"Even better, it looks like all three campaigns are going to eschew your-pastor-is-a-nutjob arguments, which is refreshing."

Great!! Now, can TAPPED do the same?

Not because of the "pastor is a nutjob" element, and not to be difficult... but I'd bet that response is nowhere near the end of this for Obama, or his campaign.

Oh, yeah, that'll be the end of the Wright affair. I'm laughing so hard I can barely type.

As for the Patrick Ruffini link above, those who want to put country before party might want to follow the suggestions in the comment I left instead.

The pastor himself said in the Times (a year ago or more) that Obama would have to distance himself--Obama didn't do it then, and only does it now. Too bad the damage is already done and this is now added to Michelle's "never been proud" and all the email smears and other stuff that are making Obama out to be unAmerican, etc.

Mr. O should get the nomination. He and his racist America-haters will drive the last whites out of the Dem Party. That'll be the biggest favor he could do for the country that his spouse and cronies hate so much.

The Clinton folks playing with this particular form of fire should look very carefully at the company they're keeping - like the aptly named wrong stuff guy above me. Is that what you actually want to associate yourself with?

Wrong stuff: your sheet is showing.

Since this thread is probably going to be here all weekend, perhaps liberals would care to explain - using logic, reason, those type of things - exactly what's right and wrong about "Wrong Stuff"'s comment.

TLB- Okay

"Mr. O should get the nomination." He' right on that. Obama should get it for a simple reason- more people voted for him.

"He and his racist America-haters" Criticizing America is not the same as hating it. Wright's rhetoric may be over the top, but America does deserve some condemnation for its treatment of blacks. It is perfectly reasonable to hate certain actions America has taken against blacks (and many others). But doing so does not imply a hatred for America.

"will drive the last whites out of the Dem Party." Rather than driving anyone out of the party, Obama has brought quite a lot of people into the party, and most of them are white. Let's face it, there are only a few pockets left in the country where the racists are still Democrats. But they vote Republican for president anyway. Maybe those last remaining racists will leave the democratic party, to which I say: "Good riddance."

"That'll be the biggest favor he could do for the country" Well, it's not happening anyway, but I'd hardly consider redrawing party affiliation along racial lines a good thing for the country.

"that his spouse and cronies hate so much." This America hating bullshit is really tiresome. Especially when the right wingers can't even write three sentences without saying it twice. Look, if we liberals really hated America, we'd vote republican to help destroy it. But we don't do that, do we? Remember, we live here too, and we want the best for the country.

There's no way that the Wright flap is over. That's dreaming--or wishful thinking on the part of the pro-Obama blogosphere. Funny how these usually fairly incisive people can't spot a political bombshell when they don't want to.

Obama has already denounced the most inflammatory comments and Wright has already resigned from his campaign, and is retiring from the pulpit. What's the story tomorrow, Obama haters? "Hey Obama, do you still denounce Wright's comments?". Keep trying though. Maybe you'll even succeed in getting your geriatic warmonger elected president. Doubt it, though.

You're missing the point, and I don't hate Obama. In fact, I think this whole thing is regrettable, and think Rev. Wright is probably a pretty good guy.

Just sayin'

John Petty: my comment was specifically directed at you, more the trolls upthread who have been driven to insane frustration by Obama's success to date. I realize this is damaging, but I think Obama's response has been good and I don't think it kills him longterm.

A little tetchy on this subject, Marc? You’re a fine one to talk about "sheets" since the Dems were the party par excellence of white racism for 150 years or so (Civil War, Jim Crowe, KKK, Japanese Internment Camps, etc.). At least they wised up—finally—in the 1960s. But now they seem happy to become the party of black and brown racism.

Oops, I’ve forgotten that it’s absolutely impossible for people of color to be racists, at least according to PC ideology.

Btw, lots of Americans including me make serious criticisms of the US but—unlike Rev. Wrong—we don't resort to patently false conspiracy theories or racist lies to do so (which white guys in the government was it who invented HIV to keep the black man down?). I voted for Gore and Kerry, but I'm not going to vote for Mr. O or HRC. I oppose the Iraq War but will "hold my nose" and vote for McCain. He'll be forced to end the war anyway because it's busting the federal budget. And the crazy, bigoted clergy who endorse McCain haven’t had him sitting in their pews for 20 years.

