You know the Obama campaign is seeing some baaaaad numbers over the last few days for Obama to come out and flip-flop on Wright: (via Michelle Malkin who liveblogged Obama’s speech)
“I’m outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle. The person that I saw yesterday was not the person I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate. I believe they do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church. They certainly don’t portray mine. If he considers this political posturing, then he doesn’t know me very well. And I don’t know him well either.”
AIDS conspiracy: “Ridiculous proposition.”
Farrakhan support and analogy of Marines/terrorism: “They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. They should be denounced. And that’s what I’m doing clearly and unequivocally here today.”
It’s antithetical to our campaign. It’s antithetical to what I’m about. It’s not what America stands for. Rev. Wright does not speak for me. He doesn’t speak for our campaign. I can’t prevent him from making these outrageous remarks…When I say I find these statements appalling, I mean it…Makes me angry and saddens me.”
Q&A.
1) Why the change in tone between now and yesterday? Obama: “I hadn’t seen it…He wasn’t just defending himself. He was presenting a worldview…What particularly angered me was the suggestion that my previous remarks were political posturing…”
Ok. Let’s be clear then: It wasn’t the fact that Wright has been spewing this same recycled crap for years that finally got Obama mad. It was that he finally realized it was hurting his campaign. And he was personally miffed by Wright’s insults against him.
2) What does this say about your judgment to superdelegates? “The person I saw was not the person that I’d come to know over 20 years…Shocked me, surprised me.”
2:11pm Eastern. “Now is the time to pull together.” Refers to dire economic situation. “That didn’t matter to Rev. Wright. What mattered to him was commanding center stage.”
“I don’t think he showed much concern for me…or for what we’re trying to do in this campaign.”
3) Question: Have you spoken with Wright? “No.”
BO: “This has obviously put strains on the relationship” between Obama and Trinity Church.
“I want people to understand who I am. In some ways, the things Wright said yesterday directly contradict my life, issues, service, what I’ve said in my books, in my convention speech, announcement for president, everything I’ve said on the campaign trail. What I tried to do in Philadelphia was provide a context and lift up some of the contradictions and complexities in America and try to make something constructive out of it. There wasn’t anything constructive out of yesterday. All it was was a bunch of rants that aren’t grounded in truth…It was a show of disprespect to me.”
5) Question: What did Michelle Obama think? BO: “She was similarly angered.”
6) Question: Do you agree with Wright that attacks on him are attacks on black church? How important is black liberation theology?
BO: “I’m not a theologian.”
But he’s the Obamessiah!
BO: “I went to church and listened to sermons. What I heard, there’s an emphasis on importance of social struggle, striving for equality, justice, fairness, a social gospel. Rather than fancy word like black liberation theology, he uses social gospel.” Didn’t view attacks as attacks on black church.
2:23pm Eastern. There have been unfair caricatures, but “yesterday, he caricatured himself.”
Obama says he tried contacting Wright before his Philadelphia speech. He was on a cruise. When he returned, they did speak. But Obama will not elaborate. “But what I can say is that I told him I found the snippets of past sermons inexcusable.”
“There’s been great damage” to relationship with Wright. “Won’t be the same.” Denies that Wright was his spiritual mentor. But he married Michelle and I, baptized my children, prayed with us, etc. etc.
So now that his campaign is getting hurt he throws his mentor under the bus as he did his grandma. What other way can you see it other then that? There is no way, no how, Obama did NOT know what Wright was like. His speech yesterday was no different then the sermons he spewed from his racist mouth for decades. Additionally, he says he is no theologian when the Church pushed that black liberation theology hard for years also. Puhlease.
And why now? Why not when the videos first saw the light of day? Or how about the 20 years he sat in the pews?
As Michelle said, its all bullcrap.
Allah also brings up a valid point. During this press conference today Obama spoke about how good this new pastor, Otis Moss, is. Good to know:
Typical politician bullcrap.
Check out Wordsmiths take on his waffling here.
UPDATE
Mataharley made the case yesterday that Wrights behavior may be some backroom shananigans to let Obama save face:
I’m wondering if Wright is set to become a future tool for Obama to formally “eject” in the near future (as a public thing anyway). Who knows, it could already be arranged as campaign strategy/Act II. The back room workings of campaign handlers may be on to something, and this could be a big part of it. Obama “the victim” of Wright. Wright, “the nefarious” gets wealthy.
Hummmm…
And Barbara makes the same observation in this thread:
Has it occurred to anyone that these two (Obama and Wright) might have thought up this ploy as a justification for disowning Wright? Right now Obama is between a rock and a hard place but if Wright acts so outrageously Obma will have good reason to disown him. Never underestimate the political machinations of a democrat. Only at your peril. Wright is entirely too pleased with himself for me to not think this is a political gambit.
Excellent points….this whole thing does seem a bit too smooth and silky.
UPDATE II
Jim Geraghty on the Obama speech on race a few weeks back which now look utterly ridiculous with the events of the past few days:
The “not once have I heard him” line sounds particularly implausible today.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.
Obama has now disproven this. Also note how this statement echoes Wright’s insistence that he is not being criticized, but that the entire black church is under attack.
I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
This looked ridiculous at the time, but I wonder how Obama feels about this maddening comparison now.
~~~In light of events in the past 72 hours, a lot of this looks ridiculous now.
Can we dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue? Yes we can, no irony intended. Those of us who were shocked and appalled by those first clips of Wright’s sermons were right, and Barack Obama, and all of those who accused us of judging Wright unfairly, were wrong.
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