For Obama supporters: come on, don't buy the Clinton meme circulating on DU. Everyone is seeing the truth of the matter, not the Clintons' spin on it. Pastor Wright made comments that reflect his, and only his, opinions. Period.
For Clinton supporters: truth is unbeatable!
(And so is Obama)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - New York Times: Obama Denounces His Pastor’s Statements In the handful of years Senator Barack Obama has spent in the national spotlight, his stance toward his pastor has gone from glowing praise to growing distance to — as of Friday — strong criticism.
On Friday, Mr. Obama called a grab bag of statements by his longtime minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., “inflammatory and appalling.”
“I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue,” he wrote in a campaign statement that was his strongest in a series of public disavowals of his pastor’s views over the past year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/us/politics/15wright.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Pastor Leaves Obama CampaignSen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., condemned racially charged sermons by his former pastor Friday and urged Americans not to reject his presidential campaign because of “guilt by association.”
Obama’s campaign announced that the minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., had left its spiritual advisory committee after videotapes of his sermons again ignited fierce debate in news accounts and political blogs.
Obama did not clarify whether Wright volunteered to leave his African American Religious Leadership Committee, a loose group of supporters associated with the campaign, or whether the campaign asked him to leave.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23634881/ Controversial Pastor Off Obama CampaignA Chicago minister who delivered a fiery sermon about Sen. Hillary Clinton having an advantage over Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential race because she is white is no longer a part of the Obama campaign.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is no longer serving on the African American Religious Leadership Committee, campaign sources told CNN.
In another sermon, Wright had said America had brought the September 11 attacks upon itself.
The announcement of Wright's departure from the Obama camp came after the Illinois senator on Friday denounced some of the ministers's sermons, calling them "inflammatory and appalling."
"I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies," Obama wrote on the liberal Web site Huffingtonpost.com about recently surfaced sermons from Wright -- his longtime pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/14/obama.minister/index.html ABC News: Controversial Pastor Gone From Campaign CommitteeABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: During an interview with MSNBC's Keith Olberman, Sen. Barack Obama confirmed that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is no longer on the Obama campaign spiritual advisory committee.
When asked if the decision came from the campaign or from Wright, Obama was short on specifics, saying only, "I think there was a recognition that he’s on the verge of retirement, he’s taking a sabbatical and that it was important for him to step out of the spotlight in this situation."
Obama said that the did not know the extent of Wright's controversial comments until recently. He confirmed that he was not in the church when Wright made the comments that were reported this week.
"I wasn't in church during the time that these statement were made," Obama said. "I did not hear such incendiary language myself, personally. Either in conversations with him or when I was in the pew, he always preached the social gospel."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/03/obama-comments.html ABC News: Obama Condemns Pastor's Fiery Remarks: Says He Looked to Rev. Jeremiah Wright For Spiritual Advice, Not Political GuidanceDemocratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who has railed against the United States and accused its leaders of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.
As video of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has widely aired on television and the Internet, Obama responded by posting a blog about his relationship with Wright and his church, Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, on the Huffington Post.
Obama wrote that he's looked to Wright for spiritual advice, not political guidance, and he's been pained and angered to learn of some of his pastor's comments for which he had not been present. Obama's statement did not say whether Wright would remain on his African American Religious Leadership Committee, and campaign officials wouldn't say either.
"I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies," Obama said. "I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/14/politics/main3940680.shtml FOX News: Obama Slams SermonsBarack Obama on Friday, in a written statement and then in an interview with FOX News, issued his firmest denunciation to date of his longtime Chicago pastor and described the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.’s anti-U.S. remarks as “inflammatory and appalling.”
Obama, in an interview Friday with FOX News’ Major Garrett, said he has been a member of the church since the early 1990s after working with the congregation as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago.
He was married at Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, had his children baptized by Wright and donated money to the church, but he said he first learned of many of the pastor’s controversial statements only when they were aired in the media in recent days.
“None of these statements were ones I had heard myself personally in the pews,” Obama told FOX News. “Once I saw them I had to be very clear about the fact that these are not statements that I am comfortable with. I reject them completely they are not ones that reflect my values or my ideals.”
He said the sermons now sparking controversy didn’t resemble the sermons he remembers from Wright, which, Obama said, stuck to messages of faith, values and helping people in the community.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/14/obama-calls-chicago-pastors-fiery-remarks-inflammatory-and-appalling/