Posts with the tag 'Obama'
Jeremiah Wright’s ‘Trumpet’ by Stanley Kurtz of the Weekly Standard informs readers that Trinity Church’s church newsletter (created by Wright) entitled ‘Trumpet’ shows that Reverend Wright based the church’s doctrine around his extreme leftist and Anti-American beliefs. Thus questioning how it’s possible that Senator Obama or any attendee could claim ignorance of the radical teachings of the church.
To the question of the moment–What did Barack Obama know and when did he know it?–I answer, Obama knew everything, and he’s known it for ages. Far from succumbing to surprise and shock after Jeremiah Wright’s disastrous performance at the National Press Club, Barack Obama must have long been aware of his pastor’s political radicalism. A careful reading of nearly a year’s worth of Trumpet Newsmagazine, Wright’s glossy national “lifestyle magazine for the socially conscious,” makes it next to impossible to conclude otherwise.
Wright founded Trumpet Newsmagazine in 1982 as a “church newspaper”–primarily for his own congregation, one gathers–to “preach a message of social justice to those who might not hear it in worship service.” So Obama’s presence at sermons is not the only measure of his knowledge of Wright’s views. Glance through even a single issue of Trumpet, and Wright’s radical politics are everywhere–in the pictures, the headlines, the highlighted quotations, and above all in the articles themselves. It seems inconceivable that, in 20 years, Obama would never have picked up a copy of Trumpet. In fact, Obama himself graced the cover at least once.
Even some of Wright’s famed “good works,” and his moving “Audacity to Hope” sermon, are placed in a disturbing new light by a reading of Trumpet.
Reverend Wright further muddies the water by stating that he sees no line between religion and politics…
[T]here was no separation Biblically and historically and there is no separation contemporaneously between ‘religion and politics.’ . . . The Word of God has everything to do with racism, sexism, militarism, social justice and the world in which we live daily.
Wright views the United States as a criminal nation. Here is a typical passage: “Do you see God as a God who approves of Americans taking other people’s countries? Taking other people’s women? Raping teenage girls and calling it love (as in Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings)?” Anyone who does think this way, Wright suggests, should revise his notion of God. Implicitly drawing on Marxist “dependency theory,” Wright blames Africa’s troubles on capitalist exploitation by the West, and also on inadequate American aid: “Some analysts would go so far as to even call what [the United States, the G-8, and multinational corporations] are doing [in Africa] genocide!”
Full Article Jeremiah Wright’s ‘Trumpet’
Tags: audacity of hope, Barack Obama, black liberation theology, church newspaper, Jeremiah Wright, leftist, marxist, Obama, radical, religion politics, reverend wright, team hope, trumpet, trumpet magazine
May 12th, 2008
Earlier today on CNN, Barack Obama essentially called John McCain a loony old man for mentioning that Hamas has endorsed Barack Obama.
Now, of course, Howard Dean and the DNC have said that they won’t make Senator McCain’s age an issue, but we’ve already seen the “ethical bar” that Dean and Obama have, so it isn’t a shock that Senator Obama would try this. It became clear that Barack Obama’s “new politics” are little more than old style Chicago sewer politics.
Anyway, Senator McCain’s Chief of Staff Mark Salter responded with this letter.
To: Interested Parties
From: Mark Salter, Senior Advisor
Date: May 8, 2008
Re: Senator Obama’s Attack Today
First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama’s attack today: He used the words ‘losing his bearings’ intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain’s age as an issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning.
We have all become familiar with Senator Obama’s new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.
It is important to focus on what Senator Obama is attempting to do here: He is trying desperately to delegitimize the discussion of issues that raise legitimate questions about his judgment and preparedness to be President of the United States.
Through their actions and words, Senator Obama and his supporters have made clear that ANY criticism on ANY issue — from his desire to raise taxes on millions of small investors to his radical plans to sit down face-to-face with Iranian President Ahmadinejad – constitute negative, personal attacks.
Senator Obama is hopeful that the media will continue to form a protective barrier around him, declaring serious limits to the questions, discussion and debate in this race.
Senator Obama has good reason to think this plan will succeed, as serious journalists have written of the need for ‘de-tox’ to cure ’swooning’ over Senator Obama, and others have admitted to losing their objectivity while with him on the campaign trail.
Today, Senator Obama is complaining about comments John McCain made about a senior Hamas advisor stating that Hamas would welcome Senator Obama’s election as president. Indeed, on April 13th, senior Hamas political advisor Ahmed Yousef said, ‘We don’t mind – actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance.’
The McCain campaign has never suggested that Senator Obama supports Hamas’ agenda, but it is more than fair to raise this quote about Senator Obama because it speaks to the policy implications of his judgment.
Just today, the president of Iran, whom Senator Obama wants to meet with unconditionally, called the state of Israel a ’stinking corpse.’ Iran is the paymaster and state sponsor of Hamas.
In his victory speech this week, Senator Obama stated that ‘wisdom’ is meeting with our enemies, including Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s Raul Castro. John McCain couldn’t disagree more. Rather than giving tyrants and dictators the prestige of meeting with an American president, John McCain will instead meet with the champions of human freedom around the world and opposition leaders fighting for liberty .
