Jack & Jill Politics

Everyone knows this isn’t about patriotism any more than wearing a flag pin is really about patriotism.

All this talk is about vilifying a fearsome enemy. Republicans are terrified of Obama, they haven’t seen anything like him EVER! They don’t know how to defeat the man. I’m sure if they found out he picked his nose, they’d be discussing that. Even Hillary couldn’t find any dirt on him…What, you mean they’ll actually have to have a respectful campaign based on the issues!???

On the Oprah message boards, people are fussing about how he was LATE to give his historic speech, and how that’s a sign of unprofessionalism!

Excellent! Spread the word.

Typo in previous post:

Should be One of the called out hannity, O’Rielly and Lou Dobbs.

http://tucc.org/home.htm

Mind are made up on both sides regarding Wright. You are preaching to the choir about Wright and if you think you can bring white swing voters around by defending the man and his words, you are mistaken.

Best to move on…it looks like Obama will run out the clock on FL and MI and get the nomination. The more Wright is brought front and center the more you damage Obama.

For Obama’s sake, let it go.

Thanks so much you guys…..

Help me get the word out!

God Bless

With reference to the above post, the article on the HuffPo is great, in part because it points out the enormous power of the media.

The media chooses what it focuses upon. Sure, they might report everything, but it is their focus and tone that influence so many people.

So that damaging story on Hillary gets some play, but not what it deserves. Never mind that it is a bold faced lie to the American public during a presidential campaign, and far worse than anything to do with the Wright controversy.

The other interesting fact is this: we know that in his hour of need, Bill Clinton reached out to Rev Wright and accepted his support. There are over 300,000 pastors in America, and fewer than 100 were invited to that prayer breakfast. Rev. Wright was one of them. He didn’t just casually show up; Bill Clinton wanted him there.

So Rev. Wright supported Bill Clinton when he needed it most. But where is Bill Clinton now…is he stepping forward to do the courageous and honest thing and defend Rev. Wright?

No way…he instead is seeking to use this against Obama and for his and his wife’s political benefit.

I guess we should know by now that we can never expect courage or honesty from the Clintons. They instead will just use us and then stab us in the back every time.

I dunno about all y’all, but I’m feeling pretty good about things after today. Richardson’s endorsement was powerful. Two people on FOX News said “enough.” Polls are showing positive reaction to the speech. I think this Wright story is punching itself out… and it might even start swinging the other way as more and more people realize that Wright is being vilified.

But yes, the MSM is failing to do its job properly. Every so often, you see a glimmer of truth, though. Tonight, I was shocked to see Dan Abrams on MSNBC finally start saying that the Clinton campaign simply cannot win. Chris Wallace finally saying, “No more.” However, these are minor moments. It’s up to us. Email Olbermann about Wright and LBJ. That’s not a bad place to start. Email CNN about Martin. Give the cat enough praise and he might even get his own slot. Call into your local radio shows and national talk shows. I totally am going to call into some on Monday AM (O’Reilly, Medved) about Wright and LBJ.

I agree with the others…it’s up to all of us to push our message out to the media and cover Obama’s back.

As Obama as said, we are the change we have been waiting for. We need to be the grassroots voices that are so active and so vocal that we cannot be ignored.

We need to speak out against this attempted swiftboating of an honorable candidate in Obama and yes, an honorable pastor in Wright.

And I still say that the conduct of the Clintons in this campaign has been an eye opener. They are really vicious, self centered individuals.

Wright put his reputation on the line in standing with Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. In fact, it was the entire black community, including the black church, that saved his presidency.

Now he repays that by throwing not just Wright under the bus, but by smearing Obama in his typical Clintonian fashion.

If either Clinton had an ounce of class or decency, they would have stepped up to the microphone long ago and declared that they know Rev. Wright to be a fine American, a fine pastor, a fine human being. They certainly should have stepped up and said that they know Obama to be a fine American.

