Barack Obama again faces queries about Rev. Wright

Barack Obama continued today to tread the fine line he's been walking in discussing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Meeting up with MSNBC's Chris Matthews for a lengthy interview in front of a college crowd in Pennsylvania, Obama disassociated himself from the more extreme comments uttered by his ex-pastor, but not from the man himself.

And while insisting -- as he has previously -- that he was not present when Wright made the pronouncements that fueled the recent furor, he steered clear of specifying the "controversial" statements he has said he did hear from the preacher.

Left hanging was the question that may determine Obama's political fate -- will his approach to the flap suffice?

Matthews assuredly would have broached the topic of Wright, but it was raised first by a student at West Chester University, who asked Obama how the uproar had affected his "spiritual life."

Obama made a point of noting he is a Christian who prays "every night." He wryly added: "And when you’re running for president, you pray even more."

He called the controversy that erupted over Wright and his relationship to him "a difficult moment.  You know, this is somebody who, on the one hand, is a good man, but said some things that I deeply disagree with."

Matthews returned to the matter later, asking why ...

Obama had stayed a part of Wright's congregation (as well as noting that he had contributed a sizable amount of money to the church over the years). The following exchange ensued:

OBAMA:  I think that what has happened is we took a loop out of — and compressed the most offensive things that a pastor said over the course of 30 years, and just ran it over and over and over again.
There is that other 30 years.  I never heard him say those things that were in those clips.

MATTHEWS:  But you did say you heard him say controversial things.

OBAMA:  But I’ve heard you say controversial things.

MATTHEWS:  You didn’t give me $27,000 dollars either.

OBAMA:  The point is this is a church that is active in AIDS.  It’s active on all kind of thing.  And so this is a wonderful church.  But as I said, look at the amount of time that’s been spent on this today, Chris.  At a time when we haven’t talked about a whole host of issues.

The interview wound to an end shortly after that. But as much as Obama clearly wanted to move on, just as clearly he can expect questions about Wright to be a staple at future forums and debates.

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[Steve Sailer]

What did the Presidential candidate know and when did he know it?

Obviously, Obama is trying very hard to mislead the American public. He's known since the 1980s that Wright is a far leftist radical -- heck, that's why Obama chose Wright's church! You can read all about it on pp. 274-295 of Obama's "Dreams from My Father." There's a very good reason Obama subtitled his autobiography: "A Story of Race and Inheritance."

[blacknews]

We have all seen the tapes so why is it necessary for Chris Matthews to spend so much time on this issue. To me it sounds like he has an agenda not unlike CNN & FOX News who suddenly decided to begin airing the Rev Wright tapes at the same after siting on it for months.
http://www.blacknews4us.com/

[Marks]

Let me say this,

Anything and I mean, anything, Rev. Wright said in Trinity Church is better than a Church who allowed predators to prey on children! Church's have scandals but still can be doing good works.

How can a Church allow intolerant, blaspheming, unpatriotic screaming words at the pulpit and young impressionable people might hear!

( Supposedly Obama's two daughters are forever negatively harmed by rhetoric! Or they already understand what black afrocentric pride is and who Louis Farrakhan is all about. How could Obama! Where was his better judgment! Why is he giving money that Church! )

I believe Obama's for years went to basic Church services and left before the 4 hour got rhetorically loud and wild sermons occurred.

Obama's gave money to the Church as he said, for the social programs it has.

There is a difference between words and illegal actions protected! Words are free speech. Illegal criminal actions like preying on children for pleasure and abuse are felonies!

Anyone challenging Obama's Church better check their own!

A lot of people continuing going to the Church that has protected predators. They tithe each month to the organization that didn't do anything about predators except move them around.

People continue going to the Church building where a predator abused children, if its cherished older building in a community. A Church where they got married, a predator did evil things in another room of the building or the basement. Maybe a predator Pastor or Priest married them!

If anyone wants to say Rev. Wright is unpatriotic for things he said, he's BETTER than that guy in Utah creating Ricin poison! Creating a toxin that can be distributed in a deadly way, is very unpatriotic to me!

In that motel room with the poison, an anarchist book!
Very unpatriotic!

