# the hottest brother in America, right now......



## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080428/ap_ ... MxYems0NUE

what a fool and Obama says the election is not about race? well, he's got 93% of the black vote and cannot disown Rev. Wright anymore than his own grandmother......sounds pretty racist to me.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

I watched pastor Wrights presentation (part of it). He put his foot in his mouth with a couple of comments. One hypocritical comment when he was trying to make a point about how all of us treat each other: he was talking about how people were prejudiced against the Irish when they came to America. He used a couple of Irish names, then used the name O'Reilly and said "well maybe they were right about" and stopped. He didn't say it, but his implication was that O'Reilly is a bad person. So it was ok to hate O'Reilly I guess. 
Well the man is a racist idiot what else can one conclude? The other thing that puzzles me is he just doesn't come across as a pastor.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

Oprah had the good sense to leave the church, Obama did not. point, set, match.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

But McCain said he was deeply disturbed by new comments Wright has made.

*"I saw yesterday some additional comments that have been revealed by Pastor Wright, one of them comparing the United States Marine Corps with Roman Legionnaires who were responsible for the death of our savior. I mean being involved in that, it's beyond belief. And then of course saying that al-Qaida and the American flag were the same flags," McCain told reporters. *

McCain pointed out that Obama told Fox News Sunday that he thought criticism of his involvement with Wright was fair.

yeah, i sure want a candidate that listened and subscribed to this nonsense for 20 years..... :eyeroll: wake up people, are you willing to give the most powerful job in the world to a candidate that kept this minister as his spiritual leader??


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080428/ap_ ... nwN3qs0NUE

oh yes, please excuse me if i don't understand "god damn America" and the fact that the government gave drugs to black people along with the aids epidemic (which originated in Africa)....this guy is just plain stupid and screws Obama every time he opens his mouth.....i agree with Plainsman, this guy is a hater not a pastor......i think Michelle Obama kept old Barack tied to the old fool and his racist sermons.....scary candidate.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

by the way, if America is such a bad place to live, i would gladly buy the old fool a one way ticket back to Africa! :eyeroll:


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## Matt Jones (Mar 6, 2002)

hunter9494 said:


> McCain pointed out that Obama told Fox News Sunday that he thought criticism of his involvement with Wright was fair.


A politician being suprisingly candid and honest??? Who knew it was possible. I hope you guys can see why he's earning some points with how he's dealing with this.

Obama also said that he of course didn't agree with the comments made by his pastor and that he goes to church to worship god, not the pastor. I can relate to that being raised catholic. Do you guys agree with everything your pastor/priest/rabbi/whatever says? Assuming you go to church?

Was the Rev. Wright thing a big deal? Yes. Has it been made into a bigger deal then it is? Definitely. To be honest, I'm really getting tired of hearing about it. Wright isn't running for President, Obama is. At this point this is just turning into a smear tactic since it has nothing to do with any of the issues facing our country. I'd rather hear about where the candidates stand on issues like the economy, Iraq, healthcare, immigration, etc. then hear about this anymore.

If you guys want a candidate who has never associated himself with anyone controversial, good luck finding one. Being politicians they all have skeletons in their closets to some extent. Hell, every Joe Schmoe in America has them for that matter. In the end, people should decide whether or not to vote for Obama...not Wright.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

i agree, BUT.....this guy has said, "i can no more disown him than my own mother"...i don't know about you, but family always came first for me..Obama had his chance to cut the ties with this radical figure (I won't give him credit for being a pastor, he shows too much hate for that) and he chose not to, his political baggage to haul through the election IMO.....
bad judgement, Obama!


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## Matt Jones (Mar 6, 2002)

My post was before I saw some clips from Wright's seech at the NAACP convention in Detroit.

All I can say is...Holy Shyte!

Obama goes out on a limb for him...he goes against what the politician rule-code says to do in these circumstances; distance yourself as far from possible. He doesn't disown him, he doesn't play the game.

And what does Rev. Wright do? He calls Obama, "Just another politician." Expressing that he could care less about him. Then goes and makes himself look like a jerk, and verifies all the negative media hype surrounding him by making a round of ridiculous speeches and appearances.

