Political Commentary

The Meaning Of “The Statements”

12 Comments

Obama is being Clintonian:

What I think he’s saying here is that he didn’t hear these particular statements because he didn’t happen to be in attendance. He’s not saying that he never heard Wright say these kind of things, although he wants to leave that impression.

Well, it’s not like that’s the only thing they have in common.

[Update at 6:40 PM EDT]

Here’s a lot more from “Allahpundit”:

Now that we’re into “what did the Messiah know and when did he know it” territory, watch for the left to move the goalposts by wondering what it is, precisely, that’s so terrible about what the old man said. So he thinks America’s responsible for HIV. A lot of people think a lot of things, y’know? Can’t “an old black man have his anger in the privacy of his church”?

Looks like Obama’s in full damage-control mode.

[Late evening update]

Another Clinton parallel:

I sat in his church, but I didn’t inhale.

Heh.

[Saturday morning update]

A few weeks ago, I said that when it came to Obama’s speeches, there’s no “there there.” Now Instapunk says that’s true of Obama himself:

Regardless of how the campaign war turns out, both sides have been crippled. Obama cannot win because there is no one inside the gauzy, unreal image to battle through the contradictions to a mandate based on character rather than a mosaic of sliver identities. His white vote will shrivel as ordinary Americans discover they can’t determine where his allegiance lies, unless it’s to himself only. Women will sit on their hands because they’ve seen enough of the slick young operator who waltzes in at the last moment and swipes the opportunity from the deserving veteran female (and being half-white doesn’t help him in this respect). But Hillary can’t win, either, because of the one-drop rule. Even though Obama is not and never was an African-American, he has always been black enough to benefit from the superannuated slave culture that forgives every corruption and hypocrisy in those who have any claim on being black. If Hillary is the nominee, African-Americans will stay home in significant numbers. Unlike Jeremiah Wright, John McCain is the irascible uncle we’d go to for help in a pinch, not hide from because of the revolver he keeps in a cigar box.

At the end of the day, Reverend Wright is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the poison in the well. Like Moses, he can never accompany his chosen ones to the promised land When his people finally learn to stop following his like, they will find what they seek, as if by magic. But for now, the horse he groomed for them is scratched at the gate.

The Democrats have set themselves up for a well-deserved electoral catastrophe this fall. And it didn’t just happen this year. It’s been building for almost half a century.

12 thoughts on “The Meaning Of “The Statements””

  2. In television interviews tonight (such as MSNBC’s Countdown and CNN’s 360), Obama made it clear that he hadn’t heard those kind of statements in church, not just the particular statements themselves. On CNN, Anderson Cooper asked him if had been told that such statements had been made. He said that he had been unaware of any such statements until he decided to run for president, at which point the statements were brought to his attention, and it was then that he realized he had to make it clear he did not agree with what his minster had been saying.

  3. Why doesn’t he just claim that he slept through the sermons? (Or does that only happen in white Protestant churches?) That way he has an excuse even if he was there.

  4. The anger of an older generation of black people has been recognized by a new generation that wants a new way of looking at America. Obama has carefully observed the older generation and while aware of the old thinking has a new way of looking at America. I think this whole controversy is going to make Obama’s message more powerful, not less.

    Certainly there is no evidence in Obama’s life for anything that jives with the carefully Fox selected inflammatory statements of Mr. Wright.

    He happened to find Jesus in this church. So, good news for you Hussein lovers, Obama is a Christian! Can’t say he is a hidden Muslim anymore, can you?
    Heh Heh.

  5. Let’s be clear about this: Obama sat in the church for 20 years and NEVER heard any of Wright’s rantings? He contributed over $22,500 in 2006 to the church, but he rejects its teachings? It isn’t as if Wright was trying to hide his opinions, or conceal the depth of his hatred.

    Churches are more than simply Sunday attendance, they involve community, and circles of friends. Does Obama with us to believe that in this time (20 years, lets remember) that no conversations ever just ‘sprung up’ with other members of the congregation about the rather ‘unusual’ opinions expressed by Wright? That his wife never mentioned anything (OK, that one I do believe…), that his children never asked about some of these statements?

    If any of the above statements are true, then Obama is sufficiently isolated, insular, and incurious that he would make a very poor president on the face of the matter. If they are false (far, far, far more likely) then he is a liar and is deliberately decieving the public for no purpose other than to escape embarassment. In either case, it is fairly clear that he would be a very poor choice for president.

  8. Well, first off, I don’t know how Instapunk defines “African-American”, but it would seemingly be the best descriptor of somebody whose father is African (Kenya)and whose mother is “American”.
    Scare quotes for American thanks to, the always should read, Spengler at the Asia Times.
    Am I white evil/stupid because his opinion makes sense to me?
    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html

  9. “Certainly there is no evidence in Obama’s life for anything that jives with the carefully Fox selected inflammatory statements of Mr. Wright.”

    Careully Fox selected inflammatory statements?? Take any ONE of those statements, and then source ANY other pastor in the US with the same statement. JUST ONE will do for me.

  10. Anonymous, if that’s what Obama said, then he is lying.

    http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/8/8/194812.shtml

    “Wright laced into America’s establishment, blaming the “white arrogance” of America’s Caucasian majority for the woes of the world, especially the oppression suffered by blacks. To underscore the point he refers to the country as the “United States of White America.” Many in the congregation, including Obama, nodded in apparent agreement as these statements were made.

    The sermon also addressed the Iraq war, a frequent area of Wright’s fulminations.

    “Young African-American men,” Wright thundered, were “dying for nothing.” The “illegal war,” he shouted, was “based on Bush’s lies” and is being “fought for oil money.”

    In a sermon filled with profanity, Wright also blamed the war on “Bush administration bulls–t.”

    Those are the types of statements that have led to MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson describing Wright as “a full-blown hater.””

    According to NewsMax, Obama was in attendance on that day. It’s not like this spat about Wright is a new controversy for Obama – look at the date of the article. He’s just been hoping it’ll go away.

  12. I’ve been to church numerous times and never heard a word of the sermon.

    Between lousy acoustics and early on a sunday after a rough night out, well,
    i think angels sound like snoring.

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