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jM7qg8oXI4YiKn3zf0e_HoIubm-AD8VQ199G0

There were a lot of Bishops guilty, helping the moving predators around or not calling the police when crimes against children were known! A lot of directives on what to do, come from the Vatican.

Church that protects some loud and screaming rhetoric!
Another Church protected THOUSANDS of predators, about 4% of Priests over decades!

Still a Church with scandals, can be doing good things in those communities. Church's can retain a good image, though they were protecting predators! Right?

[Julia de Burgos]

Oh God, this is never going away ha? This is going to kill this campaign, ha? Obama won't let this die. Why do they keep asking him about this? So his pastor is a racist, so what? McCains' not going to do anything with this. He already said so.

[Obama Mama]

And yet again, with an hour-long interview, there's nothing more important to blog about! Give it up. Hillary lied about taking fire in Bosnia when she was under the best protection imaginable thanks to our troops, who do take fire, daily, thanks to her vote for the Iraq War. She dishonors the soldiers and officers who put themselves on the line to ensure her safety, and even wants our soldiers to stay in Iraq to "deter" Iran, for pity's sake - some "withdrawal" she offers! Tell me, please, where her proposal ends up being any different from McCain's.

An Obama supporter recently put it best - what's more important, Race and Religion or Truth and Troops? To me, getting us out of Iraq with no permanent bases left behind, and back on Al Qaeda's tail is Priority No. 1, and getting our government out of lobbyists' pockets is the means to achieving Priorities No. 1, and 2 to get lenders regulated and consumers protected, and 3 to finally have portable affordable employer-provided and/or government-subsidized healthcare with no limits on preconditions, and 4 to repair and replenish our troops and equipment, and so on.

People who won't vote for Obama because of Wright probably weren't voting for him anyway. People who care more about our two wars, our stagnant economy, global warming, our international influence and our health will move on from the retired pastor, and vote for Obama to get our country back on track again.

[JanetP]

Jeremiah Wright is a bully and a racist. He is using a church in Chicago as a front to promote his anti-white and anti-American agenda. The white race should stop tiptoeing around this issue and call it what it is.

Barack Obama, with all his brilliance, intellect and Harvard credentials, would have us believe that in twenty years he wasn't able to figure out that Wright was spewing poisonous racist venom from the pulpit he hides behind. That is unmitigated crap and Obama insults the intelligence of the people he is asking to elect him the leader of the free world.

People: We are surrendering our country. We must get beyond this political correctness and challenge hate speech whether we find it in a KKK meeting, a White Supremist Convention, or a black church in Chicago. If this issue is not properly addressed and resolved the moral authority to challenge any other person is lost. Rev. Wright cannot be given a pass because he is black and Obama cannot be given a pass for his failure, up to this moment, to acknowledge the harm Wright has done with racist rants.

[Bill]

Matthews' response that Obama didn't give him $27,000 was disingenuous. I presume he didn't give Wright the money and that he gave it to the church for its good works.

[eddie23]

REv Wrigth is neither a bully nor a racist.

I listened to the entire sermon, not the best one I ever heard, not too bad either.

How can this man, a US marine, be anti-American ?
He is American, period.
Neither is he racist. Prove that claim !

[Patrick]

DOES TWO WRONG MAKE ONE RIGHT???
PREDATOR PRIEST DOES GOOD DEEDS FOR OTHERS TOO, DOES THAT MEAN THEY SHOULD BE SPARED LIKE WRIGHT??

[anonymous]

MSNBC is pro-Hillary. Of course they are going to nitpick and not let the issue fade. I think we should get past this already. There are a lot of skeletons in everyone's closet. I've heard my pastor say lots of things I don't agree with, I skip over them and pray when he gets to the spiritual god parts. It's a nice church. Come on people! Wake Up!!!! You are being bamboozled by the media. Get a freakin' brain cell.

[Patrick]

DOES TWO WRONG MAKE ONE RIGHT???
PREDATOR PRIEST DOES GOOD DEEDS FOR OTHERS TOO, DOES THAT MEAN THEY SHOULD BE SPARED LIKE WRIGHT??

[John C.]

