This will do it. Obama's clear break with his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright will give the on-the-fence superdelegates the substance to Obama they will have been looking for after North Carolina and Indiana voters express their will at the polling place.
Press Conference Transcript
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/29/transcript-obama-press-conference-on-jeremiah-wright/
We were wondering after our earlier post on Rev. Wright's appearance at the National Press Club whether his challenging words were enough to cause Obama to make a clear break with Wright. We didn't think they would be. We wondered whether Wright would have to make a statement over the next days that he did not believe the Holocaust had occurred - it was a Jewish conspiracy.
Nope. Wright didn't have to go that far. He'd gone far enough. We believe that's exactly what Rev. Wright intended. The pastor is no dummy. He understands politics. He can read and understand polls. And his absence from the public scene during his restful few weeks of silence were not enabling Obama to be the clear frontrunner before or after Pennsylvania.
Obama lost, but only by some 200,000 votes and a 9.2 percent spread in Clinton's favor. Not the dramatic push Obama needed to sway a clear majority of superdelegates.
Upcoming a few weeks later are North Carolina and Indiana, and the media and blogs are still going on about Rev. Wright. Wright had to do something dramatic. And that he did.
He overplayed his hand, for those of us who look behind these games, but that was intended. He claimed Obama had not denounced him but did what he had to do politically. He's a politician.
Really now as if Wright doesn't understand that is exactly the image Obama does not want to project and what he is not about.
so what better way to invite rejection, outright rejection, and get that outright rejection than to say among a string of outrageous to anybody statements, say the one thing you know will cause Obama to have to reject you now?
call him out as no different than any other politician.
After watching Obama for near 20-years, marrying him and his wife and baptizing his children, and watching him through a dozen years in the Illinois state Senate and throughout his short few years in the U.S. Senate - and now on his way to capture the nomination of the Democratic Party for President of the U.S. because he has the delegate count and the popular vote count still on his side - Rev. Wright absolutely knows Obama is different than other politicians.
Rev. Wright gave Barack Obama exactly what Obama needed at this point in time - a reason to reject not only the words of Wright, but the man behind the words.
The style of Wright's delivery of his words was revealing. Obama got it right in his response: His performance... he made a caricature of himself.
Exactly. And that's so revealing, because Wright is a very practiced public speaker. He knows the effect of his words, his movements, when he raises his hands in an exclamation point, and his every dance step in tune to his style of music.
Wright acted purposefully to create an outlandish character, himself, so even Obama could not sustain a relationship of any sort with him at all.
Obama had only one recourse - clean and clear denouncement and rejection.
Watch as the polling numbers increase for Barack Obama over the next few days and are maintained through North Carolina and Indiana.
Read what all Barack Obama said in response to hearing and watching Rev. Wright's as Obama puts it, performance, at the National Press Club.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=barack+obama+rev.+wright+condemns&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=news_result&resnum=1&ct=title
Realize, Rev. Jeremiah Wright has a book already in the works, surely he does, it could be entitled: My ___**** 1 Million Sermons and if he had to lose some "face" and lose a friend, for a few months or a year, or maybe 8 years, he did it for his country - the country that needs an unfettered Barack Obama at this point in time unlike any other.
The media has dogged Obama long enough about Rev. Wright. Now after a few days of discussion and articles, they won't be able to do that.
Jack Cafferty on the Situation Room got it exactly right. This was the best thing for Obama to do... the best thing that could have happened, now this can be put aside.
Barack Obama Blasts Former Pastor; McCain Introduces Health Care Plan; Gas Tax Reality Check Aired April 29, 2008 - 18:00 ET
Jack Cafferty: ...I'm not sure after that performance that Wright put on in front of the National Press Club that this was all that difficult for Barack Obama. It shouldn't have been. What this did was create the opportunity to maybe do what he was reluctant to do the first time. Remember, he distanced himself from the comments, but he said, you know, I've known the man a long time, he married us, blah, blah, blah. He didn't throw the man under the bus.
Now he can stand up and say you know what, he's a bigoted bitter old jerk and I'm out of here. And maybe, in a way, this is the best thing that could have happened, because Reverend Wright, in the beginning, was complaining how those short clips that were running on all of the TV networks were caricatures of him. Well, he walked down to National -- to Washington, D.C. to the National Press Club yesterday and proved that he's nothing much more than a cartoon character mired in the racial bitterness of a generation ago. I mean he's old news now. Maybe it's over.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/29/sitroom.03.html
we agree, but we won't put it past the media to cover Rev. Wright no matter who hosts him next. But our bet is Wright won't come back at Obama for the rejection, because Wright basically had every reason to cause the circumstances for the rejection.
(Net the Truth Online)
Partial excerpt
Transcript: Obama Press Conference on Jeremiah Wright
by FOXNews.com
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
QUESTION: You heard the reports about the AIDS comments.
OBAMA: I had not. I had not seen the transcript. What I had heard was he had given a performance, and I thought at the time that it would be sufficient simply to reiterate what I had said in Philadelphia.
Upon watching it, what became clear to me was that it was more than just him defending himself. What became clear to me was that he was presenting a worldview that contradicts who I am and what I stand for.
And what I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing. Anybody who knows me and knows what I am about knows that I am about trying to bridge gaps and that I see the commonality in all people.
