Pastor Creates ‘Guilt by Association’ Problem for Obama
File: Barack Obama with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor emeritus of Obama's congregation, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. (AP Photo)
Surrogates for Barack Obama on Sunday downplayed the significance of Obama’s relationship to a controversial pastor and suggested the discussion is a diverson from bigger issues in the Democrat presidential race.
“The fact of the matter is people would like to move on to other things,” said Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, characterizing remarks by Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright as “outrageous,” but saying they are not relevant to Obama’s candidacy.
“He’s rejected it. He said no– he doesn’t have any association with it. He finds these comments outrageous,” Dodd, an Obama supporter and former presidential candidate, told “FOX News Sunday.” He added that “guilt by association is not typically American.”
But some political analysts say that comments by Wright could pose a major obstacle for Obama because unlike average Americans, politicians suffer from “guilt by association.”
“This is a man who he chose to be associated with. It’s not a family member. He chose to be associated with Reverend Wright and saw advantage in it. And that’s why he exploited it up to a point when he realized, especially when he was announcing, that he couldn’t have Wright by his side for the announcement in Springfield and now seeks to somehow distance himself. But it speaks to his character, and it speaks to the judgment which is the basis on which Barack Obama has been running his campaign. So I think it could be a big problem,” said National Public Radio national correspondent and FOX News contributor Juan Williams.
It also could suggest an insincerity by Obama, said conservative syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer.
“This, I think, is a huge story because it contradicts the whole persona and appeal of Obama as a man who transcends race,” Krauthammer said. “I think it ought to be explored a lot more deeply.”
Out on the campaign trail on Saturday, Obama was dogged by questions about comments made by his spiritual leader of 20 years, whose quotes have been sprayed over the news in the last several days.
At a town-hall meeting in Indiana, Obama said he was not in the pews when Wright said, for example, the U.S. is run by “rich, white people” or that the U.S. created the AIDS virus to kill African Americans. The Illinois senator said he “completely rejects” the preacher’s controversial sermons, including one in which he said the United States was asking for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks because it had supported “state-sponsored terrorism” against black South Africans and Palestinians.
“Although I knew him and know him as somebody in my church that talked to me about Jesus and family and friendships but clearly, if all I knew were those statements I saw on television, I would be shocked,” Obama said.
Obama who is new to disavowing himself from the remarks, told his audience that people should speak up forcefully against comments like Wright’s.
On Sunday, the United Church of Christ defended Wright’s character.
“The Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children, and men in America and around the globe,” wrote Rev. John H. Thomas, the church’s General Minister President in a press release.
Meanwhile, Clinton supporters are refusing to jump on the opportunity to attack Obama for his slow response. “I mean, as you know, I prefer Senator Clinton for a whole lot of reasons, but I don’t cast aspersions on Senator Obama for what somebody else said,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Voters should “accept what Obama has said and move on,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
The Clinton campaign may be following a well-known operating principle of politics, which is when an opponent is shooting himself in the foot, stand back and let him. According to the results of a new, four-day Rasmussen tracking poll out Sunday morning, Obama’s national lead has narrowed to just 3 points over Clinton.
“The Clinton campaign won’t touch this with a 10-foot poll, but they don’t have to. … It will dribble, dribble out for at least a few more days and in this Internet era there’s no limit to what you can” dredge up, said Democratic strategist Susan Estrich.
Estrich said plenty of more information will come up in the weeks leading up to the Pennsylvania and North Carolina primaries.
“I don’t know, this guy didn’t give just two bad sermons, nobody … does the wrong thing just twice,” she said. “We all have to fill space for six weeks, this is how we’ll fill it.”
According to pollster, Scott Rasmussen, the recent controversy and prolonged fight between the Democrats is also turning out to be a gift for presumptive Republican presidential nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain, whose numbers are up. That’s a fear Democrats are hoping won’t be realized as the discussion over race and sex issues distract from their overall message of defeating McCain.
“I think we have to lift ourselves out of all of that. Look, we’re talking about running for president of the United States. We’re talking about the leader of the free world. We’re talking about the hopes, the aspirations of the American people being placed — and not like any other job in the world, placed on this person. And I think people are much more interested on the ideas, the vision, the judgment, the plans that people have. And that’s why people are drawn to both of these candidates,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking on ABC’s “This Week.” Pelosi has not yet stated her preference for the top of the party ticket.
