Bob Herbert: The Pastor Casts a Shadow

[nsd]

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright went to Washington on Monday not to praise Barack Obama, but to bury him.

Smiling, cracking corny jokes, mugging it up for the big-time news media — this reverend is never going away. He’s found himself a national platform, and he’s loving it.

It’s a twofer. Feeling dissed by Senator Obama, Mr. Wright gets revenge on his former follower while bathed in a spotlight brighter than any he could ever have imagined. He’s living a narcissist’s dream. At long last, his 15 minutes have arrived.


nytimes

[QC]

1. I expect this thread to drop like a rock. n/t

[Skittles]

21. why?

it's one of the few non-hysterical threads I've seen about Mr. Wright.

[QC]

27. That's why I expected it to drop. Not enough drama, too much sense.

I have been very pleasantly surprised!

[Fenris]

2. Very thoughtful analysis.

[anonymous171]

3. Last night I really liked him. This morning I hate that guy.

What an ass.

[ProSense]

4. "Smiling, cracking corny jokes" BS. Wright was extremely funny. n/t

[question everything]

13. Yup, like Huckabee

I was thinking that this is why these pastors are successful. They speak well and can reach their audience.

[Seen the light]

5. I wish I could recommend 1000 times....key sentence here:

"The question that cries out for an answer from Mr. Wright is why — if he is so passionately committed to liberating and empowering blacks — does he seem so insistent on wrecking the campaign of the only African-American ever to have had a legitimate shot at the presidency."

Exactly.

[ProSense]

6. Wright hasn't wrecked anything. Where is the proof?

They're already creating wreckage a day after a speech? How quick they are to tell us that the campaign is damaged.

This is all BS!

[Seen the light]

9. Didn't Obama's numbers start slipping once Wright first surfaced nationally?

Ask yourself this: Why are the Clinton supporters on DU cheering Wright on all of a sudden if this helps Obama? Think this through. EVERY Clinton supporter on DU has been licking their chops with Wright becoming the star of the show. Gee, I wonder why that is.

[ProSense]

10. Um...

no

[quakerboy]

16. Why? Because they are desperate to make hay of anything

they think has a chance. Every other deathblow has slipped by hardly noticed. But they just keep hoping that the next one will be the "one" to do it.

My boss listened to Wrights speach this morning. My boss who believes that Bush is president because god wants it that way. That boss is voting for Obama, and after the speach, asked if I knew where to get an Obama sign he could put up.

[Skittles]

25. it's "speech", not "speach" n/t

[anigbrowl]

19. Magical thinking

they think that if they act as if his campaign is sunk and terminally damaged, it will magically come to pass. It's a common phenomenon, most of those self-help seminars and gurus basically teach this trick. Psych yourself into believing something is so (that you're attractive, you are going to make a lot of money, whatever) then it will come to pass.

It sort of works on the individual level because if you switch your thinking you switch your actions and the way you relate to people, and others can sense an air of confidence - 'fake it till you make it'. But when it comes to manifesting change in the external world, it's just delusional. Unfortuantely some Obama supporters fell for the fake pass and are nervous or upset - to them I say, walking the walk is always more difficult than just talking the talk. Now is the time to do so.

[woolldog]

15. ProSense, you're too smart to believe what you're saying.

Hopefully the Obama camp isn't in such deep denial.

[cali]

28. Not according to David Axelrod

who I saw on Matthews last night. And somehow I think he knows a bit more than those of us posting here.

[bhikkhu]

7. MSM predicts doom. How long have they been doing this?

They lost my interest and respect long ago.

And why, when media hacks predict doom, falling in line with the RW hacks predicting doom, do people here seem so eager to fall in line and predict doom themselves?

Rhetorical question. I won't be back to kick this worthless thread again so flame away in my absence.

[Maddy McCall]

8. What changed? A couple of days ago, Obama supporters were saying how they...

wished that Wright was their own preacher, how much they loved him, how much truth he spoke.

