Bill Kristol Demonstrates How Not To Write About Jeremiah Wright

Please, stop shilling for Obama, he supports Wright where it counts, he gives MONEY to the man. over $20,000. That is support. He chose and continues to choose this church and leader for some reason. If Obama does not support the Black Liberation theology, then why does he attend the services and give money to Wright? This is not something you can wish away Daniel, it is serious and it should deny him the office. If he can allow this and pay for it out of pocket, what kind of people will this man appoint? So far, his ability to pick advisers should give pause to not only Jewish Americans, but all Americans. 

Well, first of all, the money was not to the man, but to the church. By your standards, McCain (Parsley, Hagee), Clinton (Graham) and indeed, most Democratic candidates and every Republican candidate ought to be denied the office. I for one don't think seeking Hagee's endorsement ought to make McCain non-viable, or the support of anyone as distasteful as Wright. The problem is with a) the patent double-standard (remember how you advised that as a Jew, I shouldn't care about hatred of Catholics --- ignoring for a moment that Hagee is an anti-Semite) and b) the initial guilt-by-association = non-viability standard.

McCain?  Bill Kristol?  I'm up here in the nosebleed section watching this, and I see Hillary trying to win with these videos.  Obama has a big problem because, although he probably does disagree with Wright, he can't very well say out loud what every married man knows to be true--you go to services where your wife wants to go.

Racial problems down, macho problems--still high.

Look, Hagee's support would be an issue IF MCCAIN WAS A MEMBER OF THAT CHURCH. We are not talking about Wright supporting Obama, we are talking about Obama supporting and joining Wright. There is a difference and you know it. 

McCain specifically sought out Hagee's endorsement and lauded him to the rafters. I don't think he did so because he hates Catholics and wants to see Jews exterminated in a nuclear war; I think he did so to shore up evangelical votes. Likewise with Rev. Exterminate-the-brutes Parsely, whom McCain describes as his spiritual adviser. Similarly, Obama joined Trinity because that was the best thing for a suspiciously half-white pol to do in black Chicago politics. They're both pols and that's part of the game. If you think that's disqualifying for Obama fine, but then McCain is disqualified too.

Naftali --- I don't see how Hillary's an issue. Mathematically she's drawing dead, even if she won't admit it. The Wright stuff reached a fever pitch and hasn't effected Gallup or Rasmussen's polling on the Dem race. (Also, scan the liberal blogs today. The Kristol thing is playing big. If Republicans attack too hard; e.g., by making shit up, they could help Obama among Democrats.) Where this is a problem is the general election. It's actually somewhat lucky for Obama that it came out now. If it had come out in October, he'd be toast.

If one were to replace the word "black" with "white" regarding the Trinity Churches statement of values, one would think that church was affiliated with the KKK. Go further and make that preacher a MEMBER of McCain's campaign -- and McCain would be eviscerated. 

Hagee is not a member of McCain's campaign. I'm sorry but -- Wright was an official member of Obama's campaign. Are there any anti-semites on McCain's campaign? None that I know of.... Wright baptized Obama's children, married the Obamas, and is considered, by Obama no less, to be his own spiritual mentor....Hmmmm. This is not just some preacher for which Obama pandered to in order to gain the black vote. This person is a defining figure in Obama's life (by Obama's own account). How is this not an issue?

The Trinity Church sells CD's containing Wright's vitriolic rhetoric. Frankly, if Obama doesn't know that his spiritual mentor of 20 years harbors these types of feelings, then he isn't fit to be President of the U.S. If he is this poor at reading the intentions and feelings of someone he has had a close relationsip with for two decades, how can we expect him to deal with coherently with world leaders? Obviously, I'm being sarcastic......His denials are insulting.

Fact checking aside, does it really matter if he attended any of these specific services? If he is smart enough to be President, then he knows exactly where Wright's mind is. 

Look, I do not defend McCain, I do not like McCain. I defend Hagee from your charges of Anti-Semitism. So In your eyes, it is ok for political expediacy to join a hate group of that gets you elected? If Jeff Sessions joined the Klan to be a mayor of Montgomery Alabama, you would defend him in the pages of Jewcy? I highly doubt it. In fact, since you claim Obama has no problem because of Wright - by your logic you cannot keep attacking Hagee, if they, in your view, are cut from the same cloth...

It is first remarkable that Daniel has come out of his ivory tower to take questions from the peasants. 

Daniel admits his political hero, Obama, put forth denials concerning his spiritual leader, Wright are "broad and frankly unbelievable."  Daniel finally admits that yes, Obama, does have a "problem and has questions to answer."

