McCain Criticizes Remarks by Obama’s Former Pastor

New York Times ^ | : April 28, 2008 | MICHAEL COOPER

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Senator John McCain delved on Sunday into remarks made by Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., saying it was “beyond belief” that Mr. Wright had likened the Romans at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion to the Marines and had suggested that the United States was acting like Al Qaeda under a different color flag.

Up to now, Mr. McCain had largely avoided talking about the incendiary views of Mr. Wright, saying he wanted to run a “respectful” campaign. He has even called on the North Carolina Republican Party to pull an advertisement that focuses on Mr. Wright.

But Mr. McCain took a different approach at a news conference here when he criticized Mr. Wright for, as the senator paraphrased him, “comparing the United States Marine Corps with Roman legionnaires who were responsible for the death of our Savior, I mean being involved in that” and for “saying that Al Qaeda and the American flag were the same flags.”

“So I can understand, I can understand why people are upset about this,” said Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. “I can understand why Americans, when viewing these kinds of comments, are angry and upset.”

Mr. McCain said that he did not believe that Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, shared those views and that he was still against the advertisement in North Carolina. But he suggested that Mr. Obama had made the subject fair play by declaring in an interview shown over the weekend on “Fox News Sunday” that questions about Mr. Wright were “a legitimate political issue.”

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Highlighting this comment from the article:

The Obama campaign accused Mr. McCain of breaking his promise to run a respectful campaign.

[wastedyears]

HE CAN’T MAKE UP HIS BLOODY MIND! HE’S SENILE!

[infantrywhooah]

Someone needs to wrap Wright's head in duct tape to keep him from opening his racist, anti-American piehole. Any pastor who would repeatedly say "God damn America" is no pastor but is nothing but a traitor to his calling.

[goldstategop]

When it comes to hating America, racism and bigotry - they are legitimate subjects. Obama opened the door by refusing to disown and repudiate his former pastor.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[infantrywhooah]

Someone needs to wrap Wright's head in duct tape to keep him from opening his racist, anti-American piehole. Any pastor who would repeatedly say "God damn America" is no pastor but is nothing but a traitor to his calling.

[al_c]

So when does Obama start bashing McCain for his Rev. Hagee indorsement?

[calex59]

HE CAN’T MAKE UP HIS BLOODY MIND! HE’S SENILE!

He may be senile but he is changing his mind because he has caught he** from many of his constituents. On the other hand he has to weasel out of part of it by saying this:

Mr. McCain said that he did not believe that Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, shared those views and that he was still against the advertisement in North Carolina. But he suggested that Mr. Obama had made the subject fair play by declaring in an interview shown over the weekend on “Fox News Sunday” that questions about Mr. Wright were “a legitimate political issue.”

Can't tell the truth about Obama and his relationship with the idiot Wright.

[wastedyears]

I just can’t vote for this crazy old man.

[Carling]

Totally the same thing. /sar

[DoughtyOne]

I cannot understand how McCain could be so conflicted over a black and white issue like Wright, his comments, and Obama’s continued support. Why mince words?

Talk about a man with absolutely no moral clarity. It has taken him this long to figure out that the Obama/Wright issue is significant, and he still can’t bring helf to address Obama for his extremely flawed judgement with regard to Wright.

McCain, Obama is exposed here for being a very flawed person. You need to wake up and smell the stench eminating from Wright/Obama, and say, “Hey, you know, that stinks. There’s no excuse for it, and anyone so flawed is not Presidential material.”

That McCain hasn’t done this by now... well, just Geez. What’s left to be said.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

So you don't like the way the Politicians do the dance.?

[A_Former_Democrat]

It’s indicative of HUSSEIN NObomba’s lack of judgment and leadership that this loose cannon loser is allowed to keep showing what an ass he is.

[SMARTY]

“Any pastor who would repeatedly say “God damn America”...”

AND in church! I don’t know about you guys, but my church is the house of God and I’m in trouble if I even cross my legs.

[machenation]

The President of the United Mental States of Queeg

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More on that ,,,FR Thread:

Obama's pastor replies to critics

[weegee]

Jeremiah Wright proclaims himself to be a patriotic American who served. I’ll remind him that Timothy McVeigh and Lee H. Oswald ALSO served this country before betraying it.

[rrrod]

The RATS will go after McCain on his mental stability....and for good reason.

[al_c]

Not even close to the same thing, but there’s no way the Obama camp will just sit silently.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread:

Rev. Wright: U.S. Marines Like Romans Who Persecuted Jesus

[RedRover]

But...but...”Goddamn America” is just the way they talk in black churches! (Doesn’t that sound a tad bit racist?)

[sanchmo]

Hon Sen McCain:
Am I allowed to criticize the Hon Sen Obama and the Hon Rev Wright this week?
Eagerly awaiting your permission,
Your humble subject.

[Carling]

If that’s the case, then Hamas has said they want Obama to win the election.

The Hagee/McCain non-story is a loser for Obama. Obama actually is close to Wright; I get the impression that McCain didn’t really know who Hagee is or was when told of his endorsement.

[chainsaw]

He has even called on the North Carolina Republican Party to pull an advertisement...

Sounds like a little Napoleon.

