March 17, 2008

3/17: Debating Wright And Wrong

The big topic in the blogosphere is Barack Obama's relationship with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who was recently found to have made controversial statements while delivering sermons at his Chicago church. Obama sought to defuse the controversy by posting a diary on The Huffington Post in which he denounced Wright's statements and explained his relationship with Wright. Predictably, Obama's post drew praise from liberal bloggers and criticism from conservative bloggers.

Liberal bloggers are reacting to the Wright controversy in different ways: some are criticizing Wright while praising Obama's response; others are defending Wright; and still others are accusing the media of holding Obama to a different standard than GOP pols.

Conservative bloggers are less divided in their reaction to Wright's comments. Some are arguing that Obama's relationship with Wright betrays his lack of patriotism and radical views, while others are claiming that it simply shows that Obama is a typical politician. Neither conclusion is a flattering one for the IL senator. But will the public agree?

OBAMA: How To Respond?

Liberal bloggers reacted to the Wright controversy in different ways. Some bloggers focused on the likely impact of the controversy:

• Ezra Klein: "This will be another way that Clinton, or [John] McCain, or whoever, cement their nagging sense that Obama belongs to 'the Other,' and isn't one of them -- is too Muslim, or too foreign, or too post-patriotic, or simply too black. [...] These are the tensions [Obama's] campaign has to navigate: It's not easy to remake race into a unifying force, nor a ideological internationalism into an American value. Traditionally, internationalism has been used to question patriotism, and race has been used to divide. In his speeches, Obama likes to say that 'I know change isn't easy.' And he's right, it's not. This won't be an easy election. And whether the force of his message will overcome the pull of our history is, for now, an open question."
• Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas: "Wright will be used to remind voters that Obama is black and hates America like the Muslims who share his middle name, while [Tony] Rezko will be used to paint Obama as a typical politician. (The [GOP's] other line of attack will be the 'experience' stuff). Obama's handling of this stuff serves several key purposes -- it's warmup for the general election, it allows him to deal with this stuff early enough in the process that it'll be long forgotten to all but the hardest core partisans in just a few short months, and also proves to the super delegates that he's got the chops to deal with these sorts of attacks -- not just the bullshit swiftboat ones, but the ones that have some merit as well."

Other bloggers complained about double standards:

• Daily Kos' Scout Finch: "We have now seen more sermons from Barack Obama's minister in 48 hours than we ever did of Mike Huckabee -- and Mike Huckabee was a presidential candidate for 14 long months. Why is it acceptable to scour every last sermon given by Wright, but only weeks ago we weren't allowed to see or read Mike Huckabee's sermons? [...] After all, Mike Huckabee was an evangelical Southern Baptist minister who's entire campaign was based on the fact that he was the Christian candidate. Are we to believe that he didn't rail against the US government over abortion in previous sermons? Or homosexuality?"
• Obsidian Wings' publius: "I agree that Obama needs to go a few extra steps to distance himself. He did, after all, name a book after one of Wright's sermons. But the idea that Obama is some sort of stealth black nationalist is laughingly absurd. It's also absurd that Obama is getting exponentially more heat for Wright than Bush got for certifiable lunatics like James Dobson. The distinction is pretty clear -- Obama attended Wright's church and doesn't consult him for squat. Dobson apparently got a biweekly courtesy call from Karl Rove and presumably had influence on policy."

Other bloggers defended Wright:

• Daily Kos' Devilstower: "Is the vision of a pastor standing in his pulpit shouting 'God damn America' shocking? Yes. But don't mistake Wright's [statement] for what some drunk in a bar would mean using the same phrasing. Wright isn't saying 'FU America!' he's saying 'these actions of America are worthy of God's condemnation.' He's just saying it in a way that cuts through the Sunday morning sleepiness and makes people sit up in their pew. [...] I understand why Senator Obama finds it necessary to distance himself from Rev. Wright. There were plenty of things in those sermons that I don't agree with, and I'm suspect many of the ideas that grate on my nerves also strike the Senator as either wrong or unsustainable politically. These days, three isolated words on the news seem far more important than context or intent. But I wish [Obama] didn't have to do so."
• Jack and Jill Politics' rikyrah: "Questioning Black folks' patriotism is one of oldest slanders in the book, and it's not something that I tolerate. Unlike many of his critics, Jeremiah Wright actually put his life on the line in service to this country as a member of its Armed Services -- the Marines. YA THINK that seeing war, and the effects of what couldn't be considered as anything BUT an unjust war, might color his view as a minister? Ya think? Ya think, spending his life working with those that this country scorns and discards -- poor Black folk -- might color his views as a mininster? Ya think?"

