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Will Wright Do Obama Wrong?

Started by K Schwartz; Last updated Mar 25, 08 10:59 AM CDT by D Lim | View history

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Will Wright Do Obama Wrong?

In a now-famous speech, Obama denounced the divisive statements of his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, saying they "denigrate the goodness and the greatness of our nation," but he said he could "no more disown him" than he could his own white grandmother, who sometimes succumbed to racial stereotypes. Though even Mike Huckabee has urged everyone to lay off Obama and photos have emerged of Bill Clinton welcoming Wright to the White House, some GOP strategists Wright is the perfect vehicle to drive the Democrat through the mud in the general election.

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April 2008
- Clinton Backer Behind Wright Speech
  
  newser | New York Daily News | Apr 29, 08 8:42 AM CDT
  
  Hillary Clinton can't be sorry to have Jeremiah Wright back in the news. So it’s interesting that the pastor’s defiant speech and press conference yesterday was scheduled and organized by Barbara Reynolds, an ordained minister, ex- USA Today editor, and ardent Clinton supporter. Reynolds wrote on her blog that by voting for Clinton she was “saying thank you” for her husband's administration. More »
- Wright's Reappearance Is Good News for Obama
  
  newser | Slate | Apr 28, 08 7:27 PM CDT
  
  Jeremiah Wright’s return to the limelight looks bad for Barack Obama at first blush, but in fact it may be helping the hopeful: Wright is distancing himself from Obama (and mocking his role as a “spiritual advisor”) as he redirects attention to the black church, Christopher Beam writes on Slate. More »
- Wright Blasts 'Attacks on Black Church'
  
  newser | Associated Press | Apr 28, 08 9:36 AM CDT
  
  Jeremiah Wright gave an impassioned speech this morning, calling the controversy around his theology and statements "an attack on the black church, not an attack on Jeremiah Wright." He said the press "made a fool out of itself" over black church traditions, which he called "different," not "divisive." The Navy vet dismissed charges he's not patriotic, saying, “I served six years in the military, does that make me patriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?” More »
- Wright Lashes Out at Media
  
  newser | Detroit News | Apr 28, 08 6:40 AM CDT
  
  The controversial pastor who triggered trouble for Barack Obama delivered a fiery, unapologetic speech to a sold-out NAACP crowd in Detroit yesterday, blasting "corporate media" for painting him as un-American . "I am not running for the Oval Office," said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "I have been running for Jesus, and I'm not tired yet." Just hours earlier Wright reemerged as a campaign issue in comments by both Obama and McCain. More »
- Wright Received Death Threats
  
  newser | Guardian (UK) | Apr 27, 08 9:39 AM CDT
  
  Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose controversial rants scuttled Barack Obama's "post-racial" campaign, reemerged in the headlines yesterday just ahead of the Dems' primary showdown on May 6. Asked by PBS' Bill Moyers if he’d received death threats, Wright says: “Yes, and bomb threats at the church. People (are) telling us how they are going to wipe us off the face of the Earth in the name of Jesus.” More »
- Rev. Wright Slams 'Devious' Media Coverage
  
  newser | Chicago Tribune | Apr 24, 08 7:09 PM CDT
  
  The Rev. Jeremiah Wright says the media made him out as "some sort of fanatic" by repeating snippets from sermons out of context—part of a "devious" agenda to denigrate the campaign of Barack Obama, the Chicago Tribune reports. In an interview with Bill Moyers to air on PBS tomorrow, Wright says those who heard his sermons in full understood their message. More »
- McCain Wants GOP to Pull Wright-Referencing Ad in NC
  
  newser | Politico | Apr 23, 08 4:15 PM CDT
  
  John McCain has demanded North Carolina Republicans drop an ad attacking two Democratic candidates for governor—by tarnishing them with connections to Barack Obama and his controversial pastor. Wrote McCain, “In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement.” The spot airs Wright’s “God damn America” sermon, and then says Obama & Co. are “too extreme” for North Carolina. More »
- Obama Doesn't Shy From Hard Truths: Sister
  
  newser | Daily Telegraph (UK) | Apr 7, 08 9:58 AM CDT
  
  Barack Obama's diverse family has remained silent since the flare-up over his former pastor's sermons. But in her first public comments since Obama's speech on race in America, half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng told the Telegraph their "typical white" grandmother, whose opinions on blacks sometimes made the candidate "cringe," was "entirely supportive" of Obama and his descriptions. More »
- Wright Takes Cross Over Racial Divide
  
  newser | New Yorker | Apr 6, 08 8:39 PM CDT
  
  Barack Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright built his Chicago church on black liberation theology, which directs Christianity at African Americans, Kelefa Sanneh writes in the New Yorker . The movement’s founder aimed to “emancipate the gospel from its ‘whiteness,’” but also from Frederick Douglass’ belief that antebellum America had profoundly perverted Christianity. More »
- Obama, Wright Echo Early, Late MLK
  
  newser | Los Angeles Times | Apr 4, 08 2:08 PM CDT
  
  Barack Obama can easily be compared to the early Martin Luther King and his hopeful message of change prior to 1965, writes Michael Eric Dyson in the Los Angeles Times . But it's Jeremiah Wright who most resembles King after that—when his message grew "angrier" and increasingly skeptical of white America and its capacity for change. More »
- Obama Girl's Town Is Hot for Hillary
  
