Posts filed under 'Jeremiah Wright'
June 6th, 2008
A newly released independent STUDY of media coverage of the primary campaigns shows that the controversy over Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, “was by far the dominant media story of the entire campaign.”
So much for the bogus theory that the media have been soft on Obama.
Over the first five weeks of the year, Hillary Clinton dominated news coverage in two of those weeks, John McCain in two others and Obama in only one.
The Illinois senator got lots of good coverage when he won 10 primaries and caucuses in a row, but that was soon replaced by the negative stuff on Rev. Wright and other matters.
May 4th, 2008
From here on out, I would guess, Barack Obama’s political rivals are going to go easy on the rhetoric about Jeremiah Wright — lest Obama make any more gains like THESE.
May 2nd, 2008
In 1972, Richard Nixon’s infamous White House taping system captured the voice of the Rev. Billy Graham saying this:
“A lot of the Jews are great friends of mine. They swarm around me and are friendly to me…But they don’t know how I really feel about what they’re doing to this country.”
That remark came in a conversation Graham had with Nixon about supposed Jewish control of the media.
Graham said the Jewish “stranglehold (on the media) has got to be broken or the country’s going down the drain.”
Replied Nixon: “You believe that?”
“Yes, sir,” said Graham.
“Oh, boy,” responded Nixon. “I can’t ever say that, but I believe it.”
“No, but if you get elected a second time,” suggested Graham, “then we might be able to do something.”
Graham apologized for these comments when the tape of them was made public in 2002. The ensuing scandal didn’t amount to much and quickly faded.
Graham has never been subjected to the reprobation the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has faced in recent weeks and months for his controversial statements. Nor were any of Graham’s close friends and admirers said to be guilty by association with him.
I raise this issue because it came up last night on “The Daily Show,” as we see HERE.
April 30th, 2008
The political sophisticates who figure that the flap over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has pretty well doomed Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy had better think again.
The latest Wall Street Journal-NBC poll SHOWS that Americans are more troubled by the relationship between two other men.
Guess who.
POSTSCRIPT: That same poll shows Obama with a national lead of 3 percentage points over Hillary Clinton and 3 percentage points over John McCain. THIS OTHER POLL shows Obama leading Hillary by 8 percentage points and tied with John McCain.
Yeah, that Rev. Wright stuff is just killing him, isn’t it? Maybe he should get out of the race.
UPDATE: Pat Buchanan tonight on MSNBC:
”If President Bush is more unpopular than the Reverend Wright, the Republicans are in a lot of trouble.”
Maybe George Stephanopoulos will ask this question the next time he interviews McCain: “Do you think President Bush loves America as much as you do?
UPDATE II: Jonathan Martin of Politico is out with THIS REPORT, which includes the following passage about sentiments among Republican activists:
“From top to bottom, from McCain down to the youthful campaign and party staffers who work nearly around the clock to get him elected, the working assumption seems to be that the Democratic contest is over and Obama has won.
“Even when Clinton attacks McCain, President Bush or GOP policies, the response is either outright silence or snarky, dismissive ridicule about a failed campaign barely relevant enough to merit a response.”
UPDATE III: And then there’s THIS GOOD NEWS for Obama.
April 30th, 2008
I don’t mean to dance on the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s grave, but I have to wonder why John McCain has yet to explain exactly why he embraced the infamous TV preacher when it was widely known that Falwell had blamed America for Sept. 11 (a verbatim reminder of which is PROVIDED by Chuck Sweeny this morning on his blog).
When McCain first ran for president back in 2000 as a maverick Republican who suffered fools badly, he denounced Falwell and the Rev. Pat Robertson as “agents of intolerance” and faulted George W. Bush for being too friendly with them.
But as the saying goes, that was then, and this is now. When McCain decided to run for president again this year, he cast himself as less a maverick and more a reliably conservative Republican. Accordingly, he made up with Falwell and Robertson and even deigned to deliver the commencement address at Falwell’s Liberty University (see photo above).
This was despite Falwell’s well-known record of outrageous utterances, not the least outrageous of which was the aforementioned blaming of America for 9/11.
Here are few others:
Back in the ’80s, after Southern Baptist Convention President Bailey Smith told a Religious Right gathering that “God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew,” Falwell offered an identical view. “I do not believe,” he told reporters, “that God answers the prayer of any unredeemed Gentile or Jew.”
Also in the ’80s, Falwell lost a lawsuit that stemmed from his having condemned the gay-friendly Metropolitan Community Churches as “brute beasts” and “a vile and Satanic system” that will “one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a celebration in heaven.” His attorney, without any disagreement from Falwell, said the Jewish judge in the case was prejudiced against Christians.
In 1993, despite his promise to Jewish groups to stop referring to America as a “Christian nation,” Falwell gave a sermon in which he said, “We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours.”
In 1999, Falwell told a pastors’ conference in Kingsport, Tenn., that the Antichrist prophesied in the Bible is alive today and “of course he’ll be Jewish.”
John McCain has never renounced, rejected or disowned these and countless other bigoted statements made by Falwell — at least not since he decided that the road to the Republican presidential nomination ran through the precincts of the Religious Right.
Nor have the media made nearly the fuss over McCain’s relationship with Falwell (and other such crackpots) as they have over Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright?
Falwell’s dead now, but his hateful legacy lives on. And John McCain says nothing about its poisonous effect on America.
April 29th, 2008
There’s a good overview HERE, and various reactions can be found HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.
As for me, I’m not sure if this is the beginning of the end of this issue as a political distraction. Nor can I yet guess whether Obama’s remarks today will help him in next Tuesday’s balloting in North Carolina and Indiana.
But one thing’s for sure, Obama’s break with his former pastor is complete and final.
POSTSCRIPT: If I read one more time that Obama has thrown Wright — or anybody else has thrown anybody else — ”under the bus,” I’m going to hurl. It’s time for that expression to be thrown under the bus. It’s sooo last year, y’know?
March 22nd, 2008
More than two-thirds of Americans who have heard or read about Barack Obama’s recent speech say he did a good job addressing the issue of race relations, and 63 percent of voters following the events say they agree with Obama’s views on race relations, according to a CBS NEWS POLL.
Seventy-one percent of respondents said the Democratic presidential front-runner did a good job of explaining his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
POSTSCRIPT: Rush Limbaugh, political guru to America’s mouthbreathers, begs to differ with the majority of respondents in the CBS poll. El Rushbo SAYS Obama “has disowned his white half … he’s decided he’s got to go all in on the black side.”
UPDATE: Fox News also has a POLL showing majority approval of Obama’s race speech. Most respondents don’t think the senator shares Jeremiah Wright’s views and don’t have new doubts about him because of his association with the controversial preacher.
UPDATE II: The Gallup Daily Tracking Poll SHOWS Obama passing Clinton after a deficit of 7 percentage points a few days ago.
March 20th, 2008
Morris FIGURES that the Jeremiah Wright controversy won’t likely sink Barack Obama’s candidacy.
March 17th, 2008
The Illinois senator WILL ENDEAVOR tomorrow to put the controversy over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to rest.
