Here is Barack Obama answering questions Involving Jeremiah Wright to a PA Paper

[MadBadger]

This is from a Telephone Q&A with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on Thursday

Q: I don't know if you've seen it, but it's all over the wire today (from an ABC News story), a statement that your pastor (the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side) made in a sermon in 2003 that instead of singing "God Bless America," black people should sing a song essentially saying "God Damn America."


A: I haven't seen the line. This is a pastor who is on the brink of retirement who in the past has made some controversial statements. I profoundly disagree with some of these statements.
Q: What about this particular statement?

A: Obviously, I disagree with that. Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it's important to judge me on what I've said in the past and what I believe.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_557231.html

[DemVet]

1. Cherry-pick statements? Did they cherry-pick Ferraro also, Barack?

Nice tap-dance around that subject...a subject that won't go away.

[tekisui]

3. Ferraro was talking about Obama, in the present.

Wright does not work for Obama. ANd, Ferraro repeated, defended and expanded her stupid comments.

[DemVet]

23. Wright DOES work for Obama...

...he's an official member of the religious council advising Obama's campaign.

[MadBadger]

26. Morning Joe says he is no longer working for that council. He stopped last year.

[DemVet]

30. He still worked for Obama...and Obama DID NOT even think of distancing

himself from this whacked-out racist until he was "caught." Get it? Hopefully.

[Exilednight]

36. Obama fired him over a year ago, and he distance himelf? If I were ever fired from a job....

I would consider myself distanced.

[DemVet]

41. Fired? No, he's still an active part of Obama's campaign and he's still...

...preaching from the pulpit in that "church" of his.

[Voice for Peace]

37. So.. do you suspect that Obama is actually a black power racist?

[BeyondGeography]

7. She was speaking for attribution to the media, 6 or 7 times in the past few weeks

whereas they keep recylcling three or four quotes from Wright's 40 years of preaching in a church.

See the difference?

[DemVet]

27. No, there is no difference.

Recycled quotes?

Gimme a break. Some of those statements of his were rather recent.

Besides, it doesn't matter whether he said them once or a thousand times...he said them.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JTFrog]

11. No, she's been doing it since 1988. No cherry picking there.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/A_Ferraro_flashback.html

A Ferraro flashback

"If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race," she said.

Really. The cite is an April 15, 1988 Washington Post story (byline: Howard Kurtz), available only on Nexis.

Here's the full context:

Placid of demeanor but pointed in his rhetoric, Jackson struck out repeatedly today against those who suggest his race has been an asset in the campaign. President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don't ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his "radical" views, "if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race."

Asked about this at a campaign stop in Buffalo, Jackson at first seemed ready to pounce fiercely on his critics. But then he stopped, took a breath, and said quietly, "Millions of Americans have a point of view different from" Ferraro's.

Discussing the same point in Washington, Jackson said, "We campaigned across the South . . . without a single catcall or boo. It was not until we got North to New York that we began to hear this from Koch, President Reagan and then Mrs. Ferraro . . . . Some people are making hysteria while I'm making history."

[DemVet]

28. BFD...Hillary has already apologized for those, what do you want now,

for her to keep apologizing? Enough.

[JTFrog]

32. BFD? So you're point wasn't really that of cherry picking. That's what I thought. n/t

[wndycty]

2. I'm working on post on this issue. I'm no fan of Wright but he is being unfairly targeted. . .

. . .I want Obama to dump him immediately, but no because its the right thing to do, its the best thing for him as not to be offensive to white folks.

[MadBadger]

4. Its amazing that the only person defending Obama is the McCain campaign

McCain did on Hannity and Colmes yesterday, and Charlie Black just did on Morning Joe.

[wndycty]

5. Well there is a reason for that. McCain is going to the help of more than a few crazy ministers

:kick:

[earthlover]

8. Soooo the Hillary folks are all worried that the Reps are going to use this against Obama....

...and McCain is defending Obama. That sure puts the lie to that one!

It is not just the big bad Republicans who are bigoted and intolerant of religious differences. The Hillary Herd sometimes is even worse than the Republicans!

Hillary respects religious differences. As far as i know....

[boston bean]

10. you are one of the most gullible people on DU. nt

[MadBadger]

14. Thanks, and you hold a place in my heart up there with a DUer with a similar name

MassDemm and Magsdem, two peas in a pod.

[zabet]

6. He disagrees with 'some' of the statements.

He left himself open to people interpreting which
of the controversial statements he agrees with and
which ones he does not.

'Mr. Wright prayed with the Obama family just before
his presidential announcement. Asked later about the
incident, the Obama campaign said in a statement,
“Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church.” '
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/us/politics/30obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[durrrty libby]

9. Awww .....Two peas in a pod. Adorable

[ThatBozGuy]

19. And here are Mr and Ms Clinton praying with.........

Billy Graham



Care to make them responsible for his rhetoric over his career which does include racial overtones and overt blame of America for its own problems also.

As well as since he was the Bush's advisor also would make them partial to that circle obviously.

My logic is no better than yours it is flawed in the same way. The difference is I know it.

[zabet]

39. Saying Grace before a meal

is not the same as praying
and consulting on a presidential
run.

[bulloney]

12. So, why don't the media go after Repub candidates because of dumb things said on the talk shows?

Why haven't they lit into McCain like this over Hagee's remarks?

There's your librul media in a nutshell.

[wndycty]

13. Because Hagee isn't a Black preacher

:kick:

[EffieBlack]

16. Black people are responsible for everything that other black people say

Whether we agree with it or not.

[MadBadger]

18. It's because you all know each other

[EffieBlack]

33. Shhhh!

[MonkeyFunk]

15. Well, they HAVE talked about Hagee's remarks

but Hagee is not McCain's pastor. McCain does not attend his church - much less for 20 years. Hagee didn't perform McCain's wedding or baptize his children.

The comparison is silly.

[maseman]

17. No shit

This whole thing is fucking stupid. I'm sure at some point Hillary has sat in a church where a minister has said something stupid or controversial. I am sure most of us has done that. I remember sitting in a Catholic Church as a kid with a priest screaming at us that if we touch ourselves in an inappropriate way we'll all burn in hell.

Got my fireproof pants ready...

[WDIM]

20. Go Obama!

"But I think it's important to judge me on what I've said in the past and what I believe."

Amen!

[MagickMuffin]

21. Oh no, he didn't flat out reject and denounce that statement

Hillary will be all over this in the next debate.

Whatever will Barack do?.?.?

He's finished. NOT

[Ian David]

22. "He's the crazy old uncle who lives in the attic. He's going to retire soon, so just ignore him."

[Window]

24. K/R.

:kick:

[indimuse]

25. cherry pick..?

What? do ya think people are stupid...? sounds like a BUSH answer!

[Vinca]

29. If there is a God, he/she ought to damn America for the slaughter

of a million innocent Iraqis.

[EffieBlack]

34. Isn't it interesting that some DUers are slamming Wright and Obama because Wright said

some of the very same things that people on DU say every day? In fact, some folks here say things that are much, much worse.

I guess it's ok for white liberals to be mad at America, but God forbid a 70-year-old black man be SO ungrateful as to say ANYTHING critical of this great nation!

Circle those wagons, folks!

[Vinca]

38. You just nailed it. Selective outrage. nt

[leftynyc]

40. It's not selective outrage

and it's a dishonest argument to say it is. Nobody here on DU is running for president and 9/11 conspriracy theories get shouted down all the time.

The point being made is how this is going to look to Joe/Jane Doe - independent voters in swing states - you know, those voters that up until now were being used by Sen Obama supporters to say his chances against mccain were better. And my outrage at anyone who wants to blame 9/11 on anyone but the 19 assholes on the planes goes for Falwell, Robertson or Rev Wright. Fuck them all.

[Coexist]

35. knr