A change is going to come

[ProSense]

The hypocrites in the media are gloating. Obama did what he needed to do: denounce Wright to put an end to the controversy.

April 29, 2008, 5:35 pm

Blogtalk: The Wright-Obama Drama

By Ariel Alexovich

Voices around the blogosphere say they’re tired of the media kerfuffle surrounding Barack Obama and his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., but they certainly keep writing about it.

They also say they’re sick of the expression “thrown under the bus,” but they keep using it. And they said it repeatedly today after Senator Obama held a news conference in Winston-Salem, N.C., to reject and denounce Reverend Wright, who made news yesterday when he defended his fiery sermons and dismissed Mr. Obama as just acting like a politician.

Mr. Obama said it was “appalling” that his pastor would seek out the media limelight to make such remarks, which led John Cole at Balloon Juice to write that Mr. Obama “distanced” himself from Mr. Wright “because I refuse to say he threw him under the bus, which is now my least favorite expression in the English language.”

James Joyner of Outside the Beltway thought Senator Obama said exactly what needed to be said to put this issue to rest.

I’m not sure what more Obama could say, to be honest. He’ll be tarred somewhat for having spent 20 years in Wright’s congregation and touting him so heavily as his mentor.

But this should stop the bleeding.

Andrew Sullivan, an Obama supporter, took that sentiment one step further, saying “skeptics may wonder whether Wright actually deliberately did Obama a favor. I doubt it. But a favor it unintentionally is.”

Today, we found that he can fight back, and take a stand, without calculation and in what is clearly a great amount of personal difficulty and political pain. It’s what anyone should want in a president. It makes me want to see him succeed more than ever. It’s why this country needs to see him succeed more than ever.

Multiple left-wing bloggers toed the line that it was necessary for Mr. Obama to make these remarks to reign in the Reverend Wright storyline. The last thing Senator Obama needed was for this to run away from him and damage his presidential bid.

<...>

Getting back to Balloon Juice’s John Cole (who is an Obama supporter), he said he doesn’t get why Reverend Wright is being derided so much for his words, when his actions are a testament to his big-hearted devotion to the poor.

Regardless, he may be a flawed man, but that does not undo all the good he has done over the years. I don’t know of any bloggers with thirty years of service to the poor and the indigent. Get back to me when Chris Matthews feeds hungry people for three decades.

Looking toward the future, Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report wonders how long all this Obama-Wright drama will last.

What will be interesting, of course, is whether Wright, in turn, feels the need to respond. Now that Obama has denounced him in rather personal ways, will Wright lash out at his former parishioner directly? And if so, will this become a yet another distracting, drawn-out feud? And would such a dispute help or hurt?

I guess we’ll find out soon enough, but in the meantime, Obama appears to have taken a major step towards distancing himself from a former pastor who Obama no longer wants anything to do with.

Let them gloat. A change is going to come despite them, and then they will claim to have supported it all along.

West: I mean, I think it's very important because you see a lot of chit-chat about Martin every year and Martin has been so domesticated and tamed and defamed, you know, what we call the Santa Clausification of the brother.

Tavis: Wait a minute. Hold the phone, hold the phone. The Santa Clausification of Dr. King, which means what, Dr. West?

West: He just becomes a nice little old man with a smile with toys in his bag, not a threat to anybody, as if his fundamental commitment to unconditional love and unarmed truth does not bring to bear certain kinds of pressure to a status quo. So the status quo feels so comfortable as though it's a convenient thing to do rather than acknowledge him as to what he was, what the FBI said, "The most dangerous man in America." Why? Because of his fundamental commitment to love and to justice and trying to keep track of the humanity of each and every one of us.

link

edited typos

[glowing]

1. Also, doesn't it seem interesting just how many black pundits the M$M

all of a sudden has to trot out and trash a man who has served his community better than they will ever by towing the line. Funny what a piece of paper does to a persons ideals, integrity, and soul. A piece of paper determines where you live, the education you receive, the food you have to eat or not eat. Funny what people will do for a piece of paper.

[dailykoff]

2. I don't think he needed to do it.

He got mad and did it, but he didn't need to. It's a shame and I don't think Wright really deserved it, unless he's on the CIA payroll, which isn't out of the question. Don't really know much about him except what I've heard in this campaign, but I think he was just trying to defend himself.

[ClericJohnPreston]

3. Friend today, foe tomorrow

Whatever works in the constantly changing world of Obamaland. Love him today, hate him tomorrow. Whatever makes all that illogic hold together for another day, fend off that Kool-Aid high headache, keep all the riddles straight.

Obama is a catastrophe. Period.

This is Obama:

"I have always been able to work together with Republicans to find compromise and to find common ground."

Closer to Rethug than Democrat. Rethugs HATE Hillary, embrace Obama.

DON'T YOU GET IT....YET???

[ProSense]

4. You make no sense! n/t

[ClericJohnPreston]

6. Deciphering Prosense

Simple, really. You start with the premise of her being programmed, obvious from months of posting. An intervention is necessary, or de-programming.

In the interim, "you do not make sense" = "THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE". ( see ROBOT, "Lost In Space" )

Nothing Prosense, can make a dent in that Kool-Aid slush, tsk, tsk.

[2rth2pwr]

9. {wow}

[ProSense]

10. No you make no sense. Obama is being slammed for being far left, right and center

It's all bullshit.

