Riehl World View, a leader on this controversy, links to more updates on the problems between Obama and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

First, Obama gets his first questioning after this latest Wright flare-up.

Q: I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it’s all over the wire today (from an ABC News story), a statement that your pastor (the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s South Side) made in a sermon in 2003 that instead of singing “God Bless America,” black people should sing a song essentially saying “God Damn America.”

A: I haven’t seen the line. This is a pastor who is on the brink of retirement who in the past has made some controversial statements. I profoundly disagree with some of these statements.

Q: What about this particular statement?

A: Obviously, I disagree with that. Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it’s important to judge me on what I’ve said in the past and what I believe.

Don’t worry, Barack, we won’t have to cherry-pick to get absolutely asinine statements from your church leader.

Case in point, this new quotation found in a Wall Street Journal article that covers a 2006 Howard University appearance by the Rascally Rev Wright.

“We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college,” he began. “Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body.”

Mr. Wright thundered on: “America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.”

His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, “We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . .”

Concluding, Mr. Wright said: “We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . .”

All the comments are deplorable, but the AIDS virus comment deserves special attention. That is a sure sign that Wright shouldn’t be advising anyone on anything.

Each and every one of these comments need to be addressed by Barack Obama. His blanket “let’s focus on what I believe” isn’t going to cut it.

Patterico’s Pontifications has more on how Wright is a spiritual advisor to Obama.

Bull Dog Pundit at Ankle Biting Pundits thinks we’ll see this play in PA. I hope so.

This from the Corner:

For example, Bill O’Reilly was hyperventilating on the telly last night about Wright’s having said, in a sermon, that HIV is a man-made virus, deliberately spread by the U.S. government in a plot to exterminate black people…

I have no doubt that non-black Americans would be willing to vote for a black American as president. Not many of us, however, would be willing to vote for a candidate who thought of himself as black first and American second. That such people exist is proved by the success of Jeremiah Wright — and by the applause of his congregation.

Is Barack Obama such a person? If he is not, why has he been such a loyal member of that congregation, making five-figure donations to Wright’s church at least as late as 2006? Calling on Wright to bless his marriage and his house, and baptize his children? Using a passage from one of Wright’s sermons as the title of his second book? …

Does the Senator believe, as his revered pastor does (and as that pastor’s congregation apparently does too) that HIV was made in a government lab? Perhaps someone should ask him. Perhaps someone should have been asking this stuff six months ago.

Hot Air has more on previous fawning over Wright by Obama and (no surprise) Oprah.

This sounds much different than Obama’s “old uncle” analogy that he has used of late as more of Wright’s inflammatory rhetoric has come to light. Wright has always stirred controversy, but not to the level that Obama feels now. Calling on his congregation to say “God damn America” and railing at Hillary Clinton because she has never been called the N-word may not have a great impact on the rapidly diminishing number of primary elections Obama has to face before winning the nomination. It will have a huge impact on how people see him in the general election, since as Obama himself stated in this piece, he seeks out Wright for political guidance before making any “bold” political moves.

What kind of advice would people believe him to receive from Wright, after having heard his sermons? And why would Obama seek it, and feel comfortable in the race-baiting environment Wright provides?

Read the rest and I’ll have more as it develops.

Hot Air has more on the Oprah angle. Ed doesn’t think that the cherry-pick defense will work. Here’s something else to support that: the most inflammatory and unbelievable rhetoric from Wright is culled from HIS OWN best of video that the Church sells! If anyone is cherry-picking, it’s the Rev. Ironic?

Protein Wisdom offers up a translation of Obama’s weak response.

Ace of Spades singles out the AIDS charge too.

Hugh Hewitt has some analysis on the mainstream media’s predicament regarding this issue.

Update 3PM CST: More reaction as the afternoon wears on.

Political Vindication doesn’t think Obama has any courage.

Hot Air covers the Obama sidestep and McCain’s decision to let the Dems fight this one out.

TPM Readers are seeing the severity of this scandal.

The Wright time bomb appears to be detonating, now that the horse race narrative has stalled and the media needs new material. The inadequacy of Obama’s response is deeply discouraging. I was very excited about Obama, but I suddenly think Wright is going to deal a death blow to him on the “electibility” front. Michelle Obama’s comments and now the man who lead him to Jesus is saying “God Damn America”, and all BO can say is “I disagree”? He has to thow him under the bus and then back up over him again, but it does not appear that he will. Not clear it would even help that much, given the depth and length of their relationship. Sad to say, but it’s best this happen now rather than in October. As distasteful as her tactics have been, I suddenly think we may be better off in November with Hillary. Wright is cancer.

FullosseousFlap has a more extensive record of Wright and Obama.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 8:48 am and is filed under 2008 Race, Obama, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.