....FOR THE CLINTONS!
OH, AND THAT BOOK HE HAS COMING OUT!
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GOOD MORNING FLINT!
BY Terry Bankert 5/1/08
You are invited to join me at Face Book http://www.facebook.com/people/Terry_Bankert/645845362 ___________________________
Full article at http://goodmorningflint.blogspot.com/
Flint Talk http://flinttalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=27984#27984
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WHY WOULD A BLACK OLD PREACHER KEEP DOWN THE NEW GENERATION OF BLACK LEADER? Black and white voters in next week's primary states agreed on one thing Wednesday: Barack Obama's preacher had hurt the Democratic presidential candidate at a crucial time. The question was how much.[A] Huckabee: Rev. Jeremiah Wright needs Obama to lose to justify his views [H] I grew up after the civil rights victories but within the evolution of our country that is allowing the cream of the black community to rise and lead. Why would a participant of the battle like Reverend Wright not allow his prodigy, Obama , to taste the sweet nectar of greatness? As Obamas sun rises the old guards sun will set. An old guard of the likes of Jackson, Sharpton, and a social stratum of the old school pastors such as Wright just need to get out of the way be quite and offer gentle support and leadership to their prodigy. These street fights cannot do it, they are inclined to eat their young for another second of fame , or to just sell their book. How sad.[trb]
IT IS ABOUT A BOOK DEAL. In the past few days, Mr Wright has made a series of public appearances - he has a book coming out later this year - that have infuriated the Obama campaign, which hoped it had put the Wright controversy behind it. [T] I think the flap over the Rev. Wright has gotten overblown, but there was one thing he said that really rankled me. On Monday at the National Press Club, he insisted that the attacks on him were tantamount to attacks on the black church. What a cop-out. As if the black church were the source for Wright’s most inflammatory statements, or would stand behind them. As if some of Wright’s views, which are fringe and have no basis in fact or scholarship, don’t deserve debate or harsh criticism. [f]
WRIGHT IS A BLATHERING OLD MAN IN DECLINE Larry Sharpe said he saw it coming, even if his friend did not. Watching Obama's former minister speak on national TV this week, the friend thought the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was making sense and putting an end to recent controversies that had rocked Obama's presidential campaign.[A]
THE OLD GUARD MUST DERAIL THE NEW BLOOD, OR THEY ARE DONE. "But I said, 'No, it's going to kill him,'" said Sharpe, a black Democrat who is intensely following Obama's battle with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.[A] The pugnacious pastor didn't back down before the national media this week in a combative and playful performance in which he damaged Senator Obama directly by suggesting the senator's previous rejection of some of the things the pastor had been saying was simply a politician talking. [T] "If Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected," Mr Wright said. [T] A grave looking Senator Obama, who is vying to be the first black president, said yesterday: "At a certain point, if what somebody says contradicts what you believe so fundamentally and then he questions whether or not you believe it - in front of the National Press Club - then that's enough. That's a show of disrespect to me. It is also, I think, an insult to what we've been trying to do (in the campaign). Whatever relationship I had with Mr Wright has changed as a consequence of this." [T]
CLINTON HAS THE BLACK PREACHERS, WRIGHT IS A BLACK PREACHER, CLINTON TOLD WRIGHT WHAT TO DO! HE DID IT! North Carolina and Indiana hold primaries Tuesday, and voters' reactions there to the Wright affair will help determine whether Clinton continues her recent string of victories over Obama, who still leads in the delegate count.[A]
DO YOU REALIZE HOW HARD IT IS FOR A BLACK MAN TO REPUDIATED HIS PREACHER. HOW STRONG A MAN OBAMA IS. HOW WEAK A PREACHER WRIGHT IS. Sharpe, 59, in some ways beat Obama to the mark. After a full day of rather tepid efforts to distance himself from Wright's fiery remarks to the National Press Club, the Illinois senator called a news conference Tuesday to denounce the retired pastor in severe tones, a tacit admission that his ties to Wright were damaging his campaign.[A] SenatorBarack Obama’s aura of inevitability in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination has diminished in the wake of his loss in the Pennsylvania primary and the furor over his former pastor, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. [n] So, he has a killer instinct after all--or at least some limit to his forbearance. Obama's response yesterday to Jeremiah Wright's flurry of appearances, and especially to the pastor's speech at the National Press Club on Monday, was pretty steely. He called what Wright had to say "a bunch of rants". He said he was disgusted, and looked it. In contrast to his earlier and widely noted speech on race, in which he said he could never repudiate Wright the man, this time he just went ahead and did so.[z] We shall see whether this works. Wright isn't going away. His NPC appearance showed that he is a narcissist as well as a racist demagogue, so there will be more. (So much, by the way, for taking his sermon snippets out of context. Wright has embarrassed not just Obama but also many moderate sympathisers who felt the reverend should be cut some slack. When asked about the government conspiracy to spread AIDS among the black population, he did not apologize for getting carried away; he affirmed that this was his view, saying that the government was capable of anything.) Perhaps Obama has now separated himself, but perhaps not.[z]
