Mr Obama's Problem - and Mine

It has not been a slow news cycle lately and I have barely had time to digest the flow of events to bring the level of analysis needed to the issues presented.  Really interesting issues like Bear Stearns and the Second Amendment will just have to stand in line, I guess. As always I preface my comments about Senator Obama with the disclaimer that I am not likely to be voting for the man – I do not like his policies or his voting record.

I listened to Senator Obama’s speech this morning [complete text link here] concerning his association with Jeremiah Wright.  It should be noted that Pastor Wright is not a convicted felon and is not accused of anything more that speaking in a manner that is offensive to outsiders – to whom he was not directing his words at the time. 

I am appalled at the statements made by Pastor Wright which seem to be unamerican, factually incorrect and offensive to me.  But in MY America – he has the right to say what he thinks – even if it may be offensive to me. 

So we have two issues presented here.  First, how Senator Obama plans to deal with the issues of race in America and, second, whether he has displayed good judgment, as a candidate for President, by being associated with Pastor Wright. 

At a bit over sixty years of age I have gained some wisdom (the kind you get from being around a while) and have been an eager student and observer of history’s forces and events that have shaped the last half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21^st.  I have been proud to live in a time of giants in the social changes that have occurred in our country.  In the American Civil Rights movement I have been inspired by Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall (civil rights attorney who rose to Supreme Court Justice) who both saw as their goal a color blind society that offered respect and opportunity to members of all races. 

But the next generation of Black leaders after the sixties, in my opinion, was not cut from as fine a cloth.  I have heard more racism and bigotry flowing from the self appointed black leaders than from segregationists.  The churches have been central to the Black communities and have preached hatred for the white power structure that oppressed and victimized their people for generations as a way to connect with their congregations.  In tapping into these emotional issues in this way, I believe they have perpetuated the very problems they sought to address – but the plain fact is that I do not have a damn clue what it was like to be a black man living in an urban center city or in the deep south in my country – and I will not judge Pastor Wright or the other community leaders that have had to fight and beg and claw their way just to obtain simple justice for their communities and for members of their race. 

Barack Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School and was, I believe, the head of the Harvard Law Review – a title of considerable academic achievement.  The normal career path would have been a year as a law clerk for an appellate judge and then a year as a clerk for a Supreme Court Justice.  Barack Obama went back to Chicago where he had worked as a community organizer to take a job running a voter registration drive and ultimately worked as a civil rights attorney.  He met Pastor Wright as a young man (prior to Law School) working in the neighborhoods of Chicago while Wright was doing the work of his Church in the same neighborhoods.  And I would expect that in addition to the spiritual comfort that Barack Obama found in the Trinity United Church, he also found a political structure that could help him with his work and his political ambitions on a local level.  Their subsequent association of more than twenty years gave spiritual comfort to Barack Obama and his family who have lived in Church and personal relationship with their pastor in much the same way as others who have long standing relationships with their ministers.  In addition the social and political work of both men flourished as well.  I would have been surprised if there were not a strong personal bond between these two community leaders and I am sure they are both proud of the accomplishments of the other. 

I see the public persona of Senator Obama but I have little knowledge of Pastor Wright.  The list of books authored by Pastor Wright include such urban terrorist manuals as Sermons of Joy and Strength by Jeremiah Wright, Africans who shaped our Faith, Good News: Sermons of Hope for Today’s Families and Why most Black Men do not go to Church.  I have not read these books – but the titles suggest that there is more to the man than what is being presented on the news this week.

So how does all this bear on the two questions I asked at the beginning of this article. 

So far in the campaign, Senator Obama has avoided racial issues as a distraction from the issues he has preferred to feature in his presentations.  As of this morning, he has met the race issue head on.  He describes the racial problems of our country as an unfulfilled promise that a new nation made to its citizens at its founding.  I agree.  He condemns the language of the last generation of Black leaders – specifically the questioned sermons of Pastor Wright, as devisive when what is needed is unity and and not as a static remnant of the past but as an inspiration that recognized the progress that has been made and seeks to move into the future for the benefit of all Americans. 

As to the question of his association with Pastor Wright – Senator Obama condemns his racial and antisemitic language but refuses to disown the man whom he regards as family.  I respect him for it.  Mrs Clinton would have cut his throat and left him by the side of the road.  I do not view Senator Obama’s actions as weakness – I view them as loyalty, which I prize. 

But there is another issue here, and please forgive me my cynical view.  Obama is not really free to throw away Pastor Wright who is a well known part of the Black community.  To put it bluntly, he needs the votes and cannot afford at this point (shortly before the Pennsylvania primary) to insult millions of black voters that he will need in the general election. 

The new media will determine how this story plays out.  I am certainly looking forward to the first tracking polls that factor todays Obama Speech into their considerations.  I urge the readers to view Senators Obama’s speech in its entirety < link here >.  The American public will have to decide this issue.  But it appears to me that Senator Obama will enter the convention with a majority of the committed delegates. and the superdelegates will have to make a difficult decision.  Undo the results of the state elections and turn to Mrs Clinton or send forth a wounded candidate in the form of Senator Obama into the general election.  It is certain that we have not heard the last of Pastor Wright and his church. 

I wonder who is being served by the media firestorm on this topic.  Pastor Wright’s clips are offensive but not dangerous.  We objected to Muslim leaders blaming 9/11 on American actions because we were attacked by radical Muslims.  I am not sure that those words have the same impact coming from Pastor Wright.  He is wrong – but he is not advocating the overthrow of the government by force and violence. 

It is late (actually early) and I have not gone to sleep yesterday yet.  I have many friends at AR who will disagree with me on what I have said here and I would like to have time to polish this article.  But I want to present a contrarian view to what seemed to be coming from the pundits last night on the cable channels.

 I value the rhetoric of Senator Obama and the message of hope and change that he brings to the electoral process.  I value the inspiration that he brings to younger voters.  The opinions of his Pastor should not be the deciding factor about the Obama candidacy.  I take issue with his voting record and liberal beliefs which mirror Mrs Clintons – but believe his candidacy is good for America and its cultural and ethnic communities.