Barack Obama just finished an extraordinary and much needed press conference, in which he denounced Jeremiah Wright's insulting performance at yesterday's National Press Club - insulting to the American people, the political process, as well as Barack Obama.
Obama said he found Wright's statement that AIDS was introduced into the African-American community by the US government "ridiculous," and Obama took exception to Wright's praise of Louis Farrakhan. But most significant was Obama's denunciation of Wright's mocking of the political process in which all Americans are now engaged.
Obama distinguished between Wright in the Bill Moyers interview and Wright at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday. I found the Moyers interview helpful - as I wrote here on Sunday - as did Obama. I also found Wright's talk to the NAACP in Detroit on Sunday to be informative and entertaining.
But Wright's performance at the National Press Club yesterday was appalling. Far from putting the sound bites that ignited this controversy in context - as Wright did in the Moyers' interview - Wright in Washington yesterday stepped up his insults and contempt for the American people. Obama was completely right to describe these as "ravings".
Obama needed to do this. It could not have been easy. But he stepped up to the camera, denounced and divorced Wright, and answered every question.
His hope is that the remaining primary campaign can now return to a focus on issues that need resolving - the economy and the Iraq war. Wright will no doubt not go quietly. But Barack Obama has shown he has the steel to do what was needed in this crisis.
5 comments:
Dvorak had an interesting take on this.
I posted over at Communicative Action a revision on my favorable opinions of Wright from the night before. The gist of it is that I thought the entertaining and frank discussion of race on national TV was refreshing and long overdue. I thought he showed a lighter side. The Washington Post's Gene Robinson wrote something more scathing, saying that Wright had lumped all of Black America into a narrowly defined box.
I thought about it and realized that entertaining and frank doesn't make for historically significant or statesman-like. It just means entertaining and frank. As I was getting ready to write up a calmer version of my post, I saw that Wright had gone loopy again and that Obama had cast him off for good.
It makes a lot of people happy and makes others relieved. It makes me sad, actually. The combination of these charismatic personalities could have been a tremendous asset to America, but now it's clear that one of them is only interested in himself, while the other is actually working very very hard to make it about us.
Dvorak thinking it's still a problem is a clear sign that Obama will emerge with more support and all the stronger from this. Dvorak's prediction and failure rate is something like 99.999%.
Sensible Americans already see past the snippets that the neocons in the media tried to shove into our minds. Rational people understand that Wright is a separate person, and that some of his views are valid when viewed in context. Especially in the Moyers interview, we realize he's a decent person, whether you agree or disagree with some of his statements.
The Clintons and neocons just keep wanting to drum-up trouble. Vehement Hillary supporters will keep trying to make it an issue. Neocons will keep trying to get the two Dem sides fighting each other. They keep acting like the sky is falling on Obama -- anything to deflect attention from their own unscrupulous behavior.
Smart people, no matter their parties, will snap out of this nonsense and realize that we need to repair the damage of Bush & Crooks. I'm taking a stand with Obama to unite with anyone who wants a better country.
Hi Paul,
I feel Obama should have said these things 6 months ago or at the beginning before it slipped out to the public. If he was honest from the beginning it would have had no impact. I know your commenters feel different but I can't help my feelings. I feel Obama is romance and no substance. I also feel he doesn't relate to the working class like myself and I'm not sure why. This Rev though is no christian by his speech and he really must hate Obama to try to bring him down but remember he was Obama's paster for over 20 years so it's hard to believe this is new to him. Thanks for letting me state my opinion and people be nicce out there.
Oh Paul I want you to do a post on this Polygamy case I saw a show yesterday with 2 woman that got out one with her 8 kids and I am shocked and appalled that this is aloud top go on in the US. Whats up with that. I figured since we do the Big Love thing, you'd be interested. The real compounds nothing like Big Love
I meant allowed lol
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