Obama Dilemma
Obama is giving a speech addressing the situation with his pastor, Jeremiah Wright and the vile things the man said. He has to, since it seems to be hurting his candidacy.
The funny thing is I bet it wouldn't be as much a problem if this were the general election. He could just disavow Wright without much worry (in the vague way he's done so far--if it offended you, that means I must disagree with it), since he'd get all the African-American and hate-America-Left votes anyway. But as long as he's running against a fellow Dem, it's not quite so easy. (On the other hand, this could have been truly devastating if it became big over a month ago.)
posted by LAGuy @ 1:01 AM
11 Comments:
I saw a good piece somewhere (if I could find it again I'd link) making the point that almost all political candidates have this kind of problem in their closet. Clinton has taken religious guidance from an anti-semite, McCain from an anti-catholic bigot, etc. This is a line of attack nobody in either party wants to pursue too hard.
I've seen this too, and I don't find the argument too convincing. First, the other religious figures usually aren't nearly so bad as Wright, and second, the candidates don't have nearly so close a relationship.
In fact, these kind of scandals arise all the time, and when someone makes even one untoward religious statement in public--compared to Wright's hundreds--an immediate apology is usually in order, and if that won't do, disavowal by friends.
I agree with LAGuy. The part about the Wright videos that strikes me the most is how his audience reacts with cheers to his most outrageous statements.
Clinton and McCain may know religious bigots, but I can't imagine that Clinton or McCain ever sat through a religious service where the pastor declared that "the Jews control all the money" or "the Roman Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon", and then the audience cheered -- and then went on to write a book based on the pastor's sermons. Yet Obama chose the title for his book The Audacity of Hope from a sermon by Wright, and this was in 2006, when Obama had been going to the church for 18 years.
Obama says he was never in the church during the various sermons that he himself now describes as hate-filled. Suppose that's true. Surely there must be many regular church-goers who were there, and who were there again when Obama showed up. Did he never notice that these people held the kind of views that would let them cheer when their pastor said these things? And even if Obama was busy on the road, wasn't his wife present?
The alternative -- which I consider to be a real possibility -- is that the Obamas didn't know about these sermons because they actually don't attend church very often. In that case, Obama was simply massively exaggerating his Christian piety in an election. He certainly wouldn't be alone in that! If this turns out to be the case, it actually would neutralize the Wright problem for me. But for those folks who worship Obama The Honest Statesman, I wonder if this would be a blow.
This is what happens when politicians get involved with religion- its a stepping stone stone to intolerance and harder positions. My advice to politicians is just say no to lure of churches. (My thanks to Nancy Reagan)
Speaking of Reagan, I surprised nobody brought up the Southern minister from his 1980 who loudly proclaimed that God could not hear the prayers of a Jew (and was never if I recall specifically denounced by the Gipper). I guess we heard less about that because the number of people offended was comparatively small, electorally, and largely were anti-Reagan already (at the time)
Lawrence is spot on. Obama has already started hedging how much he actually attended Church. I heard him say that when his children were born he didn't attend for a while (funny, its usually the birth of children that reinvigorate folks inclined to go to Church to attend more often).
I think Obama was originally concerned with being considered a Muslim, and played up his connection to the Christian church. His staff did not do a good job vetting the church, however. In reality, as in most mixed marriages, Obama is probably not much of a Muslim or Christian. Which is fine, but Obama has weaved a pretty tangled web trying to appear solidly Christian.
P.S. I remember a lot of people commenting that reagan did not attend Church very often (hardly ever). One's religious credentials are not necessarily demonstrated by Church attendence, but rather by ones attitudes and behaviors. I always had the impression that George Bailey didn't attend Church much (I'm not much of a praying man"), but his actions caught God's attention.
"Speaking of Reagan, I surprised nobody brought up the Southern minister from his 1980 who loudly proclaimed that God could not hear the prayers of a Jew (and was never if I recall specifically denounced by the Gipper)."
I think New England Guy misses the boat here. Even if Reagan had one-tenth the closeness with his pastor that Obama's had with Wright, and Reagan didn't, by the way, this one statement, which is a religious statement (a pretty stupid one, but no more offensive really than believing Jews believe in the wrong religion and aren't saved), is incomparable with the many years of vicious, ugly, hateful pure political rhetoric to come from Wright.
A lot of Obama's defenders are desperately trying the Tu Quoque defense, and trying to claim that Obama's being singled out and treated unfairly. I would hope people are smart enough to see through this.
"many years of vicious, ugly, hateful pure political rhetoric"
Who brought up Anne Coulter?
I think if you don't like the idea of Obama as President, these are outrageous statements that beyond the pale and that if you like Obama, yeah well he shoulda been more careful but well its one of the nutty things pastors tend to say among the millions of other things (cf. Pat Buchanan in 1988 on people who "cherry-picked" outrageous statements out of the thousands of words and columns he wrote)and view him the way otherwise reasonable people viewed the Reagan coalition's religious anti-semites.
Tune into AM gospel radio some night and you can find equivalent words uttered by holy tax-exempt firebrands which approach the Rev's religious bile.
I read the text of Obama's speech today. He struck precisely the right tone to convince me to let it go. The gist was: he heard Rev. Wright say things he disagreed with, but he never saw him act as a bigot, so he told him he disagreed then looked past it.
That almost perfectly describes my relationship with some of my oldest and dearest friends and relatives. People with good hearts, who would never intentionally treat someone differently because of the color of their skin, but who could sometimes say the most shockingly bigoted things. You either learn to accept people for their limitations, concentrating on their essential good nature, or you're going to drastically narrow the good people you let into your life.
You liked that mealy-mouthed, dishonest speech? I disagreed with Obama before on his politics, but I never had trouble with the man before.
"I read the text of Obama's speech today. He struck precisely the right tone to convince me to let it go. The gist was: he heard Rev. Wright say things he disagreed with, but he never saw him act as a bigot, so he told him he disagreed then looked past it.
That almost perfectly describes my relationship with some of my oldest and dearest friends and relatives. People with good hearts, who would never intentionally treat someone differently because of the color of their skin, but who could sometimes say the most shockingly bigoted things. You either learn to accept people for their limitations, concentrating on their essential good nature, or you're going to drastically narrow the good people you let into your life."
This is lovely sentiment, but you are not running for President. You are not claiming to represent me and claiming to be all about inclusion. You don't claim that a man who spews hatred is your spiritual advisor. So you'll forgive me if I hold Obama to a slightly higher standard regarding his interpersonal relationships.
"That almost perfectly describes my relationship with some of my oldest and dearest friends and relatives. People with good hearts, who would never intentionally treat someone differently because of the color of their skin, but who could sometimes say the most shockingly bigoted things. You either learn to accept people for their limitations, concentrating on their essential good nature, or you're going to drastically narrow the good people you let into your life.
"This is lovely sentiment, but you are not running for President."
I agree, anonymous, but it gets worse. This guy isn't just a spiritual advisor to Barack, this guy is someone who goes out and preaches to thousands publicly about what he wants.
PLenty of liberals (and I can give you lots of cites on this) actually say if you've got a racist friend, even in private, you've got to confront him or drop him. But this is beyond just putting up with some privately nutty guy (or, to use the unfair analogy Barack used, some older blood relative)--imagine if the guy were the leader of a large group that is openly racist and believes in absurd conspiracy theories. Not the same thing at all as Barack homely analogies.
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