Andrew Malcolm of The Los Angeles Times Top of the Ticket blog suggested that Bill Maher on HBO "says what many people, most of them supporters of Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who refused to disown Wright in his recent race speech, are saying to themselves about the impact of the pastor's reappearance and resulting news coverage," but have "many" been this vivid?
I saw Reverend Wright. This is the guy that Obama did not throw under the bus. He said ‘you know what, I can no more repudiate him than I can repudiate my family.’ And I saw this guy the other night, who I also defended, Reverend Wright, saying ‘you know what, Obama was just being a politician.’ You know what, Reverend Wright? You’re a dick. [Laughter] What a dick. At the very moment Obama doesn’t need this to come back into the race. Obama did not disown him. That this guy brings up the one thing Obama cannot afford to have brought up, that he’s just another politician. This is his whole campaign, that I’m a different kind of politician.
That probably sounds like the view of "many people" in the news rooms of the national media. I’d say the real shock is that Bill Maher ever defended a Reverend, someone Maher would 99 times out of 100 scorn as a peddler of toxic fairy tales.
Arianna Huffington stayed stubbornly on Maher's left: "However bad Reverend Wright is or is not, what does it have to do ultimately with whether Barack Obama would be a good president or not?" She called it "another major distraction."
Apparently, Wright hasn't said anything that offends her yet. He's made fun of the way the Kennedys speak English, but he has yet to extend his comedy stylings to an Arianna impression.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Arianna Huffington is
April 30, 2008 - 06:30 ET by motherbeltwhat does it have to do ultimately with whether Barack Obama would be a good president or not?"
Arianna Huffington is failing to take into consideration that Obama doesn't really have anything going for him that says he would be a good President. Maher hit the nail on the head: is whole campaign is that he brings a "new kind of politics."
It didn't take him long to get from I can no more denounce him (even though he says terrible things) to gee, I never thought he would get this bad! To say that "He's not the man I met 20 years ago" begs the question: Was Obama in a trance while this evolution was taking place?
Obama has always been an empty promise of nothing.
April 30, 2008 - 06:27 ET by CTThe pseudo Republicans (Morning Joe) and all the usual suspects are all ready to rally round the emptiness that is Obama. Reverend who?
Carbon Credits Smoke'em if you got'em!
I ask again and again and again....
April 30, 2008 - 06:40 ET by theduck6When did a failed nutcase of a sports reporter and a comedian who can't get hired to do actual comedy ( Olberman and Maher) become policy wonks and the voice of the masses?
Once we've exhausted this let's talk about the convicted felons who are directly connected with the Obama campaign or the former unrepentant Weather Undergroung domestic terrorists who are in his inner circle or the OTHER racist reverends who've shaped his thinking or the quotes from his previous writings that paint him as a "died in the wool" Marxist and a socialist.
Then, of course, There's Michelle...YIKES!!!
DUCT TAPE ALERT!!!!
April 30, 2008 - 07:10 ET by motherbeltJust now on "Morning Joe" they were talking about how calm Obama was yesterday, and yet the "Daily Mail" had the huge word "FURY" on the front page, with a different photo of Obama from a different speech, pointing his finger and looking very angry.
Joe and Mika are pretty much saying, not that he didn't get angry enough yesterday, but that the Mail is trying to make him look like an "angry black man"and that the Republicans will use this as an "excuse" to attack him. It doesn't occur to them that maybe they are trying to compliment Obama by implying that he was furious at his pastor and wouldn't tolerate that kind of behavior. No, it has to be that they were trying to portray him in a bad light, and Republicans would seize on it.
Correction: the paper was the NY Daily News, not the Dail Mail.
I can't find a front page image online, but here's the webpage with the story. Notice the angry, lecturing picture in the "Obama Expresses Outrage" story, contrasted with the still shot on the right, which is actually from yesterday's speech.
PS. At 7:05 Joe Scarborough just pronounced the story "Over."
I guessed last night it would happen on Joe's show today, but I thought Chris Matthews would do it.
I watched Morning Joe too
April 30, 2008 - 07:19 ET by taterI watched Morning Joe too and it looks like Joe took Obama's statements hook, line, and sinker. I figured it would be Matthews too that would deem the story "over". We all know when a politician says something then it must be true *cough* Bill Clinton.
In my best Lee Corso voice..."not so fast my friend"...the way Rev. Wrong has been spouting off statements this story is far from over.
"They need to have a course in college called common sense and everyone should take it. Problem is there isn't too many people that could pass or teach it." -my grandfather
Rev. Wright made a good point
April 30, 2008 - 07:14 ET by ChrisMillsObama is your typical everyday slick politician. It's pretty clear that he was nodding along to at least some of Wright's most rediculous rants after 20 years of attendance. The two speeches Obama's given have been dishonest smoke-and-mirrors productions.
Michelle Malkin has it right
April 30, 2008 - 07:25 ET by motherbeltMichelle Malkin has it right in her Townhall column today; she rips apart Obama's excuses of not really knowing Wright as "Welcome to the Jive Talk Express."
