He's no patriot. If he was, he'd not be doing his part to keep the GOP in power for four more years.

I watched him at the press club. He sure enjoys himself. He's a fool.

You and your friends need to have a stiff drink and get over it, and yourselves. Obama will be the next President.

And personally, I wish Obama wasn't such a wishy-washy moderate and serial Israel-lobby panderer and that he DID share more of Wright's views. Nonetheless, he's the best thing going this year. But spare me the moist "most promising in a generation" rhetoric. He's a good guy and a decent, centrist Democrat, not the Second Coming. That realistic appraisal ought to be enough.

The Obama campaign desperately needs to do something spectacular and get the cameras off of Rev. Wright. As some political sage once said, "When you're explaining, you're losing." On the verge of the final primaries, and the urgency to "close the deal" in Denver, it's time for Obama to take a break from his compulsion to address every bullshit non-issue that his political opponents and the news industry will inevitably continue to throw at him.

Very quickly because this deserves no more and no better: you're full of shit, M.J. From start to finish.

Its out of Barack's hands. This Wright story is being driven by the media, its grist for their mill, especially the 24/7 Cable gab fests; CNN, MSNBC, Fox.

After Obama's speech on race, Wolf Blitzer on CNN
addressed the speech by saying (paraphrase):

'OBama gives what many say is a great speech on race......but is it enough; coming up in our next segment, stay tuned.'

Blitzer was churning the story to fill air time.
I could almost imagine a director saying in Blitzer's ear phone: "Keep it going, keep it going."

I claimed early on that the Democratic candidate's
worst enemy won't be the Republican candidate but the media.

pretty much everyone you know supports Obama? MJ, you've got to get out more!

as I said in a post on another article: the reason this is happening is that your candidate is pretty much a blank slate. and now that people like Wright have crawled out from under their rocks, Americans are "filling in the blanks" and not liking what they see.

as you know, Clinton and Obama are almost identical on the issues. so the only point of differentiation is their "character." I know you TPMers think Hillary is a nasty, scheming liar. I have no problem with that; I think she'd be a kick-ass president. the only thing we know about Obama's "character" is that he's hung out with some shady people in the past.

the fact is Obama won't go further to dissociate himself with Wright because he doesn't want to alienate his base, which is black people and guilt-ridden white libs like you. sorry, but it's true.

MJR, pray tell which part of the following is over the top and the words of 'a fool':

Reconciliation does not mean that blacks become whites or whites become blacks and Hispanics become Asian or that Asians become Europeans.

Reconciliation means we embrace our individual rich histories, all of them. We retain who we are as persons of different cultures, while acknowledging that those of other cultures are not superior or inferior to us. They are just different from us.

We root out any teaching of superiority, inferiority, hatred, or prejudice.

And we recognize for the first time in modern history in the West that the other who stands before us with a different color of skin, a different texture of hair, different music, different preaching styles, and different dance moves, that other is one of God's children just as we are, no better, no worse, prone to error and in need of forgiveness, just as we are.

Only then will liberation, transformation, and reconciliation become realities and cease being ever elusive ideals.

@rosenberg

Pretty much everyone I know supports Obama

You've worked in Washington pretty much all your adult life and you can - repeatedly - say that? What a bumpkin you are.

And not one of us believes that Barack Obama shares any of his views.

A pathetic, head-in-the-sand bumpkin.

I'm really torn on this. Wright has no obligation to change or suppress his own views, right or wrong. He may be frustrating us Obama supporters but that's our problem, not his. And even if Wright repudiated his previously stated controversial views, who would believe him? It would be dismissed by the media as political pandering to help Obama, and Wright would lose his own credibility with his supporters. It would help no one.

And Obama can do no more than to include Wright as ONE PERSON among many that he LISTENS to in order to inform himself about the various issues that we face. Distancing himself from Wright as a person is meaningless except to clarify what Barack Obama believes and what his political positions are. The most he can do is continue to talk about the value of listening to all points of view in the process of developing one's own views, make it clear that he has his own views, and Wright's are no more important to him than all the other people he has heard from across the country. Hopefully voters will understand that we all have views that we would disagree with each other about, and none of us are responsible for someone else's ideas.

It's up to voters to distinguish between Obama's beliefs and Wright's, and if enough voters cannot make that distinction, then we again get what we deserve, as a country. We may wish that so many voters, due to their own fears and bigotry, weren't easily manipulated by the media, but that's a reality we have to face.

If White voters desert Obama because of what his pastor preaches in church, to me that's just a rationalization for their latent racism, ie. "if you seem White enough we'll consider voting for you, but if you show any signs of actually being Black, forget it". It's the "is he Black enough, or too Black" issue that was raised early on. The early verdict was that he was "just right", but now it seems like it's "just Wright". The verdict now is, "he's too Black". I suppose that could change again, but time is running out.

What I value in Barack Obama is his wisdom, honesty, and authenticity. If he has to give that up to win the nomination or election, we lose either way. So let Wright be Wright, and let Obama be Obama, and let the majority of voters have what they want. I've been in the minority of voters for over 40 years, even when I voted for Bill Clinton (who thanks to Perot never won a majority of votes, just a plurality to win the electoral college). Each election I do what I can to change that to a majority, but if it doesn't happen, life goes on. Until this election, I've voted for who I thought was the lesser of the evils, but not this time. Now that I've seen the alternative offered by Obama, I've decided that less evil isn't different enough from more. So if it ends up being McCain-Clinton, I'll just vote down ticket and let each presidential candidate's supporters decide which of the evils they prefer.

If enough Americans cannot see what Obama is offering and value it, then we lose out again.
I will continue to support Obama, will never vote for Clinton or McCain, and I'm willing to live with the consequences, as will my fellow citizens.

That is why we need Obama to divest himself of this guy. Not doing so, allowing this buffoon to hurt the most promising campaign of a generation, would demonstrate a weakness we cannot have in a President

Funny, I feel almost exactly the opposite. I'm sick of letting the right define us and who we're allowed to associate with. I would look upon Obama denouncing and rejecting (etc, etc) a long-time friend and mentor under the bus for political expedience as a sign of weakness. If McCain wants to get into the people he associates with (Keating, Hagee, etc etc) then let's take it to 'em.