OBAMA II: The Wright Response?

Obama sought to defuse the Wright controversy by posting a diary on The Huffington Post: "Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. [...] With Rev. Wright's retirement and the ascension of my new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss, III, Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good. And while Rev. Wright's statements have pained and angered me, I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said, but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in; on my values, judgment and experience to be President of the United States."

Many liberal bloggers were impressed by Obama's response:

• TAPPED's Sam Boyd: "Obama [has released] a great, clear, and convincing statement explaining his relationship with his pastor, Jeremiah Wright."
• The Huffington Post's Joseph A. Palermo: "Obama showed good judgment by distancing his campaign from the more radical views of Reverend Wright and relieving him of any formal connection to his organization, but Obama also showed an admirable character trait by refusing to denounce Rev. Wright the person."
• Mark Kleiman: "I think Obama has made it clear that Wright is his past, not his future. The 'black power' stuff is precisely what Obama has chosen to reject. Wright has now been bounced from the campaign's clergy group. So I don't think there's a legitimate political issue left there."
• MyDD's Todd Beeton: "Senator Obama has posted an eloquent explanation of his relationship with Reverend Wright at Huffington Post. A silver lining of the controversy, of course, is that when the story is pushed, the effect is to remind people that Obama is a Christian; the smear merchants can't have it both ways -- he can't be a Christian and a Muslim."

OBAMA III: No Sympathy For The Devil

Obama's critics in the liberal blogosphere had little sympathy for the IL senator's plight:

• MyDD's Jerome Armstrong: "I just can't imagine the worldview that looks toward a person like Wright as someone that I'd attend Church to listen too, someone that I'd choose to get married by, someone I'd watch baptize my two children. I realize these are selective comments in the video, but come on, we all know that there's a lot more. [...] In the end, if you are already among The Ones, this, like all things that are anti-Obama, doesn't stick. I have a hard time seeing though, by the end of this, how Wright isn't as toxic as [Louis] Farrakhan."
• TalkLeft's Jeralyn Merritt: "While I don't believe Obama subscribes to Wright's views and I believe his heart is in the right place and he wants what's best for the country, I think we've just seen another case of his poor judgment and his tendency to put blinders on when when it comes to his loyalty to his friends and his choice of associates. If Obama is elected President, we'll be relying on his judgment in choosing high level advisors and policy makers. His track record with Rezko and Wright, particularly his insistence he saw no red flags, gives me pause. Obama seems less about hope and change and more about inexperience and naivite."
• Open Left's Matt Stoller: "There's been a good amount of pontificating about whether Wright said the right thing or the wrong thing, but the real organizing and journalism in the progressive blogosphere has been focused on fighting Bush and the telecom industry on wiretapping. If Obama had led on this or any other fight, we could easily make the argument that the Wright discussion is a distraction from his leadership qualities and badgered various elites for their lack of focus on substance. But now there really is no argument. [...Obama]'s decided he's a post-partisan politician, and when a politician makes that choice, it's not just a disincentive for partisans to fight for that person. It becomes structurally impossible to fight for him because the incentives get all out of whack."

