With friends like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who needs enemies?
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Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s recently retired pastor appeared at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. today — his third major appearance in four days to answer those who have suggested that he is unpatriotic, anti-American or, as he put it in his interview with Bill Moyers, quoting New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, a “whackadoodle.”
Asked why he chose to defend himself now, rather than several weeks ago when snippets of his sermons were all over the Internet, Wright said that initially he he followed his mother’s advice that “it is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
Unfortunately for the Obama campaign, he didn’t hold to that. “How long do you let somebody talk about your faith tradition before you speak up and say something in defense of it,” Wright said today. “This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. … This is an attack on the black church.”
Wright spoke before a largely appreciative audience of supporters who came to hear him speak at the press club, including former Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, Princeton professor Cornel West, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam official Jamil Muhammad.
But neither his timing, nor his comments are likely to boost Obama, who is locked in a tight primary in Indiana after being beaten in Pennsylvania by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and who is wooing white working-class voters. The fact that the presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, has also begun attacking Obama for his ties to Wright makes the pastor’s appearance that much more politically charged.
Our friend, Kate Phillips, over at The New York Times’ Caucus writes that Wright didn’t consult with the Obama campaign about either the timing, or the content of his remarks.
Our colleague Jeff Zeleny tells us that associates of Mr. Obama said privately that his campaign was furious at Mr. Wright’s decision to step forward so publicly, but that they were unable to do anything to control this. They added, however, that the pastor’s actions prove that he and Mr. Obama are not that close, otherwise why would Mr. Wright do this now?
The timing may be critical, though, for Mr. Obama, who has struggled to regain his footing (and retooled his message) after Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton trounced him in Pennsylvania where his remarks about small-town Americans may have influenced a swath of white voters to support her.
Wright began his press club remarks with a historical lecture on the traditions of the black church in America. “The prophetic tradition of the black church has its roots in Isaiah, the 61st chapter, where God says the prophet is to preach the gospel to the poor, and to set at liberty those who are held captive,” he said. “Liberating the captives also liberates who are holding them captive.
But his self-righteous, almost defiant responses to a series of questions will do little to reassure white working-class voters wondering about Obama’s connections to him. He defended his patriotism, noting that he had served six years in the Marine Corps and Navy. “How many years did Cheney serve?” he asked.
Asked to explain his motivation for characterizing Senator Obama’s response as, “what a politician had to say”? Wright made no effort to soften his earlier remarks.
“Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls, Huffington, whoever’s doing the polls,” he said. “Preachers say what they say because they’re pastors.
“As I said, whether he gets elected or not, I’m still going to have to be answerable to God November 5th and January 21st. That’s what I mean. I do what pastors do. He does what politicians do.”
When the moderator asked Wright to talk about the much-played sermon excerpt in which he said “God damn America” for its racist history and policies, Wright demanded: “Have you heard the whole sermon?”
“I heard most of it,” she said.
“No, no, the whole sermon, yes or no?” he baited her. “No, you haven’t heard the whole sermon? That nullifies that question. . . If you heard the whole sermon, first of all, you heard that I was quoting the ambassador from Iraq. That’s number one.
“But, number two, to quote the Bible, ‘Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever you sow, that you also shall reap.’ Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic, divisive principles.”
All in all, a performance that makes Obama’s task of reassuring hesitant voters that more difficult.
Here’s the full text of his speech.
Or you can listen to an excerpt here:
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