The money graf (emphasis added):
A reader of mine who is a clergyman e-mailed after Obama's press conference: "As a pastor, I have this take: It is inconceivable that Obama had no knowledge of Wright's views after 20 years as a member of that church. As a pastor, my heart-held, deepest beliefs and passions cannot be silenced. It is what I am. If I were given a microphone at the National Press Club, I would not speak on something that I had guardedly kept secret for most of my life. No, I would go to my main point, the center of my ministry, the core of my passion, to speak truth as I know it to be. How can Obama actually claim that this is news from his pastor? His mailman, butcher or plumber? No problem. His pastor? No way.
you know motherbelt
April 30, 2008 - 10:57 ET by candanceWhen I watched his speech on Monday, I just kept thinking how he didn't sound like a minister one iota. If my pastor was given a microphone to speak on live TV he wouldn't be going on about atrocities that happened 200 years ago - he'd be preaching the gospel as loud as he could!
Wright uses the title of minister as a tool to get people to take him seriously just so he can talk about what's really on his heart, and his true desire is to sell racism to uhappy minorities. How many times has he been on national TV, and how many times has he used those chances to mention salvation to the masses?
Now compare that to folks like Franklin Graham or Mother Theresa.
Want to know how nations get swept up into things like Nazism or the Inquisition? It starts with ministers like Wright twisting the Bible.
It's obvious that Barak
April 30, 2008 - 07:57 ET by Seabeach4348It's obvious that Barak Hussein thought he was slick enough to pull this off this denial game regarding Rev. Wrong. Obama is a very good speaker, very articulate, and very diplomatic at times. But, off the cuff, minus the cue card, he's mediocre at best.
Yes, Barak, character does matter, who you "hang around with" matters, and who you claim to be your mentor matters, too.
Personally, I think the guy's finished. Good for America.
Break the whole dem party
April 30, 2008 - 09:46 ET by ChrisMillsI agree that his chances of being elected are over, but Obama is going to do more good for America than just that. I'm sure that undecided super-delegates have just gone to Clinton because they realized the same thing about Obama. But he will still lead in pledged delegates by the convention. That means a fractured convention, nominee disputes, racially-motivated anger at Hillary and the supporters who stole the nomination from Obama. Not only will they lose the pres'cy, but the superdelegates will take a spanking from their own partisan voters at the poll for daring to steal the nomination and the Replublicans will take back the House and Senate.
Hope for this scenario was a pipe dream before, but every day we inch closer to the spectacular chaos that may break their whole party...
Obama Should Have Kept Granny
April 30, 2008 - 10:21 ET by PamObama Should Have Kept Granny and thrown the Rev under that bus. It looks like Granny is the only one that hasn't been a pain to his campaign staffers or Obama himself!
This is simply the best
April 30, 2008 - 07:58 ET by KillgraveThis is simply the best political theater this country has ever seen. The liberal ideology is imploding and eating itself from within. It's truly a beautiful thing to see these factions, who owe their existence purely from the human tendency to agitate, complain, and whine, to turn on each other.
I love how eager these idiots are to throw Wright under the bus. Clearly, it's not because they disagree with his ideology (actually, they very much subscribe to it). No. It's because Wright refuses to be a liar and hide his beliefs for the sake of subterfuge. He stands defiant to the smoke and mirrors.
As I think about it more, I'm beginning to really respect Wright. I disagree with him 99%. But he's standing up to the cowards and liars who are desperate to muzzle him. Apparently, a man with integrity doesn't fit in with the liberal status quo.
So, Wright is a d---(er,
April 30, 2008 - 10:30 ET by mattmSo, Wright is a d---(er, ah, a Maher) because he's undermining Osama, but not because he's a demagogue who uses fear and hate to enrich himself?
I can't help thinking that if Wright wasn't a reverend Maher would be calling O-bomb-a a d--- (er, ah, a Maher) for attempting to distance himself from Wright.
Talk about being a d---!
Understandably frustrated
April 30, 2008 - 11:34 ET by NewHavenObama's original race speech honestly resonated with me. Particularly
its emphasis that you can love and learn from people who sometimes
believe outrageous things. Goodness knows that I have many friends and
relatives that have some outlandish beliefs and some
downright ignorant opinions. There have been times when I've wondered whether I should cut a particular person out of my life and later was glad I did not. And I even
understand why Obama is now upset at the pastor who outed him as a
politician. I think Obama still believes that he may do things
differently. But, the political system is such that you will never
succeed if you don't play the game. This doesn't mean that you
necessarily have to be Karl Rove, but you do have to be a politician.
To believe otherwise is naive. I do think this issue will ultimately
bring him down. Hillary, if nothing else, embraces the politics.
You mention Karl Rove as if
April 30, 2008 - 12:57 ET by mattmYou mention Karl Rove as if he's a bad guy. He was painted as evil by the Lib media because they hate him for outsmarting them. (Besides, he wasn't the candidate)
All the hate is coming from the Left. Reverend Wright is a perfect example of it. Obama has made some reasonable statements about race relations, etc. but it's just empty rhetoric.
Until prominent Blacks like Wright and Obama admit that not all of the problems Blacks face in America are the fault of Whitey, there will never be any real solutions.
bill maher is not
April 30, 2008 - 13:34 ET by seaniepbill maher is not funny
it is not that he is offensive, he just really isn't that funny