Wronging Wright: Obama Denounces the Reverend

Reverend Jeremiah Wright has been a thorn in presidential hopeful Barack Obama's side since his controversial comments from the pulpit emerged in March. Although Obama defended his pastor for some time, explaining that Wright's comments were being taken out of context, he has now altogether abandoned Wright. It started on Monday: After Reverend Wright made a statement at a National Press Club event that the United States could have planted the AIDS virus into black communities, Obama denounced the comments as “divisive and destructive,” leading to division within the black churchgoing community.

Obama's many blogging supporters are concerned about the issue. Cuban 26th parallel wants to know what took Obama so long:

…one thing immediately came to mind:

Why didn't he do this earlier, like years ago?

We can only suspect, but it's a fairly safe bet that it was the following two things that set the official Obama/Wright separation in motion: 1) this time it was personal for Obama, and 2) His sweeping race speech in Philly (which understandably didn't do squat to answer any questions re Rev. Wright) didn't shut up the good reverend.

Mystical Politics also fears that Obama's delay in denouncing Reverend Wright will affect his campaign:

My fear about Obama is that no matter what he says about Wright now – however harshly he denounces him – that this means the utter destruction of his campaign.

Some bloggers are less concerned with Wright's comments than the craziness of the media's response to them. A political glimpse from Ireland is one such blogger:

I have to admit that I really was not too clued up on the Jeremiah Wright story and was one of those people who was subjugated to the never-ending bombardment of cut video clips. Yesterday’s Daily Show was great though because it affirmed the one thing that I had been thinking about all day and that is the Main Stream Media is really out of control. Instead of reporting on the issues yesterday, on every single news channel we had stories about Reverend Wright hurting Senator Obama. Now if you were the typical human being sitting at home and everytime you switched the channel and saw an isolated clip of Rev. Wright; it would be pretty easy for you to dismiss the man as a “nutter” as they say here in Ireland. This dismissal might also cause you to believe that Senator Obama is some sort of closet racist that was brain-washed by this man but this is far from the truth.

Australian Duckpond concurs:

…As Paul Woodward says at The War in Context it is remarkable how little attention is actually paid to what Rev. Jeremiah Wright actually says at the National Press Conference in Washington or in pulpit. Everybody is supposed to be in awe of the way the right wing media circus will do with the latest opportunity. Snippets aplenty, and much like the Clinton campaign with motives as pure as snow their’s is not a racist campaign. But could any candidate run against the corporate media and win the election?

On the other side of things, blogger Darryl Wolk announced Obama's comments toward Wright and received this comment from a reader:

I made a prediction today in my blog which confirms a prediction I made some time ago that indeed, Barack Obama will be the democratic nominee. I think his absolute denouncement of Rev. Wright which he made today definitely seals his nomination, which may have been a bit questionable even just a week ago, at least from my perspective and despite the high numbers obviously in his favor. McCain is my guy, and he's going to be a strong opponent to beat. If Barack would have entered the race leaving any doubts as to his feelings with regard to Rev. Wright, the highly publicized and controversial racist speech Wright made before his former church, and the cantankerous speech Wright made Monday at the National Press Club, Barack's campaign would have been finished. I think democrats might have looked to Hillary as their candidate if only because the Rev. Wright debacle would have proved distracting and frankly, would leave the democratic issues all but in the dust.

Barack still will not be president by my prediction, but he WILL be the democratic nominee for whatever its worth.

7 comments

  • Obama has shown a lot of coolness in some pretty hot moments. I think the supposedly unfortunate tangle with Hillary has made Obama a stronger candidate and a stronger individual.

    You’ve just gotta like the way Obama handles problems.

  • Pamela

    sorry sweetheart, but you sound like a kid who still tries to get away with telling your mom that the car wouldn’t start and your cell phone wouldn’t charge and the movie got out late because the tape broke…

    The sad truth is that Obama is a very rich, middle aged career politician whose never had a real job in his life.

  • Pamela:

    The post above does not (necessarily) reflect my opinion. The aim of Voices without Votes is to aggregate blog content from around the world for the purpose of understanding how the U.S. elections affect our friends worldwide. The fact is, the actions of the United States affect global citizens as much as, if not more than they affect us; incidentally, Obama seems to be the favored candidate by non-Americans (though that’s not an empirical statement by any means).

    Also, I don’t appreciate your condescending tone.

    Best,
    Jillian C. York

  • phil

    I wonder how much the Clintons paid Rev. Wright for the job? $200,000, $500,000, a $1,000,000?

    Hillary came out of PA with her hands real dirty. Blacks are mad with her, and won’t vote for her in the general election. Needed someone else who could do it right before the primaries. . . These whites can be easily manipulated, we just need someone to play the race card and get it going in these states. They are simpletons and can be easily controlled by using the race card. . .

    What about our dear friend Rev. Wright, he already gave us the tape. . . Let’s bring him in now for the finale, but he must time his entry just right for maximum effect. . .

  • erag5294

    IT’S THE MESSAGE…..NOT THE MESSENGER

    Obama told the New York Times he will continue his membership in Trinity United Church of Christ and “ still very much value the Trinity community.”, where Black Liberation Theology as it has expressed itself in the African-American community seeks to find a way to make the gospel relevant to black people who must struggle under the daily burden of white oppression ) is preached by former pastor, Rev.Wright and current hip-hop pastor, Rev.Otis Moss 3rd. Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.”

    Anyone who would subscribe to such an anti-American, anti-white, left-wing socialist agenda is not fit to become President of the United States.

    CHANGE 08…..you bet, more than you ever envision!

  • Pamela, I have to say that you haven’t got your facts straight. If you look at the finances of McCain and Clinton, you can see that they are both far more richer than Obama. Secondly how can you call what Obama did in the south side of Chicago as a community organizer not a job, he made a real difference. Erag, Obama is far from anti-american or anti-white, what you said does not make sense because he is half-white himself. Like the Senator said on Meet the Press this past sunday, everyone knows people in their life who change, Rev.Wright is just one of them.

  • Aggie

    You know, Phil, it is something to think about. That NAACP Branch President is a Hillary supporter. I wonder if he got some consideration for bringing Rev. Wright there for their dinner. And just to reinforce it right before the election, he appears on Lou Dobbs Show a day ago. Dobbs show is free marketing for Hillary under the guise of objective news and commentary.

    Well, the Clintons may be scummier than I thought.

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