OBAMA IV: Plumbing His Soul

Many conservative bloggers think Obama's relationship with Wright is evidence that Obama lacks patriotism and/or subscribes to black liberation theology:

• Right Wing News' John Hawkins: "Wright's 'God d*mn America' comments play right into the 'Obama isn't patriotic' meme. Obama makes a big deal over not wearing a flag pin, he doesn't hold his hand over his heart for the national anthem, his wife says she is really proud of her country for the first time, and now this provides just one more piece of evidence that, yes, Obama really doesn't love this country and thus, is unfit to be President."
• Michelle Malkin: "Obama's minimization strategy -- implying that Wright's diatribes were cherry-picked rarities out of hundreds and hundreds of sermons -- also failed miserably. 'Black liberation theology' (with all its attendant anti-American pathologies) is Jeremiah Wright's bread and butter. Wright knows it. His congregation knows it. Obama knows it. And now, for whatever reason this story finally broke into the MSM after buzzing on blogs and talk radio for nearly a year, the rest of America knows it, too."
• Power Line's Paul Mirengoff: "If we take Obama at his word, his relationship with Wright was not pure opportunism. Rather there was an affinity. What was the nature of that affinity? [...] Wright brought [Obama] to Jesus. More precisely, Wright's brand of Christianity accomplished this. What is that brand? According to Wright (for example, during his contentious interview with Sean Hannity last year), the brand is liberation theology. Liberation theology sees the Christian mission as bringing justice to oppressed people through political activism. In effect, it is a merger of Christianity with radical left-wing ideology. [...] It's easy to see why this brand of Christianity, and probably only this brand, could bring a left-wing political activist like Obama to Jesus."

OBAMA V: Call Me A Cynic, But...

Other conservative bloggers think Obama formed a relationship with Wright for political reasons, not because he agreed with Wright's more controversial views:

• RedState's Erick Erickson: "Obama used his connections to Jeremiah [Wright] and his church to solidify himself in the black community. [...] Unfortunately for Obama, his ties to his church are no longer convenient. He has tried to disown the rhetoric of his church without disowning his pastor. [...] It defies credibility for Obama to claim no knowledge of his own preacher's statements from his own church's pulpit over a span of twenty years. Either Obama goes to church for show and has no relations within the church, in which case he is a fraud, or he does have relations in the church and does pay attention, in which case he's just a liar. Either way, the change he's offering no longer looks like it amounts to much."
• NRO's Lisa Schiffren: "That a fatherless young man would feel both close and grateful to a charismatic minister who behaved sympathetically to him, and encouraged his ambitions, seems natural. For a politician, having a constituency that regards itself as particularly victimized -- as Wright tells his congregants they have been -- in a way he is uniquely able to fix, is a boon."
• AmSpec Blog's James Antle: "[I'm not saying] Wright isn't a legitimate campaign issue -- he certainly is, especially as a reflection on Obama's judgment. But I can easily think of reasons Obama got wrapped up with Wright, and even became close to him personally, other than agreeing with the pastor's more noxious views."
• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "Obama finds himself in a unique position, and at a crossroads. To his credit, he has run as a real, mainstream candidate, not a 'niche' candidate like Al Sharpton, a borderline criminal whose history, to put it politely, does not bear inspection. Yet Obama drags along behind him the detritus of a swamp of irrationality that, quite deliberately, has never been drained."

OBAMA VI: The Wright-ing's On The Wall

Several conservative bloggers think the Wright controversy will doom Obama's candidacy:

• NRO's Jim Geraghty: "What are the odds that the [Hillary] Clinton team can find a video with Obama in the background, with Wright saying something controversial? And what are the odds that if that video exists, it gets dropped on the press in the closing days before Pennsylvania? [...] If Hillary can't beat Obama with this kind of material to work with, she would never beat John McCain."
• NRO's Victor Davis Hanson: "The raw venom expressed by Wright, and Obama's ambiguity about him, may well be the most bizarre development in recent American political history. It is as if he and his entire campaign staff have collectively lost their minds with these serial contortions and half-truths, and are trying to lose Pennsylvania by 30 points -- when all Obama would have to do is apologize, quit the church, and begin talking about the issues. [...] Any middle-of-the-road Democratic voter who sampled five or six of Wright's sermons, juxtaposed them with Obama's references to him as not particularly controversial, an uncle, a scholar, etc., wouldn't vote for Obama in a million years."
• Commentary's Jennifer Rubin: "Well, where does this leave the Democrats now? Had this happened in January the party would have different and better options. But here we are in March with a 100 plus delegate lead for Obama...[One] possible [scenario]: Obama hangs on to his lead, but a revived Hillary Clinton (now emboldened that the Democratic establishment will abandon Obama) takes her fight to the bitter end. Obama eventually wins the nomination after a bloody fight. The 527’s run hundreds of ads in the general election with Obama’s picture and the text of Wright’s sermons. Also possible: Obama’s poll numbers begin to tank, Clinton wins all the remaining primaries except North Carolina, the superdelegates throw in their lot with her and a lot of really angry Obama supporters make a very big stink about racial politics."
• NRO's John Derbyshire: "Obama's toast."