This guy is a real azzhole. I honestly feel really bad for Obama on this. Obama tries to be sincere and hopes the public takes note, and then Wright swiftly kicks him in the balls!

Do you remember that picture of Dukakis riding in the tank in '88? Wright might just very well be that tank for Obama.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

About an hour ago I watched Obama on TV disown Wright. Whether he was sincere or not I don't know. His speech was good, and if he was sincere he is a good person, just tax, second amendment, defense, etc challenged. 
It will take me some time to know what I think about that. If it wasn't for his wife expressing some of the same opinions it would be more believable. If he had not spent 20 years with a man he considered his sounding board it would be more believable. 
You know you want to think the best of everyone, but there are to many other circumstances that make this look all planned out.  Like when asked why he still defended Wright when he (Obama) spoke about Wright just the other night in Pennsylvania. Today Obama said he spoke before he seen the text of Wrights speech. Why would someone defend someone without knowing what they were defending?
I don't know, the guy sounds good, but it just doesn't add up. Something stinks.


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## cwoparson (Aug 23, 2007)

Obama first said he could not disown Wright any more than he could disown his grandmother. That didn't work so he then said Wright speaks for himself and not me. That failed so he then came out with I don't agree with what the Reverend Wright said and I can see how it upset people. That also failed so now he is disavowing Wright. You have to ask yourself if it takes Obama this long to see the light and make a decision for himself, then how long will it take him to decide on something that affects us all.

I never believed him when he said he never heard Wright make these comments before and now I don't think he has the strength to make tough decisions that would affect this country. Contrary to what Obama is claiming that the Republicans are keeping this going it is Wright himself and the media that is feeding this to the public.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

I thought this article made some sense

OBAMA'S OPPORTUNITY

By DICK MORRIS

Published on TheHill.com on April 29, 2008.

At the start of his campaign, Obama ran in counterpoint to the previous candidacies of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Here was a black man running for president on issues that had nothing to do with race as he rose above the victimization rhetoric that characterizes so many speeches of African-American political figures.

Now, in attacking the Rev. Wright as he did Tuesday, Obama can further define himself in contrast to Wright, just as he did earlier vis-à-vis Jackson and Sharpton.

So if, as the Chinese ideogram suggests, crisis is a synthesis of danger and opportunity, the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright presents plenty of both for Obama.

In his statement Tuesday, Obama moved decisively and well to seize the opportunity that the Rev. Wright's wrongs pose.

The danger Wright presents is obvious enough. Wright has come to epitomize everything white Americans fear in an African-American public figure, secular or clerical. He is anti-white, anti-American, and avidly embraces and propagates all manner of bizarre conspiracy theories. If he is to be believed, which is a very bad idea, the United States caused the AIDS virus in order to destroy the African-American population. The reality is the opposite: America took the lead in developing treatments for the disease, with the result being that a diagnosis of AIDS is no longer tantamount to a death sentence. Wright says that we give drugs to our children. Again, he is 180 degrees wide of the mark. We do more than any other nation to battle drugs and risk the lives of tens of thousands of noble and able DEA agents to keep them away from our children.

But if Wright has come to be the poster child for what America fears in a black public figure, he gives Obama an opportunity to be the opposite. By playing off Wright, by attacking his views in depth and detail, Obama can define himself as the un-Wright, reassuring Americans and carving out his identity in opposition to the reverend's rantings. Obama has always implicitly defined himself as the opposite of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. He runs not as a black man seeking the presidency, but as a post-racial political leader who happens to have a dark complexion. But that positioning is now obsolete in the face of the challenge Wright poses to his candidacy.

If Obama continued to base his defense on history, he will just wade into deeper trouble. The "I wasn't there; I didn't hear him" defense just invites journalists to interview thousands of members of the congregation to find one who sat next to Obama during one of Wright's racist and anti-American sermons. Just as John Kerry let his candidacy be hostage to the memories of every GI who served alongside him in Vietnam, so Obama will tie his to the recollections of his co-parishioners.