Why the sudden change of heart and lambasting of the man today?

[2rth2pwr]

11. I'm stunned, all the atheists that were clamoring for Wright to be their Pastor

have faded away today.

??

[anigbrowl]

17. No we haven't. He's welcome in my town and my home.

Do I agree with everything he says? No. Do I think there's more than one path to the truth? You bet.

[Sapphocrat]

12. And whatever happened to...

..."Obama CANNOT throw Wright under the bus" - ?

That little tune has changed to "Obama MUST cut this guy loose, NOW!"

And it's not as if nobody warned the Obama supporters about Wright, repeatedly. And what was the constant refrain? "Manufactured controversy!" "Faux outrage!" "This won't hurt Obama!"

Maybe one of these days, we irrelevant, know-nothing, past-it "old white ladies" (and men) might be taken seriously for a change. It's just a shame it takes a complete implosion for even a few to start listening.

[quakerboy]

18. Its still Faux controversy and Hillary is still losing ground every day

Obama should be shamed that he stepped as far back from Wright as he did. That is his mistake in this.

Stop buying the M$M line, and I might consider taking you seriously. Until then, you go in the same category as my aunt. She almost killed me and my family because she watched the nightly news. She panicked my mom with stories of killers stalking the rest stops, so my mom tried to drive straight though from the southwest to Oregon because we were too poor to afford a hotel. On the way we ran off the road into not one, but 2 sandbanks when she feel asleep. Fear can kill because it breeds stupidity.

[Sapphocrat]

20. First, this is about Obama.

The day you show that you can defend Obama without dumping on Hillary, I might take you seriously.

Second, I couldn't care less if you put me in the same category as your aunt, your third-grade teacher, or your dead goldfish. I do not exist to live up to your suffocating, narrowminded criteria by which you deem another human being worthy of your approval, and I'm not about to lose a moment's sleep over your dismissal -- nor over whatever lofty, dazzling point you're trying to make about your panicky mother.

You, however, will one day be my age, and find yourself saying to someone else: "One day, you will be my age..."

I won't be around to see it, but I am content in the knowledge that you will regret your reckless eagerness to chuck the rest of us into the Soylent Green hopper.

I used to think I knew better than my parents, too.

[Skittles]

24. oh, SNAP!!!

:thumbsup:

[quakerboy]

31. Sorry

It has nothing to do with age or gender. It has to do with fear. When you stop spitting "I'm better than you because I have age" and using it to sell whatever M$M line of the day happens to fit your agenda, then you may have a point.

[Skittles]

23. maybe he is overstaying his welcome

there's a difference between being perceived as fighting back and being considered a narcissist who is enjoying his 15 minutes just a little too much

[emilyg]

14. Good analysis.

[Dyllyn]

22. Funny thing is Hill gets no coverage while this plays out

And she can't afford ads . So everywhere you look it's Obama

[Ed76638]

26. Reverend Wright is the shit.

I love this man. I'm tired of the whore press trying to define people for me. I possess more intelligence and wisdom than all those motherfuckers (exept Olbermann). Those fools couldn't even grasp the man's entire message, and instead focused on the soundbites and claimed "It's hurting Obama". WRONG!!!! It's the shit that passes for "news" and "analysis" thats hurting Obama, not some pastor who goes out there and speaks some truth.

[cali]

29. you're simply delusional judging from your

post. Herbert is light years smarter than you. Same for Krugman and Rich and EJ Dionne and others. And Obama's lead strategist, David Axelrod thinks Wright is harming Obama too- not just the MSM coverage of Wright, but Wright himself. Yeah, yeah. You're smarter than Axelrod too. *snicker.

[GoldieAZ49]

30. Great article, thank you for posting it

Obama is between the proverbial rock and hard spot.

The campaign top dogs can do nothing about it. Now we see why they didn't want Obama to give his 'race speech'. He painted himself into the corner.