We understand why Senator Obama doesn’t want to engage in a debate over leadership and judgment with John McCain, but the American people demand that debate take place.
These are serious times that call for a serious debate on the profound issues facing our future. John McCain is ready for that debate and we hope Senator Obama will one day get serious and join it.
Team Hope fired back with their usual line about Hope and Change or something. I see no reason to post it, I’m sure you can all recite it off without having to read it.
Tags: age, Barack Obama, DNC, John McCain, mccain, Obama
May 9th, 2008
The political commentariat is now operating under the assumption that Sen. Obama has at long last clinched the Democratic nomination by his landslide victory in the North Carolina primary and his near upset of Sen. Clinton in Indiana. This is wrong from the standpoint that Sen. Obama was effectively assured of the nomination following his string of victories following Super Tuesday, long before this past Tuesday. Indiana and North Carolina did not change anything except convince many of what was already, for all intents and purposes, inevitable.
Sen. Clinton intends to carry on, of course, because she is Sen. Clinton. As David Kahane writes, “She’s not going to quit because she has nowhere else to go, and nothing else to do. She lives for this, and without it, she has no life. In fact, without it, she doesn’t exist at all.” Since her husband raised his right hand in ‘93 she has been preparing for the day that she could raise hers. Until Sen. Obama’s nomination is official, she is not going to let that go.
Though it is all but inevitable at this point, it is only all but inevitable. That is how she will view the situation at least. She will look forward to large victories in the upcoming Kentucky and West Virginia primaries, hoping significant margins there will stoke further discussion of Sen. Obama’s inability to win over white, blue-collar voters and give Democratic super-delegates further pause as they size up the strength of Sen. Obama as a general election candidate. She will also continue to push for the seating of Michigan’s and Florida’s delegates at the convention (she sent a letter to Sen. Obama today laughably urging him to support that effort), arguing–not without some semblance of a point–that to deny those delegates seats would be to disenfranchise Democratic voters in those respective states and harm Democrats politically in what will be two pivotal battlegrounds in the fall.
Ultimately, these efforts will fail and Sen. Obama, warts and all, will accept the nomination in Denver this August. All that is really left to be decided is whether Sen. Clinton can and even wants to muscle herself onto the ticket and how exactly such a ticket would play in the fall. The race for the Democratic nomination is essentially decided and has been decided for sometime, but the saga and theater shall continue hence.
Tags: Clinton, Democrats, General Election, Obama
May 8th, 2008
There has been some debate about whether the extended Democratic Primary is helpful or harmful to either party. Obviously as Senators Clinton and Obama bash each other they do each other no great service in the long run. However, the flip side is that the Democrats have an active and involved electorate that is turning out in large numbers. However, watching cable news this weekend I thought, ‘I can’t be the only one getting sick of this’. The race and the candidates themselves still hold plenty of interest, but the coverage has grown tedious. The endless repetition of delegate counts, the blatantly biased punditry, and endless string of surogates pitching their candidates has become painfully dull. The race itself is incredibly interesting, the analysis of the race and endless ‘my candidate is great’ pitches on the news has to be wearing thin with many. Consequently, the attention being paid to the Dems, certainly a necessity at this point in their race, may have an additional downside besides the nastiness or bitterness they are engendering. There could simply be a ‘Democrat Fatigue’ that effects the eventual nominee.
Tags: 2008 election, Clinton, democrat downside, democrat fatigue, democrat politics, endless race, Obama, political campaigns, surogates, tedious politics
May 5th, 2008
The Los Angeles Times has an editorial on Senator McCain’s Time for Action tour, contrasting it with Clinton and Obama’s campaigns.
It’s not a new message from the Arizona senator, who follows an unpredictable political muse but typically favors smaller government and less regulation. Yet the context was important. Standing outside the Ohio factory Tuesday, in a state where Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton pandered to protectionists, McCain actually stood up for the North American Free Trade Agreement and free trade. The lost factory jobs aren’t coming back, McCain said, and rather than waging a futile fight against globalization, Washington should do a better job training workers for careers in the new economy.
As Ed Morrissey notes, the real story here isn’t necessarily the praise for McCain, but that a paper like the Los Angeles Times is calling out Clinton and The Leader of the New Hope for their blatant pandering. Ed links that with improving poll numbers in California for McCain, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.
Maybe tomorrow the New York Times will write a fair piece.
Well, no, they won’t, but its fun to pretend.
Tags: Clinton, John McCain, LA Times, mccain, Obama
April 26th, 2008
Senator McCain opened the blogger call talking about his recent tour of areas of the south that have been left behind economically. This included a stop made in Inez, Kentucky where FDR first announced the War on Poverty. Senator McCain stated the lesson learned is that the local government is far more capable of effecting positive economic change than large federal bureaucracies. He went on to say that he still believes in Reagan’s economic principals of keeping taxes low and cutting spending to increase economic growth; also stating that anyone willing to raise taxes when the economy is struggling doesn’t understand fundamental economic principals. When questioned later about taxes, Senator McCain explained that Senator Obama’s plan to lift the cap on Social Security would affect people making $102,000 and that his plan to increase the capital gains tax would affect 100 million Americans. He repeated his plan to give Americans a summer gas tax holiday, and to temporarily suspend putting oil in the strategic oil reserves in order to provide temporary economic relief. He went on to explain that long-term breaking America’s dependence on foreign oil is the priority.
