After an impressive run …He’s Damaged goods
Obama like most blacks thinks Rev Wright has some good points. But now is not the time to explain to white America the context of Re Wrights remarks. They have already made up their mind that Wright is a bad man. The best thing to do is to just make the issue go away. many white americans are too unaware to understand Rev Wright anyway and explaining this to them is a waste of time. .
me I think Obama’s dilemma is that he probably stayed in Wright’s church for that long, and even got married there and baptized his children there because he wanted to identify with the ‘people’ and belong. We cannot convincingly argue that Obama was not aware of his preacher’s fiery preaching, the flavor of his sermons, his biases, bent and persuasions. Hata if my own pastor preached a controversial sermon, I would be sure to hear it even if I was not present (and Wright seems to have consistently preached fire from the podium as it attests to his beliefs).
Truth be told, Obama knew his pastor was a hot head. Now the slippery business is how he slithers out of this fix. Just like he denounced Farrakhan, mara one (though he had to go through a semantic lesson and actually use the word denounce), he did not frontally and unequivocally engage the Wright issue when it began airing hoping it would go away. It did not. Though that is tricky, he would have come out and denounce categorically, and make his stand clear (though he would have been at pains to explain the 20 year question) or say yes, what Wright is saying is true, though he is extreme, divisive and radical in the way he expresses these views on race.
He expressed outrage only recently after Wright began payukaring. One is left wondering whether he is outraged because Wright put him under the bus, or because Wright is still driving divisive wedges using race when he said that the attack on his person was actually an attack on the black church. What exactly is Obama outraged about? It is still not clear.
Obama like all of us is not perfect. That we all know - even the people throwing mud. The problem is how he explains these hiccups and the potential damage to his meteoric rise.
Hillary is banking on making the case that she can withstand the mean republican machinery with it kitchen sink arsenal, and the more damaged Obama looks, the better her plea sounds in the ears of the super delegates
May 1, 2008 at 3:26 am
Wasn’t there a time when the same thing was said about Hilary?
If you are an Obama supporter, me thinks support him to the very end, no matter what that end is. Don’t say there is something you could have done differently if he loses.
May 1, 2008 at 1:25 pm
This is most definitely not the time to give up: BO has the lead in the popular vote, and Hilary would have to win implausibly large chunks of what remains in play to change that.
May 1, 2008 at 10:56 pm
are we missing the point, even if Obama loses the next few elections, there are people who are out who believe in the hope message, so the losses will not be big enough for Hillary to win. having said that, the general will be another beast, Obama has shown that he is slow to respond to attacks, the idea of staying above the fray is what cost Kerry the election last time around, the sooner he understands that the better for everyone. If i was Obama, i would put my surrogates on the attack whenever something about me is said, getting them to justify and rebuke kila kitu, that way he can continue insisting he is a different politician and get away with it.
May 2, 2008 at 1:58 am
must have square balls I reckon
May 2, 2008 at 2:44 am
I have so much admiration for Barack, yet I have so much hate for politics the way its played all over the world. Worse still in USA, Seeing beyond the skin seems to be such a big issue for some people. This guy would not just make a great Prezz for stato but a model for so many other people: poor, rich, young, old, black and white, moslem, christian and all others… Can someone give him a chance.
May 3, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I am so curious to see how Obama gets himself out of this fix that he is in. Cool entry!
May 6, 2008 at 10:38 pm
OBAMA impressed me tonight with his strong show in NC.
Clinton is trying anything she is like a boxer who has had wind knocked out of her and cannot wait for the bell to go back to the corner and regroup. Hillary will end up killing Clinton Legacy with her egocentric trip.
The race to white house is over Senator Clinton. Step back and realize that you are about to undo everything Bill stood for You are about to kill a party which has been so good to your career and that of your husband
May 8, 2008 at 9:55 am
let’s somehow pray for a miracle, u never know
i still hope obama can beat her, even though i know it will be a mammoth task beating john maccain?(sp)
that’s the audacity of hope. we can’t give up one him..