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March 18, 2008
Barry Poppins prepares for today's speech
If there are any doubts on how Mr. Hopey-changy will be approaching the cocklebur of Pastor Wright's unfortunate turns of phrase, rest assured the practically perfectly post-racialist will not permit sentiment to muddle his candidacy.
“I think it would have been naive for me to think I could run and end up with quasi-front-runner status in a presidential election as potentially the first African-American president, that issues [of] race wouldn’t come up, any more than Sen. Clinton could expect that gender issues might not come up,” Obama told interviewer Gwen Ifill on PBS’s “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.”“I think we’ve got to talk about it,” he added. “I think we’ve got to process it. But we’ve got to remind ourselves that what we have in common is far more important than what’s different and that if we’re going to solve any of these problems, we’ve got to come together and bridge our differences in ways that we just have not bridged them before.” [...]
"To the extent that, you know, the conversation over the last couple of days has been dominated by some stupid statements that were made by Rev. Wright, but also caricatures of Rev. Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ — which, by the way, is part of a denomination that is overwhelmingly white — you know, I think that that has distracted us from the possibilities of moving beyond some of these arguments,” Obama said. [...]
“I think that, you know, when you look at somebody like a Rev. Wright who grew up in the ’50s or ’60s, his experience of race in this country is very different than mine,” Obama told Ifill. “Now, we benefit from that past. We benefit from the difficult battles that were taking place. But I’m not sure that we benefit from continuing to perpetuate the anger and the bitterness that I think, at this point, serves to divide rather than bring us together. And that’s part of what this campaign has been about, is to say, ‘Let’s acknowledge a difficult history, but let’s move forward in a practical way to get things done.’”
Super....!
Posted by Darleen at March 18, 2008 06:48 AM
Comments
meanwhile, your Presidential candidate (by default) thinks that Iran is training al Qaeda. Care to comment on that?
Posted by: Brad at March 18, 2008 10:32 AM
Poor attempt at distraction, Brad. McCain corrected himself immediately.
Meanwhile, back on topic here, we have this after the BHO homily, which is priceless:
http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/03/barack_i_didnt_do_it_for_this.php
Posted by: HughS at March 18, 2008 05:42 PM
Hugh,
McCain corrected himself only after Lieberman whispered in his ear. Are you senile too?
Posted by: brad at March 18, 2008 06:19 PM
brad
The point has sailed over your head...McCain corrected his error IMMEDIATELY. But, back on topic, BHO served up today a modified limited hangout ...after whom and how many whispered in his ear? After dissembling for how many days?
The juxtaposition of his weekend comments and today's speech will be the fodder of any opponent campaign ad.
Posted by: HughS at March 18, 2008 07:03 PM
Hugh,
McCain's real error is his support of Bush and the failed Iraq occupation. If you plan to vote for 4 more years of war, then I pity you and hope you don't have a son or daughter of draft age.
Obama "dissembling"? exactly how? he only delivered one of his greatest speeches today.
Go ahead and mock--that's all you Right Wingers have anymore, after 7 years of disaster.
Posted by: brad at March 18, 2008 08:37 PM
It certainly was a great speech, by all accounts. It clarified nothing, but then, it wasn't designed to do that, now was it?
There will be no draft, Brad, but if there is, I'll volunteer. I'm 47, and not in the greatest shape, but I'll go if others have to go unwillingly.
Having a semi-functional democracy to act as a beacon to all of the autocracies in the Middle East is a strange sort of disaster. Defeating al-Qaeda and demonstrating that Allah is not going to provide a miracle, thereby defeating the Salafist ideology fueling Islamist expansionism sure looks like a loser as well.
Posted by: Chris at March 19, 2008 11:45 AM
Hey there HughS, waiting until someone points out your error isn't "immediately". He's also made this mistake before. Guy has a poor grasp of the facts.
Posted by: Josh at March 19, 2008 01:30 PM
"Obama "dissembling"? exactly how? he only delivered one of his greatest speeches today."
Last weekend Obama said he wasn't in the pews when Wright made his incendiary remarks. Yesterday he said was there when some of these remarks were made. Maybe you're correct, though. Dissembling is perhaps a euphemism in this instance.
Posted by: HughS at March 19, 2008 03:10 PM
"Hey there HughS, waiting until someone points out your error isn't "immediately". He's also made this mistake before. Guy has a poor grasp of the facts."
Hey there Josh. So what are you saying? Are you implying motive? That McCain knew what he said was incorrect when he said it and waited to see if it would go unchallenged? Or that he didn't know that what he said was incorrect and corrected the statement when so informed?
McCain's statement was incorrect. He was told that it was incorrect. Then he corrected it....apparently on the same day, at the same press conference. Hence my use of the term "immediately".
Posted by: HughS at March 19, 2008 03:23 PM
Nope, I'm suggesting that McCain has such a poor grasp of the facts that he makes an elementary error and doesn't correct it until his buddy reminds him that he made a mistake. Of course he remembers, if prompted, that he's got it all wrong. It's not like this is some esoteric and trivial detail that he forgot. This is a fundamental issue vis a vis Iraq and Iran.
Posted by: Josh at March 19, 2008 08:46 PM
I'm glad you've never conflated things while being questioned about them, Josh. I'm sure you keep absolute tabs on everything you've just said to make sure it was what you intended to say. There must be rainbows in your world.
Posted by: Chris at March 20, 2008 05:43 AM
I'm not running for President on a claim of being Mr. National Security Expert, Chris. Someone who is should have the basic facts well at hand. Johnny Straight Talk clearly doesn't. Not a good sign.
Posted by: Josh at March 20, 2008 07:48 AM
It's also not the only time McCain claimed that al Qaeda wa sbeing trained in Iran. He said it in a Hugh Hewitt interview also.
Of course, it's only a matter fo time before the neocons who are advising McCain start their disinformation campaign claiming that Iran is, in fact, training al Qaeda, as a justification for bombing.
Posted by: Brad at March 20, 2008 10:12 AM