Several of the blogger’s questions were about Senator Obama and his ties to Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright. The first from Hugh Hewitt asked about Senator Obama comparing Bill Ayers to Senator Coburn. Senator McCain found the comparison offensive as he described Ayers as an unrepentant terrorist and Senator Coburn as well respected doctor who still has an active practice delivering babies. He was also questioned about why he wanted to see the anti-Obama ad featuring Reverend Wright in North Carolina pulled from the air. He explained that it is not the tenor that he wants his campaign to take, and that he voices his opinion as the nominee of the party and sees the ad as offensive to some.
On foreign policy Jennifer Rubin questioned Hamas’ apparent endorsement/desire to see Senator Obama elected president. Senator McCain agreed that he would be Hamas’ worst nightmare and knows that he is not who they want to become president. Also, he was questioned about Iraq and President Maliki’s move into Bazra. He was encouraged to see that the Iraqi army was starting to act independently. He admitted there were some problems with desertions, but was pleased overall with the progress of the army and the signs of success in that region.
Tags: ayers, beaucracy, blogger call, economic growth, fdr, foreign oil, gas prices, Hamas, inez ky, iraq, Obama, reagan, social security, spending cuts, tax cuts, war on poverty, wright
April 25th, 2008
In the Democrat’s ABC debate Senator Obama stated he would raise the Capital Gains Tax even though it would adversely effect the economy because of ‘fairness’. Senator McCain, and Republicans in general, favor keeping this tax rate low because it has been concusively proven that a high Capital Gains Tax slows the economy, and that the government actually takes in more in money when the rate is kept low, as people will invest less if the tax rate is burdensome. Senator Obama’s statement points out the trouble Democrats have with economics. The idea that increasing tax rates on the wealthy, particularly when the economy is sagging, because of fairness shows a lack of economic understanding. An increase in taxes slows economic growth. The people hurt most by a struggling economy are middle to lower middle class people who are already working hard to make ends meet. The wealthy will still be wealthy, but middle class workers will struggle. This is strikingly unfair.
The rationale behind keeping taxes low on the upper class has been explained and marketed poorly. The term ‘trickle down economics’ has a demeaning ring to it. The idea that the rich pay too much, does not engender sympathy. Few have been given a clear explanation about why low taxes stimulate growth. However, one would hope presidential candidates would understand how taxes effect the economy. Senator Mccain has been the only candidate to date to show this understanding. What’s fair for the American people of all classes is to have a president that understands how the economy works, and has an intelligent plan to put the economy back on solid ground.
Tags: capital gains tax, economic undersatnding, economics, economy, low taxes, mccain, middle class, middle class america, Obama, presidential candidates, solid economy, tax and spend, tax the rich, tax the wealthy, trickle down economics
April 21st, 2008
David Brooks of the
New York Times wrote an article questioning the ‘New Politics’ of Senator Obama.
…the aura around Obama has changed. Furiously courting Democratic primary voters and apparently exhausted, Obama has emerged as a more conventional politician and a more orthodox liberal.
He sprinkled his debate performance Wednesday night with the sorts of fibs, evasions and hypocrisies that are the stuff of conventional politics. He claimed falsely that his handwriting wasn’t on a questionnaire about gun control. He claimed that he had never attacked Clinton for her exaggerations about the Tuzla airport, though his campaign was all over it. Obama piously condemned the practice of lifting other candidates’ words out of context, but he has been doing exactly the same thing to John McCain, especially over his 100 years in Iraq comment.
This draws into question not only the question of whether Senator Obama is walking the walk of a new more civil and honest campaign style, but it begs the question what candidate is most capable of bringing change. Senator McCain has walked the walk. He has worked with Democrats to achieve legislative goals, he has run an honest and decent campaign. He has a record saying what he means and meaning what he says. Consider the difficulty of a Senator with 20 plus years experience earning the reputation as a strait shooter. One reason it has been so difficult for Senators to run for president is because their job requires compromise, and taking stands on a wide range of issues that Governors can often bypass. The Democrat candidates have the luxury of having a very short record with little to examine. Senator McCain has shown that political stress won’t make him compromise his principals. It is a person of that character and experience that has the best chance of bringing change to Washington style politics.
Tags: campaign style, Clinton, David Brooks, exageration, experience, gun control, honesty, hope change, integrity, maverick, mccain, New York Times, nyt, Obama, political change, tuzla, washington politics
April 18th, 2008
Yep, Obama wins that coveted endorsement.
“We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.
On the surface, it doesn’t make a ton of sense, considering Senator Obama’s public stance on Hamas (which is, of course, different from his church’s stance).
Perhaps Yousef thinks it’s odd that Obama will talk to some mad men and not others and assumes a President Obama will eventually follow President Carter’s footsteps.
Tags: endorsements, foreign policy, Hamas, Obama, terrorism
April 16th, 2008
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