Quote from traderNik:
Hey Hap
Well, I know he worshipped at Rev. Wright's Christian altar, which is definitely a bit disturbing (that footage of Wright's ranting is ridiculous). Whether he worshipped at the altar of Black Liberation Theology, I don't know. Maybe you have better info than I do. Certainly it can't be true that Wright's entire congregation subscribed to the more radical tenets of his philosophy.
Re: Ayers, I do think there's a difference between seeing Ayers on campus or being there when he was drinking in a pub and actively participating in the planning of domestic terrorism. No one seems to be able to come up with evidence of the latter - I'm sure it would be made available if it existed.
I hung out with some very questionable characters in my youth as well : )
In the end, Obama just looks to me like a guy who has been sucked into the power game and is trying to grab the brass ring, which is what most pols are doing. I don't buy the argument that he has some nefarious plan for Black Domination or that he will plan domestic terrorism from the Oval Office. Do I think he'll make a good Prez? I don't know. I do admit that he's an ivory tower type guy and not someone who has the battle scars, either literal or figurative, that McCain has. McCain just doesn't 'read' well in a media age - that's a big part of his problem.
I have been pretty consistent in my claims that the most relevant thing about McCain/Palin's focus on Obama is not the veracity of the charges they are making, but the fact of the approach. John Kerry lost in '04 when GWB's approval was extremely low and the Iraq war was getting very unpopular. How did he manage to lose? By running on the 'I'm not GWB' platform. Americans rightly said 'You lose' because he didn't define himself, except to say 'I'm not him'.
Now, the RNC is trying the same strategy! I just find it bizarre.
Nik, thanks for the response.
What bugs me about Obama's relationship with Wright is that you're talking about two decades of friendship and mentoring by a veritable nutcase. Wright married the Obama's and baptized their children. Wright is close to Louis Farrakhan - the two of them went to Libya together to meet with Qaddafi (when he was a very bad boy - before the invasion of Iraq scared the shit out of him to the point he abandoned his nuke program). Wright rails against whitey, damns America, and claims the AIDS virus was designed by Uncle Sam and targets black people.
Two decades, Nik....and only now, when he's running for Prez, and Wright's philosophy becomes publicized, does Obama distance himself from Wright. At least on the surface...Holy shit, if McCain had attended a White Supremacist rally for five minutes, let alone over the course of 20 years, would he be getting a free pass from the media?!? Fuck NO!! Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric, and Co. would be hounding him 24/7 about it.
As for Ayers, I don't believe that he's out there planning the next 9/11 or anything. But I also do not believe the claims that he and Obama were nothing but casual acquaintances. From what I've heard and read, the two served together on various boards that funded ultra-lib "educational programs" with millions of dollars, and Obama launched his political career at a coming out party at Ayer's home. I'd have a lot more respect for Obama if he would simply own up to the relationship instead of trying to deny it.
That's just a couple of things. At the end of the day, we have this guy who comes out of nowhere and we really don't know much about him. What is the deal with his family in Kenya? Did he support the Kenyan politician who wants to enact Sharia law there? What was his relationship with Tony Rezko? What specifically does he disagree with Ayers and Wright about (if anything)? Other than this campaign, what enterprise has he actually managed, and how successful was it?
There are so many questions about Obama that his supporters don't seem able to answer, except to say to refer to his website.
Obama is benefitting from a perfect storm of events - distrust of Bush, dissatisfaction with Iraqi war, and now the economic crisis. I think his greatest strength is that he is not a Republican, and that is enough for tens of millions of people. To them, he is, quite simply, the only alternative. Never mind that they really don't know anything about him...