Barack Obama is selling himself as the candidate who transcends race.
He's the uniter. He's the one to heal the nation's wounds. He can teach us lessons about ourselves that no one before him has ever been able to do.
Simply put, that's a crock. It's smoke and mirrors.
WASHINGTON -- Even if Hillary Rodham Clinton and her aides do not mention Barack Obama's fiery-tongued spiritual mentor, don't expect the Illinois senator's well-publicized speech Tuesday to make the controversy disappear, political strategists said this week.
Reporters, talk-show hosts and others will keep asking about Obama's close and long-standing relationship to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose most bombastic comments came to dominate the Democratic presidential contest recently, the strategists predicted in interviews. In video clips playing on Internet sites, Wright can be heard arguing that HIV-AIDS was a U.S. government plot to wipe out "people of color," and that God should "damn" the United States for its racist policies.
Should Obama become the Democratic nominee, conservative activists are virtually certain to remind voters of Obama's ties to Wright, perhaps by using the videos in TV ads, several strategists said.
"He can give a speech a week, and it's not going to make the issue go away," said Chris LaCivita, a Republican adviser who helped create the "Swift Boat" ads that severely damaged John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.
In his much-discussed speech from Philadelphia on Tuesday, Obama strongly condemned Wright's most controversial statements. But he did not repudiate Wright or his overall ministry, saying the man who officiated at his wedding is like a family member.
The decision will haunt Obama, LaCivita said, because his political success is built on his image as a uniter and almost messianic figure who eschews divisive strategies. When that image is juxtaposed to Wright's outbursts comparing the United States to the Ku Klux Klan, among other things, voters will wonder if they misread Obama and his true character, he said.
Several analysts said they doubted that Republican presidential candidate John McCain or his campaign would overtly mention Obama's ties to Wright because it could look heavy-handed and racially inflammatory. McCain has said he wants a respectful contest, and on Thursday, he suspended an aide who distributed a provocative YouTube video linking Obama to Wright's words.
But third-party groups, similar to the ones that criticized Kerry, might use the issue.
Good grief.
"Swift Boat" ads -- Lefty code for smear job.
I don't want to get into John Kerry and the Swift Boat Vets and their right to tell their story.
Nevertheless, it's clear that AP writer Charles Babington is choosing to shift the focus off of Rev. Wright's despicable racist, anti-Semitic, anti-American remarks and put the emphasis on third-party groups hoping to connect Wright's hate-filled rants with Barack Obama.
Babington wants voters to view those calling attention to Obama's choice of spiritual mentor as the bad guys.
That's a desperate move.
The fact is Wright influence on Obama is a legitimate issue in this campaign. It's a reflection of Obama's judgment and his character.
It's perfectly legitimate to question Obama's judgment in choosing to align himself with such a divisive pastor.
It's perfectly legitimate to raise the issue of Obama's mindset regarding America and the American people.
...Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio said many swing voters in the fall will not buy Obama's claim that he can no more disown Wright than his own white grandmother. "You get to pick your minister," he said. "You don't pick your grandma."
Obama said in an interview with Philadelphia Sports Radio station WIP 610 Thursday that the point he was making about his grandmother is not that she holds racial animosity, but "she is a typical white person."
"If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, there's a reaction in her that doesn't go away and it comes out in the wrong way," he said.
Obama is in a hole and he keeps digging.
What makes Obama think that his grandmother is a "a typical white person"?
More importantly, how does Obama define "typical white person"?
He's obviously utilizing stereotypes, though I'm not sure exactly what the stereotype is.
I guess he means that a "typical white person" harbors racism.
I strongly object to that racial characterization. It ticks me off royally.
Throw out the notion that Obama is a savior, capable of transcending race.
He doesn't transcend race. He wallows in it.
Change? What change?
Hope? I guess I'm missing something.
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