OBAMA IS BRINGING US TOGETHER. THE WRIGHTS, JACKSONS AND SHARPTONS MAKE A LIVING DRIVING US APART. THEY ARE HIS REAL ENEMY. And ours.[trb] The issue threatens the multiracial coalition that is crucial to Obama's hopes of becoming the first black president, and it has highlighted a gulf between white and black Americans on matters of church and religion. But interviews with more than two dozen Indiana and North Carolina voters Wednesday suggested Obama may have made the best of a bad situation, even if belatedly.[A] The rift between the pastor and his former follower runs deeper than words. It is a generational conflict. If what the pastor is saying is antithetical to everything Mr Obama has stood for as an adult, it is equally true to say that Mr Obama would not now be challenging the nomination without the broadsides from the fiery preacher. One generation of black leader is dependent on the other. [g]
WHITES ARE JUST TIRED OF THIS CRAP. THIS COUNTRY HAS TO MOVE ON AND REPLACE THE LEADERSHIP THAT WILL NOT. While many white voters were shocked to hear a minister curse America and promote conspiracy theories from the pulpit, some accepted Obama's argument that he should not be blamed for his former pastor's words. Many black voters, meanwhile, were far more familiar with Wright's style of preaching — whether or not they agree with it — and believe the issue will not cripple Obama's campaign.[A]
SILENCE SPEAKES LOUDER THAN THE RANTING. THE BLACKS ARE TIRED OF THIS CRAP. OUR COUNTRY HAS TO MOVE ON AND REPLACE THE LEADERSHIP THAT WILL NOT. In fact, in a day of interviews with North Carolina and Indiana voters of all races and ages, Sharpe was the only one to raise the Wright issue without prodding. Virtually all the prospective voters knew details of the matter. But unlike TV and radio talk show hosts, they found it far less interesting than the candidates' positions on health care, gasoline prices and other kitchen table issues.[A]
ON THE OTHER HAND
THE SAD THING IS THAT PASTOR WRIGHT IS NOT THE ROOT OF OBAMA’S WOES. IF YOU TRACE BACK HIS POLITICAL CAREER, YOU WILL FIND SOMEONE WHOSE JUDGMENT SEEMED OBSCURED BY HIS POLITICAL AMBITION. THINK ABOUT TONY REZKO, AND THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, AND, OF COURSE, PASTOR WRIGHT. [u]
IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY, THIS MAN HAS MORE THAN A FEW TIMES SHOWED A LACK OF JUDGMENT WITH HIS AFFILIATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS TO FURTHER HIS POLITICAL CAREER. [u]
AT THE START, HE ENJOYED THE BENEFITS FROM THESE ASSOCIATIONS AND SAID NOTHING. BUT WHEN THESE ASSOCIATIONS PROVED TO BE A LIABILITY TO HIS ASPIRATIONS, HE STEERED AWAY FROM THEM. AND MORE THAN A FEW TIMES HE HAS TRIED TO GET AWAY WITH “I-DID-NOT-KNOW-HIM” EXCUSE. I MEAN, YOU CAN ONLY SAY “I’M A BUTTHEAT” SO MUCH[u]
IT IS A NEW DAY. "Absolutely it hurts" Obama's campaign, said Sharpe, a retired truck driver. But Obama has done his best to distance himself, he said, and people who won't accept his explanation probably would not have voted for Obama anyway.[A] "What more can he do?" said Sharpe, who is leaning toward Obama even though he attended a speech by former President Bill Clinton in Sanford.[A]
I HOPE THE SUPER DELEGATES SEE THE SUPER COURAGE OF OBAMA Despite the Wright issue, Obama has continued to gain the backing of superdelegates, the prominent Democrats who are free to choose either candidate. Obama trails Hillary Rodham Clinton by just 21 superdelegates, 243-264, cutting her lead in half in less than two months. This week, he picked up seven delegates to her four.[A]
EVIL LURKS IN THE HALLWAYS OF THE HOUSE OF FARRAKHAN, WRIGHT IS HIS GUEST. June Biven, 85, of Evansville, Ind., was typical of many white voters interviewed. "Everybody I've talked to has said it was terrible of him to start this with the May primary coming up," she said of Wright, who this week restated his praise of Louis Farrakhan and repeated his own claim that the U.S. government may have invented the AIDS virus to attack blacks.[A]
LIKE A LEVEL 5 IT WILL BLOW OVER "I think it will blow over," said Biven, an Obama supporter. "It might hurt a little bit, but I do think he is the only one who can really change Washington."[A] Troy Morin of Apex, N.C., said he is leaning toward Clinton, but not because of the Wright matter.[A] "I just don't think it's all that important," said Morin, 41, who is white. "I think it's overblown."[A]
HILLARY IS JUST A PISSED OFF SOCCER MOM. OBAMA BRING US BACK OUR DIGNITY A quality engineer who brought his wife and two sons to hear Bill Clinton speak in Apex on Wednesday, Morin said he tilts toward the New York senator because of her experience in Washington, a point made by nearly every pro-Clinton person interviewed.[A]