The reality as that there are racial issues. Democracy and freedom for both whites and blacks in America is still very much a work in progress and it is that America that made it so very painful in pre antibbellum America for blacks and the vestiges of it that persist that Rev. Write was alluding to. You don't go from 300 years of slavery to a perfect society with equality for all without going through exactly what we are going through on these issues right now.
To me the answers to these issues are to be found in education, a belief in the inherent value and worth of every human, faith and hope, and a stable economy that can offer jobs to everyone who want to work.

[Angie]

The church does many other good things - thats why he stayed. Do a documentary about the good things the church has done. This is how you will really understand why (Obama) stayed. This Rev. went off a couple of times - as we all do from time to time. My advice - do a full documentary on the church this is what's needed.

[kemo]

BOTTOM LINE - Black liberation theology is NOT “Christianity” as most of us understands it. It is only theology as it promotes hate. This "church" promotes one primary message: black hatred against whites. Its social programs, AIDS assistance, college assistance, community assistance are for BLACKS ONLY! Whites need not apply. The key is what is NOT said; the key to the sick center of this organization of Afro-centric, former “slaves” seeking revenge for 200 year old "sins" and inventing and promoting 2000 year old "sins" .. whites killing the Black Jesus!
If things are so damn bad in the USA why not go back to Africa!? Flights leave daily!
Don't try to sell me B. H. Obama as some-oh-so-clean, black John Kennedy. What B.S.! Members of this “church” hate John Kennedy all that John Kennedy stood for; he was powerful, rich and white.
BHO is NOT the man he claims to be. Just who is he? He is a creation of what he and his political handlers think the American people want. He, for damn sure, is NOT the kind of person we need in the Whitehouse when our nation is at such a crisis point.

[Rosemarie]

Why all the attention on a minister who is not running for office? Why no attention about a candidate lying about her "experience" in the White House? Why no attention to shady dealings while in the White House, in the governor's mansion, in a senate seat? What is lurking in those tax returns that a candidate refuses to reveal? Who owns the media?

[Chandra]

IT goes both ways... if this would've been Hillary going to a "white power" (KKK-like) church who had said the same thing and then Hillary claimed not to know... you know Obama supporters would be the same way.

There was an article by a small paper at the beginning of the Presidential races where Obama and Wright were overheard talking about how Obama would eventually have to distance himself from the Rev. (the Rev. said that to Obama) because of the Rev.'s "outspokenness" and the "black power" of the church and Obama said that "I know...".

Find that article and see for yourself that Obama DID know and according to his book that was the church where he felt at home... the one he had been searching for... Black Power, fiery speeches, and all.

Does nobody think it's... weird(?) how he almost never says anything about his white heritage?

In the end it really doesn't matter whether it's Obama, Hillary, or even McCain. They all have the same Goal... how they make it come about is the only difference.

If you're smart you will use your right to Write-in somebody better...

Of course the masses would have to actually research history and realize how this republic was meant to run and what's really going on. The sad part is, at the first whisper of someone incorrectly saying conspiracy "theory" they immediately stop researching and go with the sheeple again. *sigh*

[A. Other]

Why are so many presidential candidates so religious?

There are many people in this country who are intelligent enough to be skeptics and nonbelievers. Not everyone is a sheep following some church leaders blindly and paying them money to hear more lies and be brainwashed (such as Obama, Clinton and McCain).

How can we be certain that Obama, Clinton, or McCain will uphold the Constitution regarding separation of church and state? Religion, no matter what kind, has absolutely no place in politics or in public schools.

[Kwame Nyamekye]

I remember George Wallace and the kind of hateful things he did and said about African Americans when I was growing up. Nevertheless, many African Americans came to see a different side of him and forgave him both for what he said and what he did. Unfortunately, I don't see the same spirit among my white cousins with regard to the Rev. Wright and Mr. Obama (who by the way was a member of the church for more reasons than the fact that Rev. Wright was the pastor). Churches are involved in all types of good works in the communities they serve beyond the Sunday morning services. Doesn't the Bible also teach forgiveness? Forgive, forget and move on. Mr. Obama didn't say any of the things you guys are grilling him about.

