Was Jeremiah Wright's speech set up by a Clinton supporter?

Well, here's a most interesting connection we just came across.

Everybody is talking today about how much the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's latest unrepentant militant remarks hurt his most prominent parishoner, Sen. Barack Obama, and his chances to win the Democratic presidential nomination and the general election. So much so that the Obama camp realized the latent danger overnight and the candidate was forced to speak out publicly a second time today, as The Ticket noted here earlier today.

There was little doubt left in today's remarks by Obama, who recently said he could no more disown Wright than he could the black community. He pretty much disowned Wright today. Obama described himself as "outraged" and "saddened" by "the spectacle of what we saw yesterday."

But now, it turns out, we should have been paying a little less attention to Wright's speech and the histrionics of his ensuing news conference and taken a peek at....

who was sitting next to him at the head table for the National Press Club event.

It was the Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds, a former editorial board member of USA Today who teaches at the Howard University School of Divinity. An ordained minister, as New York Daily News writer Errol Louis points out in today's column, she was introduced at the press club event as the person "who organized" it.

But guess what? She's also an ardent longtime booster of Obama's sole remaining competitor for the Democratic nomination, none other than Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. It won't take very much at all for Obama supporters to see in Wright's carefully arranged Washington event that was so damaging to Obama the strategic, nefarious manipulation of the Clintons.

Their supporter, Reynolds, helps arrange a speech by the outspoken and egocentric Wright which receives blanket national coverage to the disadvantage of Clinton's opponent. As Louis writes: "The Rev. Jeremiah Wright couldn't have done more damage to Barack Obama's campaign if he had tried. And you have to wonder if that's just what one friend of Wright wanted."

Reynolds has not returned e-mails or phone calls seeking comment, but Louis notes the obvious conflict between her political allegiance and her press club arrangements. He quotes a February blog entry of Reynolds saying, "My vote for Hillary in the Maryland primary was my way of saying thank you" to Clinton and her husband for his administration's successes.

In another entry, Reynolds notes critically of Obama, "It is a sad testimony that to protect his credentials as a unifier above the fray, the senator is fueling the media characterization that Rev. Dr. Wright is some retiring old uncle in the church basement."

Louis notes himself about the Wright appearance: "It's hard to exaggerate how bad the actual news conference was. Wright, steeped in an honorable, fiery tradition of Bible-based social criticism, cheapened his arguments and his movement by mugging for the cameras, rolling his eyes, heaping scorn on his critics and acting as if nobody in the room was learned enough to ask him a question."

(UPDATE: Sylvia Smith, the press club president, confirmed today that Reynolds is on the club's speakers committee. She told Michael Calderone on Politico.com that she still doesn't know whom Reynolds supports for president, adding, "Rev. Wright is newsworthy, period.")

--Andrew Malcolm

                                                                                                                            Photo Credit: Getty

Comments

[Jet]

Why is it that all of a sudden this is the news? Because what Obama did will really bring him down.

We are talking about Rev.Wright's word so whoever set it up doesn't matter.

The fact is: Rev.Wright will always say one thing.Whether it's wright or wrong he's a man of his word and Obama cannot change that. Since Obama cannot change that he will definitely repudiate the man now.

Rev.Wright is not a politician...Obama is...so who is lying on their beliefs/ideology?

[toby]

No the question is:

After their long relationship, why didn't Obama see this coming?

This is a judgement thing. How could he have not known that Wright was SUCH a loose cannon?

And if it's loyalty...well isn't that what Bush does? Puts loyalty above competence?

[Justin]

Whether or not there was ill-intent by Reynolds, whether or not there was involvement by the Clinton campaign is no longer the point for me.

The point is, given Sen. Clinton's approach to this election, it would not surprise me in the least if there were a connection.

I am admittedly a small sample, but there is no circumstance under which I will vote for Sen. Clinton in a general election. In January I gladly would have.

[dave]

Blame this on Hillary Clinton? You have got to get off the dope and on medication.

[Ann]

"It won't take very much at all for Obama supporters to see in Wright's carefully arranged Washington event that was so damaging to Obama the strategic, nefarious manipulation of the Clintons."

ANd in that case, the Obama-bots need some serious psychotropic medication!

Wright had been interviewed by Bill Moyers for PBS last week.

Wright spoke at the NAACP over the weekend - and was pretty much as outrageous and offensive if not more so than the was at the Press Club.

It was at the NAACP that he spouted off about how blacks learn differently because their brains are different - a nasty racial theory that has been floating around for decades to explain the poor academic performance of black children.

He was at his worst at the NAACP.

Then he spoke at the Press Club.

No one put the words in Wright's mouth at the PRess Club. He did it all by himself.

The only one to blame for what Wright said is Wright.

The only one responsible for the questions are arising about the judgement of someone who would associate with Wright for 20 years is Obama.

The Obama-bots (who have churn out more conspiracy theories than Robert Ludlum ever did) need look no farther than Obama and Wright as to the source of the problem.

