Originally posted by: Fern
I don't know how long this story will go on, or whether it will hurt Obama.
But I do think one need consider if over +30 yrs they can only come up with about half a dozen crazy "soundbites" this might be a misrepresentation. Additionally, the sound bites are rather short, each maybe a minute. What was the guy saying for the other 59 minutes of the church service?
I saw Obama address this 2 or 3 different times last night. I recall seeing him on Fox and CNN. My wife and I thought he handled it extremely well. In denouncing the preacher's comments, he turned it from a messgae of despair (that's the preacher's) into a message of hope (Obama's).
If this preacher's "tirades" were very infrequent, I don't think Obama should have quit the church as many say. If you can only attend a church where you never ever disagree with something said, you'll run out of churches in a short time. Or perhaps need to look for one where nothing of substance is ever said.
I got the impression that some of these "sound bites" weren't not racist, although they were jammed in betweens ones that were making them look worse, but rather the preacher was "justifying" Obama's "blackness" to the African-American community. Things like Hillary ain't black, wasn't a black kid raised in a broken home like Obama etc. Remember that not long ago the black community didn't accept Obama, thinking he was not "black enough".
(Now, this is a problem, not because it's racists, but because IMO it's campaigning for Obama from the pulpit. That is not allowed under the 501(c)(3) (non-profit income tax) rules. I understand that the church is now being investigated by the IRS. I also understand that the preacher in question is retiring at the end of the month. Another reason not to quit.)
I'm a middle age white-guy. While surprised to think people would waste otherwise good "church" time on these topics, hear "GD" word and watch simulated Clinton sex acts in a church, blacks complaining about white dominance doesn't surprise or offend me.
I've grown up listening to liberal whites say the same thing. How can I be surprised or think it racist if black themselves say the same thing? Is this some white liberal double standard? White liberals can say these things but not black people?
Almost anything that pastor says I see here on the AT forum almost daily. Guilt for Hiroshima and Nagaski, that strikes me as run-of-the-mill liberal. Remember, the USA is the cause of problems in the world. White oppression of blacks? Well, excuse me. Here, on an almost daily basis, we who live in the South are referred to as incestuous nuckle-dragging backward redneck racists by those of you who live elsewhere. I see no outrage on the forums when that's posted, but I see it now when some Black preacher says it.
I guess I just think this is just blown out of proportion, and don't much personally care for guilt by association or bringing a church into politics.
Lastly, it occurred to me that those who say Obama is not ready to run against the Repubs because they will be tough and nasty and he untrested, can stop that line of argument now. I don't know of anything tougher and nastier than attacking a person's church or insinuating that they are a closet racists. This on top of "stealth Muslim". Nope, I think a battle against the Repubs will look like a cake-walk. Just a serious debate about policy & experience.(notwithstanding idiots like Hannity who will probrably keep harping on this crap.)
Fern
The thing that is making think twice about jumping on the "Obama is a closet racist" bandwagon, whatever I may think of some of the quotes from his minister, is that "closet racist" isn't usually something that works out too well for people. Racism tends to be a pretty powerful viewpoint, and most racists don't hide it very well at all. If Obama thinks white people are the devil, or whatever, he's doing a REALLY good job of hiding it.