Obama Knew Exactly How Radical Wright Was...

And Welcomed It

Stanley Kurtz of the Weekly Standard writes: "To the question of the moment--What did Barack Obama know and when did he know it?--I answer, Obama knew everything, and he's known it for ages. Far from succumbing to surprise and shock after Jeremiah Wright's disastrous performance at the National Press Club, Barack Obama must have long been aware of his pastor's political radicalism. A careful reading of nearly a year's worth of Trumpet Newsmagazine, Wright's glossy national "lifestyle magazine for the socially conscious," makes it next to impossible to conclude otherwise. Wright founded Trumpet Newsmagazine in 1982 as a "church newspaper"--primarily for his own congregation, one gathers--to "preach a message of social justice to those who might not hear it in worship service." So Obama's presence at sermons is not the only measure of his knowledge of Wright's views. Glance through even a single issue of Trumpet, and Wright's radical politics are everywhere--in the pictures, the headlines, the highlighted quotations, and above all in the articles themselves. It seems inconceivable that, in 20 years, Obama would never have picked up a copy of Trumpet. In fact, Obama himself graced the cover at least once (although efforts to obtain that issue from the publisher or Obama's interview with the magazine from his campaign were unsuccessful).   (I WONDER WHY???) Wright's status as a father-figure comes through clearly in the pages of Trumpet. In a Trumpet interview, Jesse Jackson characterizes Wright as "between a huge father, pastor, preacher, [and] prophet." Wright's young minister protégés call him "Daddy J" and "Uncle J," and perhaps this latter name prompted Obama's reference to Wright as "like an uncle." Obama's longing for a father figure surely gave him a great hunger to get to know what Wright was about. In their first meeting, Wright warned Obama that many considered him too politically radical, and it is simply inconceivable that in 20 years' time someone as sharp as Obama did not grasp the intensely political themes repeated in so much of what Wright says and does. Radical politics is no sideline for Wright, but the very core of his theology and practice. There can be no mistaking it. What did Barack Obama know and when did he know it? Everything. Always." To the question of the moment--What did Barack Obama know and when did he know it?--I answer, Obama knew everything, and he's known it for ages. Far from succumbing to surprise and shock after Jeremiah Wright's disastrous performance at the National Press Club, Barack Obama must have long been aware of his pastor's political radicalism. A careful reading of nearly a year's worth of Trumpet Newsmagazine, Wright's glossy national "lifestyle magazine for the socially conscious," makes it next to impossible to conclude otherwise. Wright founded Trumpet Newsmagazine in 1982 as a "church newspaper"--primarily for his own congregation, one gathers--to "preach a message of social justice to those who might not hear it in worship service." So Obama's presence at sermons is not the only measure of his knowledge of Wright's views. Glance through even a single issue of Trumpet, and Wright's radical politics are everywhere--in the pictures, the headlines, the highlighted quotations, and above all in the articles themselves. It seems inconceivable that, in 20 years, Obama would never have picked up a copy of Trumpet. In fact, Obama himself graced the cover at least once (although efforts to obtain that issue from the publisher or Obama's interview with the magazine from his campaign were unsuccessful). Building on his reputation as a charismatic and "socially conscious" preacher (and no doubt also upon the fame conferred by his Obama connection), Wright decided several years ago to take the publication national. In September 2005, Trumpet officially separated from Wright's church and became an independent entity, with Wright as CEO and his two eldest daughters managing the magazine. Then in March 2006, with key financial backing from the TV One network, Trumpet released its first nationally distributed issue. The goal was to turn Trumpet into "a more sophisticated publication that would speak not just to black Christians but to the entire African-American community." In November 2005, Wright's daughter and Trumpet publisher/editor in chief Jeri Wright announced the goal of increasing circulation from 5,000 to 100,000 in 10 months. Thanks to a national publicity blitz, she was able to declare that goal had been met well ahead of schedule. If you've heard about the "Empowerment Award" bestowed upon Louis Farrakhan by Wright, or about Wright's derogation of "garlic-nosed" Italians (of the ancient Roman variety), then you already know something about Trumpet. Farrakhan's picture was on the cover of a special November/December 2007 double issue, along with an announcement of the Empowerment Award and Wright's praise of Farrakhan as a 20th- and 21st-century "giant." Wright's words about Farrakhan were almost identical to those that, just four months later, led a supposedly shocked Obama to repudiate Wright. The insult to Italians was in the same double issue. I obtained the 2006 run of Trumpet, from the first nationally distributed issue in March to the November/December double issue. To read it is to come away impressed by Wright's thoroughgoing political radicalism. There are plenty of arresting sound bites, of course, but the larger context is more illuminating--and more disturbing--than any single shock-quotation. Trumpet provides a rounded picture of Wright's views, and what it shows unmistakably is that the now-infamous YouTube snippets from Wright's sermons are authentic reflections of his core political and theological beliefs. It leaves no doubt that his religion is political, his attitude toward America is bitterly hostile, and he has fundamental problems with capitalism, white people, and "assimilationist" blacks. Even some of Wright's famed "good works," and his moving "Audacity to Hope" sermon, are placed in a disturbing new light by a reading of Trumpet. Getting across his political message is Wright's highest priority. Back in May 2007, the liberal, Chicago-based Christian Century published an extended study--really a defense--of Wright's church. Attempting to inoculate Wright (and Obama) from critics like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, Christian Century dismissed the notion that Wright's Trinity church "is a political organization constantly advocating for social change." Yet in Trumpet, Wright and his fellow columnists show themselves to be exactly that. Wright is the foremost acolyte of James Cone's "black liberation theology," which puts politics at the center of religion. Wright himself is explicit:

[T]here was no separation Biblically and historically and there is no separation contemporaneously between 'religion and politics.' .  .  . The Word of God has everything to do with racism, sexism, militarism, social justice and the world in which we live daily.

