Obama, Wright, Ayers, Rezko
Barack Obama credits Rev Wright’s phrase ‘the audacity of hope’ for ‘drawing him to Christianity.’ The fish wrap NYT probably wrote this story only because they supported Clinton or Edwards but it is a source for Obama quotes. The Obamas were married by Rev Wright and their two daughters were baptized by the person Rush Limbaugh calls ‘a race-baiter and hatemonger.’ And the story also reconfirms Obama’s 20 year history with the Rev who called the US ‘the US of KKKA’ and said ‘racism is how this country was founded and how it is still run.’ Yet Obama claims he never heard Rev Wright give a sermon like that or speak like that in private.
So Mr Obama, are Rev Wright’s quotes ‘just words’ or ‘just speeches’ in the same manner you refer to the works of others or your own. You deny criticism directed toward you as truth. You say people are ‘just makin’ stuff up’. But you are quite comfortable launching lies about others. If Rev Wright drew you to Christianity, what was your religion before that? If you never heard an inflammatory speech or conversation from Rev Wright, is it because you rarely were in his presence or did you ask him not to speak that way in YOUR presence?
Hard to think that Obama never heard Rev Wright’s inflammatory speeches since he ‘is a beloved figure in African-American Christian circles and a frequent guest in pulpits around the country.’ And ‘ his blunt, charismatic preaching, which melds detailed scriptural analysis, black power, Afrocentrism and an emphasis on social justice’ that comes from ‘his most powerful influence’ of ‘black liberation theology, which interprets the Bible as a guide to combating oppression of African-Americans’ according to the NYT story.
The father of black liberation theology, James Cone, a professor at Union Theological Seminary, has know Rev Wright since before he was called a Reverend. Cone says ‘if you’re black it is hard to say what you truly think and not upset white people.’ Maybe Mr Cone would like to know that it is not easy to talk to black people not just about things you truly believe but anything related to social issues without simply being dismissed as white. Between Cone’s comment and the previous one, how will that ever bridge the gaps that exist? And more importantly, how does all this play in to a potential Obama Adminstration? Will he represent ALL the people?
Rev Wright has since retired. To that one could ask, how convenient?
Then there is the question of William Ayers. Another issue Barack Obama does not want to deal with in his campaign. This week Alaska Governor Sarah Palin brought the topic up in a campaign stop and was immediately criticized by the Obama campaign. How is it that a known domestic terrorist and former founding member of the Weather Underground or Weatherman who avoided prosecution for acts of terror against his own country and his relationship to a Presidential candidate not an issue in this year’s campaign?
As the first piece of evidence that the MSM is completely comfortable ignoring the Obama Ayers connection and assisting Obama with turning it into a non-issue is a May 2008 report promoted as a fact-checker from WaPo. They make light of it and announce only the Clintons would benefit from it in the primaries and that they had their own terrorist connections by the former President’s pardon of two former Weather Underground members who happen to be women. Most of the piece focuses on the Obama Ayers connection as nothing more than a campaign tactic of the opposition party.
The only flaw in that reasoning is if it were not for opposition parties all the lies of politicians would go uncontested. Just because the opposition party uses it against their competitor does not mean it has no significance. A Michael Barone opinion piece at US News and World Report agrees with the notion that the MSM has ignored the Obama Ayers connection. According to Barone, Obama and Ayers are obviously connected and what is worse is the fact that Obama does not use his only example of executive experience within the campaign. That may be due to the Ayers connection but equally important is the dismal failure of that experience and the mission supposedly for education not to mention wasting millions of dollars in the process.
Lynn Sweet at the Chicago Sun Times says Ayers’ extremist past ‘has never bothered anyone in Chicago.‘ That mentality may be shared by many in America which may be more troubling than Obama and Ayers. Again recounting the Obama Ayers connection in the Senator’s beginning of his political career in Illinois, no one seems to be concerned. It is no surprise that Mayor Daley supports Ayers and refers to their education reforms as nationally known and successful. Where does he get this stuff? One could conclude this is just par for Chicago style politics. But why have so many largely dismissed this subject. Even Mayor Daley said these things are why people are digusted with Washington. Of course that assumes it is okay in Chicago as he stated in the earlier remarks.
So it is probably not even worth the time to mention the association of Tony Rezko and Barack Obama since the Illinois Senator, then US Senator and now Democratic party Presidential nominee has been successful thus far in avoiding fallout for his other questionable judgments and associations. But at least this much will be shared for now. Rezko and Obama had some shady real estate dealings. Rezko is involved in campaign finance for both Barack Obama and Joe Biden. If you cannot see the pattern here then you have chosen to ignore it. And on that sad note another post will end to be followed by more on this topic as well as the earlier one on Obama and Franklin Raines.
Stanford Matthews
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