Instead Obama plagiarized Bill Clinton's earlier speech on race relations.

McCarthyism.

Bill Clinton was not and I reject the Obama campaign's characterization of Bill Clinton.

But this diary and several comments I have seen is among the lowest of the low smears.

Sounds like you came from Rush Limbaugh.

I suppose Obama could read the diary and surmise that it's just 'a typical white person's' response to his having sat thru so many years of such stuff.

We can not give a Democrat a free pass when we hold the GOP accountable for what they say.  I have zero tolerance for any sort of religious clergy, who has a pulpit, saying stuff that is anti-American.

We cry foul when Dobson, Falwell, Robertson et al, say these things.  We should cry foul when Dems say it as well.

By not doing so, we will come off as hypocrites.

I agree with the diarist.

Romney did it.

Obama did it.

The issue just keeps growing.

OK, you think it's that important?

Time for Hillary to step up to the plate.

It hasn't been discussed here before.

Neither has the story about Clinton's desciption of her trip to Tuzla and the reality the video shows.

Please. We need more diaries on these pressing subjects.

By the way, today the 4,000th American was killed in Iraq.

Or Sean Hannity. He'll do, too. By the way, Bill Kristol also wrote a similar piece in the Times. You should go garb that link while you're at it.

Here is a comment I posted on another thread.  It specifically addresses the issue of the racial resentment expressed by Wright, but the same pretty much goes for the lapel-pin patriotism.  Real patriots work to make this country live up to rhetoric.

"Your apparent inability to differentiate racism, as a system of oppression and exploitation, from the race resentment of those who are the victims of racism, suggests that you need to do a little Sociology 101.  

What you are doing is "blaming the victim."  In effect you are saying, "how dare those uppity Negroes get upset about the 400 year history of racism in this country."  

Hopefully, we will eventually get to a race blind society, but 400 years of history can not be erased with the wave of your hand. Racial resentment on the part of blacks should be understood for what it is: a natural step in the process towards fulfilling MLK's dream of the day when we are all judged by the content of our character. I suspect that AAs have to be fully empowered before they can fully put this  resentment aside.

It is absurd to paint Obama who has literally spent his life trying to understand and bridge the gap between the races as a racist.  This kind of "guilt by association" attack is to be expected from Republicans.  It is deeply disturbing coming from a Democrat."

I'm surprised Jerome allows such hate-speech on his site.

MyDamnedDisgrace.com

Before you throw stones why don't you look into your candidates relationship with "The Family". It's a right wing prayer group in Washington. Big book coming out soon so watch out, you may just be thrown from your my pretty pony and land right back in the world of reality.

I don't see this as a race issue at all. There are plenty of all white and all black churches. The question is about his anti-american sermons. And his other hate filled sermons.

By the way, I am a sinking feeling there are a lot more sermons out there. This is just the tip of a slow dripping water torture. A sermon a week come this fall.

True Blue, you raise good points and to ignore them doesn't make them go away (although I can see here that some wish they would). Obama's relationship with Wright is a concern for many Americans (that includes Democrats). Both Hillary and Obama have negatives that will be revisited in the general election. Obama's are just now coming out (more will come); Hillary's are known. I think Hillary has more negatives than Obama does; however, the negatives that Obama does have seem to register more negatively with the voter. Wright is an example of this. Ultimately, Democrats need to determine which candidate (Hillary or Obama) will be able to overcome their negatives and the RAM in the general election and win against McCain.

This is a good dairy.

To add to the discussion, here the concluding paragraph from Rodrequez today, a liberal writer fom the LAT:

"But just maybe the complexity of race in contemporary America no longer requires the massive collective action it did half a century ago when blacks in the South were living under Jim Crow, a legal apartheid. Just maybe we don't have to suffer through yet another national debate on race -- President Clinton launched his fruitless Initiative on Race in 1997 quoting, as Obama did, the preamble to the Constitution. Just maybe more progress will be made if average, fair-minded, decent people simply chose not to associate with -- and lend their credibility to -- haters, extremists or sowers of racial discord. Obama could have taken that simple path any time over the last 20 years. He chose not to. Now it's too late."

On the extremely off chance that you're actually serious and aren't just repeating things you already know to be wrong:

Wright is not a racist. He doesn't preach anti-white hate in terms of hating individual white people. Many, many white people have attended TUCC services, and none of them have reported feeling uncomfortable. He doesn't preach anti-American hate; he has preached hate for the bad in America. He has not preached anti-semitic hate; he does have views the consequences of our involvement with Israel that a lot of people disagree with.

Rev. Wright has extremely high marks as a spiritual leader and teacher. The vast majority of his sermons were highly uplifting. Even the ones that have been played -- the ones with the inflammatory statements in question -- are overall inspiring and spiritual, with some highly negative material included.

There are only 4 or 5 of these sermons. It is a virtual certainty that Obama was not in the church for any of them. Any comments about "20 year relationships" need to be taken in the context of a 20-year relationship in which you see the person being a good, spiritual person for those 20 years and missed the 5 times or so out of thousands that he went off the rails.

TUCC in general and Rev. Wright in particular have done a great deal of good in the Chicago area. They do a great deal of charity work, social services, etc, and of course there's the spiritual uplift as well.

There have been 43 presidents of the US. Some great, some bad. But not one of them would of sat through a sermon listening to a preacher spred anti-american hate. Not once. Not for 20 years. [...] None would have repeatedly brought his children to hear the pastor.

Nor would have Obama. He never did. And he didn't give "that preacher" $20,000 either; he gave TUCC $20,000. TUCC does an awful lot of charity work and needs the money. It's not like it went to fund Rev. Wright's lavish personal lifestyle (it's apparently very modest, actually).

And everyone one of them would have had the guts to stand up to Wright and tell him what they thought. Obama never did this. And Obama never explained why.

Actually, according to everything we know about this, Obama did in fact stand up to Wright and told him exactly what he thought of it, when he became aware of it. He's been very clear that he rejects and denounces Wright's extreme statements and inflammatory language.

Yet, Wright has done a tremendous amount of good for a very long time. He's been Obama's spiritual (not political, not social-gospel, not "hated and racism", but spiritual) mentor. Should Obama have thrown someone like that under the bus? Why? What good would that serve?

There's a seminary up in Dallas named Brite Theological Seminary. They're honoring Wright in a week or so. The leaders of the seminary went back over all the controversial sermons after the story broke big and decided that they made no difference; that they did not tarnish the enormous legacy of Wright or make him unworthy of honors. These are people whose job it is to train and evaluate ministers. Brite is not an African-American seminary, it's predominately white. It's not a bunch of fire-breathing radicals, it's pretty mainstream.

If they have no problem with Wright on a spiritual basis, I find it hard to argue that anyone else should.

4mydddog,

Excellent points. Again, my real problem with Obama and Wright is why did Obama not have the courage, at any time in the last 20 years, to stand up and confront Wright on his anti-american hate. It is about courage, character and judgement.