Knee-Jerk Reactions
Motormouth Matthews got lathered up yesterday about the Wright "controversy." As did Joe Scarborough. The story got some play on network news — it's fair to assume it was all over right-wing talk radio. Well, Wright's expression of "God-damn America" was over the top, but shouldn't be taken out of context, either. What the guy's been saying sounds reasonable to me: Far from being a beacon of justice and democratic process the U.S. acts the bully, to its own disadvantaged at home (today that includes the "middle class") and to everybody else overseas. He could well have gone on to argue that the U.S. is habitually run by war criminals; I haven't seen such a quote yet though if he'd said it, despite his having said it, it would nevertheless be true.
Why have so few mentioned, by the way, that Oprah goes to that same church, as does a fair proportion of Chicago's black elite? Is it at all reasonable to expect Obama to further dissociate himself from Trinity, which in many ways should be understood as a black Metropolitan club? At this point Obama's gone more than far enough distancing himself from Wright.
But in all this there's one question I rarely saw asked, never answered: Why now? None of the clips of Wright are new, some even appear to be from years ago. Did these things just pop up on news desks all over the establishment media at the same time? What propelled the story in the first place? Call me cynical, but it looks like typical political dirty tricks, more race-baiting, probably from the fecund Clinton playbook.
Posted by George Kenney on March 15, 2008 2:46 PM 
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Comments
I believe that Rev. Wright said something along the lines of: '9/11 was blowback for our foreign policy', just like Chalmers Johnson. This is NOT the same as saying that the people in the towers deserved it. Of course, it can be played that way, if politicians as unscrupulous as the Clintons want to. What is so tragic is that it is poorer, less-educated people who are fooled by the NAFTA-promoting Clintons. Speaking of Reverends, this reminds me a bit of of Jim Jones. Not to mention that Neanderthal Hagee, who lives high off the hog from the proceeds of his poor suckers. Ignorance is a curse, which the unscrupulous exploit.
Posted by: benjamin777
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March 15, 2008 3:24 PM
I'm also very curious about why now? and how all this stuff about Reverend Wright got started. It's not like it was a big secret.
Posted by: John D. Bartram | March 19, 2008 8:05 PM