I have been virulently against an Obama-Clinton ticket for a while now for a few reasons.  First and foremost, I think it undercuts his message of change.  Adding the wife of a former president (and by default, the former president himself) to Obama's ticket doesn't seem all that revolutionary in terms of revising

I don't get it.

Prior to today, I'd seen a few people say Barack's pastor was "problematic" or whatever, and it seemed to me like it was hushed up, and sort of pushed to the side in the campaign.  I never really looked into it, other than to google it briefly and see that some people thought he was an extremist.  I was sort of glad Barack had distanced himself a bit.

In a thread at EC earlier today someone posted a couple of video clips that based on their comments seem to be designed to discredit Barack based on excerpts of some of the Rev. Wright's sermons.  I clicked to see what the big deal was.

Maybe it's just me.  Maybe growing up as a Chicana Catholic in Utah has radicalized me more than I realized, but as far as I can tell this dude is just right.  I don't know why this is even an issue (other than the fact that it makes people uncomfortable to hear the truth).  If I lived in Chicago, and he hadn't retired, I'd go to his service after Mass, because I think he's saying things that need to be said despite the fact that they are uncomfortable.

Since when is speaking truth to power a bad thing? 

What kind of craptastic society have we created where the following two clips can be viewed as damning critiques of a man?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhl-endvco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUbUBTlmAiA

Two caveats:

First, I'm talking substance here, not reaction.  I get that the comments on these alone prove that America is not ready to confront these issues in such a way.  I get that.  But we here at TPMCafe are ostensibly a rational, throughtful bunch, right?  So please try to answer my query with something other than a critique that reads something like "the content is fine, but the delivery is toxic."

Second, I've only viewed these two clips.  I'm not fully emeshed in the Jeremiah Wright story yet.  If there are other, more inflammatory incidents, please let me know.  My position on this is malleable.  I just had to get this off my chest before doing some more homework on this, because after listening to these, and having them posted as some form of evidence against Barack, I was sort of appalled, because I'm pretty sure this just makes me like the dude more.

This will be pretty short, but I just had to put it out there, specifically after Joe Klein's (and others, but <a href=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1710721,00.html>this piece</a> seems to cover it) seeming endorsement of the "Obama Cult" theory.

While I understand that the HRC camp really wants to win, and has to do something to attack Barack in order to make that happen, I'm pretty sure critiquing his supporters and pushing the "you all are cultish fiends line"* backfires.  I was loathe to vote for Hillary before, even in a general against the GOP, since she's tacitly endorsed calling me a mindless fool, I'm pretty sure I have no motivation to turn out for her if she does win the nomination.

This is a problem.  The woman has fully 40-45% of the country that does not like her.  At all.  She cannot afford to have numerous party activists stay home because she needed to win the primary.  If she wins with this line of argumentation it isn't merely that she loses the new turnout youth vote (although, that would be devestating too.  With the number of new people Barack is bringing into the process, we could turn OH, PA and FL just on turnout...that's significant and they only turnout for one person) it's that she and her team are alienating parts of the party's base apparatus.  The part that gives money.  The part that mobilizes to phone bank, knock on doors and just generally GOTV. 

There are only two possibilities.

Either she suffers from such a delusion of grandeur that she really believes she can call people mindless and still get their vote, or she is so desperate to get her shot at the presidency that she's willing to put herself in an untenable position vis a vis winning, totally ignoring that it may put the GOP in the White House, because she feels it's owed to her somehow.

Neither option is good.  I am sick of leaders who suffer from delusions of never being wrong and entitlement.  I am equally appalled that one would run a campaign on a strategy aimed at ridiculing a substantial portion of the base of the party.