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Jeremiah Wright: Obama is a politician

By Carmen D. on Friday, April 25th, 2008, 6:21 am Comments

In his interview with Bill Moyers, Jeremiah Wright delivers an uppercut to Barack Obama’s character and in turn his presidential candidacy. I was so wrong about this one. I’d figured that the Obama campaign would benefit from Wright emerging from his self-imposed quiet period and re-framing his big blast sermons in more easily digestible terms. Not so.

BILL MOYERS:
Here is a man who came to see you 20 years ago. Wanted to know about
the neighborhood. Barack Obama was a skeptic when it came to religion.
He sought you out because he knew you knew about the community. You led
him to the faith.

You performed his wedding ceremony. You baptized his two children. You
were, for 20 years, his spiritual counsel. He has said that. And, yet,
he, in that speech at Philadelphia, had to say some hard things about
you. How did those words…how did it go down with you when you heard
Barack Obama say those things?

REVEREND WRIGHT:
It went down very simply. He’s a politician, I’m a pastor. We speak to
two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a
politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they’re two
different worlds.

I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in
Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as
a politician.

Excerpt 4

BILL MOYERS:
In the 20 years that you’ve been his pastor, have you ever heard him
repeat any of your controversial statements as his opinion?

REVEREND WRIGHT:
No. No. No. Absolutely not.

I don’t talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he
goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I
continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things
of God. SOURCE

And with that exchange, Jeremiah Wright tarnishes Obama’s luster more effectively than Clinton has. It is sad that Wright is obviously so angry and so determined to defend his statements that he feels justified in throwing Barack Obama’s character “under the bus.”

  • Erzulie la flambeau
    The Dialectic of Culture and Politics ...
  • Dawncita
    Okay, I also watched the whole interview. Rev. Wright actually reminded me of a bit of an older version of my own pastor! I admire Wright quite a bit after watching him with Moyers. And as an ardent Obama supporter (I'm the only one in the CBN parking lot with an "Obama '08" bumper sticker but that's another story for another day), I'm fine with what Wright said. Sadly, it's true. Obama IS a politician. He has to be. But that doesn't mean he isn't exactly what this country needs. On a funny note, the other day I found myself (a 47 year old white woman) stridently defending Obama to a 29 year old black man who is a Hillary supporter! Ah, America...
  • Big Mik
    Lori,

    There had to be a good place for Rev. Wright to explain his side of the story. I think the perfect place was Bill Moyers, I also feel he is a very good journalist and PBS has been good with this election confusion. I am not saying this was put on to be manipulative, but to be a fair platform for Rev. Wright.
  • Lori
    I cross posted with Big Mik, so I want to respond to: " It seems Bill Moyers is in the same church orginization with Rev, Wright, so this was a highly orginized PR tactic to help deflect the craziness."

    I don't get this comment--a highly organized PR tactic by whom, precisely? The implication seems to be that their church was behind this? Or the Obama campaign? Or Wright himself seeking to use Moyers as his PR tool?

    Bill Moyers is an independent journalist whose integrity is, from my experience watching him over the years, pretty impeccable. I am sure that he sought out Wright for his program, not because he wanted to do some PR spin, but because he believed Wright had more to say. It's ludicrous to imagine that Moyers was acting somehow as the "tool" of either Wright, Obama, or the Church, in soliciting this interview.

    And the interview itself took on the issues so fairly and directly, that I can see absolutely no basis for implying it was manipulative. Particularly by contrast to the rest of the media coverage of this entire issue, which has been a highly powerful, organized PR tactic for continued racist miseducation.
  • Lori
    Thanks to this blog, I made a point of watching the interview last night in its entirety. I would mainly just second what Chi Chi said-that Rev. Wright was deeply impressive and it's a shame Obama didn't have the courage/didn't feel it would work politically? to more robustly defend him.

    And while I could see people taking this out of the original context as if Wright was framing "politician" as a wholly negative thing, I didn't really experience it that way; I experienced it as "people in differing social positions inevitably end up having to speak in ways that won't work in other social positions, and language is often imperfect. We have to do our jobs the best way we know how, using the language that will best work for us."

    I'm not SURE that's how I would have wanted him to answer the question, as an Obama supporter, because "politician" is a kind of smear in our basically apolitical culture, but I did feel that Wright's responses across the board demonstrated genuine integrity and a deep, caring thoughtfulness that I was simply awed by--I don't recall seeing its like on TV in a long time, maybe never.
  • Big Mik
    Hello,

    My wife and I saw the interview and we both looked at each other a said, "the man is telling the truth." It seems Bill Moyers is in the same church orginization with Rev, Wright, so this was a highly orginized PR tactic to help deflect the craziness.

    Rev. Wright said that he and Senator Obama talk to two different worlds and they truly do. I didn't see him throwing our next president under the bus, he was just clarifing the points. I was glad to see Moyers run the full context of each comment to let viewers see the "whole" parts of the targeted comments and not only the "small" parts the stupid Media wanted you too see.

    Overall, America saw a truly wise man, not the crazied nut the Media tried to make him look like.
  • Chi Chi
    I just saw Rev. Wright interviewed by Bill Moyers tonight. Unfortunately, I missed the first half hour of the interview and from what I did see I was extremely impressed by Rev. Wright. He was thoughtful and brilliant. All I can really say is that I understand why Obama chose him as a spiritual advisor. The Right Reverend almost made me want to go back to church. It is truly sad that people don't want to hear the truth. There was nothing I could find fault with in his words. For Obama not to truly defend this man makes me saddest of all!
  • Did I miss something (other than the actual interview)?

    Just going from the provided excerpts, Wright said exactly what I would have thought he would have said - Obama's a politician who speaks to his audience just as Wright speaks to his. Unless there was a good deal of yelling during the interview, it seemed a clear and articulate way to describe Obama's reaction to the soundbytes.

    Personally, I think that politicians in general need to be metaphorically 'thrown under the bus.' To paraphrase - anywone who wants the job of president probably doesn't deserve it.
  • "Dre, how I hope you are correct! But, if that is Wright’s goal then he picked a very clumsy and well-veiled way to help.LOL"

    If I'm wrong on this one and I'm giving Wright too much credit, maybe I'm the one who's misguided; and not the general public. :)
  • ChiChi & CeeCee, I hear you 100%. What is it with the complete inability to set down massive egos even for a potentially transformational good???? Today, I am concerned about the future. Not just Obama's future, but ours as a nation and community.

    Dre, how I hope you are correct! :) But, if that is Wright's goal then he picked a very clumsy and well-veiled way to help.LOL
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