He's baaack...Rev. Wright, that is..
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell is reporting more inflammatory comments from Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Mitchell dug through a bunch of church bulletins, and found some disturbing rhetoric...see below for details.
NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported on TODAY, "And now -- even more controversy involving Reverend Wright. An Internet search reveals church bulletins over the past year with controversial 'pastor pages' from Wright. Some reprint anti-Israel writings from a range of people -- from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to an advisor to Elijah Muhammed and Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam to Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook.
"One of Marzook's columns, reprinted by the church from the Los Angeles Times, says: "Why should any Palestinian recognize the monstrous crimes carried out by Israel's founders and continued by its deformed modern Apartheid state?"
"Obama told the Jerusalem Post the church was 'outrageously wrong' to reprint the article, and he denounced Hamas.
"And Trumpet, a magazine run by Reverend Wright's daughters, quotes the pastor as saying: 'White supremacy is clearly in charge' in America. And slurring Italians' quote: 'garlic noses.' He also calls Jesus' crucifixion 'a public lynching Italian style.'"
By now, we all have a sense of Rev. Wright's sentiments. And yes, we are gleaning it from frozen snapshots, but if you go to the Trinity Church website, and listen to some of the webcasts, you do get the sense that the church, in a less potent way, mirrors some of Wright's ideas. For some, this doesn't pose a problem, but the thought of children listening to and believing what's being preached doesn't advance a so-called post-racial agenda, namely an agenda Obama's campaign is peddling. The problem isn't attending Trinity, a church that has done a lot for the black community in Chicago. Instead, the problem is that a presidential candiate, whose campaign is founded on overcoming divisions, is attending this church. Obama isn't just a member of Trinity, he's donated almost $30,000 in 2005 and 2006. Again, if Obama were not a presidential candidate, perhaps he would get a pass...but he is one! Like many people, I don't get the sense that Obama harbors the same radical views as his pastor, but it's unsettling that he attended that church for 20 years. I'm not sure Americans will be OK with the fact that Obama, a potential president, has taken in such divisive/unpatriotic/racist rhetoric over the years, and has supported it, monetarily, at least.
This isn't simply a question of race like Obama said in his speech last week, this is a question of judgement, and on this count, Obama has failed.
Obama, wright
Why don't the new Veracifier posts have the post author?
I don't know whose opinion I'm getting here... please add the post author back!
Correction... I see the posts have the author listed on the main blog page. But not on the permalink. I tend to see only the permalink posts, courtesy of Veracifier's Twitters.
As a primary voter for Obama, my original sentiments are mirrored in this post. While I don't find the Marzook quote here particularly troublesome - Isreal is founded on racial purity, after all - it is disturbing that Obama would remain such a devout member of this Church despite his own personal "post-racial" views. My sense is that Obama's initial reasons for attending the church stem from local political needs which then grew into a more personal relationship with the pastor.
However, from a tactical standpoint, in a general election contest with John McCain the Obama-Wright relationship stacks up against the recent McCain endorsements by fundamentalist white pastors with the added "bonus" that McCain is clearly pandering to them only recently. It's a wash once you start putting out commercials that contrast Wright's "chickens coming home to roost" with Pat Robertson blaming 9-11 on God's wrathful support for a variety of rightwing strawmen - gays, scientists, environmentalists and abortions.