Rev. Wrong has the wright to say whatever he wants. Just as the voters, white and otherwise, have the right to evaluate what he says and judge Mr. O by the company he keeps--and by choices he makes in finding religious "education" for his daughters.

If you oppose the Iraq war and plan to vote for McCain you're a fool, plain and simple. But somone who thinks that Obama and his family are "racist America haters" never had any intention of voting for a Democrat. Anyone who talks crap about the Democrats being the party of racism - ignoring that the Democratic southern racists, like Thurmond and Helms, became Republicans - isn't interested in honest dialog. You know, and I know, that the GOP got the Southern white vote on the strength of racist appeals. Anyone who uses that line didn't vote for any Democrat, any time. I know GOP gibberish when I hear it, right down to the whining about the poor oppressed white man and the burden of PC.

You, and not I, think it would be grand to have parties divided on racial grounds.
I think you're a Republican, that you're using a lot of racially charged language, and that you never had any intention of voting for a black man. Let me know when decent people reform your corrupt, immoral, and torture-loving party. Because the USA really does need a decent opposition party.

Not that I’m bragging, but I did indeed vote for Gore and Kerry and Clinton and Dukakis too (mea culpa). Still a registered Democrat too (Chicago’s 46th Ward). I like and respect Obama to the extent that he's a cerebral U of C egghead and community organizer do-gooder. I know and love both types. But most U of C eggheads (and even community organizers) are smart enough not to send their children to racist indoctrination Sunday school—especially if they intend to run for the presidency. Again, which white guys in our government created HIV? Please have the good pastor provide some evidence for this claim or advise him to stop his dishonest and demagogic practice of the hermeneutics of suspicion.

I'm not playing any white victim card—but then I don't want Rev. Wrong and other radicals to play their victim cards in an unfair way (cf. inter alia HIV claim, lifetime achievement award for Lou Farrakhan). Sure, there's plenty of racism in the GOP and the wider society today. But when do Dems ever acknowledge the rotten mess they made of 150 years of American history due to the pervasive racism in the party’s Southern wing? (Though I'm from Chicago, and I know the Dem Machine here has been plenty racist too.) The Democrats do deserve credit for jettisoning (most) of their racism against blacks, but why’d it take so damned long? Why the generations of blacks left in segregationist misery? Why provoke a civil war that claimed the lives of 600,000?

Allow me once again to assure you that if McCain gets to the White House, he'll be forced by dire economic circumstances and other factors to wind down US involvement in the Iraq catastrophe created by Bush, and he’ll probably have to do it as quickly as HRC or even Mr. O would. McCain is caught up in his own pro-war rhetoric during the election, but like most politicians, he’ll act differently when circumstances compel him to. In other respects too, McCain is a good bet—at least he doesn't associate with lots of people who seem to want to denounce my infant twins for their skin color (and their exalted place in the white power structure). As long as the Rev. Wrongs and the Democratic Party obsess about identity politics and instrumental victimhood, the US will never even come close to being a color-blind society. In fact, that ideal—inspired by the likes of MLK—is exactly what the left fears: How would their party keep 90% or more of the black vote?

He and his racist America-haters will drive the last whites out of the Dem Party.

Or, at least, that's what you really, really hope, and because of that, you like to think it sounds like a prediction.

Surely Obama cannot make a valid claim that he deserves the votes of the superdelegates based on the popular vote while asking independents and Repubs to become Democrats for the day. Will Republicans who vote for Obama in the primary vote for him in the General Election? Obama is distorting the very purpose of Democratic primary--which is intended to reflect the popular vote of DEMOCRATS.

"convincing" to Sam Boyd and anyone else in the tank for Obama. Obama has had that statement of something similar ready to go since at least February 2007. His campaign knew that Wright's views were "anti-white" when it disinvited him from giving the invocation at the launch of Obama's presidential campaign.
This slight rebuke lead to criticism of Obama in the AA religious community so he took no further steps. Now that Obama has sewn up the AA vote he releases his 'I never heard him but denounce him' statement. How brave.

Obama is distorting the very purpose of Democratic primary--which is intended to reflect the popular vote of DEMOCRATS.

I thought the purpose of the Democratic primary was to select a candidate who could win in November. If it was just a popular vote of Democrats, then why all the open primaries?

Of course Michelle is a Marxist harpy. She's a Harvard Law grad, isn't she?