So Obama has a controversial pastor who’s setting people’s teeth on edge. What to do, what to do?
Option A:
Assess the candidate’s fitness for public service by his record:
- what he’s said
- what he’s done
- how he’s campaigned
- what he plans to do in office.
- whom he’s brought to the table.
But that’s not very much fun, is it? So…
Option B:
1. Get the Hillary/McCain campaign to subpoena the church’s attendance records to determine how often Obama was present in worship.
2. Divide that by the number of the pew he sat in, since the further up front you sit, the more you agree with the pastor.
3. Multiply that by the median number of times Obama yawned during each service.
4. Divide that result by the square root of the number of hours that Obama has spent in the presence of white people, who are, after all, sane.
5. Presto.
We should also perform a similar calculus on Hillary, provided her pastor has said anything remotely controversial, which he probably hasn’t*, since let’s be honest, most of us white Christians like our gospel with the social justice edges sanded down real smooth.
* Oh! with the exception of defending Jeremiah Wright.
16 Responses to “vetting the candidate: a guide”
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Ouch!
Option A is the action I’ve taken. And after all is said and done, I’ll be happy that I took it, regardless of the outcome, which, I still think, looks good for Obama.
Not.
Actually, I agree with Eugene Robinson who wrote in the Post this morning that Jeremiah Wright has thrown Barak Obama, his faithful and loyal congregant, under the bus. In doing so Jeremiah has placed himself front and center stage, not the “black church” or “prophetic theology” but himself. Robinson, who is a vocal Barak supporter, even quoted Proverbs, “pride goeth before a fall.” Dana Milbank was equally disappointed by the dazzling celebrity performance at the National Press Club.
For me the most disappointing thing he said was “politicians do what politicians have to do to get elected, pastors answer to a higher power.” In addition to the cynicism of that point of view that basically dismisses all public servants, including his own congregant, as liars rather than servants of the Holy One like pastors, it also assumes a superiority about pastors that is disingenuous.
Wright is savvy enough to know what he is doing and the fallout from it. That is really really disappointing.
I think he went over the top deliberately at the Press Club. You said it yourself, this man is PR savvy. He knew that Obama needed to come out stronger against him than he already had. So he forced Obama’s hand.
WWJD? Sacrifice himself.
That was my first thought, too. The problem is, it smells a little like collusion.
Isn’t that interesting. The three people who instantly thought that (including me) are all writers.
It just kinda seems right narratively.
Yes, but the next thing that seems right narratively is the Clinton camp spins it into an underhanded, pre-arranged plot by the both of them.
Yikes! Is there a vast narrative conspiracy “out there?” I think you give JW way too much credit. Sacrifice himself? By becoming a Yahoo buzzy note of the day?
Speaking of narrative, how about the irony of Jeremiah Wright quoting Proverbs,
“It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” And he was referring to the media??
How weird this campaign is becoming.
I just heard this from Barak in the New York times. I couldn’t agree more:
“People want some help in stabilizing their lives and securing a better future for themselves and their children. And that’s what we should be talking about. And the fact that Reverend Wright would think that somehow it was appropriate to command the stage, for three or four consecutive days, in the midst of this major debate, is something that not only makes me angry but also saddens me.”
Exactly, SG. That’s what he needed to say. Shouldve said it sooner. Thankfully Wright gave him the opportunity, and with a whole week before the primary.
Here’s what Wright said last year on PBS:
Now he’s suddenly a scuzzy politician?
Hell to the no.
Too much credit? The man pastored an 8,000 member church. He knows his way around a microphone. In fact he’s visited the White House. (The Clinton White House, cough)
Look, he comes off polished, smooth and reasonable on Moyers’s show, which comforts the faithful left that he’s really not a wild man out to destroy America and eat our children. His Detroit speech before the NAACP is a little edgier; meanwhile the audience and interest is growing. Then he hits the press club and BAM!
Don’t get me wrong, the guy is also out to sell books. But I’m telling you. It is the only explanation that doesn’t make a distinguished (though eccentric) fellow clergy person out to be a jen-you-wine A-hole.
In the narrative, the Clinton camp’s spinning of the sacrifice suddenly disappears because an unforeseen backfire is threatened. Power shifts unexpectedly at the end of the subsequent chapter, possibly with the emergence of a new and unpredictable force that will play itself out at the end of Act II, leaving the original combatants in direct confrontation on a changed field.
Or something.
I am a crime writer, after all.
That can only mean one thing.
Al Gore on the second ballot in Denver!
You missed your calling.
Speaking of crime writing, Penn Gillette named his daughter Moxie Crimefighter, and I think there’s something wrong with me that I actually like the name.
Usually I hate those kinds of names, but you know…