Is Barack Obama leaving the trail for the surf?

Easter Sunday is the one time many Christians who only sporadically attend church make a point of planting themselves in a pew. But Barack Obama, whose regular attendance over many years at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago now has caused him an intense political headache, apparently will miss services there this weekend.

ABC News reports that, although his presidential campaign has not commented, Obama is expected to be headed off to warmer climes for a few days of R&R.

The story doesn't explicitly say that his wife and two daughters will be in tow, but we'd presume that will be the case. The ABC report, available here, does say that "the most likely bet" for a destination is St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where it's a little warmer than on Chicago's South Side.

That means Obama won't have to worry about carrying with him his suddenly in-the-news passport for the trip. And he's certainly earned a break from the campaign trail (especially after the week he's had).

Still, even though the now-retired Rev. Jeremiah Wright no longer is in the pulpit at Trinity, Obama's absence this weekend may be another way his campaign is trying to leave behind the furor sparked by the pastor's litany of inflammatory, often anti-white statements.

Hillary Clinton also will be kicking back Saturday and Sunday, but at a much less exotic locale. Her latest schedule has her at home in the tranquil burg of Chappaqua, N.Y., with no public events planned (but perhaps some strategizing with her husband).

-- Don Frederick

                                                                                Image from People Magazine

Comments

[farnk]

It sounds like he left behind both sources of his future loss as a presidential candidate. Mr Wright and Mrs. Obama

[Hillary All the Way]

Obama should publicly apologize for endorsing this un American racist preacher who Obama considered his mentor for 20 years. After that Obama should drop out of the race, he is not fit to be the President of the United States. Hillary is the one, she always was and always will be.

[rsmendo]

Keep dreaming. She will never catch up to Obama in delegates or popular vote.

[Hillary Should Resign]

Hillary should be apologize for the racial baiting and dirty tricks/smear campaign she has launched, to the public. She has conducted herself in a very poor manner, and in the interest of the Democratic Party, needs to cease her campaign, resign, and join the Republicans.

[the truth]

the pastor never said anything racist. he never said blacks were more superior or asked for violence against whites. and those videos by the media were taken out of context he was talking about the cycle of violence and how it affects the next generation, he then said god damn America for bombing the Innocent, for doing bad things etc.

And about the HIV, the first HIV case was in 1957 and scientists predict HIV started no earlier than the 1930s . Africans have been hunting monkeys for bush meat for millions of years but the virus came in the 1930s to 1950s... it is more believable it is man made than it transferring from hunting... over 5 million Indians have the virus let alone just in Africa.. the highest prevalence rate is in south Africa which has the biggest white population. this does not mean all Whites are racist...The speed out which the virus spreads is not even scientifically possible...

[jim]

Obama stood up for Wright to the extent he mentioned the many good works he championed during his ministry but denounced his racist, divisive rhetoric. Ferarro made one ill-advised statement about race and got renounced and thrown under the bus. Just one of many of Clintons' suicide bombers. Says something about character.

[Klayton Johanson]

As a Obama supporter and someone who is actually educated in the areas of microbiology, pathophysiology, genetics, and the HIV virus; I would ask that you ignore the above comment by "the truth". He knows not what he is talking about. The technology needed to manufacture a completely new virus on a genetic level (think RNA). The 1959 Nobel Peace Prize for medicine was given for discovering how RNA is synthesized and understanding how is light-years away from actually being able to control the process. The earliest preserved sample is from 1959 so in the course of a year we would have had to go from having just learned how RNA is made in a living cell to splicing together RNA in order to make the HIV virus. If science moved that fast we would not be worried about MRSA in 2007.

[Klayton Johanson]

1st sample from infected individual taken in 1959. It jumped from chimps to humans before 1931.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/virus/origins.html

[K_Hussein]

Rev. Wright is returning from Africa to begin a long-scheduled series of visits to black churches across the country. (He'll be 35 miles from me for three days next week...I would like to go to hear and support him, and I'm just a "typical white person.")

I hope he minces no words in what will likely be sermons with a lot of media attention. He needs to demand an apology from Hannity, Limbaugh, ABC and Faux News. He needs to press that demand everywhere he goes and to clearly elucidate the justifiable reasons for the demand, perhaps by giving his listeners a brief history lesson on McCarthyism and then decrying the new "patriotic correctness." It may not be popular with the dimwits who have bought into the neo-con slime machine's egregiously out-of-context claims of racism and hate-mongering, but it is the kind of political courage and truth-telling that is badly needed at this point in time.

[ljs]

Run, O-blah-ma, Run! Maybe he's meeting up with the MIA Jeremiah Wright to get his anti-white, anti-American fix.