Nor will Obama solve his Wright problem by subtly distancing himself from his pastor and condemning his views, in general, as "offensive" or "not representative of my campaign."

Rather, he needs to seize the opportunity Wright presents and rebut the pastor's views, point by point - as he began to do Tuesday - and, in the process, define himself and his candidacy. He needs to rebut all of the spurious points Wright raised in his now-famous "chickens coming home to roost" sermon and speak up for America, our record and our values. He needs to explain why we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - to save millions of American and Japanese lives, which would have been lost in an invasion. He should defend our support of Israel and take issue with Wright's characterization of our backing for its efforts to protect itself as "terrorism." He needs to speak out about America's moral role in the world and differ sharply and publicly with Wright's worldview.

By playing off Wright, he can recapture his identity as the personification of white hopes for a color-blind politics rather than white fears of anti-American and anti-white public figures.

The key to surviving the Wright challenge does not lie in the history of Obama's 20-year involvement with his church. That story is a quagmire from which he will have difficulty extricating himself. The answer is, rather, to speak out in the here and now against Wright's weekend comments in Washington and, thereby, tell us who he is and in what he believes.

Go To DickMorris.com to read all of Dick's columns!


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## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

That's a great article Bob..

Mr. Morris gave a great analysis of the opportunity that Obama has... let's see if he seizes it.

This story is long from over however IMO...

Rev. Wright has yet to respond to Obama's denouncements. Maybe he won't, and the drama will end there, but it's not likely given Wright's narcissist personality.

Also, there really is no way for Obama to break with Wright without exposing himself to several uncomfortable lines of questioning that is sure to follow. That may be why Obama waited so long to DTMFA&#8230;

It's ironic that Obama wants to be seen as the candidate of superior judgment, the candidate with reflexes quick and tough enough to take on the Republicans, the candidate who will stop the drama that's associated with the Clintons and bring the Democrats back into the White House via a new politics that rises above the old politics.

Hopefully, in publicly cutting ties with Wright, Obama somewhat promoted that approach. If you remember, he recently said, "The reason our campaign has been so successful is because we had moved beyond these old arguments," "What we saw yesterday out of Reverend Wright was a resurfacing and, I believe, an exploitation of those old divisions."

But he also fell back into that trap by having to resort to the old-style political tactic of calling a press conference to distance himself from a former associate who had gotten out of hand and, perhaps more damagingly, he opened the door to those questions about his judgment, quickness, and drama factor.

That last one, the increased drama factor, is going to be hard to put back in the bottle. Likely dramatic story-lines soon to come to a television near you:

1. The reaction from Wright, 
2. the reaction from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, 
3. and the reaction from Clinton and McCain

Wow ... what next for Obama? This faux pas could be the end of his presidential aspirations if he doesn't handle it deftly.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

He comes across so well that I want to believe him. I think that is why so many people like him. Still a reasonable person has to doubt that he didn't know how his pastor felt after knowing him for 20 years. After saying he is his sounding board. After saying he could no more distance himself from Wright than he could his grandmother etc etc. 
It would have been wonderful if he was the kind of person he says he is. As the shroud of fog parts and our vision of him becomes clear he is just another politician. Frighteningly we see him far to the left on taxes, health, and most importantly for me gun rights. What a shame. It would have been wonderful to be wrong, but the evidence points only one direction.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

> But McCain said he was deeply disturbed


 :lol:

now that I believe :wink:

Funny how easily a quote taken out of context can change the percieved meaning


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## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

Plainsman said:


> He comes across so well that I want to believe him. I think that is why so many people like him. Still a reasonable person has to doubt that he didn't know how his pastor felt after knowing him for 20 years. After saying he is his sounding board. After saying he could no more distance himself from Wright than he could his grandmother etc etc.
> It would have been wonderful if he was the kind of person he says he is. As the shroud of fog parts and our vision of him becomes clear he is just another politician.


An interesting thought....The point has been made before, but we need a reminder. Obama did not have a strong model of masculinity, a father figure to know intimately and revere, in his earliest years. He yearned desperately for it; somehow, finding the patriarch would make him whole and normal in a way he thought others felt.