OBAMA VII: Barack In The Lion's Den

In non-Wright news, Obama sat down with the Chicago Tribune editorial board on 3/14 and spent 92 minutes answering "every question the three dozen Tribune journalists crammed into the room would put to him" about his relationship with Tony Rezko. Afterwards, the Tribune praised Obama's candor and concluded that "nothing Obama said...diminishes" the newspaper's earlier endorsement of the IL senator.

Many liberal bloggers were pleased by the Tribune's verdict:

• The Carpetbagger Report's Steve Benen: "It appears that the Tribune, which has spilled a lot of ink on the Rezko-Obama connection, came away from the discussion satisfied. [...] As for the campaign, I hope Obama has learned a bit about waiting to offer detailed explanations. Next time, do it sooner."
• Moulitsas: "The Chicago Tribune has never endorsed a Democrat for president in its history. Its editorial board had every partisan reason to try and further damage Obama on the issue. Instead, it has essentially exonerated him. [...] Like Whitewater, this is a nothing story, a minor 'scandal' that political enemies are trying desperately to spin into something bigger. You'd think the Clinton campaign and its supporters would be a little more careful about this sort of thing, especially after [Norman] Hsu, but they've got little else to work with. So there's this and Wright, and that's pretty much all that's apparently left in Clinton's quiver."
• AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay: "The Rezko chapter is closed absent some new revelation. [...] Let's do what the Chicago Tribune suggests and judge the other presidential candidates facing serious inquiries by the 'standard for candor' set by Obama. Hillary, you're up. After all, the Clinton campaign sure likes to raise issue about disclosures from other campaigns. Now, it's her turn. Can Hillary Clinton meet Obama's standard for candor?"

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Questions For McCain

The New Republic's Josh Patashnik:

"The media needs to stop giving John McCain a free pass. It's time someone started asking him the hard questions: What does he think of the NCAA tournament selection committee's decision to give Arizona an at-large bid in the tournament, while snubbing rival Arizona State, which beat the Wildcats twice and throttled third-seeded Xavier to boot? (I thought they both should have gotten in, but admittedly I'm a Pac-10 chauvinist.)

Whatever McCain thinks of the decision, he's still getting in on the March Madness action. He just sent out an email to supporters advertising his campaign's 2008 bracket pool, in which you can compare your picks to McCain's. (You can probably bet on an all-swing-state Final Four of Wisconsin, Xavier, Pitt, and Arkansas.) [...]"

LEST WE FORGET: Obama Converts to Judaism

The Huffington Post's Andy Borowitz reports:

"Buffeted by criticism of his controversial Christian pastor while continuing to quell rumors that he is a Muslim, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) took a bold step today to settle questions about his religious faith once and for all.

'I am converting to Judaism, effective immediately,' Mr. Obama told reporters at a press conference in Scarsdale, New York, adding that he would change his middle name from 'Hussein' to 'Murray.'[...]

In a subtle sign of the shift in his religious affiliation, Mr. Obama's signature catchphrase 'Yes, we can,' was nowhere to be found in his speech, replaced instead by 'L'Chaim.'

While some political observers praised Mr. Obama's conversion to Judaism as a shrewd tactic to put the issue of his religious identity to rest, the move raised the ire of one of his harshest critics, former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro.

'Barack Murray Obama wouldn't be in the position he's in if he wasn't Jewish,' said Ms. Ferraro to herself."

Posted by Ian Faerstein at March 17, 2008 12:51 PM