No he is not he has attented some

meetings but is not a member as Hillary is

[jody]

38. Read all you post? No because it was irrelevant to my post #17. Have a nice evening. n/t

[gabeana]

45. coward

[aquart]

30. Because you are deflecting. And we ain't being fooled by it.

It's an old trick. Maybe you'll get better at it with time.

[jonestonesusa]

40. So you've attended this church or at least watched the Bill Moyers

interview with Rev. Wright? You know that the church is not exclusively black?

How about informing yourself more fully about black religious thought before forming your opinion?

[unblock]

21. it's politics. nothing is pure and simple.

there certainly is a double standard and yes, there is definitely racism involved.

however, the bottom line is that the powers that be are just fighting for their right-wing agenda. they don't care that obama is black, only that he's a democrat. they attack him and they will keep attacking him with anything until something sticks and then they will attack him some more.

they have done the same with hillary and will continue to do so. they're only cozying up with her because it's another way to attack obama and that's the bigger fish to fry right now.

similarly, the right-wing has attacked hillary and there has been sexism involved in that. again, it's just whatever happens to work.

if the racist and sexist attacks stopped working and/or started backfiring, they would quickly shift gears and attack on a different front.

[gabeana]

26. It's politics!

If it's politics then why are Clinton and McCain not being asked similar questions 24/7.
I don't necessarily disagree with the jist of your post but I think this issue goes a lot deeper than the normal politics

[unblock]

42. i think we're in agreement, perhaps differing only on emphasis

there are (at least) two dimensions here, the racism and the politics. my emphasis is that this is politics as usual, they are simply using racism as a convenient tool of the moment, just the same way bush used racism against mccain in the south carolina primary (the illigitimate child thing) or bush the older used it against dukakis (the willie horton ad).

you're emphasizing the racism over the politics, but i think we're seeing the same thing overall.


as for why clinton and mccain aren't being asked similar questions, this too is politics as usual. democrats are always held to different standards. we need to be brilliant and charismatic and shrewd and saints from birth, whereas there's no republican that can't be made president with a slick marketing campaign. shrub certainly proved this.

and hillary has had her share of unfair media for many years. she's getting kid gloves for a change simply because obama's winning. again, politics. if clinton were winning, they'd be pumping up obama and we'd all be calling it sexism. and that would be an accurate description as well.

[gabeana]

47. No problems with your post

you make strong points

[aquart]

28. Is Wright a racist? Should he really be condemned for that?

[2rth2pwr]

36. Holy crap, I didn't think the stereotpes of the crazy professors were so damn true.

[gabeana]

37. What did I say that was so crazy?

[slinkerwink]

39. It's simply the inability of the media to distinguish between black men and accept the fact

that they do have actual separate thoughts from each other.

[NashVegas]

44. Racism? On Whose Part? Not Hillary Clinton, That's For Damn Sure

It's not Hillary who is demanding BO denounce Wright - it's BO's very own corporate-friendly, Iraq-war-loving, backstage crew.

Jeremiah Wright came to Washington and spoke many upon many truths, and rather than defend his friend of 20 years Barack Obama folded like a cheap suit. Wright came to offer Obama a moral challenge and Obama failed.

I guess some people feel that makes him fit for office.

[gabeana]

46. never said it was Hillary but

you know and I know that if racism will take down your opponent she will have no qualms either would you. You know what that is called a lack of character, something I'm sure you believe makes one fit for office, sadly for you, in 2009 we will get character back in office, Obama 2009

[Kitty Herder]

51. I agree. It is racism. It astonishes me that there are those here who cannot see that. nt

[EFerrari]

52. Of course it is. And the partisans that are somehow glad

at the way this script is playing out have a long road ahead of them.