*Barack Obama was correct to sever official ties with his longtime pastor. Not because everything Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. has said is wrong (it isn’t) but because the fallout over Wright’s most explosive statements was distracting the public from Obama’s message of reconciliation and unity.
Rev. Wright’s inflammatory oratorical technique and controversial remarks (on September 11, the AIDS virus, institutionalized racism and the Clintons) do not represent Obama in either style or substance.
That should be obvious to anyone who has paid attention to Obama’s speeches and writings over the years. Obama’s message has always been one of healing, bringing people together and charting a new course toward a future of opportunity for all of Americans. He has consistently delivered this message in a calm, reassuring manner that respects his opponents, uplifts his supporters and appeals to reason rather than to cynicism and the baser emotions.
Obama’s association with Rev. Wright has not altered this. Indeed, Obama publicly disagreed with Wright before those video snippets of the reverend showed up on the news last week. Even conservative Fox News (in a shamefully manipulative report by E.D. Hill and Jeff Goldblatt) pointed out that last year Obama “disinvited” Rev. Wright from giving the invocation on the day Obama announced his Presidential candidacy.
Now that Obama has strongly denounced Rev. Wright’s divisive words and removed the reverend from his African American Religious Leadership Committee this matter ought to be considered closed. There is no need for Obama to stop attending Trinity United Church of Christ because the church appears to be doing a lot of good in the city of Chicago.
But you’ve got to wonder how and why this ever became an issue? Why is Obama being scrutinized more closely than other candidates? The double standard is appalling. Conservative televangelist Pat Robertson has been a close direct advisor to Republican Presidents as well as GOP candidates on all levels of government. But Robertson’s the guy who went on national TV (his own 700 Club), not once but twice, and said that the State Department should be bombed because of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Robertson (along with the late Jerry Falwell and many other incendiary right wing preachers) said infamously that Hurricane Katrina and the September 11 terrorist attacks were God’s punishment for America’s sins. Hmmm. Sounds a whole lot like Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “chickens coming home to roost” statement about 9/11. Yet, nobody asked Rudy Giuliani about that when he accepted Robertson’s endorsement for President early in the primary season.
I could go on, but you get the point. Conservative preachers and politicos get a pass for their outrageous statements, but Obama and Rev. Wright get pilloried in the national media. It’s not insignificant that this whole brouhaha about Rev. Wright started with right wing muckraker Sean Hannity.
As a voter, I’m really tired of these skirmishes over comments made by candidate’s advisors. Invariably, the statements are blown up beyond recognition and used to make damning implications about the people running for office. The Obama/Wright flap is the worst case of it in this election but it is not the first.
Obama supporters blasted former President Bill Clinton when he reacted to Obama’s victory in South Carolina by pointing out that Jesse Jackson won that state’s primary but didn’t win the nomination. Clinton simply stated a fact, but he was falsely accused of being racially insensitive. Geraldine Ferraro was similarly slammed when she suggested that Obama wouldn’t have been as successful in the primaries if he was a white man. Hillary Clinton was forced to repudiate that comment and accept Ferraro’s resignation. But come on, y’all! You know Ferraro was just telling it like it is! A white male candidate would not have been able to galvanize the black vote the way Obama has and that would have made him less competitive with Clinton. Blackness is an important part of Obama’s appeal, just like gender is one of the keys to Hillary’s appeal. Both candidates are aware of these advantages and have capitalized on them. Do you honestly believe that the Democratic primary race would this tight if both candidates were white men? Neither do I.
So, let’s all demand a moratorium on the politics of petty personal implications. Let’s get back to discussing the economy, education, poverty, global warming, the tragic and pointless war in Iraq and the other real issues that should be the focus of this historic campaign.
I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents. Share yours on the message board or by dropping me an e-mail: TurnersTwoCents@aol.com
THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!