Barack repeatedly referred to Rev. Wright as an ex-Marine (being a Marine being a good thing). Marines often say that there’s no such thing as an ex-Marine, but Rev. Wright proved them wrong: he’s definitely an ex-Marine. Marines don’t ask God to damn America and equate the Marines with the terrorist forces of Osama bin Laden.
Wily rookie presidential aspirant Barack Hussein Obama, half-white and half-black, had a huge political problem: he obviously needed to condemn a series of utterly outrageous anti-American statements by his long-time spiritual mentor and political supporter, Rev. Jeremiah A. “God damn America” Wright, Jr., but without “disowning” Rev. Wright and thereby antagonzing his radical black base.
Barack did it, by attacking two white older women, his maternal grandmother and 1984 Democrat presidential vice presidential nominee Geraldine A. Ferraro, equating each of them with Rev. Wright!
It may have been what Rev. Wright considered the right way for Barack to deal with his perilous political predicament, but it was wrong, wickedly wrong.
Barack probably kept himself in “good” standing with his radical black base, but he didn’t placate Americans of all colors who want God to bless instead of damn America, known that blacks can be racists too and appreciate that Rev. Wright’s hateful statements are not merely divisive, but despicable.
Obama critic Andy Martin: "Obama's remarks reeked of the very resentment and anger for which Jeremiah Wright has become notorious. These men are joined at the hip. After today, that much is clear. Barack Obama is not the Democratic Party's candidate for president. He is the Black Nationalist candidate for president."
Considering what he said about his maternal grandmother and that he said nothing critical of any of his black relatives, unless Louis Farrakhan becomes a presidential candidate, Barack will take the Black Nationalist vote.
Barack repeatedly referred to Rev. Wright as an ex-Marine (being a Marine being a good thing). Marines often say that there’s no such thing as an ex-Marine, but Rev. Wright proved them wrong: he’s definitely an ex-Marine. Marines don’t ask God to damn America and equate the Marines with the terrorist forces of Osama bin Laden.
To be sure Barack’s task in his critically important speech in Philadelphia (the City of Brotherly Love)--distance himself from the mean ex-Marine without alienating his black base—was daunting.
So Barack offered up his (white) maternal grandmother, telling the world that she had confided in him her fear of black men when walking on the street and privately made some racist remarks.
Let’s assume all that is true.
That grandmother was a grandmother, not an ex-Marine pastor of a church spewing anti-American hate from a church pulpit and walking the streets without fear of being raped by anyone.
And Barack did not choose his maternal grandmother as a relative as he chose Rev. Wright as his pastor and spiritual mentor.
Barack joined Rev. Wright’s church. That was politically and perhaps also spiritually helpful to him. He voluntarily tied himself to Rev. Wright until a campaign adviser told him that Rev. Wright might bury his presidential campaign if he spoke at the announcement of the Obama presidential campaign about a year ago, if not on the spot, then after the media checked him out and found out that he told his congregation things like America deserved to be attacked on September 11, 2001 and developed the AID virus to exterminate blacks without prompting Barack to find another pastor and spiritual mentor.
Sorry, Granny. Barack needed to sacrifice a white relative to excuse his carefully crafted condemnation of Rev. Wright’s outrageous PUBLIC statements and you won the distinction of being the white scapegoat.
Barack’s Philadelphia speech did not explain why he waited until March 18, 2008 to tell the world that his former pastor (he used that phrase several times) was an angry and bitter older man who said some horrible things, but the explanation is obvious: he did not want to do so, hoped that he could avoid it and finally did it as a political necessity.
Did Barack even say he had made a mistake by waiting so long?
No.
But Barack did find time to attribute the Reagan Revolution to white racism and blast talk radio.
Barack critic Andy Martin swiftly adjudged Barack’s speech as “the most hateful speech delivered by a serious candidate for president in the modern era.” and “a sugar-coated version of Wright's 'Blame America First' oratory.”
Mr. Martin explained why Barack could not “disown” Rev. Wright: "In reality, Barack Obama is Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Now we know why they have been tight as ticks for 20 years. They share the same philosophy, the same ideology, the same theology.
Mr. Martin excoriated Barack’s Far Left political views and defended Corporate America, which Barack had attacked in his speech (while deftly referring to his Rev. Wright problem as a “distraction”):
"Barack Obama's attacks on American business could have been delivered in another era by Juan Peron, or today's Hugo Chavez. Economic problems? Blame corporate America? Blame accounting. Blame globalization.
"I have news for Barry Obama: Corporate America is what has lifted the African-American community out of economic despair over the past four decades. Corporate America has been the savior, not the bane, of Black communities. Likewise for cities and states and the federal government.
"Bad schools? American taxpayers are being bankrupted by exorbitant school taxes, higher pay, more benefits. School budgets are out of sight. But what do we see on playgrounds? I-pods, fancy shoes, and a collection of couture that is out-of-step with any avenue to economic success in this nation. Does Obama advocate higher taxes for what is a cultural and community failure?
"Barack Obama bared his real teeth today. His message was a message of hate, disgust, opposition. Yes, it was basted in the Constitution; and sugar-coated with his ritual claims for 'unity.' But then he blamed slavery and corporate America for today' s problems. This man is out of touch with reality.
"As usual, Obama played to his children's crusade in the balconies with a litany of promises, attacks, and prevarications. Today Obama did what his critics have called on him to do: to outline his vision of America. Barack Obama's 'Amerika' is a land of hate, racism and surrender; and a talk-radio fueled backlash that Obama wants to eradicate.”
Mr. Martin was outraged by Barack’s hopefully futile attempt to equate Rev. Wright with his maternal grandmother: "Obama stooped so low as to trash his grandmother, claiming she feared Black men and had made racist remarks. Disgraceful. Is that why he keeps her locked up? Anyone who would trash the very people that paid for his fancy schools and launched him on the road to success, and seeks to demonize his grandmother, is a demon himself."
The Pied Piper of Hope and Change need to remind people that he’s half-white and half-black and try to get his presidential campaign back on track.
Mr. Martin pronounced the speech a political failure as well as racially divisive:
"Instead of using his speech to disassociate himself from Reverend Wright, as many had predicted he had to do, Obama brought himself closer to Wright and validated the pastor. Obama announced in advance this was 'his speech.' It will be his downfall.”
"His statement that Blacks are two-faced, and say one thing at work and another at home, and that whites are similarly two-faced, is the most racially divisive remark in a generation.
"The Democratic Party should be ashamed of itself that Barack Obama is a serious candidate for president. Barack Obama had a chance to bring us together today and to reject Reverend Wright. He forfeited that opportunity. He validated and endorsed Jeremiah Wright's view of 'Amerika.'”
With the important qualification that Barack pronounced America perfectable (albeit apparently only if HE becomes the next President of the United States), Barack DID embrace much of Rev. Wright’s historical view and blamed even the remarks he condemned as attributable to “slavery and Jim Crow.”
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.
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