Yes, we can.

[scaeagles]

WB, why would we not care about what he thinks of Carter's trip? I believe it is an important issue. I do care what he thinks about it.

[sleepyjeff]

Here's a question I would like to ask Obama:

Sen. Obama, Canada, the United States and Mexico are contiguous countries. Yet you insist that NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, causes companies to ship jobs overseas. Will you, before the American people, tell us the grade you received in high school geography?

~Larry Elder

[scaeagles]

This whole issue with Wright I think has revealed that Obama is no different than any other politician.

Without going into too much detail, I do not see it as possible that Obama only just discovered the views of the man he has called his spiritual mentor. While Obama is correct in that the man is offensive, he is simply being politically expedient in his current posturing. Indeed the looped soundbites didn't do Reverend Wright justice, as his bigotry and insanity were not fully represented in those.

Do the views matter? What Wright says doesn't in terms of the campaign (though I think his views are indeed problematic in the community), and Obama was also correct in that Wright doesn't speak for him or his campaign. But only a couple of days ago Obama was standing by Wright, and one press club appearance suddenly shows him the light? I don't buy it at all.

And I will say once again that it does concern me that Obama has referred to this man as a mentor. I think it is reasonable to look at those that a candidate has looked up to and respected and admired as those people shape who he is and what he believes himself.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

And I will say once again that it does concern me that Obama has referred to this man as a mentor.

Interestingly enough, I was just reading a debate on another board and a cite was asked for a few days ago that contained a direct quote from Obama saying that Wright was a mentor. So far, none has been offered. Would you happen to have one?

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Motorboat Cruiser

Interestingly enough, I was just reading a debate on another board and a cite was asked for a few days ago that contained a direct quote from Obama saying that Wright was a mentor. So far, none has been offered. Would you happen to have one?

I admit, I have searched, and cannot find a direct quote of Obama calling him his mentor. However, I can find articles in the Chicago Tribune about Obama always consulting Wright before making a political move, found out that his book The Audacity of Hope was inspired by a sermon made by Wright, that the man married Obama and his wife and baptized his children, have found hundred s of references to a letter penned by Obama in which he referred to Wright as a "friend, mentor, and pastor".....such things are endless. sso while the word mentor may not have specifically come from his mouth, the shoe would indeed seem to fit.

[3894]

Re: Rev. Wright

Ever since this first appeared on the radar, I have thought the choice of this pastor has a lot more to do with Mrs. Obama than Mr. First, that's often the way things work. Second, remember what Michele Obama said after Barak's Iowa victory - for the first time in her adult life she was proud of this country.
That's someone who would be sympathetic to Rev. Wright's rhetoric.

[innerSpaceman]

His flip-flopping on the Wright issue makes me , but to the extent he might have been mentored and influenced by Rev. Wright, I like him more and more.

[Alex]

Other than the AIDS stupidity (and, frankly, we've had actual elected officials who believed stupider things and it isn't like there's absolutely no precedent for the government intentionally inflicting diseases on black populations) I still haven't heard much of anything from Wright that I find all that upsetting.

Other than Obama having heard the things Wright has said, has Obama ever actually done anything to make you believe the same thing? Do you think that Obama is a Manchurian Candidate unleashed upon America by the Black Liberation Theology Illuminati?

So, I honestly still don't care. Just as I honestly don't care if the Republican candidates sit at the feel of the equally obnoxious Jerry Falwell types except insofar as I perceive the candidates will attempt to govern like the Jerry Falwell and/or Wright types.

I'm more concerned that all three candidates took pretty stupid positions on the mercury-vaccination issue when they obviously haven't a clue what they're talking about than that any of them know people who say stupid stuff.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Alex

Do you think that Obama is a Manchurian Candidate unleashed upon America by the Black Liberation Theology Illuminati?

No, I don't think there is any conspiracy. I just think that Obama is very, very far left and may actually agree with what Wright believes. He only chose to distance himself from the man when it became an issue that started hurting his numbers.

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

No, I don't think there is any conspiracy. I just think that Obama is very, very far left and may actually agree with what Wright believes. He only chose to distance himself from the man when it became an issue that started hurting his numbers.

I'm sure he does or did believe some of it to an extent, which is why he has not gone chapter and verse through everything Rev. Wright said. The question would be what he would to do to address the real problems that concern Rev. Wright.

And, really. If we're going to disqualify presidential candidates based on the cruelty, idiocy and hate perpetrated, espoused and ignored by their religious leaders or the larger bodies, then only atheists will get to be president.