[Anne]

Look. This is not rocket science. PLENTY of people sit through occasionally nutty sermons - or passively tolerate their minister's, or their church's extreme positions on some social issues even when they strongl disagree with them. The reason they stay in those churches is that they support the overall good works that those churches do in the community, and they give huge amounts of money to those churches because they are doing such effective "thousand points of light" work in the community. They are helping youth with after school programs, funding programs to feed villages overseas, supporting elderly in the community, etc. Yes, they might not supopprt every political utterance from their ministers, but they support the Church and all its good works, and they feel that particular church is doing more good in the community than perhaps any other church where the sermons might indeed be less inflammatory. What I have heard from my friends who attend such churches is that they simply ignore the inflammatory parts of the sermons, which are either rare or are just a couple of minutes in the sermon and focus on the overall message of love and ofrgiveness and taking care of your neighbor and giving back to your community and those less able to help themselves, and the uplifting feeling they get from that far outweighs the other. Barack Obama did not give $27,000 directly to Rev. Wright. He gave $27,000 to Trinity Church so that it could continue to be a beacon of hope in the South Side of Chicago. How hard is that to understand?

[Richard Faulkner]

So Obama and Clinton are critizing Bush and McCain on the economy. Like they would have done something much earlier. Well where were they earlier? I know of NO bill that they introduced to fix the problem. Where were they oh yeah out taking care of their butts instead of taking care of ours like they say they have for years and will if elected. What a crock.

[M Mitchell]

Are you people really that dumb? Black people have not been treated like Americans since coming to America. Heck, we only recently start being treated like human beings, at all. So, why do you think we would see America from your view point?

If your forefathers and foremothers had been rapped, beaten, castrated, and even murdered for sport, you may have a different prospective about America, too.

If your government, under the Reagan Administration, had allowed major drug dealers to distribute drugs in your community to finance an illegal war (Iran/Contra), then warehoused your young men who sold those drugs; you may have a different prospective about America, too. Before you call me nuts, you may want to GOOGLE my assertions.

Etc. etc. etc.

I believe most American citizens are reasonably decent, while many other pretend to be. But the U.S. Government is guilty of doing unthinkable things to the all the darker people of this country and the World. Unfortunately, White Americans seem to be the only people on the entire planet who doesn't know this!

Mr. Obama is only in the public eye because he first established "Street Cred" on the mean streets of Chicago. You don't get "Street Cred" by embracing fairytales and ignoring American History - the good and the bad.

[maz hess]

I think most of the people are just happy that barack is not a muslim

[Maria Boggiano]

Please Mr Frederick, retire Rev. Wright. We are tired of this. I watched the Hardball college tour with Chris Matthews and I saw that the whole student body and teachers were energized by Obama's magnetism and vision. In a real democracy it is not just conservatives and the right wing that have a say. They had their turn for eight long years. It is time for the new generation of politics to take over and voters want to vote on issues, not distractions and non-issues. It is clear Obama loves this country as much as McCain or he wouldn't subject himself to the scrutiny and rigors that come from running as a candidate.Your article appeals to a small segment of voters.

[Cedrick Mason]

President Bush gave us misleading info. on the Iraq situation. Here we have Sen. Clinton lieying about her trip to Bosina. Why are you not showing the link between the two.
Do we want another president who will lie to the public again. Play hardball on this issue, the press played hardball to destroy Barack Obama over the Rev. Wright issue. This will get the public to begin to call into question her truefulness when the phone rings at 3 o'clock in the morning.

[Jenny]

Two things really irk me about the media's handling of the Wright issue, and some of the comments I'm seeig online:

1) Giving money to a church and attending that church (however sporadically the Obamas may have attended it--and I'm guessing their attendance was sporadic) does not mean that a person believes the pastor is a guru, nor does it mean that they are complacent with what a pastor says. This church is, for all of its complexities, a church family that does very good works in the Chicago community. I know; I lived not far from there when I was a student in Chicago. In large churches like this one, while the pastor does serve a unifying role, the main thing is frequently the community, NOT the ideology or rhetorical moves of its minister.

2) People who believe that Obama is trying to mislead the American people might do well to consider that he's not deceitful--any more than Hillary Clinton or John McCain are lying around the people they've associated with in certain contexts--as much as he's STUBBORN and thinks that the issues are more important, especially in a context such as this, where students had shown up with a variety of questions for him. He will have to deal with the Wright issue over and over again, and he knows it. But I don't see why that means he can't talk about other issues when he's speaking to people who waited a long time to see him in person.