I am tired of this non-story. One can not hold Mr. Obama responsible for his minster’s comments. There are often i disagree with my pastor’s comments and/or opinions. I may stay awy as a matter of protest but I don’t leave the church my children were baptised in and my family also attends.
This is only a story because the media has decided to make it a story, but it has nothing to do with Mr. Obama’s ability to lead this country as our President. I recent news stations that continue to run this story and I switch channels and will continue to do so when this story is repeated and conmmented on. Let’s discuss the cost of gas and the impact on the everyday man and how Obama will respond to those issues or how he will respond to the national debt, poverty in America, national health insurance, but not what his pastor may have said five years ago!
The democrats are really puckering on the wrong end now. Obama is in trouble, just give it a little more time and just wait until he is caught to be at a service when some of these obsenities have been made by the pastor. When that happens it all over!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If obama is nominated I vote for Mc Cain. If hillary is nominated further research will be needed on my part to decide who to vote for. If I had an old Uncle who talked about my country in such a condemning tone and manner I immediately kick his old A##! Obama… you’re not who you think you are.
Rev. Wright mentioned Liberation Theology several times when he was talking to Hannity. I looked up Liberation Theology, and his name, Rev. Wright, was listed as an adherent on a list of world wide followers. It was listed as Christian Socialism and even Marxism in some parts of the world. Does Obama believe in Liberation Theology?
Obama is not just a Black man. His mother is White. Yet everything that is spoken about him is connected with him being Black. He seems proud of both his mother and father. He wasn’t poor. The preacher was wrong. So I suggest to the hateful people to leave Race out of this system. I am sixty years old went to Vietnam and I lived in a time when there were White Churches and Black Churches and they all claimed to be Christian. I lived in a time when Colored schools, Colored restrooms, Colored people. Maybe Obama can remove from the USA people the attitude that you must do life the White man’s way or no way because he will kill you.
Hopefully this day the USA will change.
Lee
Obama’s pastor I read helped name Obama’s book the “Audacity of Hope” audacity, that sounds like Wright …sort of like how dare I ..creating an argumentive challenge before the pages are even opened in the book…Of course Obama knows what his pastor is like..he supposedly has known him 20 years, people do not change overnight. and in truth it was his same church who awarded the anti-semite and racial hatred propogator and radical muslim minister Loiuis Farrakhan a graet human being award…I bet jews would not agree!……….so Farrakhan and Wright speak from the same playbook, and Obama and Michelle have been a part of that for 20 years ..who is kidding who..this pastor is racially inflammatory to say the very least
I could understand the negative comments about Barack Obama, if Rev Wright was a, “Catholic priest molesting little boys.” It would be rediculous to assume that catholic politicians molest children because their priest have in the past.
Electing B. Hussein Obama to the Presidency of the USA would be like letting your sworn enemy perform brain surgery on you. B. Hussein Obama has been groomed to “hate America first” for 20 years by the racist Pastor Wright. What do you think the end result of would be if he were elected President? Good grief.
It is clear why Michelle Obama said the shocking things about the country a few weeks ago. The Obama’s are not good for the USA.
WHERE WAS OBAMA’S GREAT JUDGMENT WHEN HE REMAINED PALS WITH HIS RADICAL PASTOR FOR 20 YEARS?
WE’RE STUCK WITH OUR “REAL” UNCLES, BUT OBAMA STAYED WITH JEREMIAH WRIGHT WHEN HE COULD JUST AS EASILY HAVE SWITCHED CHURCHES. THE MEDIA NEEDS TO COVER THIS STORY LONG ENOUGH FOR ALL TO SEE THE EXPLOSIVE VIDEOS AND JUDGE FOR THEMSELVES.
I think the sermons by J. Wright are going to be a huge problem for Obama. The Pastor of a church is the leader of the congregation. There is no way that any intelligent member of Dr. Wright’s church for 20 years would not know their preacher’s beliefs. My pastor, the late Bishop G. E. Patterson, has influenced my thinking tremendously in 8 years. Why would you be a member of a church if you weren’t open to the teachings of the Pastor? Like Bishop used to tell us, “The Pastor is supposed to be the leader of the church. If you have no followers, you are just a man taking a walk.”