If Obama had not been closely involved with Wright for 20 years, it wouldn't matter what this radical fringe minister says. And anyone in Chicagoo KNEW who and what Wright was 30 years ago - a radical black minister who was the Christian version of Louis Farrahkan (a scary dangerous man.)

It was Obama who hooked up with this guy and gave him over $20,000 in 2007.

It is Wright who has made the outrageous and racist statements.

It is Wright who is going around with bodyguards from Farrahkan's organization.

It is Wright who is running his mouth.

The problem is all the making of Wright and Obama.

The reality tha Obama-bots reject is that their deity has clay feet and has close ties to some real flakes. They really don't know anything about Obama - aside from what he had deigned to claim about himself and what they project onto him as some kind of weird wish-fulfillment.. Reality, though, is a biitch and now it is biting them on the butt.

[Kim]

More dirty tricks from the Clinton campaign. I can't say I'm surprised . . . There's no question that Hillary wants the nomination more and is willing to do anything to get it, but that kind of ugly politics is exactly what makes me want to vote for Obama and barely able to hold my nose for the idea of voting for Hillary.

[BUZZARD;S KORNER]

Now, why isn't the media focusing on this part of the story? Another question is Why does the media allow themselves to be pulled into a media frenzy via the Clinton Campaign but fail to check out wheter the facts are true or not....I have watched this race and I have seen Hillary go from being on the top of the hill, to capping someones kneecaps.....WHY, WHY, WHY......DOES THE MEDIA ALLOW THE CLINTON MANIPULATION?

Someone please answer that question.....

BUZZARDS KORNER!!

[Fred C Dobbs]

Trying to establish linkage to Hillary Clinton, how desperate can an Obama supporter get?

One wonders if there is a link between the LA Times and MSNBC?

The fresh line coming out of MSNBC today is that over the last twenty years no one who attended Jeremiah Wrights services heard any thing like the comments as noted over the last several days.

It is a good thing that we have the video from pastor Wright diatribes else we would be taken in by the folks over at MSNBC.

Barack Obama sat there for twenty years and now we are to believe that he had no idea as to the truth about Wright? Who do I believe, Chris Matthews/Barack Obama or my lying cheating eyes and ears!

[Obamamania]

Obama is our Savior. Obama, Ayers, and Reverend Wright are Right! God D*** america! The stupid, bitter, racist "typical white people" of pennsylvania voted for clinton. How disgusting, now they have even more blood on their hands! They ignored their opportunity to redeem themselves for their racim, and evil past -> slavery - to finally make Michelle proud. How sad. Please no hater responses, but you bitter, typical Indiana white people, please stop buying guns and save your money for my reparations check! Obama ''08, Repartions Check, ''09! http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/racism/0108 27.reparations.html

[verne]

It certainly does raise suspicion....I put nothing past The Clinton's and the old negro guard of the democratic party...they only maintain power if they can continue to pray on the underclass in the black community...

[Annette Keller]

This article is ridiculous. Given that 1/2 of the U.S. electorate is Democrat and about 1/2 of that electorate is for Clinton, there's a random 25$ chance that anyone who organizes a Wright press event is a Clinton supporter. If you take into account a probability that the person sympathetic to Wright, organizing the Wright press event is black, the chance that the person is a Clinton supporter is higher than 25%.

The fact is, an attempt to blame the Wright press event on Clinton is far more remote than associating Wright with Obama.

This is more Obama-supporter paranoia and divisiveness.

[politichick]

I just knew that you pro-Obama media hounds would bend over backwards to try to pin this on Hillary somehow! So then are you implying that Bill Moyers, the NAACP, AND the National Press Club are ALL Clinton Conspirators too?? Absolutely ludicrous! The bottom line is that Rev. Wright is lashing out at Obama out of pure anger and hurt -- after all, Obama turned his back on him and threw away a 20 year relationship the very second that it became a political liability. If a so-called friend did that to you, wouldn't you jump at the chance at a little sweet revenge on the national stage? C'mon!

[Smily]

Rev. Dr. Reynolds was on the CBS Evening News last night. She defended Wright, saying he did not preach hate. As another clergy person, she only wanted to give him the opportunity to redeem himself. I'm sure she did not expect him to go off the way he did. Remember, the questions were pre-SUBMITTED and Wright would NOT take any questions. It couldn't have been friendlier to Wright. For those who really believed she set him up for Hilary, get real. She set it up to help her friend, and he blew it on his own.

[TR]

Because Sen Clinton is a SAY ANYTHING, DO ANYTHING candidate. She has HIGH negatives for a reason. She will do ANYTHING to get elected. Most members including high profile people have said his sermons are not usually like that but now he goes there at this time? Set up by Sen Clinton....YES to try to make matters worse....Clinton cannot win the General election, she has LOST the black vote and the YOUTH stays home. She has made herself UNELECTABLE

[MindMadeUp]

Thank you Hillary Clinton for being a great Presidential Candidate!!