[Lissa]

Have you ever heard the phrase don't judge a book by the cover? Guess what I think Obama people have just done that. Dig deep guys think. Do research. Just don't follow someone cuz he gives a good speech. He says he wants to unite us but then brings up the race card again to make people feel guilty about things that happened before we were born. He has way to many radical people involved in his life. Not good.

[victory]

Obama should be the one apologizing for the "racial baiting and dirty tricks/smear campaign she has launched, to the public."

He's been an expert at blaiming Clinton for his dirty politics. More stuff is about to come out regarding O's Muslim cousin Odinga in Kenya and his complicity with the genocide going on there now, as well as Wright's church's ties to Hamas. This Wright thing is just the tip of the iceberg.

"Ferarro made one ill-advised statement about race and got renounced and thrown under the bus. Just one of many of Clintons' suicide bombers. Says something about character."
This is just nonsense. BTW, Wright was fired from Obama's campain. Ferraro stepped down voluntarily.

[brewnz]

It's been a tough week for Mr. Obama. The Clinton campaign has successfully used the media to make Obama accountable for something someone else said to the general public. It's laughable when Fox News hosts say he should have walked out during the sermon causing the furor; Obama wasn't even there. It's just ridiculous how easy it is to twist the mindset of the American public. For me, though, the larger issue is the dirty politics employed by Clinton to get the nomination: she has almost certainly irreparably damaged the candidate leading the Democratic race.

In doing so, she has almost certainly damaged the Democratic party as well. Most people I know will vote McCain if Clinton's the candidate. I will most likely do the same. I was expecting a new era in politics, full of ideas to launch America back into 21st century relevance and free from attacks, underhanded strategy and ill will. I wanted a great race from two New Era candidates that would capture our imagination in the ways they could potentially change the future of American politics. I wanted the restoration of hope, based on intelligent and visionary agendas to help us understand what kind of country we will be in a global economy. I wanted incentives to spark new exportable industries, a strategy to strengthen the dollar vs the Euro and a plan to restore our prestige among the international community. She has TOTALLY betrayed my expectations. I find most of the "dirt" on Obama irrelevant to the job of president and the pulling of the "Race Card" to be ironic. Crafty and slick, yes, but ironic. It just brings back the memories of "Slick Willy", but now we have "Slick Hillary". We can't look towards the future if we rely on the same old garbage from yesterday recycled by a candidate trapped in 1990's political strategy.

No more of that crap, please...

[vetted enough]

Obama deserves a break. What a rough week he had, I don't know if any other presidential candidate has been treated like this.

[Beth W.]

Seeing Senator Obama in his swimsuit reminds me that he is really healthy, fit and alive. Ready on Day One.
Sorry to write that all politics aside, I would avert my eyes if Senators Cinton or McCain would don a swimsuit on Easter Sunday or ANY Sunday.
As far as ex-president Clinton is concerned, how about another buffalo wing?
YES WE CAN!
Believe it!

[tlsmith1963]

I agree that Hillary has behaved very poorly in this race. I used to respect her, but I have changed my mind. I don't like Karl Rove-style campaigns. She needs to stop it.

[Joanhh]

Barack Obama a fine man and will make a great leader, if people are not so swallowed up in hate and ignorance that they cannot hear his wonderful message of hope.
I have friends and relatives, and yes, a pastor, whose opinions I do not always share, but you don’t dump the baby out with the bathwater. Obama sat through wonderful inspiring speeches by Pastor Wright, the man who brought him to Jesus, and he rejected the comments he didn’t agree with. But he didn’t abandon him or his church. He understood where it came from. Pastor Wright is of an era where a black man had to step into the gutter to let a white man pass. Where ‘Whites only’ signs were everywhere. There is more; so much more. So many injustices, I think he can be forgiven, as the Lord forgives us all. And I am a white woman in my 70s.
Are there not people in your life you don’t always agree with? Can we not have more understanding, more compassion. Being bi-racial, Barack Obama is in the position to see things from more than one side. He is not perfect. He is a human being, albeit a quality human being and he will make a wonderful President, and will bring change to the world. It would be a tragedy if we lost out on that.
I wish you a fair wind at your back, Mr. Obama.

[Swannie]

well now isnt this interesting .. he wont be attending church there ..maybe he thinks he will return after he is president?? and isnt that a poor picture for the world??? Thankfully that wont happen .... Hillary now has more possible ELECTORAL votes than obamination ever could hope to obtain think about that yes the actual ELECTORAL COUNT that will count in the actual election http://www.votesmart.org/election_president_electoral_college.php

[hubbs]

K_Hussein, I am with you totally that Rev. Wight deserves media's apologies how they misrepresented him. MSM owes American people to tell the truth, not twisted truth and flat lies. MSM is responsible at least partially for the war we are in. And MSM is doing a great service to ruin American's political future. MSM=Maggot.

