Clinton Backer "Organized" Wright's Press Club Event

As first reported in Erroll Louis' column in the NYDaily News yesterday, Clinton backer Barbara Reynolds 'organized' Wright's appearance at The National Press Club.

Is Jeremiah Wright a colossal disaster for Barack Obama or a press trick?
Tuesday, April 29th 2008, 4:00 AM

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright couldn't have done more damage to Barack Obama's campaign if he had tried. And you have to wonder if that's just what one friend of Wright wanted.

Shortly before he rose to deliver his rambling, angry, sarcastic remarks at the National Press Club Monday, Wright sat next to, and chatted with, Barbara Reynolds.

A former editorial board member at USA Today, she runs something called Reynolds News Services and teaches ministry at the Howard University School of Divinity. (She is an ordained minister).

It also turns out that Reynolds - introduced Monday as a member of the National Press Club "who organized" the event - is an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter.

On a blog linked to her Web site- www.reynoldsnews.com- Reynolds said in a February post: "My vote for Hillary in the Maryland primary was my way of saying thank you" to Clinton and her husband for the successes of Bill Clinton's presidency.

The same post criticized Obama's "Audacity of Hope" theme: "Hope by definition is not based on facts," wrote Reynolds. It is an emotional expectation. Things hoped for may or may not come. But help based on experience trumps hope every time."

In another blog entry, Reynolds gives an ever-sharper critique of Obama: "It is a sad testimony that to protect his credentials as a unifier above the fray, the senator is fueling the media characterization that Rev. Dr. Wright is some retiring old uncle in the church basement."

I don't know if Reynolds' eagerness to help Wright stage a disastrous news conference with the national media was a way of trying to help Clinton - my queries to Reynolds by phone and e-mail weren't returned yesterday - but it's safe to say she didn't see any conflict between promoting Wright and supporting Clinton.

It's hard to exaggerate how bad the actual news conference was. Wright, steeped in an honorable, fiery tradition of Bible-based social criticism, cheapened his arguments and his movement by mugging for the cameras, rolling his eyes, heaping scorn on his critics and acting as if nobody in the room was learned enough to ask him a question.

Wright has, unquestionably, been caricatured and vilified unfairly. The feeding programs, prison outreach and other social services he has built over more than 30 years are commendable, and his reading of the Judeo-Christian tradition as an epic story of people trying to escape slavery is far more right than wrong - and not something to be caricatured or compressed into a 10-second sound bite.

But Wright should have known - and his friend and ally Reynolds, a media professional, surely knew - that bickering with the press can only harm Wright and, by extension, Obama.

I hope that wasn't their goal.

Call me a tinfoil hat wearer is you must, I do not care. Spread the word. Maybe it's 'coincidence'....ok.

Uh huh.

While you look sideways at me, just remember this....all the stuff Louis talks about with regards to Obama in his column...has ' disappeared' from Reynolds' site.

Double uh huh.

Hillary " Tonya Harding" Clinton on Wright - ' He would not have been my pastor.'

About Jeremiah Wright, Hillary " Tonya Harding" Clinton had this to say:

"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."

************************************************************

Ahem.

This is what our fellow blogger, Field Negro had to say:

Today again the "Ice Queen" took a shot at the "O" man and suggested that he should have left his church. "We don't have a choice when it comes to our relatives, we have a choice when it comes to our Pastor." Maybe you can "Ice Queen", but black folks just don't go switching their church. Maybe that's how you white folks do shit, but religion is personal to black people. As a black man I take that shit personally when you attack the black church to make a political point. And when you do it for political expediency to deflect the news from your own little problems. "Oh stop it field, you don't even go to church". Yes but I understand that importance of the church in our community, and, unlike moi, most black folks do go to church and believe in the institution it represents. So the longer this shit goes on with the "O" man's pastor, the more upset I get. If Hillary had a clue she would have left that shit alone. Her husband is supposed to be the "first black president", they should know that there are certain things that we hold sacred and just should not be fucked with.

--------------------------------------------------------

And here is my reply. A reply that goes to heart of why the attacks on Jeremiah Wright are offensive and personal to Black people.
--------------------------------------------------------

Thank you, FN.

I have been making the rounds of ' MSM' Blogs to make this point.