So he found Wright a few decades ago. But he's flying blind. If we're lucky enough, and our fathers live long enough, we can see them for the humans they are. We don't love them less, but in the process of maturing we begin to grow independent by seeing them with new eyes. We separate, and in doing so, enter a new ambivalence about what the father-son role means as it transforms. We might be watching a limnal process for Obama in real-time here. The sad thing is that (and I believe Obama is sincere) I don't think any of us could know the inner turmoil this causing Obama. Sometimes its easy to forget how privileged those of us who know well the father-son dynamic are; its just too easy to yell "throw Wright under the bus." Obama is human, too.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

I would respect him more if he said that Wright was his friend and stuck with that.

I have friends that have wacky political ideas IMO, that doesn't make me like them less, they are entitled to their opinion and me to mine.

I dont like Obama's views on most things.

I've lived long enough to know if you think I'm wrong you might be right,

(not that it would change my opinion) :beer: .


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## Matt Jones (Mar 6, 2002)

R y a n said:


> An interesting thought....The point has been made before, but we need a reminder. Obama did not have a strong model of masculinity, a father figure to know intimately and revere, in his earliest years. He yearned desperately for it; somehow, finding the patriarch would make him whole and normal in a way he thought others felt.
> 
> So he found Wright a few decades ago. But he's flying blind.


I don't buy that. I don't think Obama is a very religious person, it's one of the things I like about him.

I watched a debate this past summer (wow that seems like a long time ago) that was called "Faith and Politics." The 3 leading Dems were there. People were asking questions like, "How do you hear God when praying?" and, "How will God influence you as President?"

Edwards and Hillary pandered like crazy, some of the stuff they said to play into the ultra-religous crowd made me want to puke. Obama didn't even use the word God. The closest he came was talking about faith, and he related it more to the faith we have in ourselves and our country then to a higher power.

So what I'm saying is, I don't think Wright has been some big influence in his life...although I'm not arguing he has been an influence.


> Remembering the values of empathy and service that his mother taught him, Barack put law school and corporate life on hold after college and moved to Chicago in 1985, where he became a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment


So you can see the need for a relationship with Wright. I think Obama, like most politicians, go to church for PR. I don't see him as being a very spiritual person. Working in Chicago, he needed to be at the church to be involved in the community.

I think what's happened is that Wright might be bitter because Obama has become a much bigger figure then he has. Look how Wright is craving the spotinlight. This guy is pizzed about Obama overshadowing him. I think he's also pizzed because Wright's a racist who has a lot of resentment for whites and Obama doesn't...his Mom is white, his grandparents who helped raise him are white, and his father is black but not of 'slave blood.' I wouldn't be suprised if a guy like Wright dislikes him for that. Obviously Wright is extremely upset at Obama right now and I think it's got to run deeper then we think. Why else would he do this? Obama never did him wrong...even though he should have.

I'm not trying to make excuses for Obama. He should have buried this guy in his past a long time ago. I just see the connection he had to be different then how some see it.


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## sdeprie (May 1, 2004)

I don't want to post a long reply. Let me just say that I could respect him more if he said he just wasn't that religious except that he has already built his background on NOT being Muslim (even though he was born to a Muslim father and raised by another Muslim father), but Christian. It just sounds like one more issue of "What do they want to hear?" I would love to find a politician that isn't a liar. It has been said that the only way to tell if a politician is lying is to check and see if his lips are moving.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> he has already built his background on NOT being Muslim (even though he was born to a Muslim father and raised by another Muslim father), but Christian.


Is it just me, or do some of you ever wonder about Wright? He goes to see Momar Kadafi, along with Lewis Farrakhan, and calls Farrakahn one of the most, (can't remember the word, but like respected) people of the century. You just have to wonder about such things.


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## sdeprie (May 1, 2004)

I've been wondering about him since I first heard about him. The "sermons" that he gives don't sound Christian at all, to me. I'm not interested in a Christian jihad any more than an Islamic jihad, but it seems to me that too many influencial people have had some inappropriate meetings with controversial people. IMO


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