Saturday, May 31, 2008

Obama finally gets it and quits Trinity Church; Anderson and Abrams still in a fog, blaming it all on Fox

Revised at 12:55 am on Monday morning to correct the affiliations of Monroe Anderson and to fix a link or two.
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Senator Obama came to his senses yesterday and resigned from Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s south side. It doesn’t matter whether Rev. Wright said and did goofy things five times in the last twenty years or one hundred times in the last twenty years. It doesn’t matter that Father Pfleger (whose regular clerical stomping grounds are St. Sabina) was simply a guest of Rev. Moss delivering the guest sermon last Sunday at Trinity. It doesn’t matter if Obama was in the pews all, some or none of the times when Wright and Pfleger were spewing their venomous, hate filled, anti-American and/or racial prejudiced themes. It doesn’t matter if Wright and Pfleger have done some (or many) good things for their communities over the years.

What does matter is that Obama is running for President and the words, style and preachings of Pastor Wright and Father Pfleger, at least some of the time, are antithetical to everything for which Obama and most of this country stand. Further, it is not okay for the Church, Synagogue or Mosque of the President of the United States to welcome those who mock and degrade whites, blacks, Muslims, Christians, Jews or America. (Rev. Moss, Wright’s successor, thanked God for the “message,” and “messenger’ after Pfleger finished his sermon, last week). Our places of worship are not the same as Comedy Central (Contrary to what Monroe Anderson and MSNBC's Dan Abrams might think, see below).

Finally, Obama got this. Apparently, Senator Obama follows the saying, fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me. However, Obama is clearly a cautious man when it comes to possibly upsetting his African-American base, see, generally, here.

Larry Sabato, University of Virginia Professor of Political Science and media political pundit, being interviewed on Fox’s Beltway Boys, about four hours ago, on being informed that Senator Obama had resigned from Trinity, noted that this showed Obama was smarter than your usual pol. Sabato said most pols have to be hit over the head with a two by four three times before they get it. Obama only required two whacks (Wright and Pfleger), according to Sabato. Professor Sabato is being charitable to Obama, as the good professor apparently collapses the multiple sins of Wright into one.

To take a look at some people who don’t get it, go to Monroe Anderson(who, ironically, may have been the first to break the story; by the time the Beltway Boys confirmed the Obama resignation from Trinity, the Boys had referenced an unconfirmed report from a blog and another TV station about Obama’s resignation) and to Dan Abrams. Anderson, who has been in and out of the MSM for the last three decades, was recently a free lance op-ed page columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and now is a member of the Trotter Group. He thinks Obama’s resignation is a sign that he caves too easily to right-wing forces. MSNBC’s Dan Abrams thought Fox’s Brit Hume was hyping a relatively trivial story.[See the Abrams video link, included in a post by Anderson].

Anderson and Abrams would no doubt think that Obama’s poor showings in Ohio, West Virgina and Kentucky (almost as bad as Alan Keyes’ losses in 2004 to Obama in the Illinois U. S. Senate race) were attributable to a vast right-wing conspiracy led by Fox, a similar one- no doubt- to the one that trapped Bill Clinton in the White House with Monica Lewinsky—and no one can blame Mr. Bill for pursuing that bait, can they?

Anderson and Abrams seem to think: Why in the world would working class whites in Appalachia be put off by videos of Wright (Obama’s self-described spiritual advisor) telling America that 9/11 was her fault for tolerating America’s own acts of terrorism around the world (9/11 was America’s chickens coming home to roost, so to speak).

Of course, Rev. Wright was not the only problem Obama had in Appalachia. There were also the images of Obama declining to wear a flag lapel pin and declining to place his hand over his heart when a group Pledge of Allegiance was being recited to the U. S. flag. There was also the report of an “elitist Obama,” speaking in San Francisco about those who vote Republican because they feel a need, in tough economic times "to cling to their guns and churches," and oppose those who look different from them. (Yes, there was some bigotry, for sure, from some in Appalachia who could not vote for a Black man, but that certainly was not the whole story).

To those Obama images, about to be added was the image of Father Pfleger [until recently on the board of “Catholics for Obama,”] guest sermonizing in Obama’s Church about white collective guilt for slavery and the notion that “White Supremacy,” and white entitlement was the essence of the Hillary Clinton campaign. And, then the image of Rev. Moss, who moved up recently to Trinity’s primary pastor, blessing the Pfleger performance by thanking God for the messenger and message, amid the applause, arm-waving and cheers from his congregation.

Snap! If that wasn’t enough to persuade the Trotter Group's Monroe Anderson and MSNBC’s Dan Abrams that Obama should leave Trinity, it was enough for Obama. Too bad for Obama he didn’t snap a little sooner. Obama knows what America and he are about. Anderson and Abrams? They don’t have a clue.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com. You may watch "Public Affairs," shows with Presidential Candidates Obama, McCain, Giuliani and Cox, this week's show in the suburbs with Comm. Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago), Tonight's show in Chicago and Aurora with State Rep. Candidate Joan Solms (R-Aurora) and shows with many other pols at www.PublicAffairsTv.com
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Recently posted shows on the Public Affairs Youtube page include
Tonight's show in Chicago and Aurora with State Rep. Candidate Joan Solms
(R-Aurora), This week's show in the suburbs with Comm. Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago) on the Obama Presidential campaign, and many other pols