Obama 'Outraged' By Former Pastor's Remarks

Erin Kotecki Vest — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:49:08 -0500

Senator Barack Obama said he is "outraged" by comments his former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, made Monday at the National Press Club and is "saddened by the spectacle," according to CNN.com.

"I have been a member of Trinity Church since 1992. I have known Rev. Wright for almost 20 years," he said at a news conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "The person I saw yesterday is not the person I met 20 years ago."

Obama said he is outraged by Wright's remarks that seemed to suggest the U.S. government might be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and his equation of some American wartime efforts with terrorism.

"What particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous
denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing," Obama said, adding that Wright had shown "little regard for me" and seemed more concerned with "taking center stage."

Reaction in the blogosphere was swift, with Lady Tia writing, "I'm with the many people who find it hard to believe that Obama never once heard his preacher say the stuff that he did. 20 years? It took 20 years for him to hear that? I believe it as much as I believe Ron Paul when he said that he didn't know that racist articles were being published in his journal."

Clarion Calling Blog says, "So what does this mean to Obama? Conspiracy or no, one week from tonight we'll be hearing election results from North Carolina and Indiana. Conventional wisdom holds that Obama wouldn't have reacted to Wright's latest performance, thus keeping it in the news, unless internal polls showed that it was critical to do so. At this point, it's almost a question of what will hurt less: ignoring Wright and hoping he'll go away, or lancing the boil at the expense of renewing the news cycle."

Kerry Vision
writes, "Guilt by association is a popular political ploy, but if Obama = Wright, then does McCain = Hagee? Where's the outrage over McCain's Catholic-hating friend, whose endorsement McCain is "very honored" to have? Both preachers' remarks are equally offensive to different groups of people, but the fact is that neither is running for office. Rev. Wright is correct about a lot of things, and wrong about a good many as well. But it doesn't matter. Jeremiah Wright is not Barack Obama, Wright's ideas are not Obama's ideas and their approaches are vastly
different."

Michelle Malkin says, "So, he’s advising supporters to watch the Bill Moyers interview. What about the NAACP and National Press Club diatribes?"

Contributing Editor Erin Kotecki Vest also blogs at Queen of Spain Blog.

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Obama 'Outraged' By Former Pastor's Remarks