PrintMarch 28, 2008
More Obama Lies about Rev. Wright (Updated)
The practiced ease with which Obama glibly tells untruths is becoming more noticeable as the campaign rolls along.
This latest was in an interview scheduled to be aired today on the popular daytime show "The View." Obama, after saying that if Wright had not resigned he would have left the church he attended for 20 years, blithely gave an explanation why:
"Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying at the church," Obama said Thursday during a taping of the ABC talk show, "The View." The interview will be broadcast Friday.Oh really? Did Wright actually "acknowledge" that he had offended people and his remarks were "inappropriate?"
Tom McGuire:
So, when did Wright acknowledge that what he had said was deeply offensive and inappropriate? The AP story recounts some of Wright's controversial comments but oddly omits to mention his apology, as does all other news coverage with which I am familiar.This is a kind of self serving lie that advances Obama's narrative of Wright really not being a bad sort of fellow, just a little exciteable due to the racism he experienced as a young man. But it is a falsehood to say that Wright has ever apologized or regretted his remarks and certainly he has never let it be known that he considered them "inappropriate."
And I am strangely certain that a Wright apology would have made the news - unless he never made it publicly. So what are we supposed to believe - that Wright apologized to Obama, who is now apologizing to the rest of us on Wright's behalf? For heaven's sake, this really does show that Obama is made of Presidential stuff - maybe he can do an Apology Tour, just as Bill Clinton did.
One might also ask why it took Obama 20 years of listening to this hateful rhetoric to even consider leaving the Church. It couldn't be because he's running for president now, could it?
UPDATE:
Ed Lasky points to this article by Jennifer Rubin in Commentary Magazine that also deals with more lies from Obama about Wright:
With each new utterance on the topic of Reverend Wright, Barack Obama seems to confirm his own moral obliviousness. Worse yet, he seems to have disdain for those who are troubled by his own unwillingness, even now, to break with Wright. (Contrary to his liberal apologists who insist “leaving a church is never a simple transaction,” it is exceedingly easy–you just stand up and go.)
The latest: “I never heard him say some of the things that have people upset.” Let’s leave aside for a moment the Clintonian slipperiness of the word “some.” Let’s not dwell on the quite obvious possibility that he might have heard or read comments of Wright’s approximating those on the dozens of tapes that have now come to light. Here’s the meat of it: just “people” are upset–not him mind you, since he is operating on a higher moral plane. I suppose he would have defended Trent Lott’s single remark about Strom Thurmond with every fiber of his being.
But it gets worse. Obama insists Wright is “a brilliant man who was still stuck in a time warp.” So brilliant, apparently, that he has uncovered the plot by white America to kill African Americans and so insightful as to perceive the 9/11 attacks as caused by America’s own terrorism.