[ANGGAPO]

Sounds as if McCain would like to stay out of ass kicking contests to me. People that are presidential material usually don't show up with a Anti-American pastor who has a big mouth, or a past president that keeps running amuck. Granted, John McCain is old, but he is a long way from being a fool.

[al_c]

I get the impression that McCain didn’t really know who Hagee is or was when told of his endorsement.

If only that was true. McCain sought Hagee's endorsement. Fortunately, it looks like the issue is dead in the water, unless the Obamatons bring it up again.

[Grampa Dave]

The bitter anti America racist Wright is the gift that keeps on giving and helping.

"With each new utterance on the topic of Reverend Wright, Barack Obama seems to confirm his own moral obliviousness. Worse yet, he seems to have disdain for those who are troubled by his own unwillingness, even now, to break with Wright."

On his new campaign plane, Obama said he has spoken with Wright in recent days and disputed any suggestion that he or his campaign have asked him to stay out of the limelight.

"I have talked to him," he said. "I haven't asked him to do anything."

Walter Williams: "For the nation and for black people, the first black president should be the caliber of a Jackie Robinson and Barack Obama is not. Barack Obama has charisma and charm but in terms of character, values and understanding, he is no Jackie Robinson. By now, many Americans have heard the racist and anti-American tirades of Obama's minister and spiritual counselor. There's no way that Obama could have been a 20-year member of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church and not been aware of his statements."

Thomas Sowell: "It is painful to watch defenders of Barack Obama tying themselves into knots trying to evade the obvious. Some are saying that Senator Obama cannot be held responsible for what his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, said. In their version of events, Barack Obama just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time—and a bunch of mean-spirited people are trying to make something out of it."

Hussein Obama’s racist pseudo minister has turned the Dems' run for President into party's train wreck!

Devastatingly, Shelby Steele writes: “Obama has fellow-traveled with a hate-filled, anti-American black nationalism all his adult life, failing to stand and challenge an ideology that would have no place for his own (white) mother."

Just What Did Obama Know About Wright's Past Sermons? (Plenty)

“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.”

Obama’s supporters want us to ignore this story… just push it under the rug. While they’ll align Republicans with any obscure pastor who does or says something controversial, they’re trying to convince us that Obama’s 20-year long close relationship with Wright, including his effective endorsement of him, his church and rhetoric with a $22,500 donation in 2006 is irrelevant.

“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.”

Here is the link to the Star Spangled Banner video with obama standing there without his hand over his heart...

Notice her ear ring!

The picture, which appeared on a U.S. Web site, showed the Illinois senator donning a Muslim elder's headdress and robes during a 2006 trip to Wajir in northeastern Kenya. Ahmed Sheikh Bahalow, a retired teacher and elder from ethnically (read Muslim) Somali Wajir, said his community was offended by the insinuation Obama had done anything wrong on his visit. "The Somali community and in particular those living in Kenya have never been that interested in America politics," Bahalow told Reuters in the central town of Isiolo. "But we are following it keenly now because we have been provoked." Wajir residents planned to demonstrate in the town after Friday prayers to show their support for Obama, he said. Those aren't Episcopalians praying on Friday.

"Hussein Obama’s big mouth, small brain, condescending, America-hating, grandkid-baby-terminating, born-alive-infant-abandoning, America-hating-wife, kooky-moonbat-America-hating-pastor, racially-divisive, race-baiting, crotch-saluting, America-flag-disrespecting ... chickens ... coming home to roost ...!"

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Mc Cain is walking a tight line while Obama is trying to survive the Wright explosion...see this:

Wright Politics

**********************EXCERPT**********************

28 Apr 2008 10:48 am

## The Obama campaign knows that Wright is throwing Obama under the bus, and they're of two minds about the political repercussions. On the one hand, they want him to shut up, knowing that the press is likely to repeat the Crazy Uncle soundbites more than they are the intelligent, learned theologian soundbites. The public associates Obama with Wright; the more they think of Wright, the more they think of Obama. They do not believe that the tour will rehabilitate Wright's image with those voters who were offended by the comments.

## On the other hand, Wright's decision to publicly break up with Obama by essentializing him as a politician may well generate some distance between himself and Obama; perhaps the public may perceive the distance; the more outré Wright becomes, the easier it is for Obama to say -- look at what he says, and look at what I say. The campaign is also thankful that Wright decided to speak out now, rather than in, say, October.

## The Obama campaign is also watching racial prejudice angle carefully. The backlash generated by overtly/covertly racist appeals using Wright will burn a line between valid and racist that the media will carefully patrol.

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t think it’s out of line for a guy like McCain to mention Wright’s statements and point out that it is shameful that Obame could stay a member, and refuse to take the guy to task for his comments.

Avoiding getting picky is un-Presidential, but ignoring extreme anti-Americanism is also un-Presidential.

I’ll continue to form my own opinion about McCain. It doesn’t match yours.

[DoughtyOne]

The left can hope whatever they want. What Wright said is on the record. And despite these comments, Obama remained a member of the church, and now refuses to acknowledge the problems with those comments.

No amount of playing silly games is going to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Is Dean devising this policy? LOL

[ROCKLOBSTER]

McCain said that he did not believe that Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, shared those views

Of course he does McCain, ya GD idiot.

[wastedyears]

They’re doing a demon dance.