Rev. Wright at the National Press Club
Posted on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 10:23:59 AM EST
Tags: Rev. Jeremiah Wright (all tags)
Rev. Wright today spoke at the National Press Club. He continued his attacks on the media and again asserted Barack Obama speaks with electability in mind. Jake Tapper at ABC News writes:
He clearly was not doing Obama any favors, not only by reappearing before a ravenous media thus distracting from Obama's attempt to relate better to white working class voters in Indiana and North Carolina, but by implying Obama's condemnation of some of his sermons was not sincere.
"Politicians say what they say and do what they do because of electability," Wright said, arguing that Obama had not seen the sermons played in the media that Obama has called "offensive." "He had to distance himself because he's a politician...Whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be answerable to God."
Wright also defended the comments in his past sermons that have placed him in the media spotlight.
But he didn't distance himself from any of the sentiments underlying the clips shown on television. Indeed, the former pastor embraced the most controversial items he has said.
On Louis Farakkhan [More...]
Wright was also asked about his relationship with Nation of Islam founder Louis Farrakhan, whom Wright described as merely haven once said that Zionism -- not Judaism -- was a poisonous weed. (Farrakhan has far more than that one comment in his collection of anti-Semitic statements.
Farrakhan, Wright said, is "one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century," noting the Million Man March. "When Louis Farrakhan speaks, it's like when E.F. Hutton speaks...Black America listens."
...."Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy," Wright said, since Farrakhan had not enslaved Africans and brought them in chains to the U.S.
At this point, I'd say the question is not whether, but how much, Wright is hurting Obama's campaign.
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