Deconstructing Obama's lawyerly evasions on Wright

The American Thinker ^ | March 16, 2008 | American Thinker

[libstripper]

Barack Obama desperately needs to distance himself from his spiritual mentor and pastor of two decades, Jeremiah Wright, Jr. But the man who wants America to believe his promise of unspecified change adopts the carefully-parsed language of a Harvard-trained lawyer. There is a fundamental discordance in spirit between a canny, evasive lawyer inserting loopholes, and the smiling vision of unity and change you can believe in.

Here is the key paragraph of Obama's statement, bizarrely first published on the Huffington Post, a website that once featured Senator Joseph Lieberman in minstrel blackface. There are multiple evasions buried in each line, analyzed below:

[libstripper]

A beautiful, lawyerly dissection of of Obama's obfuscations about the Wright affair.

[DOGHEAD]

I have something to say.
Anyone who is looking for “Hope” from a presidential candidate has a fundamental flaw spiritually.
Hope comes from Christ Jesus.
People don’t know where to look for hope because they are dead inside.

[Christian4Bush]

mark

[doubleA]

This is indeed the best part:

“This is the best part! ABC and FNC both bought from the website of Trinity Church a video collection of the best of Pastor Wright! All this very bad stuff is what Wright and the church think the best of his work!”

[poinq]

MOST IMPORTANT -— Obama never says what statements he is against. Wright has so many statements that are appalling. Which ones are Obama against. Obama says he never heard Wright say those statements when he spent 20 years in church. Which statements had he never heard before, exactly. I think he is parsing. I think he as heard most of those statements in one form or another.

His wife has never been proud of her country before. Is Obama saying that she never heard her pastor say any discouraging words about America?

[LucyJo]

Bump

[Shermy]

“were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation.”

Translation: I heard him say them, but not privately and not while I sat in the pews saw him preaching. I heard him say them at other event, including at the church, but I’m hedging my bets because someone might have video...

[Anti-Hillary]

Preach it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This whole uproar in this country over how much FAITH we seem to put into candidates is scary.

[PGalt]

“Bill did us just like he did Monica Lewinsky” - Reverend Wright.

Hooray Reverend Wright!

Speaking truth to power?

Vast Wright-Wing Conspiracy anybody?

[Beckwith]

There used to be 15 videos on Trinity's "About" page and were taken down around the first of the year.

These must be those.

They are extremely damaging.

Here's one of them.

The Obama File

[Beckwith]

Hooray Reverend Wright!

You're badly confused!

[John Semmens]

The senator’s insistence that he was unaware of Wright’s bizarre views until just recently has been scoffed at by a spokeswoman for Senator Hillary’s campaign. “He says he’s a regular church-goer,” said Naomi Harridan, co-chair of Clinton’s Pennsylvania campaign. “He’s been listening to this crap for 20 years. He can’t not have known.”

Obama challenged Harridan’s contention by asserting that “like many of my fellow parishioners and, I dare say, many church-goers across America, I’ve slept through the vast majority of the sermons.”

read more...

http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens1.htm

[Mister Da]

Good Post!

But I do wish this had “hit the fan” AFTER Obama had secured the Rat nomination, because that lying Hillary makes Obama look like a choir boy.

[Grampa Dave]

“Barack Obama either agreed with what was preached from the Trinity pulpit, or he tuned it out and stayed around pretending to for political reasons. To say he stayed for 20 years but doesn't agree with Wright's preaching is incredible denial. It'd be like a man buying White Sox season tickets for 20 years, attending the games, and saying he's not a fan.”

“When Obama decided against wearing an American flag pin, we may all have been a bit too quick to accept his rationale, too quick to find that issue unimportant. Now, that American flag pin has gotten a lot bigger for a lot of us, especially in light of what may have been and may still be Obama’s deeper, and, perhaps, secret, less than patriotic beliefs about America.”

“Wright says that blacks can’t be expected to sing God Bless America because of racism. Obama doesn’t salute the flag during the National Anthem. That sure strikes me as an amazing coincidence since Obama swears he never heard Wright say anything against America.”

[randita]

We’re going to see how adroit Obama is. To survive must resign his membership of this church and distance himself permanently from Rev. Wright. He’ll have to do it in a way that doesn’t alienate black voters who agree with what Wright says.

He has to talk straight and not prevaricate. If he does that, I think he will withstand this.

[Wings-n-Wind]

PING = 4 Later

[Continental Soldier]

Very specific answers to very specific questions need to be demanded of Mr. Obama. Major Garret’s interview on FoxNews was absolutely pathetic! Why was he conducting that interview? Where was Sean Hannity, when we needed him?

[caveat emptor]

“He says he’s a regular church-goer,” said Naomi Harridan, co-chair of Clinton’s Pennsylvania campaign. “He’s been listening to this crap for 20 years. He can’t not have known.”

Naomi Harridan. H! is getting ready to rumble in Pennsylvania.

[PGalt]

You're badly confused!

The WORDS AND DEEDS of Bill and Hillary, their sycophants, enablers, and co-conspirators have been 1,000,000 X more damaging thank the WORD AND DEEDS of Barack & Michelle and their sycophants and enablers.

[Maverick68]

He will not survive this. This is the beginning of the end of “the messiah”. We must keep the pressure on. The most important issue at hand is NOT the pastor, but the WHOLE OF THE CONGREGATION that is screaming “amen” in GOOSESTEPPING agreement with this garbage. We must keep up the pressure! Simply refuting the pastor’s statement is not enough....