Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Why did it take him this long?
“I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community”
Barack Obama, March 18
“I have been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1992, and have known Reverend Wright for 20 years. The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago.”
Barack Obama, April 29
What I find to be the most interesting thing about all this is that Paster Jeremiah Wright didn’t say anything yesterday at the National Press Club that he hasn’t said before. Everything he said yesterday was already up on YouTube.
At least Paster Wright is consistent. Barack Obama, not so much.
So why would Obama all of a sudden do a reverse on Wright and throw him under the bus? My guess is with yesterday’s repeat performance, it became all but impossible to explain away what Wright has been saying. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard it explained as only being a few sound bites plucked out of context. With yesterday’s appearance at the National Press Club, Obama couldn’t make it all go away with another speech.
What he said today he should have said last month in Philadelphia.
Is Clinton going to cut all ties with her chief strategist, Geoff Garin?
Link
Garin’s more closely connected to Hillary than Wright is to Obama.
Geoff Garin works for the Hillary campaign in a professional capacity. That’s something he has done for a good many Democratic campaigns over the years. He’s a professional pollster and supposedly a very good one. Personally, I think all pollsters are quacks, but I’m extremely biased on the subject.
Garin as a 20 year old college student wrote an op-ed in his college (Harvard) newspaper on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. I read the actual op-ed earlier this morning. I missed the part where Garin supposedly called for the “violent revolution” of the United States like the Huffington Post said he did. Maybe I need to go read it again, or maybe who ever wrote the headline over at the Huffington Post just made it up.
It’s not like Geoff Garin set off pipe bombs like Obama’s terrorist friend William Ayres did.
Garin’s relationship with Hillary is nothing at all similar to Obama’s relationship with Wright. Hillary’s relationship with Garin is professional. Obama’s relationship to Wright is personal and even spiritual. I think Obama did the right thing by finally denouncing Wright. I just don’t understand why it took him so long. Wright didn’t say anything the other day at the National Press Club that he didn’t already say from behind the pulpit. Nothing new was said by Wright.
People seem to have a whole lot of fun playing Six Degrees of Barack Obama, but they get miffed when you change the name of the game. McCain’s unfortunate connection to Reverend Hagee dissolved completely because the press decided they didn’t care to follow it. McCain even gave an interview where he basically said, “Yes, I denounce his comments. And yes, I accept his endorsement 100%.” The comedy writes itself!
Hillary’s relationship with Garin could easily be more personal than Obama’s relationship with Wright. It’s not a tough premise to accept, if your mind is open to it.
I guess I’m just too closed minded to see it then.
How exactly is a professional relationship with a pollster who has had professional relationships with other politicians (Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Russ Feingold, Patrick Leahy, Wesley Clark, etc.) be anything at all like the personal relationship Obama had (past tense) with Rev. Wright?
I also don’t see how an op-ed written in 1973 for the Harvard student newspaper that referenced the Boston Tea Party can be compared to the hate filled bigoted rants of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Rants he repeated only a few days ago.
What is the difference between “personal” and “professional?” Maybe we have different understandings of the words. Normally one doesn’t distinguish between the two unless they are negotiating a mean case of sexual tension with a co-worker. This is the first time I’ve been told that there’s any meaningful difference between the two where politics is concerned. A relationship is a relationship, adjectives be damned.
I take from your last comment Jesse that you now realize your attempt at comparing Hillary’s connection to Geoff Garin to that of Obama’s connection to Rev. Wright is just silly. To say nothing of comparing a 20-year old kid writing an op-ed piece in 1973 for his college newspaper about the Boston Tea Party to the ignorant and bigoted rants of a 66-year old minister.
When you realize you are digging yourself into a hole, stop digging.
Language is at the core of this disagreement. Too bad so few people realize how important language is.
[...] Obama seems to have a real problem with telling the truth. He repeatedly says one thing and then does another when it behooves him. He signed an oath to not campaign in the state of Florida, but then purchased national TV spots that ran in Florida. He also said that he could no more disown Rev. Wright than he could disown the black community. A month latter he did just that. [...]