You are right on with your plan for Universal Healthcare, you are right on with your plans for education, you are right on for supporting working class America!!

You are not a flip-flopper, or a windsock, you don't try to fool us all by switching to what everyone wants to hear. You are the genuine article.

In a time when a man named Obama is trying to pull off the biggest Schmoozing of America in recent history, you are rock solid in your character and your commitment to the American people.

Hillary, no skeletons of 20+ years of hate and racism are jumping out of your closet to claw America in the face. No parlor jokes of demoting our American flag come from you.

Thank you Hillary for all your surprises are joyous ones, not ones that make a person think "wow I didn't know you supported that extremist person".

After months of standing your ground in the face of formidable odds, you have proven that you have got what it takes. No other presidential candidate has had the stuff shoveled on them like you have, and you made it through to the other side. You have shined through as the most tested Presidential candidate of the whole entire contest.

Thank you Hillary for allowing us to continue to have our individual GOD BLESS America. We are a nation with problems, but at the end of the day, Americans are full of heart, and at the end of the day, I know you'll be right there fighting for us.

Hillary for President 2008

[Francine Shacter]

I have two comments to make:
I believe in freedom of speech - and that includes the right of people to (1) be wrong (2) be outrageous and (3) make fools of themselves.

My second comment is that anyone who knows anything about polling and the reliability of poll data will tell you that responses about what a person will do at some future poiint aren't worth - in the words of Franklin Roosevelt's first vp, Garner - "a bucket of warm spit." Seriously, now, tell me that in a fit of spite a reasonably intelligent Democrat will really vote for the flawed Republican candidate, McCain, in November. My prediction? Very, very low probability!!!

[Paul]

I think that regardless of who did what to put Wright in front of the TV cameras with a microphone is a good thing. We can now see what he is really about. Anyone who could attribute his thinking and comments to Obama are clearly, for any rational thinking person, making a fool of themselves.

[Sam]

"Did Hillary supporter set up Wright speech?'" Talk about speading rumors and lies. Andrew Malcolm you Hillary hating misogynist. How about this for a blog title-
"Andrew Malcolm a zombie apologist for Barak Osama- America-hating liar?"

[JDC]

This kind of drama has Clinton written all over it and if this is what you want for the next 4-8 years, you know who will provide it for you. That anyone continues to fall for it is beyond me. Come one people, focus on the real problems facing our country.

What is nearly tragic is that this will probably hurt the entire Democratic party.

[Paul]

Smily said earlier:

Rev. Dr. Reynolds was on the CBS Evening News last night. She defended Wright, saying he did not preach hate. As another clergy person, she only wanted to give him the opportunity to redeem himself. I'm sure she did not expect him to go off the way he did. Remember, the questions were pre-SUBMITTED and Wright would NOT take any questions. It couldn't have been friendlier to Wright. For those who really believed she set him up for Hilary, get real. She set it up to help her friend, and he blew it on his own.
______________________

I think you are being too kind in your interpretations of Rev. Reynolds actions. I don't think this lady is a friend to Wright - if she knows him as a friend would, she would know how he was going to behave. I think she is probably conflicted with her interest in Hillary. However, as others point out, he spoke at a number of different venues. The reason all this happened is likely because Rev. Wright is a proud man who happens to also be black and feels the pain of being attacked unfairly. He probably wanted to set the record straight and of course the media would be delighted at the wonderful stories this would provoke. I think though it is a good thing. Timing may be not too good for Obama in the immediate state votes, but in the near to longer term, it will show Mr. Wright for what he is. As mentioned in an earlier post, anyone that is a thinking person and not totally partisan, would have to admit that Obama is not being influenced by this man's views. Nor could he have understood this man's make up.

[JefF]

The Clinton will say anything do anything to WIN. She is not a fighter she is a cheater. How can you trust anything they say. Lies become half truths and guess what? You will be paying more than you thought for Healthcare as she leaves office and makes enough money to ensure her daughter take her place in a couple of decades of course after JEB bush get his turn.

[Bill C]

Rev. Jeremiah Wright....now there's a real judas for ya.

This guy is not a real christian.

[Cheryll]

Are the Obamanites so desperate that they now have a conspiracy theory that Wright's egotistical remarks are Hillary's fault? How pathetic they are...NEVER ! EVER! Will I vote for Obama and his whining group of fanatical cultists! The DNC will lose and big!
If he thinks Hillary was tough...the Republicans will eat him alive, while he whines about bad everyone is to him! PUTZ!

[Steve]

Hillary Clinton does not control Rev. Wright's words or Obama's choices. Leave HRC out of this mess.

[Anonymouse]

well, at least the world knows he's not muslim now!

I remember months ago, everybody was spreading the idea that Obama was Muslim,

This controversy has cleared that right up, hasn't it? Now, everybody knows that Obama had a pastor that brought him to christianity.

Had this controversy not come up, people would still be spreading that rumor, but now everybody's clear on his religon.

Everybody can now take a sigh of relief!