Instead the Clintons continue to try to play on fear and racism.

Let’s speak truth to power, and carry Obama to victory. We need to get the Clintons out of the way so we can start to take on McCain.

I don’t know if anyone has linked this, a white male anti-racist who has done his work, but here you go:

Of National Lies and Racial Amnesia:
Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, and the Audacity of Truth

For most white folks, indignation just doesn’t wear well. Once affected or conjured up, it reminds one of a pudgy man, wearing a tie that may well have fit him when he was fifty pounds lighter, but which now cuts off somewhere above his navel and makes him look like an idiot.

Indignation doesn’t work for most whites, because having remained sanguine about, silent during, indeed often supportive of so much injustice over the years in this country–the theft of native land and genocide of indigenous persons, and the enslavement of Africans being only two of the best examples–we are just a bit late to get into the game of moral rectitude. And once we enter it, our efforts at righteousness tend to fail the test of sincerity.

But here we are, in 2008, fuming at the words of Pastor Jeremiah Wright, of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago–occasionally Barack Obama’s pastor, and the man whom Obama credits with having brought him to Christianity–for merely reminding us of those evils about which we have remained so quiet, so dismissive, so unconcerned. It is not the crime that bothers us, but the remembrance of it, the unwillingness to let it go–these last words being the first ones uttered by most whites it seems whenever anyone, least of all an “angry black man” like Jeremiah Wright, foists upon us the bill of particulars for several centuries of white supremacy.

But our collective indignation, no matter how loudly we announce it, cannot drown out the truth. And as much as white America may not be able to hear it (and as much as politics may require Obama to condemn it) let us be clear, Jeremiah Wright fundamentally told the truth.

Oh I know that for some such a comment will seem shocking. After all, didn’t he say that America “got what it deserved” on 9/11? And didn’t he say that black people should be singing “God Damn America” because of its treatment of the African American community throughout the years?

Well actually, no he didn’t.

You Must Read The Rest

Isn’t ironic that during the sermon he says nobody would hear it but the people around Chicago and that he wasn’t just some preacher preaching about race that an Ambassador to Iraq who’s seen and knows said that America’s chickens were coming home to roost.

Little did he know that many would hear this sermon while some were trying to hurt him and Obama; two of a few that knew Iraq was wrong. Hopefully, it will wring true to even a larger audience than Trinity.

I’ve listened to the sermon and I have felt so bad for Reverend Wright because all he did was teach his congregation about the parallel to the fall of Jerusalem the mighty city that had disobeyed the commandments of God and the tragedy that had overcome America. He spoke how reverence turned to hate and then to war in Jerusalem; war against innocent civilians – they bashed the children’s heads against the rocks.

And that is exactly how we got into the senseless Iraqi war. It’s too bad some of the decision makers hadn’t heard this sermon before they acted.

Don’t you all remember how angry we were, how we wanted revenge so bad that we let Bush lead us to believe that we had to attack Iraq because they had WMD’s and then lead us to a war that has lasted so long and cost so much. How so many of our leaders including Hillary Clinton were so angry and anxious that they didn’t even read the intelligence reports. They signed a blank check to go to war.

At or around this same time a man named Barack Obama said it would be a senseless war.

I don’t know what it means, though I know it means something that this would all come back around.

Reverend Wright isn’t crazy at all.

Some might call him crazy for cursing America, but I think I would be crazy too and call out in anger in the name of God to curse whoever could hurt and watch so many people hurt. Especially, if I had given my life to help so many people – watch so many people hurt.

Team Clinton missed a golden opportunity to repair their image in my eyes. Instead of keeping quiet on the Reverend Wright matter, they could have defended him and his right as an American and an ordained minster to preach the gospel. They could have released that picture and said Reverend Wright is a decorated marine, and someone who helped me through a difficult time. But they didn’t do either of those things. They just sat back and said nothing. Shows the content of their character.