the new and improved obama thread

Just a couple of thoughts on Wright's views.I remember growing up in fifties and developing an interest in pop music. A couple of the music types at the time were early rock n roll and doo wop. Both of these styles of music were pioneered by black musicians yet on the radio I would hear Pat Boone or Elvis sing Little Richard's Long Tall Sally. I would hear groups like the Diamonds sing Little Darling instead of hearing the original group the Gladiolas singing it. Radio stations promoted white musicians over black musicians. Sure there were exceptions but it was generally the case.There was a mixed race group called the Del Vikings that came out of the US military that had to stay in separate hotels. There were separate bathrooms for blacks, and we all know who had to go to the "back of the bus". Fortuanately that has all changed but it still has to burn in the hearts of black people who still remember those days.My point is that Dr. Wright grew up in a very different world that what we have today. It is not surprising that he views things in a way that no longer resonates with many people. Sure I find his remarks repugnant but I guess I can also sympathize with how his past has formed him.

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Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

I grew up in western Canada, (Medicine Hat, Alberta) with no contact at all with any of the Black population. I wasn't even aware of what racism was. It was only later that I learned of how different my experience was than that of people like Dr. Wright.I was totally accepted within the culture that I grew up in. I have to think that I would be a very different person than what I am if I had grown up in his shoes.

quote:

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Luke 12:48
But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

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As a Christian I can't see how I am in any position to stand in condemnation of Dr. Wright no matter how much I disagree with his views.

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Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

It has become natural to be cynical of politicians. Everything that is being said by the politicians is reported by the media in such a way that the only importance of what they say relates to how it affects their political chances in an election.Maybe however there are politicans who will say what they believe to be right and if it doesn't play well politically then so be it, because if the public doesn't agree with them, then what's the point of being elected.I listened to Obama's speech live. He strikes me as that kind of guy, so I would suggest that people listen to what he has to say without regard to how it plays politically because I think he had something to say that is really worth thinking about whether the man is elected or not.I might add by the way that in Canada I am a card carrying Conservative, but sometimes something arises that transcends simple left wing, right wing politics. IMHO this speech fits that category.

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Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

I found the comments on this Christian web site regarding Rev Wright interesting. Jeremiah Wright

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Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

I just reviewed Obama's whole talk and he does not say that Wright hasn't been saying these things over a long period of time. If you could find tapes from 20 years ago with objectionable content on them it wouldn't contradict anything that Obama said. I suggest that your comment that he is deceitful is off base.I'm a social conservative so there are things on which I disagree with Obama. However every candidate is a complete package. Sure I disagree on his position on abortion but in reality there is currently a very pro-life president in the white house now and nothing has changed anyway.As Christians we are called to reflect Christ's love to the world. The US is not the New Jerusalem. The whole world is and we are called to be servants to that world. I believe that there are better ways to love and serve the Iraqi people than what is going on now and I think that Obama's way is more in line with what Jesus would do than what Bush is doing or what McCain would do.I think that Obama's message of racial and national unity is what both the US and the world need right now. The only way the war can ultimately be won is to change the hearts of the people of Iraq. It is difficult to change the hearts of people while you're dropping bombs on them. I realize that winning a war that way is not going to happen over night. After all it did take the Christians 300 years to change the hearts of the Romans.

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Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

Huckabee shows a lot of classHuckabee Defends Obama . and the Rev. Wright
March 19, 2008 8:53 PMAfter joking that he's leasing a hot dog stand in Manhattan, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on MSNBC's Morning Joe early this morning defended Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on the Rev. Wright front.And, in fact, he defended Rev. Wright, too.MIKE HUCKABEE: There are two different stories -- one is Obama’s reaction, the other one is the Rev. Wright’s speech itself. And I think that, you know, Obama has handled this about as well as anybody could. And I agree, it’s a very historic speech. I think that it was an important one and one that he had to deliver, and he couldn’t wait. The sooner he made it, maybe the quicker that this becomes less of the issue. Otherwise, it was the only thing that was the issue in his entire campaign. And I thought he handled it very, very well.And he made the point, and I think it's a valid one, that you can't hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do. You just can't -- whether it's me, whether it's Obama, anybody else. But he did distance himself from the very vitriolic statements.Now, the second story. It's interesting to me that there are some people on the left that are having to be very uncomfortable with what Louis Wright said, when they all were all over a Jerry Falwell or anyone on the right who said things that they found very awkward and uncomfortable years ago. Many times those were statements lifted out of the context of a larger sermon.Sermons, after all, are rarely written word-for-word by pastors like Rev. Wright, who are delivering them extemporaneously, and caught up in the emotion of the moment. There are things that sometimes get said, that if you put them on paper and looked at them in print, you'd say, "Well, I didn't mean to say it quite like that."MSNBC HOST JOE SCARBOROUGH: But, but you never came close to saying five days after September 11 that America deserved what it got -- or that the American government invented AIDS...HUCKABEE: Not defending his statements.SCARBOROUGH: Oh, I know you're not. I know you're not. I'm just wondering though: For a lot of people ... would you not guess that there are a lot of independent voters in Arkansas that vote for Democrats sometimes, and vote for Republicans sometimes, that are sitting here wondering how Barack Obama's spiritual mentor would call the United States the US-KKK?HUCKABEE: I mean, those were outrageous statements, and nobody can defend the content of them.SCARBOROUGH: But what's the impact on voters in Arkansas? Swing voters.HUCKABEE: I don't think we know. If this were October, I think it would have a dramatic impact. But it's not October. It's March. And I don't believe that by the time we get to October this is going to be the defining issue of the campaign and the reason that people vote.And one other thing I think we've got to remember: As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, "That's a terrible statement," I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I'm going to be probably the only conservative in America who's going to say something like this, but I'm just telling you: We've got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, "You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had a more, more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.JOE SCARBOROUGH: It's the Atticus Finch line about walking a mile in somebody else's shoes. I remember when Ronald Reagan got shot in 1981. There were some black students in my school that started applauding and said they hoped that he died. And you just sat there and of course you were angry at first, and then you walked out and started scratching your head, going, "Boy, there is some deep resentment there."

One other thing that impressed me about the speech was that Obama took the high road. The politically expedient thing to do would have been for him to reject his 20 year friendship. He didn't do that he stood by his friend even though it might cost him the election.As far as I'm concerned that, more than anything else he has said or done, convinces me that he has the strength of character the loyalty and the judgment needed by someone who aspires to the presidency.

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Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

Don't lump all of us conservatives together.