Wright equates 'God Damn America' with criticism of black church

By Rick Moran

That's right. If you dare criticize Pastor Wright for saying "Not God bless America but God Damn America" you are a racist bigot because what you're really doing is criticizing "the black church:"

Attacks on him are really attacks on the black church, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. said in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington on Monday, in which he mounted a spirited defense of views and sermons that have become an issue in the presidential campaign because Senator Barack Obama attended his church for many years.

Mr. Wright told the press club audience that the black church in America grew out of the oppression of black people, and that his sermons reflected that struggle.

Snippets from his sermons have been used in Republican commercials seeking to depict Senator Obama as unpatriotic, and the Democratic presidential candidate has given a carefully calibrated speech seeking to distance himself from Mr. Wright's more inflammatory statements.

Speaking Monday, Mr. Wright said that political opponents of Senator Obama were exploiting the fact that the style of prayer and preaching in black churches was different from European church traditions - "Different, but not deficient," he said.

Perhaps Barack Obama should whisper in his pastor's ear that white Americans are not Europeans - we're Americans.

Beyond that, someone should teach the good Reverend about political spin. He's obviously not very good at it and he only makes himself look foolish when he tries it.

A couple of notes from his NPC speech. Evidently, journalists vigorously applauded at certain points in the speech - this according to Michelle Malkin who live-blogged it.

Wright also noted that "the widely circulated clips of his remarks were only short snippets lifted out of the context of much longer, closely reasoned arguments." What kind of "closely reasoned argument did he give when discussing how AIDS was created by the government to kill black people?

"I believe our government is capable of doing anything."

Perhaps. Except performing the miracle of creating a virus that targets one specific race - especially when American blacks have so many mixed race elements in their genes - would seem to be in the realm of fantasy rather than reality.

It is likely that Wright will remain a fixture throughout the campaign season which is very bad news for Barack Obama.