[SS]

The Obama maniacs are scared as hell because the flaws in their candidate is coming out, The country is awakened to a fllawed man being sold to the public by the media, MSNBC and CNN other print media with the help of the Liberal elite and confused youth.Now they want to run away with nomination before the public learns more damaging things in his life. They calling for Hillary to end her campaign because they say she cannot catch up with his delegate count even though 10 state are yet to hold their contest. They are also actively blocking a redo in MI and FL. which will result to blow out defeat for him. The longer the contest continues the worse it gets for him because the dirt in his closet comes out
My adviice to HRC is ignore the Turn- coates call for unity and stay on until the voters of every state have cast their vote and counted. Go Hill my best wishes

[jules Romain]

I upset with Obama for exposing his two children to that kind of hatred then manage to say that he is the leader that unite the country.

[brewnz]

SS, she probably won't lead in delegate votes or the popular vote, but what she and her campaign are attempting is to attach enough negative headlines to Obama to force the Super Delegates to support her.

The problem again, as I see it, is that she will lose Democrats to McCain due to her Karl Rove-like antics of the past two months. I think we all were hoping for much better, and it's definitely changed my opinion of her. Win the campaign based on vision, not dirty tactics. Many really dislike the current state of the Democratic race, and that only favors McCain.

[PETER]

Obama not going to Church on Easter Sunday.
Trinity Church sermon Easter Wright was Lynched.
Somethings never change.
Hillary ahead in popular vote 245,884 in states with primarys.
Obama fixed caucus.
Lay in the sun Sen Obama and enjoy the day

[Fred L.]

I'm with the posters who found this whole story to be nothing but propaganda disguised as "news", worthy of a week long apology by the major news outlets.. I'm disgusted that none of the major papers or networks did their homework.
If you watch the entire "GD America" sermon (which TUCC put up on youtube) you won't find anything to suggest that Rev.Wright is preaching hatred against whites, or being un-patriotic. He's preaching against SIN, which, in case you didn't know, is the job of a preacher. Yet for a week his statements have been widely , and wrongly, described as hate mongering, racist rhetoric!

How many blog posts have you read where people express indignation that he would allow his two daughters to be subjected to such "hateful" rhetoric, or that he sat there for twenty years listening to "hate speech"?

That they would all play along with such blatant mischaracterizations , whose obvious aim is to torpedo Sen. Obama's candidacy on the flimsiest accusations of racism and lack of patriotism , is the most unforgivable misuse of the power of the press I've witnessed in my 47 yrs.

Perhaps the only disturbing notion I could find was the suggestion that AIDS was inflicted intentionally on people of color. We mustn't forget though, that from the mid thirties to the NINETEN-SEVENTIES ( when I was a teenager!) our "un-damnable" govt. let over four-hundred poor black men be consumed by syphilis while under a "doctor's" care, telling them they were being treated for "bad blood", while they were in fact not being treated at all, one of the "doctors" was quoted as saying " I have no further use of these patients till they're dead", so maybe a little paranoia on the part of a 60 yr old black man isn't quite as unfounded as it might first seem.

[An American Patriot]

Leave this poor man alone.

[Jane]

"Obama not going to Church on Easter Sunday."

This is ridiculous. When arrogant religious fanatics such as yourself go on vacation somewhere, don't you just attend a different church that weekend in the town you're visiting? So why do you assume Obama isn't doing the same?

And even if he isn't, maybe he just prefers to pray privately with his family sometimes, where he doesn't have to worry about being harassed by any judgmental people such as yourself.

[Neil K]

To paraphrase John Edwards: I don't understand. How does this crap fix healthcare?

By the time I finish writing this, it is entirely possible that we may have lost our 4,000 soldier in Iraq. Let's try to keep our eye on the ball, folks.

Let's focus on the fact that we are fighting two wars. let's focus on a mortgage crisis that has wrought havoc on our economy. We have a broken healthcare system, and we have a looming Social Security crisis. We have gas that is running towards $4.00/gallon. We have a State Dept. that apparently doesn't know how to keep passport information safe.

We should honor our fallen soldiers with an elevated debate on the direction of our country, and not this petty nonsense about what was said by any candidates' pastors, supporters, advisors or pundits.

[Fred L.]

Victory wrote: "More stuff is about to come out regarding O's Muslim cousin Odinga in Kenya and his complicity with the genocide going on there now, as well as Wright's church's ties to Hamas."

Well there you have it, more "stuff" that's as good as evidence that Obama hates America, has relatives, and worse ,a pastor who might not hate Palestinians!.

This is excactly why the founding fathers insisted on a rigorous religeous test for all who seek high office in this country, it's in the Constitution, look it up!

When will you people get it? Would you like to see the media apply the same ludicrously wide net to your own candidate?

[supporters ignorance]

Clinton supporters never cease to amaze me. Their ignorance really makes them suit the candidate they support. She loves people with little education