  newser | McClatchy Newspapers | Apr 2, 08 1:28 PM CDT
  
  Turns out that Obama Girl, aka Amber Lee Ettinger, hails from Hazleton, Pa., which is right in the heart of Clinton country. To get a sense of how her candidate’s message is getting through, McClatchy visited Ettinger’s family and neighbors in this former coal town near Scranton, Hillary’s family home. Turns out the town definitely does not share her crush on Obama. More »
March 2008
- Obama Takes Image Rehab to The View
  
  newser | CNN | Mar 28, 08 1:02 PM CDT
  
  Barack Obama "wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church" had Jeremiah Wright not retired this year, he said today on The View. Obama reiterated his denunciation of his ex-pastor’s sermons, saying Wright had “deeply offended people,” CNN reports. He also told Barbara Walters & Co. that he’d spoken with Wright since the scandal erupted, and the preacher is “saddened by what’s happened.” More »
- Clinton Slips to New Low in Poll
  
  newser | MSNBC | Mar 27, 08 6:51 AM CDT
  
  Hillary Clinton is suffering some of the worst poll numbers of her political career, according to an NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll. Clinton chalked up a personal approval rating of just 37%, the lowest since March 2001, two months after her election to the Senate. And of Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain, the poll ranked Hillary the least capable of uniting the nation. More »
- Obama Pastor Cancels Speeches
  
  newser | Houston Chronicle | Mar 26, 08 8:05 AM CDT
  
  Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, has canceled scheduled appearances this week, citing security concerns. Wright was due to lead a Tampa, Fla., church's three-day revival beginning yesterday, and visit several Houston-area churches Sunday. "As much as I hate for him not to come I think it's probably prudent" to cancel, said one Texas pastor, adding that there had been threats on his life. More »
- Wright 'Would Not Have Been My Pastor': Clinton
  
  newser | Washington Post | Mar 25, 08 6:30 PM CDT
  
  After a week’s silence, Hillary Clinton spoke today on the Jeremiah Wright flap, saying the ex-minister at Barack Obama's church “would not have been my pastor,” the Washington Post reports. She said “getting up and moving” would have been the right choice for Obama. “You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend,” Clinton added. More »
- Obama Erases Clinton's Lead With Speech
  
  newser | Baltimore Sun | Mar 25, 08 9:01 AM CDT
  
  A new Gallup poll puts the two Democratic presidential candidates on even footing nationally, with Barack Obama holding a statistically negligible 1-point lead over Hillary Clinton. The poll, conducted after Obama's widely praised speech on race, suggests that the Illinois senator has erased the damage done by the Jeremiah Wright controversy, writes the Baltimore Sun . More »
- They're Just Not That Into You
  
  newser | Guardian (UK) | Mar 24, 08 8:52 PM CDT
  
  The Clinton-Obama slugfest resembles the “drawn-out and painful break-up of a relationship,' Michael Tomasky writes in the Guardian —and the sparring couple might be on its last rounds. "Mark down May 7," he suggests. "That's the date by which Clinton should be one of two things: a, the possible nominee after all; or, b, out of the race." More »
- Obama Recalls Sparring With Preacher
  
  newser | Politico | Mar 24, 08 10:41 AM CDT
  
  “This is not a crackpot church,” Barack Obama told a conservative Philadelphia radio host in an interview defending Trinity Church, Politico reports. The Democratic hopeful says that despite Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “very offensive views,” he built “one of the finest churches in Chicago. Witness the fact that Bill Clinton invited him to the White House when he was having his personal crises.” More »
- Voters Split Over Obama's Pastor Problem
  
  newser | Boston Globe | Mar 21, 08 2:12 PM CDT
  
  How is the Jeremiah Wright controversy playing with voters in Pennsylvania and Indiana? The reaction isn't unanimous, but the Boston Globe finds many who say the inflammatory sound bites swayed them toward Hillary Clinton. “Twenty years he put up with that?” said one 82-year old Indiana woman said of Barack Obama. “He was softening me up. He was kind of even with Hillary.” More »
- Bill Clinton Welcomed Wright
  
  newser | Politico | Mar 21, 08 8:06 AM CDT
  
  Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor was twice invited to the Clinton White House with groups of influential clergy, Politico reports, demonstrating that he is not the fringe figure he's been made out to be in the recent flap over his views. A photograph of Jeremiah Wright with Bill Clinton was posted by an anonymous blog supporting his church and has been distributed elsewhere, including the New York Times , courtesy of the Obama campaign. More »

Stories 21 - 40 of 53

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Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks in Beckley, W.Va., at the Raleigh County Convention Center Thursday, March 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Jon C. Hancock)

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., speaks at a town hall meeting at Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center Arena in Beckley, W.V., Thursday, March 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, shown here with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, March 10, 2005. (AP Photo/Trinity United Church of Christ)

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Obama 2008 • Reverend Wright? Right... • Election 2008 • Clinton-Obama Tussle • Clinton 2008 • Race in America • DNC Convention = War • McCain 2008 • A House Divided • Politics & Religion

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