John McCain campaign fans the flames

We didn't get the e-mail here at Top of the Ticket, but apparently the John McCain campaign included in a morning briefing to reporters a link to a Wall Street Journal column that weighs in quite strongly on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright-Barack Obama relationship.

As Time magazine's Swampland points out, this is notable because the McCain camp has tried to stay above the time-honored American tradition of, shall we call it, distemperate political discourse. Sending out an e-mail to political journalists directing them to to the WSJ column didn't clear the hurdle, which the McCain campaign acknowledged, saying it was sent out in error.

Of course, errors do get made. But the episode reminds that in political campaigns, the path of the message is almost as important as the message itself. So weigh that as you look at the brouhaha around the Wright Christmas sermon video, and its timing. It's hard to imagine nearly three months later someone just suddenly realized he or she had that tape in their camera and really ought to get it out on YouTube.

-- Scott Martelle

Comments

[Tom J]

It was sent out in error, all right. People in glass houses....

The last thing McCain needs is for voters to reexamine his relationship with the Reverend John Hagee, whose endorsement he and Huckabee fought over. McCain won. If you can call having the endorsement of someone who believes that the U.S. should invade Iran with Israel, that Katrina was a punishment from God, and that the anti-Christ will head up the EU, 'winning'.

[Dan Russell]

The discovery of the relationship between Obama and Pastor Wright for me came about by chance when I heard someone describing Senator Obama as a member of the Church of Christ. I had read that he was in the UCC, the United Church of Christ which is a whole other brand of Christianity. THEN, I went to their website and read the statement Pastor Wright had composed that was "About Us." I was amazed. Shocked really, that this not well known by people like myself who try to keep up with who's on first.

So, the timing of this revelation, you find suspicious, doesn't surprise me at all. What surprises me is that it hasn't been reported well before now! You should feel scooped. You can redeem yourselves by doing a thorough look at this significant fact. I'd start with the WSJ article, the Trinity UCC website, and the YouTube links.

By the way, another piece of info I discovered today. This is also Oprah Winfrey's church. Another piece of info not widely reported on ... or, I contend, I would have known it.

[K_Hussein]

It's beginning to look as though America will continue to be run by rich white people, that there will be no changes in the foreign policies that inspired a bunch of Saudi fanatics to kill thousands of us, that we will have two deeply flawed major party candidates who have never been called [N-word]s, and that a large segment of the electorate may have valid cause to sing "G-D America".

White critics of Rev. Wright are doing so based on a lack of knowledge of the black church as an institution and an inherent inability to understand or identify with Black Liberation theology. They are projecting their own view of what religion is or should be on a group of people who have a different perspective. They are doing so based on a few minutes of collected snippets from hundreds of sermons over many years, spliced together and promoted for maximum misleading effect by certain media at the urging of rich white people.

I am a middle-aged white Southerner who would like to vote for Barack Hussein Obama in November, but the corporate powers that be are apparently determined to deny me that opportunity.

[Ed]

When John McCain denounces John Hagee's and Rod Parsley's hateful, bigoted comments, then I may begin to pay attention to him about Jeremiah Wright. Until then, he's just another opportunistic hypocrite.

[TC]

This moment of strife is actually an opportunity for Senator Obama to demonstrate leadership:

http://acropolisreview.com/2008/03/barack-obama-condemns-reverend-jeremiah.html

[sicnarfe]

This is precisely why the secular should be separated from the ecumenical world. This gasbag should have been inpiring the souls of the congregation rather than working himself into a lather. People like him are stuck in a time-warp and all he sees is the frustration of living in this society as a black man. He lacks vision and a clarity of thinking that would be more becoming of a pastor. Obviously this man was an unfit person to be feeding the spiritual part of anyone's life. But then again so many of these type are unsavory characters who are attracted to the cloth, not out of devotion, but to paper over some defect in their own psyche.

[VettaKing]

What's so controversial about Wright's statements? The rich white people that Wright has singled out, and who have always controlled the American government, have never been held accountable for their actions or the damage those actions have caused to this nation's people or the world. From the Civil war and the end of slavery, to the slaughter of the native peoples, to the unnecessary nuclear bombings of a ready to surrender Japan, to the illegal invasions of sovereign nations, to the support of dictators, to the illegal overthrow of elected governments at the behest of oil and fruit companies. The murderous elite have never paid any kind of price for their greed and immorality, unfortunately everyone else has. It is truly pathetic that a country who claims to want positive change will not even admit that there is anything wrong with America. If we are so perfect, why is a change of direction even necessary?

[dave]

where's the picture showing mccain as saint mary
with the baby, and more importantly, with the supersized halo/ego? who would dispute it's just fine when people find someone to care for and be happy with?
but why destroy all merit by being pathetic, and trying
to instrumentalize feelings for power and profit?
if it's not possible to buy love, why try to sell yours?
how much oil and how much money, for your beloved little daughter from bangladesh? how many million
babies not mashed to bloody pulp, if you don't bomb-bomb-iran, and how many million more not deformed and suffering, in thousands of years to come, if you don't dump depleted uranium all over their place?

[Michael McFadden]

Please people, lets think for a minute. Rev. Wright served has country as a marine, but he is of the age where he wasn't allowed to vote, eat or go where ever he pleased. Does white America really not understand that black people of that generation would have some anger? And lets be clear about this point, he may have gives such speeches/sermons a thousand times. After his semons his followers went home, went to bed, and got up the next morning and went to work. He didn't attempt to inspire and acts of violence, and none were committed.

Lets also remember that white men get angry too. I remember all this talk about angry white men and turning to my black friends and asking, what the hell do they have to be angry about. When they get angry cuz somebody's gay or getting an abortion or not getting the death penalty or whatever, violence often ensues (blowing up abortion clinics, federal building ect...) but no violence has ever insued from one of Rev. Wright's semons.

Folks want to be critical of Obama because he knows some very angry black men. Just imagine if white men had to put up with the crap that black men have had to endure. Does anybody think they would be angry. If we actually thought about this (something we never do) this actually drives home a point that Obama continues to make. He's from a different generation, and he wants a different kind of politics. Rev. Wright represents an earlier generation (lynching, back of the bus, you can't vote or even eat here). Do white folks really not understand how people subjected to that crap, (particulary where they continue to pay taxes and fight in wars) would be angry?

[Henry]

Obama's pastor, speaks for him self. Not for Obama. At lease Obama was born in the U.S. Not in the panama canal zone.

[Seattle Conservative]

John McCain's family has military history going back several generations, he fought in Vietnam and his sons are in Iraq. Anyone questioning this guy's loyalty and patriotism needs mental help. Obama is just another privileged left winger who "loathes" the military and probably many other things (as does his equally privileged wife) having to do with the USA. The Democrats always have problems with race. It's hilarious. Want to avoid this garbage? Vote Republican where race and ethnic identity issues are never an issue with our candidates. We believe in ideas. The Democrats are morally bankrupt and full of venom.