And so when I start hearing comments about conspiracy theories and AIDS and suggestions that somehow Minister Farrakhan has been a great voice in the 20th century, then that goes directly at who I am and what I believe this country needs.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/29/transcript-obama-press-conference-on-jeremiah-wright/
CNN Transcripts
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/
MSNBC Hardball discussing Wright's Press Club comments and Obama's rejection of Wright after learning of the comments...
MSNBC Transcript
Matthews says unless Obama wins both North Carolina and Indiana this race is going all the way to the convention in Denver.
Of course, and that's exactly why the media has dogged Obama about the Rev. Wright comments from previously - so they could keep giving Clinton supporters hope that something really damning would affect Obama's chances... this after Obama is ahead in delegates and popular vote to date.
Ed Gordon: Obama has to get back on his message.
Howard Fineman: Obama has to get ahead of Hillary Clinton tactics... promising everything...
Margaret Carlson: it's an absolute stunt, Hillary Clinton's gas tax holiday... just hand out whatever it is... Obama is done with the Wright story, he can't follow her on this gas tax...
Matthews: pandering tends to work in the Democratic Party... will pandering sell.
Fineman: it could work for Hillary as a theme for the rest of the primary season if she makes it look like action and not speeches...
Net the Truth Online
Obama 'outraged' by Wright's remarks
Obama said he is outraged by Wright's remarks that seemed to suggest the U.S. government might be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and his equation of some American wartime efforts with terrorism.
"What particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing," Obama said, adding that Wright had shown "little regard for me" and seemed more concerned with "taking center stage."
Obama said Wright's comments were not only "divisive and destructive," but they "end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate." Watch Obama describe Wright's comments »
Obama said he did not think Wright's comments accurately portrayed the perspective of the black church and said they "certainly do not portray accurately" his own values and beliefs.
Throughout his campaign, Obama has said he wants to be a uniter, said Bill Schneider, a CNN senior political analyst...
...Obama said Monday that Wright's remarks were "antithetical to our campaign; it was antithetical to what we're about." Watch Obama denounce Wright's remarks »
"I cannot prevent him from making these remarks," but "when I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts what I'm about and who I am. ... It is completely opposed to what I stand for and where I want to take this country."
In a break with previous comments, Obama focused his criticism on Wright the man, and not simply his remarks.
Obama said he gave Wright "the benefit of the doubt" before his speech on race relations.
"What we saw yesterday from Rev. Wright was a resurfacing and, I believe, an exploitation of these old divisions," Obama said.
Obama said he did not see a transcript of Wright's remarks until Tuesday...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/29/obama.wright/index.html
Barack Obama denounces Rev Jeremiah Wright
By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 8:04PM BST 29/04/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/1911973/Barack-Obama-denounces-Rev-Jeremiah-Wright.html
FACTBOX: Obama condemns ex-pastor's "appalling" remarks
Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:52pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSN2928781420080429
Rev. Wright Taunts Journalists, Blasts Government
April 28: The Rev. Jeremiah Wright taunts the national media in Washington, D.C.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright taunted a gathering of journalists Monday in Washington, D.C., calling their coverage of his speeches an attack on the black church, while defending his claim that the U.S. was responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Wright, the controversial former pastor of Barack Obama’s church, took dead aim at the U.S. government Monday — saying American soldiers in Iraq have died “over a lie” and calling the war “unjust” — as he called for reconciliation and understanding between blacks and whites.
Wright was speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. as he continues a series of nationwide appearances following an uproar over remarks he made in some of his sermons delivered from the pulpit.
Click here to read a full transcript of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s remarks and question-answer session at the National Press Club.
http://www.thecitizen.com/~citizen0/node/27780
Rev. Wright Show Goes On
Posted Apr 28th 2008 9:00AM by Faye Anderson
Filed under: BlackSpin, Elections, Barack Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright
Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is making headlines again. In recent days, he was interviewed by Bill Moyers and delivered a speech before the Detroit Branch of the NAACP...
http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/04/28/rev-wright-speaks-out/
Obama looks to put controversial pastor behind him
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_on_el_pr/obama_wright
Reverend Wright at the National Press Club
Published: April 28, 2008
Following is the transcript of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.'s remarks to the National Press Club, as provided by CQ Transcriptions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/us/politics/28text-wright.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
December 2007 Atlantic Monthly
Is Iraq Vietnam? Who really won in 2000? Which side are you on in the culture wars? These questions have divided the Baby Boomers and distorted our politics. One candidate could transcend them.
by Andrew Sullivan
Goodbye to All That: Why Obama Matters
...But he knows, and privately acknowledges, that the fundamental point of his candidacy is that it is happening now. In politics, timing matters. And the most persuasive case for Obama has less to do with him than with the moment he is meeting. The moment has been a long time coming, and it is the result of a confluence of events, from one traumatizing war in Southeast Asia to another in the most fractious country in the Middle East. The legacy is a cultural climate that stultifies our politics and corrupts our discourse.
Obama’s candidacy in this sense is a potentially transformational one. Unlike any of the other candidates, he could take America—finally—past the debilitating, self-perpetuating family quarrel of the Baby Boom generation that has long engulfed all of us. So much has happened in America in the past seven years, let alone the past 40, that we can be forgiven for focusing on the present and the immediate future. But it is only when you take several large steps back into the long past that the full logic of an Obama presidency stares directly—and uncomfortably—at you...
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/obama