LET YEE WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE To be sure, some white voters take a sterner view of the controversy. Betsy Lipsky of Raleigh, N.C., said she was deeply troubled by Wright's remarks and could not understand why Obama stayed in the Chicago church from which the minister recently retired. Lipsky strongly supports Clinton but said she would reluctantly vote for Obama in November if he is the nominee. GOP candidate John McCain "frightens me," she said, because he would continue Bush administration policies she abhors.[A]
WRIGHT IS A SMALL MAN WITH A SMALL MESSAGE As for the candidates themselves, Clinton said Wednesday she found Wright's remarks "offensive and outrageous." She said of her rival, "I think that he made his views clear, finally, that he disagreed. And I think that's what he had to do." She commented in an interview with Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly.[A] Obama, campaigning in Indiana, said, "The situation with Reverend Wright is difficult, I won't lie to you. We want to make sure this doesn't become a permanent distraction."[A]
WRIGHT ONLY SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF, TOO HIMSELF AS HIS STAR FADES AWAY Several black voters said Wednesday that they, too, sharply disagreed with some of Wright's comments. But none felt the matter should disqualify Obama.[A]
LETS NOT GET CARRIED AWAY. WRIGHT IS JUST A FALSE PROFITEER... "If a pastor said something I didn't like, I wouldn't go back to that church," said Deltrice Watkins, 34, a black housekeeper at Eastland Mall in Evansville. "I can't say what Obama should do." Some other black voters said Wright's remarks should have almost no impact on the election. "What he said shouldn't reflect on Obama at all because that's his own opinion," said Stacey Norman, 43, a home caregiver also from Evansville. She said her own pastor's political views "are not my political views, and Obama's pastor's views are not his." In Tramway, N.C., southwest of Raleigh, Naika Benjamin had harsh words for Wright and praise for Obama.[A]
A FOOL BY ANY OTHER NAME OR TITLE IS STILL A FOOL Wright, she said, "acted like a pure fool this week. I go to a black church, and my minister doesn't talk like that."[a] Benjamin, 24, who works at a hair salon, said she relates to Obama because he was raised by a single mother, like herself. As for Wright's remarks, she said, "I don't think they should make a big issue out of it. I don't think that's fair at all."[a]
AS WE TRAVEL ON THIS ROAD TO A BETTER AMERICAN WRIGHT IS JUST A HOWLING DOG BAYING AT THE MOON AS WE TRAVEL FORWARD TO OUR FUTURE LEAVING HIM AND HIS TYPE IN THE PAST SOON TO BE FORGOTTEN Sharpe, the North Carolina Democrat who scours the newspapers, TV, and Internet for political news, said the Wright incident goes to the heart of misunderstandings and suspicions between black and white Americans.[a]
LETS WALK THIS WALK TOGETHER He agrees with Obama that there is no basis to Wright's claim of a possible government conspiracy to spread AIDS among blacks. "But whites shouldn't be so shocked" that some blacks believe it is possible, he said, given the infamous Tuskegee Institute experiments on unsuspecting black men in Alabama who had syphilis decades ago, he said.[a]
YOU CANNOT NOT COMPREHEND NOR UNDERSTAND THE RAGE OF AMERICANS BLACK OR WHITE IF OBAMA IS UPSET BY THE BELTWAY PROS AND THEIR LACKIES Similarly, Sharpe said, if Democratic superdelegates steer the nomination to Clinton despite Obama holding a lead in pledged delegates, "then white America will not understand why black people are so upset." [a] Monday in Washington, he lost me, seeming more to revel in the spotlight. Maybe he didn’t say anything he hadn’t said before in his church, but I wondered about his judgment saying it at the National Press Club in the heat of a presidential campaign. But should Wright be a factor? Do we fairly make decisions about Barack Obama based on the beliefs and remarks of the retired pastor of his former church? These are the kinds of "swift boat” non-issues that distort campaigns. Wright was wrong, sure, but so is the national media for obsessing over him.[f] Republicans are already trying to portray Mr. Obama as a liberal who is outside the mainstream of American values, but the poll suggests that — at least so far — he is not viewed that way by most Americans. Nearly two-thirds of registered voters said they believe he shares their values, about the same number who felt that way about Mr. McCain (58 percent said Mrs. Clinton shared their values).[n]
Posted here by Terry Bankert ...
http://attorneybankert.com/
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—WHERE DID THIS STUFF COME FROM---- ---
[a] AP http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j7CFCuLFxDano9UulI3_ES7zARVwD90CF8KO0
[trb] Comments of Terry Bankert to include Cap headlines. http://attorneybankert.com/
[H] Houston Chroncile http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/5743681.html
[N] The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/us/politics/30cnd-poll.html?hp
[u] U.S.News and World Report http://www.usnews.com/blogs/barone/2008/4/30/obama-is-throwing--wright-under-the-bus.html
[t] The Austrailian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23623735-2703,00.html
[F] Freep.com http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/BLOG25/80430082
[g] The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/01/barackobama.uselections2008
[z] The Atlantic.com http://clivecrook.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/04/a_new_tougher_obama.php
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