In fact, for all his rousing rhetoric, Wright is a bit of a policy wonk, moving fluidly and frequently from excoriations of American foreign policy in various African countries, to denunciations of Senate votes on the minimum wage, to fulminations against FCC licensing policies and Clear Channel, and so much more. Wright is up to speed on local, national, and international politics, and it's tough to imagine him missing an opportunity to confer with Obama on his wide array of legislative crusades. When Trumpet surprised Wright with a "Lifetime Achievement Trumpeter Award," it said that he "preaches a liberation theology" whose "religious message [is] fused with political activism." Not only does black liberation theology founder James Cone see Wright as      CONTINUED  @   http://questionbarackobama.blogspot.com/

Pelosi Says Nomination Battle Won't Go To The ConventionWhy Hillary Clinton will only hurt herself if she fights on after next week... The Hillary Clinton camp has been throwing out some defiant words this week, with surrogates vowing that Clinton will fight to the convention if she does not get exactly what she wants with Florida and Michigan at the RBC meeting on Saturday. It's strange, since even if she gets exactly what she wants, she'll still lose, but it's becoming clear that Clinton's main argument is that somehow, someway, things need to be changed so that she wins. Now, part of this week's defiant language is probably just political posturing in preparation for Saturday's meeting. They obviously want to try and intimidate the members of the RBC into giving her what she wants. Once the meeting is over, and she doesn't get exactly what she wants, unless she completely loses her mind, she will realize the game is over and concede. Afterall, not doing so will not just ruin her political future in every way imaginable, it will also result in her being turned into a laughing stock throughout the summer as her superdelegates, AND pledged delegates, abandon her. I don't think it'll come to that. She's too smart and calculating to do that knowing that no matter what happens, the end result will not be her winning. And anyway, it's clear that the media has already basically forgotten about Clinton, so if she does keep at it all summer, who is going to follow it with Obama and McCain, the real nominees, battling it out? Nobody, and she knows it.But just incase, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had her own defiant words this week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will step in if necessary to make sure the presidential nomination fight between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama does not reach the Democratic National Convention - though she believes it could be resolved as early as next week.Pelosi predicted Wednesday that a presidential nominee will emerge in the week after the final Democratic primaries on June 3, but she said "I will step in" if there is no resolution by late June regarding the seating of delegates from Florida and Michigan, the two states that defied party rules by holding early primaries."Because we cannot take this fight to the convention," she said. "It must be over before then."

[Podcast: Listen to Pelosi's views on the presidential race, war and her legislative agenda.] LIKE PELOSI HASN'T BEEN RAGGING ON HILLARY TO PULL A JOHN KERRY AND TOSS IN THE TOWEL FOR MONTHS!

McCain Leads!

(In Missed Votes)

McClone Misses 60% Of Senate Votes

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) didn't find time in his busy campaign schedule Thursday to make it back to the Capitol for votes on money for Iraq and Afghanistan as well as new educational benefits for veterans that he opposes. After all, even though he has been quite outspoken on the new GI Bill and even pushed a competing bill of his own, he still has to, um, win the Republican nomination (isn't Ron Paul still running??). And, apparently, he had to campaign and raise money in that pivotal swing state, California. McCain's absence helped cement his lead in one key category over his potential Democratic opponents and every other Senator -- missed votes. Through last week, McCain had missed a nice, round 60.0 percent of Senate votes so far in the 110th Congress. After Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), who was absent for several months following a brain hemorrhage, comes Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who lay well behind McCain with 41.8 percent of votes missed. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), a former presidential candidate, was fourth, followed by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who had missed 31.7 percent. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2008/05/mccain_leads_in_missed_votes.html FROM THE NET:   "It does not matter how many times Obama votes or does not vote in the Senate. He will NEVER get my vote for President. I am AMAZED at Americans entrusting a man that has followed Anti-American rhetoric and "black theology" for 20 YEARS and wrote books reenforcing this Anti-American view point. And now that he feels he is OWED the PRESIDENCY of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, preaches unity, wears a flag pen, and actually has the audacity to rub Americans face in it by now saying God Bless America. HAVE AMERICANS LOST THEIR MINDS AND REASON? The satire in this is he has NO experience. Not to be confused, a Great speechwriter is NOT experience. Never would I trust this great nation to this undeserving candidate. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET THE SUPER DELEGATES TO HEAR THIS?... WE ARE NOT VOTING FOR OBAMA!  WE ARE NOT VOTING FOR OBAMA! THERE WILL BE NO UNITY IN THIS PARTY WHEN THEY HAVE CHOSEN AN ANTI-UNITY CANDIDATE! Posted by: DEM to IND | May 23, 2008 2:28 PM "