There was a Rasmussen Poll done on Wright.

Poll on Wright


Here's the money section for me:

Overall, voters are evenly divided as to whether Obama should resign his membership in the Church—42% say that he should while 40% disagree. White voters, by a 46% to 33% margin, say that Obama should leave the Church. African-American voters, by a 68% to 16% margin, say he should not. Wright retired last month as Pastor of the Church.

While there was a 13 point difference FOR among Whites, look at the gap among Blacks - 52%.

52% AGAINST.

Why?

Church isn't some simple place where you go on Sunday to listen to the pastor for 30 minutes.

Church, in the Black Community, is all about COMMUNITY.

It's why, it's literally an all-day affair.

Black people do not change churches like they do purses. I am in my 30's, and outside of school, I've had exactly 2 church homes in my life. It took nearly 2 years to find the second one, but I found it. Commitment to a church isn't something that's done fly-by-night. It's not some fleeting commitment. It is a given that you will find something that you don't like about any church you attend; which is why it is the general COMMUNITY that will ultimately make that decision.

The Black Church is the ONLY institution, in the history of The United States of America, which, from its conception,

Validated, Supported, Incubated, and Treasured.

BLACK HUMANITY.

Period.

Don't think I'm correct, then name me another institution which has done so.

The attack on Trinity is seen as an attack on the Black Church, and thus, by extension, an attack on the Black Community as a whole.

During times of slavery and Jim Crow, the Black Church was what reinforced Community.

Post Civil Rights and Integration, the Black Church is now what brings Community together, considering that the Black Community, like the rest of America, is becoming more stratified along the lines of class. The Black Church is really the only place in Black America where you will consistently find the doctor and welfare mother in the same building, with the same purpose. It's the place to break down those walls of class that are building up.

To disown Wright and Trinity would be to disown the Black Community itself, which is why Obama said in his speech he couldn't. He understood that fundamentally about the Black Community, and he understood that political expediency would mean the doubting of the existence of his soul by the Black community. Obama would never be trusted again by Black folk if he had disowned Wright & Trinity. Even Black folk that don't go to church understand that you don't mess with the Black Church - it's just not done.


And the Handkerchief Head Mammy that Clinton has running her campaign KNOWS THIS.

Hillary "Tonya Harding" Clinton's Former Pastor Backs Jeremiah Wright

From The HuffingtonPost.com

Pastor Of Clinton's Former Church: Don't Use Wright To Polarize

A STATEMENT CONCERNING THE REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT


The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader
whom I have heard speak a number of times. He has served for
decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society.
He has been a vocal critic of the racism, sexism and homophobia
which still tarnish the American dream. To evaluate his dynamic
ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave
injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the
African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a
people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and
violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has
been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions
and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us
who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr.
Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize. This is a
critical time in America's history as we seek to repent of our racism.
No matter which candidates prevail, let us use this time to listen again
to one another and not to distort one another's truth.


Dean J. Snyder, Senior Minister
Foundry United Methodist Church
March 19, 2008

Well, at least he has principle.


*******
The Tonya Harding Reference is to this ABCNEWS.com report from a Democratic Superdelegate:

The question is -- what will Clinton have to do in order to achieve it?

What will she have to do to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, in order to eke out her improbable victory?

She will have to "break his back," the official said. She will have to destroy Obama, make Obama completely unacceptable.

"Her securing the nomination is certainly possible - but it will require exercising the 'Tonya Harding option.'" the official said. "Is that really what we Democrats want?"

The Jeremiah Wright/LBJ Connection

Hat tip - Prometheus6:

Did you know that there was a Jeremiah Wright/LBJ connection?

Jeremiah Wright was part of a medical team that took care of LBJ when he had some medical problems.

Just trying to help spread the word.

Picture of Wright on Medical team (he's on the right):

Picture

Scan of Letter from LBJ to Wright:

Letter


'Unpatriotic'?

I.don't.think.so.



UPDATE-

A Blog for You:

The TRUTH About Trinity

Obama's Latest Defenders: Mike Huckabee and Fox's Chris Wallace?

Ain't politics beautiful?

Huckabee, despite his scary demands for amending the Constitution, can be such a reasonable, likable fellow.