Barack Obama Must Explain Wright Now

Shockingly, Brian Ross of ABC News did a story on Barack Obama's controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Finally, someone in the lib media dared to report on Obama's relationship with Wright.

Wright says, "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

(Wright breaks the commandment "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain" from the pulpit.)

Obama says, "I don't think that, uh, my church is actually, particularly controversial."

That's a real problem.

Obama's Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11

Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America."

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."

In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial." He said Rev. Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with," telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.

Rev. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, "The Audacity of Hope."

An ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright's sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism.

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.

Sen. Obama told the New York Times he was not at the church on the day of Rev. Wright's 9/11 sermon. "The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification," Obama said in a recent interview. "It sounds like he was trying to be provocative," Obama told the paper.

...In a statement to ABCNews.com, Obama's press spokesman Bill Burton said, "Sen. Obama has said repeatedly that personal attacks such as this have no place in this campaign or our politics, whether they're offered from a platform at a rally or the pulpit of a church. Sen. Obama does not think of the pastor of his church in political terms. Like a member of his family, there are things he says with which Sen. Obama deeply disagrees. But now that he is retired, that doesn't detract from Sen. Obama's affection for Rev. Wright or his appreciation for the good works he has done."

Wright's comments are so inflammatory, they are so extreme, that they cannot be simply dismissed by Obama. This "old uncle" stuff doesn't fly.

If I had been attending services at Trinity United Church of Christ when Wright was delivering one of his trademark sermons, I would have walked out immediately.

Barack Obama stayed for 20 years.

Wright married Barack and Michelle Obama. He baptized their children. Trinity United Church of Christ is their spiritual home.

And Obama doesn't consider his church to be controversial.

If he really doesn't realize how terribly controversial it is, then he is so clueless that he's not fit to be president.

If he does realize that Wright preached hate but he excuses him anyway, then he is complicit in Wright's divisiveness and is not fit to be president.

Obama must explain now. He has to admit that it was and is poor judgment on his part to attend the Trinity United Church of Christ. He must admit that he had a serious lapse in judgment when he embraced Wright. He must admit that he continues to have a serious lapse in judgment by continuing to stand by him.

There can be nothing less from Obama than complete condemnation of Wright and his church.

I know John McCain is reticent to call on Obama to address this issue. That was clear during his interview with Sean Hannity. McCain claimed he hadn't heard all of Wright's remarks.

Really?

No one in McCain's camp has researched Wright? No one has filled McCain in on Obama's pastor and church?

I find that very hard to believe.

I think it would be completely appropriate for McCain and Hillary Clinton to call on Obama to explain his association with the radical Wright. It's an issue that shouldn't be avoided.

I would respect them for standing up and refusing to be intimidated by Obama.

Actually, I think McCain and Hillary don't have the right stuff to be president if they're afraid to discuss the matter of the hateful, divisive, racist teachings of one of Obama's mentors with the American people.

Obama must explain.