ABC has served warning: use the Rev. Wright against Barack Obama at your peril. Be prepared to be accused of "raising the race issue" to hit "below the belt."
ABC's David Wright, a certified Obama fan/Hillary critic based on this past performance, issued his edict on today's Good Morning America.
Riffing off Hillary having compared herself to Rocky Balboa running all the way up those steps in the first movie, Wright first fairly pointed out the irony of the analogy: Rocky wound up losing the fight. Pushing the boxing metaphor, Wright then landed his haymaker:
DAVID WRIGHT: In its approach to superdelegates, the Clinton campaign may be close to hitting below the belt. Clinton's top delegate hunter Harold Ickes told an interviewer he's raising the race issue with superdelegates, arguing that Obama's controversial former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, makes him unelectable.
View video here.
Now, Ickes may be few people's idea of Mr. Nice Guy. But contrary to Wright's claim, the Clinton surrogate surely never said he's "raising the race issue." That's pure editorializing by Wright.
And is it really Wright's role to suggest that mentioning the Rev. Wright is "hitting below the belt"? Has ABC now established the rule, henceforth and forever through the general election campaign, that it's off limits to point out that Obama chose as his personal "spiritual guide" a man who, among other things, called on God to damn America? Is referring to Wright raising "the race issue" or is it more aptly calling into question the judgment of a man who would remain for 20 years in such a pastor's pews?
Bonus Coverage: Robin Digs the YouTube Kid's Obama Endorsement
At the end of the campaign segment, GMA played a YouTube clip of a very young child [couldn't be more than two] yelling at the dinner table "I love Obama!"
Remarked co-anchor Robin Roberts: "out of the mouths of babes." Seems harmless enough, but consider that the Biblically-based phrase has come to be defined as an exclamation used when a child says something of surprising wisdom from which adults might learn. Sure begins to sound like Roberts' seconding of the toddler's sentiment.
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.





















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Hold on there GMA, you're rewriting History
April 2, 2008 - 09:22 ET by JayTeeI think it was the Rev. GD Wright preachin Race baiting from his pulpit that raises the "Race" Issue, followed by Obama and his Average white Grandmother, followed by Obama and wife making over $ 1,000,000 in personal income last year, and the year before, and leaving the poor white folks wondering why Michelle and hubby are running around the Country complaining about living in America.
Maybe the Church Obama goes to believes in the Rev. GD Wright and his take on AIDS, and his Take on living in America, but I don't go to that Church, and neither does the other 300 million Americans . . . Obama has a problem, and his explanation doesn't hold water.
I LOVE the irony
April 2, 2008 - 09:39 ET by pbanks7Let's see....Obama's church is supposed to be off limits, but Romney's controversial church was brought up at every occasion.
Dems race-bating and being accused of racism. This is so much fun!
MSM - shaping all the perceptions you need to believe.
not to mention. . .
April 2, 2008 - 13:18 ET by WingletDriverBob Jones University or Liberty U for Republicans.
Or, more akin to who a candidate chooses for friends and mentors, how about David Duke's freedom of association with the KKK? Freedom of association cuts both ways.
Obama's problem and media's solution
April 2, 2008 - 09:50 ET by FaulknerFanObama has a problem, and his explanation doesn't hold water.
Exactly , which is the reason that the media is trying so desperately to make the subject off limits. They will really start laying it on in the general election. Hopefully McCain won't be taken in by it but he's so goofy in some ways I wouldn't be suprised if he didn't buy into the media's BS himself and refuse to use this.
Obama and his campaign
April 2, 2008 - 10:41 ET by marpelObama and his campaign people have already set the stage to inject race into every criticism that comes along. Unfortunately, part of his campaign surrogates are the MSM. I've posted more than once that the MSM give Obama positive ads all day long, every day of the week with their breathless stories and adoring praise. They should be all taken to the town square and tarred and feathered in public. This is not journalism and it should be against the law.
I don't agree with anything Hillary has to say, and the Bosnia thing was a complete disaster, but I think she has been treated very unfairly by the press.
The MSM will win the candidacy for Obama. It's nothing but a glorified form of affirmative action.
I suppose that means....
April 2, 2008 - 10:46 ET by Prester John...none of the major networks is going to follow-up on the Fox News report on Wright's 1.6 million dollar mansion that is located in a lily white gated community.
Legitimate
April 2, 2008 - 12:27 ET by iveseenitallThe Rev.Wrong story is one of the most legitimate of all the campaign issues. It goes to the heart of what Obama and his socialist/communist philosophy is all about. Only the die hard cultists believe he knew nothing about the Rev's words for over 20 years. Barry and his wife are prime examples of those indoctrinated in schools and churches by the 60's radicals. Listen to the man. His latest "punished with a baby" remark evinces his thought process. The Rev. taught him to hate whites. No wonder he wants to "change" America. He and his wife despise this country. To him, only the blacks have it tough. Justice belongs to the blacks. White people, who had nothing to do with slavery, must pay, pay, pay for it, while the welfare state expands in the ghetto (a lawless, valueless community). Barry, Wright, et.al. stand against all that America was founded upon--principally self-reliance and responsibility (except when it comes to enriching themselves). Whine on, BO and company. The "liberal" MSM loves ya'!
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Framing
April 2, 2008 - 10:57 ET by KC MulvilleIt used to be that the goal was to frame the debate. Now we've descended to pre-framing the criticism. It's pure mind control. They're telling us to never mind what we see ourselves, simply believe what we tell you.
They've taken the Jedi mind trick seriously. Their "Force" has a powerful effect on weak minds ...
Right on, KC
April 2, 2008 - 11:07 ET by iveseenitall"Mind control" is what it's all about. Unfortunately, ignorance is bliss for most people. They let others do their thinking for them. Sad, but true.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
I agree, KC... soon,
April 2, 2008 - 12:38 ET by motherbeltI agree, KC... soon, bringing up Obama's pastor will be called "the politics of personal destruction.
This is "prior restraint" pure and simple.
And what's this about Ickes "raising the race issue"? It's more of an
"America-hating" issue. But that would't play to Obama's advantage, so
it must be re-characterized as race-baiting.
Don't worry fan
April 2, 2008 - 11:53 ET by cvgbuckeyeDon't worry faulknerfan. McCain will have no say in the matter. This is up to the private political efforts. Believe me that the Wright rantings that we have seen on TV are only the tip of the old iceburg and 50 times that much has already been uncovered.
All that good stuff is currently being compiled into a reasonable amount of 30 second ads that will be held off until the dear boy is coronated the dem nominee then old katie better bar the door.
If it were all released now, the msm would have far to much time to demean it all and do their thing to lie, debunk, scream racism and all that jazz. It will all come out in due time and at the right time and it will be truthful and just.
It will be an explosion that puts Hiroshima and Nagasaki to shame.
Hope it but doubt it
April 2, 2008 - 19:28 ET by FaulknerFanI hope you're right buckeye. Something has got to be done to save all of us from one of the greatest disasters ever to happen to this country: an Obama presidency. Can you imagine "Rev" Wright as Secretary of State?