But Daniel is all about deflecting the truth and keeping his ideology alive so he contradicts himself by saying that Obama "plainly" does not share Wright's views.  And he attempts to make an issue out of Bill Kristol when the whole world understands that Obama has a big problem.  This is a good example of bigotry--downplaying the facts and looking for a scapegoat.  The Obama scandal has nothing to do with Bill Kristol and everything to do with close associations.

I do not think Jeff Weaver believes that McCain would have a problem if McCain belonged to Hagee's church since Hagee does not preach hatred, nor does he have "a Jewish problem" nor does he wallow in racism and racial language.  The issue here concerns whether it is fairminded to tie Obama to Wright and the answer is *yes.*

Obama has said repeatedly that Wright has been an inspiration to him and everyone, including Daniel admits that it is not credible that one can have a spiritual advisor and not know about a man's politics.  Indeed, every Jew easily understands his Rabbi's politics and I would quickly have my Rabbi stand in my place on issues regarding my fellow man.  His campaign purposely kept Wright away when he sought the votes of Jews because Obama understood that Wright has a problem with the Jews.  

Daniel's theory is clearly an insult concerning Obama's leadership style and very troublesome --check out his explanation:

    Obama joined Trinity because that was the best thing for a suspiciously
half-white pol to do in black Chicago politics.

According to Daniel, Obama is the kind of guy who feels that he needs to PROVE his blackness he will join a radical church and call it home for 20 years and seek spiritual advise from a man the black community understands deals in the red meat of radical black politics:  the antisemitism, the hate America first stuff, the blame the white man for AIDS, etc.  This can quickly disqualify Obama for election so playing this game is mighty risky.  Seeking to make blacks find him acceptable--and then, only to hide and downplay the association makes matters worse since it shows how he can be pressured to adopt policies favorable, for example, to his Arab friends who need to see that he is one of them.

Searching for a crooked reason is not the best way to approach the unknown.  It is far more likely that Obama--who is not particularly dumb--understood Wright's politics from the beginning and agrees with his thinking.  Surely Michelle Obama agrees and has said similar things to what Wright has said.  Obama did not say Michelle was wrong, he simply said she was not a professional politician--just like Daniel likes to tell us he is a professional writer.  Obama and Wright are correctly linked since Obama does not need to get himself neck high in radical black politics if he did not support it.  It is apparent he is simply trying to cover his tracks and this makes him the same kind of conventional socialist as all the others who refuse to disclose their true opinions. Obama wants to be seen, when convenient, as the guy who wants to stick it to the man and when he is spinning the people of Iowa--he is all about unity.

No one can pin this scandal on Bill Kristol--we have all the proof we need to realize that Obama and Wright are joined in common cause.

Commentators from both sides often have these fact check blunders. Still, I don't think Kristol's goof changes the conversation in the least. 

 "And if you're a scrivener hoping to damage Obama and you're prepared to bend
the truth to do so, be sure that your fabrications can't be instantly
exposed. Otherwise you might make the story about you rather than your
quarry."

Great point.

Whether or not Hagee is anti-semetic is completely beside the point.

Hagee is not a member of McCain's campaign. Wright was a member of Obama's campaign up until he was removed a couple of days ago. There is a major difference between an endoresment from a potential supporter and a bona fide member of a campaign. Plus, Hagee was not McCain's spiritual metor for 20 years, he did not marry the McCain's, he did not baptize the McCain's children, nor did Hagee provide a title for McCain's book. I don't understand how this McCain-Hagee correlation has any bearing on Obama's current predicament.

It is only mentioned because Daniel has decided that Hagee is the same as Wright. I disagree, but it is the only debatte that he will engage in...

Jim Davis is apparently standing by his story:

"Our writer, Jim Davis, says he attended several services at Senator
Obama's church during the month of July, including July 22. The church
holds services three times every Sunday at 7:30 and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Central time. While both the early morning and evening service allowed
Sen. Obama to attend the service and still give a speech in Miami, Mr.
Davis stands by his story that during one of the services he attended
during the month of July, Senator Obama was present and sat through the
sermon given by Rev. Wright as described in the story. Mr. Davis said
Secret Service were also present in the church during Senator Obama's
attendance. Mr. Davis' story was first published on Newsmax on August
9, 2007. Shortly before publication, Mr. Davis contacted the press
office of Sen. Obama several times for comment about the Senator's
attendance and Rev. Wright's comments during his sermon. The Senator's
office declined to comment."

Koffler...the verdict is still out regarding whether Obama attended one of these sermons. And, these videos did not just surface. They've been out there for quite awhile considering the fact that this church sells these wonderful video clips. Obama's simply never been properly vetted. It's taken time for the media to wake up. He's having to deal with the fact that his free ride concerning the media is over.

