So the msm decides to make a preacher of a presidential candidate an issue, which to my knowledge

[IsItJustMe]

has never been done before, and we end up discussing it here as if it was important.

Why this is important? I don't have a clue. I think our msm and some of the people in this country have lost their minds.

This is nothing more than a sad ass diversion, and it is working. Does anybody care that there over a million people dead because of Iraq right now.

People are loosing all perspective. This, in my mind, is utterly absurd.

[anonymous171]

1. Hillary's going to jump in on it tomorrow.

Mark my word

[IsItJustMe]

3. Obama, instead of using silly season to describe our political culture in this country, could have

just as easily said absurd season. I guess I just don't get it, and at this rate, probably never will. Oh well, so-be-it.

[MADem]

11. Why? When the shit's hitting the fan, you move to another room.

She doesn't have to do a thing. No need to stir this pot at all, it's boiling over without her help.

If I were her, I'd deflect any questions and say "Let's talk about jobs" or something like that.

[sandnsea]

2. Rev Wright cares

He wishes the people of the US cared too, and didn't find it so easy to attack people who are different than us, who we label as deficient in order to make it easier to kill them.

[IsItJustMe]

5. Don't get me wrong. I saw his speech and there was a great moral message to it and I agree with it.

But this is about the next POTUS, not Wright. We are being distracted.

[sandnsea]

8. It's about all of us

We will need many strong voices to change the country and world, many voices like Rev Wright's. They keep silencing these voices, labeling them angry kooks, like they did to Al Gore. We either stand up every time the media goes after one of them, or we will never get out of this nightmare.

[DJ13]

4. I wish the MSM would have spent as much effort discrediting Bush on Iraq

This seems to me to point out how scared the corporations behind the MSM are that a guy who's campaign is funded by the people instead of them might win the Presidency.

[ClassWarrior]

6. But at least it has introduced us to one amazing Progressive individual.

And it always warms my heart to see strong, caring Progressives.

NGU.

[IsItJustMe]

7. The silver lining aspect of it all. I will agree with you on that.

[Skittles]

9. it is hashed out more here on DU than anywhere else

I swear

[MADem]

10. With the exception of Jimmy Carter, who was unabashedly religious, and

John Kennedy, who was Catholic and defanged that issue fairly smartly, Democratic presidential candidates haven't been Out Front And In Your Face about their "faith." They also haven't gone around discussing it as part of their stump speeches.

That's why this is news.

Really, who knew what religion FDR was? Truman? LBJ? Some kinda Xtian, that's as far as we knew, or cared to know.

Even recently, Kerry (cafeteria Catholic--didn't see him hopping in and out of church, or snuggling with priests), Dean (what the hell was he?), Gore (some kinda Xtian)...the biggest recent religious election news before this run was Holy Joe the VP candidate, who ALSO "defused" the old Sabbath business with "I'd go to work in the car if it were an emergency on the Sabbath." He came off as "The Friendly Observant Jew" who could "make allowances" and "bend the rules" in the interest of national security.

We haven't ever had this much preaching and church-festing and religion in our faces, ever. It's a different paradigm.

Edit: Religious is not spelled "relilgious!"

[AlGore-08.com]

13. Just F.Y.I. Gore is a Baptist, and he was smeared as a eco-nut pagan in 2000

The difference was that the smears were based on things Gore himself supposedly said (although Gore never said them). Gore was also attacked as being a false Christian - - misquoting the bible and other b.s.

Kerry was attacked for being Catholic and not being rabidly anti-abortion. A number of Catholic clergy members publicly insisted he not receive communion during the 2004 election.

I can't remember what was the "he's not a real Christian" club they used against Bill Clinton (Baptist) in '96 and '92 (besides his having committed the sin of adultery). I do remember it being discussed, though.

F.D.R. was an Episcopalian. (He wrote a very famous letter in defense of Al Smith's religion when some people objected to a Catholic running for President.)

Harry Truman was a Baptist.

LBJ was a member of the Disciples of Christ.

This kind of B.S. goes on every election.

[MADem]

19. Well, this, really, is my point--you weren't hearing any of that stuff from DEMOCRATS.

You were hearing that from the fundy right wing. They ALWAYS do that. It's expected, we ignore it.

But this year, it IS different. We're hearing these religious discussions within the party. That old church/state wall has crumbled over on our side, apparently.

I just turned on the news, it's STILL the top story--on New England News, not the usual CNN, MSNBC or Faux subjects. They're saying his remarks to journalists AFTER his Press Club speech are at issue...

[bhikkhu]

12. Both the RW and the Clinton campaign fastened upon Wright

as the centerpiece of the "unelectable argument". Wright has been consistently and continually invoked as the albatross around Obama's neck. You might say he is at the center of Hillary's "comeback" and at the center of the RW plan to demonize and defeat Obama in the fall.

As it happens, Wright should be a brilliant asset, and the wheels just fell off of many carefully constructed plans. You might say that things are as they are, rather than as they should be. But it has been a fine weekend.

[guyanakoolaid]

14. Indeed it is. HOWEVER... the term "Hagee justice" will be studied by scholars years from now

Obama has done well to not fling the bullshit back at Hillary. Stay above it, and let us do it for you when it comes to McCain.

[BlooInBloo]

15. They made the entire Catholic Church an issue for JFK....

... Of course religion is NOT the issue here. It's only a convenient cover for that-which-cannot-be-said.

[Saturday]

16. It's important because Rev Wright was Obama's mentor.

Wright was also a paid advisor on his staff. Shows judgement of the candidate.

[TragedyandHope]

17. It's important because enough people have allowed themselves to be sucked into it

Or at least, enough thinking Americans who see right through this farce have been unwilling or unable to make their voices heard above the deafening noise of the corporate media bullhorn.

[eilen]

18. I am convinced it is a racist ploy by Obama's opponents.

This man is the real thing. They would be calling him a communist if he were white. His ideals remind me of the Catholic Worker/Dorothy Day ministry.