His equating his grandmother's justifiable fear of young black males with his preacher's hate and conspiracy mongering was despicable.

"oh little Barry...I love you as only a grandmother could love her grandson, but I have to say that your being a young black male scares the fuck out of me."

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

It wasn't holidays. His grandparents raised him, and his grandmother was the main breadwinner, while his mother was in Indonesia working on her PhD (his father had long since run off to Africa, of course).

In his book Dreams of my Father Obama describes a specific incident where his Grandma was afraid of an "agressive" black man on the bus who kept asking her for money even after she gave him a dollar. In his speech that became his grandmother had a general and totally irrational fear of blacks, so he could equate her reasonable worry with the racial paranoia of his hero Wright.

I used to think Obama was merely unqualified, now I think he's a dishonest, manipulative asshole.

(his father had long since run off to Africa, of course).

I wonder if this was because he was a "nigger" or just a man?

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

Good question. Try comparing African family structures and levels of paternal investment with that of black Americans.

<II think he's a dishonest, manipulative asshole.</I>

Just like the majority of politicians, including your boy, Bush.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

But Obama is a transformative figure, unlike any politician ever, who transcends mundane politics.

It's negative attitudes like yours that prevents audacious hope from becoming our transformative reality.

In his speech that became his grandmother had a general and totally irrational fear of blacks, so he could equate her reasonable worry with the racial paranoia of his hero Wright.

I just wanna tell this story that happened in the south. Three of us college friends were moving into an apartment after graduating. One had her parents helping and for some reason one of their friends from LA was out, too. So we're moving and our new neighbor starts helping. My other friend and him start talking about grilling and being neighbors, etc. After we're done, the friend from LA is all, you should give the black guy some money. And we're like what, he's just being neighborly. She becomes all insistent that he must only be helping out 'cause he expects to get paid. It took everything for us to hold her back from giving him money on the basis that out of southern hospitality he'd likely be surprised but racially insulted that we'd offer him money. Of course, I'd doubt he'd have turned it down.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

And his wife;)

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

Wright's views on racism, 9-11, et all all come from a logical (we can argue right or wrong another time) analysis of events as he sees them

Wright's problem is not logic, but wholly in the way he sees the world. How can you separate Wright's racism from whether he was "right or wrong"?

Imus called a bunch of young women "Nappy headed ho's"

How are these the same?

The two are obviously not the same. Imus is a comedian, for one, and his comment was merely rude. Wright is supposedly a man of God and his comments indicate deep-seated antipathy for whites.

"it really doesn't matter how many times Obama disavows and condemns Wright"

He hasn't disavowed or condemned Wright, only "the statements that have been the subject of this controversy".

"What more do you want?"

Obama should clarify his contradictory statements:

His initial reaction to the initial ABC News broadcast of Rev. Wright's sermons denouncing the U.S. was that he had never heard his pastor of 20 years make any comments that were anti-U.S. until the tape was played on air.

But yesterday, he told a different story.

"Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes," he said in his speech yesterday in Philadelphia.

Obama did not say what he heard that he considered "controversial," and the campaign has yet to answer repeated requests for dates on which the senator attended Rev. Wright's sermons over the last 20 years.

He should explain specifically where he agrees with the expressed racial philosophy of the church he's been part of for 20 years. If he doesn't agree with any of it, he should explain why it doesn't bother him. He evaded doing this in his speech, as well as implying that people who criticize his church are racist, since "Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety."

Obama should be asked if he was aware Wright preached that AIDS was a government conspiracy. If the answer is yes, since Wright is a close personal friend and has had such a profound influence on his life, Obama should explain why never confronted Wright about propagating such nonsense.

He should explain why he's so much more tolerant of Wright than he is of Imus. Was he merely being an oppoortunist in regards to Imus, or does he have a double standard for whites and blacks, or both?

But then it really doesn't matter how many times Obama disavows and condemns Wright

Has Wright just recently turn evil? I mean, do you have any evidence that he used to be a normal, calm pastor who didn't spout the sort of racist nonsense that he has been lately?

You tell me. I'd never heard of the guy before the GOP started throwing a hissy fit over a Presidential candidate going to church.

-=Logan
Research, facts, a Republican needs not these things.

I haven't heard that "the GOP" has had much of anything to say about Wright. But considering the crazy shit he's been quoted to have said it's a reasonable question to ask if Obama sat through sermons that were similarly crazy. It's bad enough to have politicians in charge who attend churches that preach anti-scientific doctrines such as creationism; it would seem to be far worse to have politicians in charge who attend churches that preach racism.

What, other than what he's said, would you have Obama do?

For starters, Obama could offer to appear on Imus' new radio show, and offer Imus an apology while on the air. Something along the lines of, "although your comment about the girls' basketball team were deeply offensive, I was wrong to boycott you over one remark."

If Obama is truly trying to set a new standard for race relations, he needs to apply it in cases where he might lose support, not just where it serves his own interests.

C'mon, Michael Richards, maybe but Imus doesn't deserve anybody's apology for anything. The dudes been an unfunny ass for over 30 years and it was about time he got kicked to the curb.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.