Is he linked to left-wing terrorists? Is he beholden to the "Democratic activists" Hillary so despises?

Get the off the spin, it's making you dizzy!

[hisownpetard]

7. DING, DING, DING! You, Madam, are correct. Not a whit of sense!!

[rhett o rick]

5. What? The right loves Obama? Please give an example. Everyone of the right

wing talking heads has been after Sen Obama. Night after night. Many have openly supported Sen Clinton. You want examples: Rush Limbaugh loves Sen Clinton and Joe Scarborough, Hannity, Beck, etc. attack Obama every nite.

[ClericJohnPreston]

8. Limbaugh today

was touting that Operation Chaos was "on hold" as he was alerting his listeners to support Obama over Hillary.

That sounds like the Right likes Obama. Wonder why? You deny they hate Hillary?

[rhett o rick]

12. I bet tonite Hannity and all the other right wing idiots will be talking about Rev Wright like they

have for weeks. They fear Obama. I heard today but don't have any links that polls showed that republicans favored Clinton over Obama and many said Clinton over McShame. Remember she gave her buddy George Bush the go ahead to invade Iraq and to this day doesn't feel bad about it. I could go on but it is pointless.

[ProSense]

13. CNN is on it! n/t

[stillcool]

14. Limbaugh?

what is 'on hold'?

[wisteria]

16. Limbaugh is playing games and trying to cause trouble within the party.

Not long ago he was urging his wacky listeners to vote for Clinton so that Obama wouldn't win.

[wisteria]

15. Senator Obama has been a moderate Senator, but he realized this is the only way to get things done.

This is the way our founding fathers envisioned our country being run. Checks and Balances. Senator Obama is not a Republican by a long shot. Senator Clinton on the other hand give one pause, especially with her recent alliances with the likes of Scaife and Murdlouch.

[undeterred]

11. and the irony of somebody writing about other people writing about it

:hurts:

[ProSense]

17. Sharpton, who is currently sharing the advertising spotlight with Pat Robertson, speaks

Sharpton on Obama on Wright

April 29, 2008 11:47 PM

ABC News' Brinda Adhikari reports: Reacting to Sen. Barack Obama's comments today about his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright's inflammatory remarks at the National Press Club on Monday, the Rev. Al Sharpton told ABCNEWS that it took "a lot of courage for to say some unequivocal statements against someone that has been dear to him, his pastor."

Calling Rev. Wright's comments "appalling" and "outrageous," Sen. Obama denounced the words of his former pastor.

When asked how the African-American community at large would respond to Sen. Obama's denunciation, Sharpton said that "some are going to agree, and some are going to disagree."

He quickly added: "But none of that is going to change my vote. There's no difference between what Barack Obama said he believes in today than when we first heard him four years ago at the 2004 convention."

And what of his fellow African-American clergymen, who might be in somewhat of an uncomfortable position over their loyalties to the black church versus the possibility of electing the first African-American president?

"I think that this is a very painful, and troubling issue particularly for those of us in the black church," responds Sharpton. "I think some would want to try and tell what would be the right thing to do."

Ultimately, Sharpton said, "Barack Obama's not running against Jeremiah Wright. He's running against Mrs. Clinton and later, hopefully, John McCain. And when we choose between him and them, even if we disagree on the Rev. Wright controversy, I don't think it changes our vote on whether we think he'd be better for all Americans than his opponents."

Yeah, Pat Robertson is in an ad with Sharpton, and they're looking for an island to banish Wright to.

[TexasObserver]

18. change means different things for the three remaining candidates

For Obama, it means changing the way of doing things in Washington, DC.

For Hillary, it means the jar of change her campaign is keeping in hopes of paying $15 million in campaign debt.

For McCain, it means changing his "Oops I Crapped My Pants" diaper. Again.

[ProSense]

19. On that note, here's a great piece:

Lessons Learned

by Hunter
Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 09:10:13 AM PDT

Things I have learned during this campaign season:

In a race that includes a former First Lady of the United States and a multimillionaire Republican senator rumored to share up to eight residences with his wife, the black guy from Chicago is unforgivably elitist.

Racism in America is caused primarily by black Chicago preachers.

The guy who keeps getting confused over the relationship between Iraq, Iran, and al Qaeda is the foreign policy expert.

The guy who goes to campaign stops on his wife's private jet aircraft is the most down-to-earth.

The guy who changed his stance on tax cuts, Roe v. Wade, immigration, gun control, the confederate flag, torture, public financing, and his own anti-earmark rhetoric is the "straight talker".

People in the heartland don't like it when you call them bitter, but they do like it when you explain to them that they're too dumb to understand issues more important than whether or not they like to be called bitter.

Arugula is the measure of a man.

Bowling is the measure of a man.

Orange juice is the measure of a man.

Flag pins are the measure of a man.

Success in Iraq consists of any reduction in violence, except when violence increases that's good too.

A recession is only a recession if you call it one.

Bill Kristol, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Karl Rove, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, David Broder, Charles Krauthammer and Bob Novak are all intensely interested in giving advice to the Democratic candidates because they just want to be helpful.

There are people in this world dumb enough to believe every one of these things.

[azmouse]

20. I don't know whether to laugh or cry over that.

I do know that I'm scared for this country if things don't change and change fast!