 I'm amazed that Wright has the audacity to claim character assassination. Can you really assassinate one's character using his or her own words? Taken out of context -- what context? I don't see any context where this type of rhetoric is appropriate. Wright a regular at the White House? What a nightmare....

This whole mess matters because of how Obama has positioned his own campaign.  He alleges that America has a hole in its soul and he claims sterling moral character with a desire to bring America's standing to a high level.  In an almost Republican-style stance, Obama wants us to know that he is all about wholesome things and his leadership is about more than the budget--it is about, in his own warped way, about morality.

This is the very basis of the "audacity of Hope" and if a man wants to pose as a wholesome, upright figure, with his chin perpetually in the air--he has a burden to demonstrate that he is a man of unusual integrity.

Therefore, in assessing this claim, the public has every right to bring into focus the very basis for that claim and his alleged inspiration for things spiritual.  This is fair.

Similarly, John Kerry was very weak in the national defense department.  He could have admitted the fact and changed the subject.  Instead, he chose to highlight his allegation that he would be a prototypical commander in Chief and a had an exemplary military background.  This outrage was too much for people who knew the truth and they brought the truth to the public.  Candidates always have strong and weak suits--trying to create perfection by lying to make your weak suit look like a strong suit will not hold the test of time and scutiny.  It did not work for famous war critic John Kerry who was a phony as a pro-military guy "reporting for duty."

Obama wants to also have it both ways and now he is stuck in a scandal that has ballooned quickly into a crisis.  He has nourished himself too much on radical black liberation theology to spin it now as wholesome.  If he was a real man of unity, he would have quickly distanced himself from that theology of divisiveness years ago.  The audacity of hope has turned into mere audacity of a kind most Americans reject.

These two losers have exchanged roles in making the other socialist appear to be attractive.  Hillary's baggage and negative ratings led Dem voters to fall for an unknown guy preaching hope and change.  When Obama began to appear far too inexperienced, the significantly inexperienced Clinton had an opportunity to appear to be more experienced but only by comparison. Now, Hillary looks real good next to a guy who has been friends with radicals like Wm. Ayers and racists like Jeremiah Wright.  Perhaps the Clinton papers will be released and the public will be reminded what a sleazey candidate Hillary really is and then perhaps Michelle Obama will give another interview to remind the voters that a risk her husband would be as President.

Give this process a bit more time and the broken, defeated, shadow of a candidate, John McCain will win by default. 

I hate to say it, but Obama's in trouble.  Whether or not it's justified, he's going to be perceived as anti-American by a lot of people.  He doesn't wear a flag pin, which is presumably because he doesn't believe in hollow patriotic gestures, but that's also a risky thing to do, especially since he's such an unknown. This debacle with Wright and comments by his wife are seriously hurting his candidacy.

I still support Obama, but he has a lot of damage control to do.  Some very cold water is being splashed on his campaign.

I dunno, he just gave someone I know $50,000 to run programs for autistic children in Israel. Doesn't sound anti-Semitic to me.

As for Obama, he's cooked. In The New Yorker, Michelle tried to paint their relationship with Wright as that of a family member with kooky ideas you don't always agree with.

Sorry, that's just so lame. These aren't "kooky" ideas. They are unelectable ideas.

We can hardly say Obama is "cooked."  Instead, he seems to have the nomination secured and I cannot find a way to do the math so Hillary wins--unless there is a revolt at the convention and Obama is dumped.  Despite the crisis--the Dems have been roasted by there own penchant to fall in love with a stranger and then, rolling out of bed in the morning are shocked to discover that their lover has a mask and Jesee Jackson/Al Sharpton is in his place.

The Dems thought they were buying a bright shining post-racial candidate--instead they should have read the fine print since they now own and are stuck with the kind of old-fashioned radical-- America at large will simply not tolerate. 

To second Anon: Friedman's right. He's not cooked. There's probably an 80% chance he'll still get the nomination.....But he won't beat McCain. Independents will back away from Obama. When you combine everything including Wright, Michelle Obama's remarks, her thesis, etc, etc....McCain will win by default.

Obama has now admitted being present at some of these controversial services.

Now that he has also admitted that Wright is as much a part of his family as his own grandmother, do you finally realize your error in comparing the Wright - Obama relationship with that of Parsely/Hagee - McCain? There is no comparison....McCain was simply pandering, as all politicians do. McCain does not, by any stretch of the imagination, consider either Parsely or Hagee a member of his own family. 

Are we in some sort of bizarro parallel universe? Obama calls this guy family and America is voting for him? Wright has apparently blown the cover off of the aids conspiracy. How's this for fact checking:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaCWMONwkyI