Is This A Joke: Is Jeremiah Wright a colossal disaster for Barack Obama or a press trick?
That is the question asked by the NY Daily News. I think Jeff summed it up best:
Barack Obama’s Manhattan campaign office, located in the newsroom of The New York Times, is spinning Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s incendiary comments at the National Press Club away from the Illinois senator. The headline says it all: Not Speaking for Obama, Pastor Speaks for Himself, at Length.
He also wrote a book, “The Great Media War: A Battlefield Report”, so if you have the time, it’s a good read! But back to this ‘trick’…
Brent Baker points out: Only ABC Focuses on Wright’s Inanity, All Showcase Shot at Cheney
CBS’s Dean Reynolds, who spent more time on Wright’s attack on Cheney than on anything crazy Wright said Monday, explained that “as for questions about his patriotism, Wright pointed to his Marine service compared to Vice President Cheney’s five deferments from duty.” Wright: “I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?”
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams set up the story from Andrea Mitchell by stressing how “one veteran politico today” dismissed Wright’s comments as “a ‘circus’ and a ’sideshow.’” Mitchell soon repeated how “Obama supporters described the whole thing as a media circus.” Viewers then heard from former Senator Bill Bradley followed by Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart, the man who in March hailed Obama’s speech on race as “a very important gift the Senator has given the country.” Monday night Capehart lamented how “the victim in all of this is going to be Senator Obama’s campaign.”
Lee Harvey Oswald and Timothy McVeigh served their country as well..but at the end of the day, Obama looked to this man for guidance for 20 years and in those 20 years, he never heard these types of things..at the end of the day..Obama is a victim! Yes, just like I am a victim of the cigarette companies..they force me to buy their products.
AJ points out that Obama’s people have tried to reach of to Wright, but it didn’t go as planned:
Obama aides said Wright had rebuffed their recent offers of public relations assistance. They stressed that they had no warning about a media blitz that included an appearance with Bill Moyers on PBS on Friday night, a nationally televised speech to the NAACP in Detroit on Sunday evening and yesterday’s appearance at the National Press Club.
Didn’t Wright say that he isn’t running for office and that Obama says and acts the way he needs to in order to get elected?
Noel reminds us of how similar this is to 1992: Repackaging Rev. Wright for Obama’s White House Run
Does it seem the ultimate of political ironies that media are using the same strategy that helped Bill Clinton win the White House in 1992 to prevent him and his wife from returning to the Oval Office in 2009?
After all, even people that haven’t been around the political block a few times should certainly find the following all too predictable press strategy all too familiarA well-esteemed liberal candidate is caught in some controversy that could derail his chances of attaining the office he seeks.
Media initially pounce all over the typically salacious tidbit, knocking said candidate off his seemingly one-way express elevator straight to the political penthouse.
Candidate drops in the polls, campaign seems doomed, and media come to the rescue in the nick of time just before the train runs over the proverbial damsel in distress.
Sound familiar?Well, in case it doesn’t, this is largely what happened to Democrat presidential candidate Bill Clinton when scandals in early 1992 rocked his campaign to the very core, one involving a 12-year affair with Gennifer Flowers, another his evasion of the draft.
Clinton dropped nearly twenty points in the polls following these revelations, but ended up, in the long-run, saved by a sycophantic media that quickly brushed aside these inconvenient truths as something the electorate shouldn’t be concerned with.
April 29, 2008 - 10:36 AM on April 29th, 2008
i listened to a radio discussion this morning about whether Wright is actually trying to torpedo the Obama campaign. There was even speculation the Clinton campaign was behind it.
Now if wright was just a casual contact for Obama, I’d say there could be something to it. But there association is a close one, and for 20 years.
I think Wright is a genuine lunatic and really believes what he spouts. I also think he is either monumentally stupid or is getting bad advice because he really thinks his Moronicity Tour is helping, winning finds and influencing people. I think he really thinks he is scoring poin ts, winning the debate.
In reality he is fully defining the growing perception that he is a lunatic, an enemy of Ameica, and is probably going to take down the Obama candidacy.
April 29, 2008 - 10:56 AM on April 29th, 2008
Another thing, a reality check. George Allen, whom I would certainly support for Pres, was knocked out way early for one “macaca” remark. i never understood what the big deal was but the vermin in the MSM attacked early and often on that one.
Allen says Macaca and he’s gone. Yet Obama has serious character issues, emerging evidence of lack of or bad judgement, a growing list of scandals and skeletons, yet most of the MSM totally ignores it and attacks Cheney (who isn’t running, by the way).
ANYONE who can’t see this or doesn’t have a problem with it should not be voting.
April 29, 2008 - 01:14 PM on April 29th, 2008
Robert, that would include half the country. However I don’t believe Obama will be elected after all the crazies have come out of his closet full. Obama has issues out the butt. What is wrong with the MSM??? Go figure! They must be taking bribes from the weather underground. Something fishy going on that needs to be investigated. All of the above mentioned and a few unmentionables need heavy counseling. Not to be paid by the Government which is really just you and moi. Obviously we have learned our enemies so as not to turn our back on them. We should be so lucky!
April 29, 2008 - 01:26 PM on April 29th, 2008
All of this is a joke, but not funny to Obama. He won’t get the last laugh, yet he is being laughed at along with all the other buffoons he is friends with. I know I’m laughing every day.
You are surly known by the company you keep, no way around that one. LOL
April 29, 2008 - 02:20 PM on April 29th, 2008
The thought that Hillary is behind the Wright fiasco is interesting. Not sure it’s true, but I heard that the Clintons called on Rev. Wright to help them with their marriage after the Monica debacle. Someone ought to investigate the connections between the Clintons and Rev. Wright.
April 29, 2008 - 02:31 PM on April 29th, 2008
carolyne, you are right in that at best this is making Obama look like a fool, at worst a person of suspect character and judgement.
I think this also demonstrates very clearly how unprepared Obama is to assume anything of the magnitude of the Presidency. Did he actually believe none of this would ever come out, or matter? Did he not understand that he would be put under a microscope? His business dealings, his tenure in Chicago politics, even his hobbies would be under intense scrutiny? I’ll bet HilLiary’s investigators know things about Obama he has long ago forgotten.
So if he did understand all that, did he think his oratorical skills and charisma would be enough to get through it? He could just play the race card? Or what?
It’s a shame it has to be this way because anybody who truly has the ability, experience, and leadership to be the CEO of America doesn’t want to deal with the crap. Why should they?
But that’s the way it is…
April 29, 2008 - 03:04 PM on April 29th, 2008
Pamela,
A Hillary supporter, Barbara Reynolds, was at the event, but according to The Press Club, did not organize it. She did want him included 2 years ago, but 2 years ago, he wasn’t newsworthy:
Wright was at a National Prayer Breakfast on September 11, 1998, which was just before the Starr Report was published. The referenced article pretty much puts that rumor to bed..without a stain on a blue dress that will end up being fodder for generations to come
April 29, 2008 - 03:10 PM on April 29th, 2008
“Not sure it’s true, but I heard that the Clintons called on Rev. Wright to help them with their marriage after the Monica debacle. Someone ought to investigate the connections between the Clintons and Rev. Wright.”
Pamela, that is verrry interesting. I didn’t know there was any connection whatsoever between Wright and the Clintons. If that is true, it is very interesting indeed.
I have been saying for some time if it became necessary Hitlary would use the nuclear option on Obama. She apparently didn’t start WrightGate, but if she somehow coerced Wright into doing what he’s doing now, that’s quite different.
Wright acts as though he’s trying to pull Obama down along with him.
April 29, 2008 - 05:20 PM on April 29th, 2008
Whoa Robert, if that is true then it’s no wonder Wright won’t shut his mouth. Not that I care of course. The more damage to Obama the better but wtf?? I really didn’t think it originated with HiTlary. It will be interesting to see this unfold.
April 29, 2008 - 05:46 PM on April 29th, 2008
I don’t think it originated with Hitlary, but if there’s a connection there with Wright, and somehow he could have been persuaded to sell out Obama, that could explain why Wright has been almost militant about his public lunacy, which is undermining Obama.
Think about it: Wright can’t lose! He’s getting National attention, probably hugely increasing his status among the nutballs he caters to, and pehaps HilLiary has put something extra in the collection plate…who knows? I can’t think of any way Wright loses doing this. heck, this could launch him into the status of the next JJ or Sharpton!
I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist, but this one is interesting.