Submitted by Ron Counsell (not verified) on March 19, 2008 - 6:34am.
I'll listen to Obama's speech as soon as I am able, but I haven't heard it yet. I've been thinking about the Jeremiah Wright flap, though.
The business of making people into pariahs on the basis of out-of-context sound bites has gone to ridiculous extremes, and is beyond reason. See Bill Shaheen, Geraldine Ferraro, and Samantha Power.
Do you, gentle readers, think this is rough-and-tumble politics? Do you think this is tough stuff? Do you think these incidents are SERIOUS? Compared to the severe challenges awaiting our next President, these are sunny days in the sandbox, ladies and gentlemen. My advice to America is, grow up. I don't want my next President to be firing the Secretary of Defense because she hurt someone's feelings.
The media frenzy surrounding Jeremiah Wright might be the most difficult test so far faced by any of the three remaining contenders. If Obama deserves to be taken seriously as a candidate to lead not only this nation, not only the so-called free world, but the world, through the shark-infested waters of the next eight years, he needs to make this incident seem like a minor bump in the road. I want my next president to be able to not only get through something like this, to survive it, but to use it constructively. Obama might be doing this, if I read Marc correctly. If he can turn this into the quintessential teaching moment, all I can say is God Bless and God Speed.
One good thing to come from this incident might be that Obama shows himself to have faced a difficult test, and passed it. Another good thing would be that teaching moment that Marc wrote about. Far as I can tell, some of Wright's words have come to some of my fellow Americans as something of a shock. I understand that people from Iowa, New Hampshire, and Montana might not have expected this. I even understand that many of my fellow Baltimoreans might be surprised. So, let's deal with it. As Carlo said about Marc's essay, Amen.
Minor detail about Montana - two United States Senators are UCC congregants. One is Barack Obama. Max Baucus is the other. They might attend the same church when they're in Washington. They might share a pew. I don't know if that's true, but I'd like it to be.
Finishing up about Jeremiah Wright: I don't know him, never met him, never attended his church or heard him give a sermon. The same is true of 99.44% of his detractors. I know that Wright served in the U.S. Marine Corps and the Navy when I was in college and grad school, he is more educated than I am, and far as I can tell, he has done more good in the world than I have.
And I know this: no one or three or ten out-of-context sound bites can hope to fairly sum up this man. I hate the idea that people rush to condemn him without knowing more facts than they do.
I hope against reason that, this year, my fellow American voters will prove themselves to be better human beings than they indicated in 2000 and 2004. Beginning now.
I'll listen to Obama's
I'll listen to Obama's speech as soon as I am able, but I haven't heard it yet. I've been thinking about the Jeremiah Wright flap, though.
The business of making people into pariahs on the basis of out-of-context sound bites has gone to ridiculous extremes, and is beyond reason. See Bill Shaheen, Geraldine Ferraro, and Samantha Power.
Do you, gentle readers, think this is rough-and-tumble politics? Do you think this is tough stuff? Do you think these incidents are SERIOUS? Compared to the severe challenges awaiting our next President, these are sunny days in the sandbox, ladies and gentlemen. My advice to America is, grow up. I don't want my next President to be firing the Secretary of Defense because she hurt someone's feelings.
The media frenzy surrounding Jeremiah Wright might be the most difficult test so far faced by any of the three remaining contenders. If Obama deserves to be taken seriously as a candidate to lead not only this nation, not only the so-called free world, but the world, through the shark-infested waters of the next eight years, he needs to make this incident seem like a minor bump in the road. I want my next president to be able to not only get through something like this, to survive it, but to use it constructively. Obama might be doing this, if I read Marc correctly. If he can turn this into the quintessential teaching moment, all I can say is God Bless and God Speed.
One good thing to come from this incident might be that Obama shows himself to have faced a difficult test, and passed it. Another good thing would be that teaching moment that Marc wrote about. Far as I can tell, some of Wright's words have come to some of my fellow Americans as something of a shock. I understand that people from Iowa, New Hampshire, and Montana might not have expected this. I even understand that many of my fellow Baltimoreans might be surprised. So, let's deal with it. As Carlo said about Marc's essay, Amen.
Minor detail about Montana - two United States Senators are UCC congregants. One is Barack Obama. Max Baucus is the other. They might attend the same church when they're in Washington. They might share a pew. I don't know if that's true, but I'd like it to be.
Finishing up about Jeremiah Wright: I don't know him, never met him, never attended his church or heard him give a sermon. The same is true of 99.44% of his detractors. I know that Wright served in the U.S. Marine Corps and the Navy when I was in college and grad school, he is more educated than I am, and far as I can tell, he has done more good in the world than I have.
And I know this: no one or three or ten out-of-context sound bites can hope to fairly sum up this man. I hate the idea that people rush to condemn him without knowing more facts than they do.
I hope against reason that, this year, my fellow American voters will prove themselves to be better human beings than they indicated in 2000 and 2004. Beginning now.