Posted by
Andrews on Saturday, March 15, 2008 2:53:56 PM
So, after 20 years of attending a church, listening to its pastor, and claiming that same pastor as his spiritual mentor, Obama is surprised to learn that the man has militant black nationalist beliefs? Pardon me if I am a bit skeptical of this claim.
I am not yet ready to write on this topic in depth, as so far we only have Obama's scripted distancing of himself from his pastor. Far more interesting will be the responses of the chattering classes over the weekend, and Obama's replies to their comments. If they give him a pass, the story will probably fade away as Obama wishes. If they refuse to buy into his convenient claims of failing to hear any of the more inflammatory sermons, then things will become more interesting.
Of course, no one really believes Obama. To accept his claims we have to believe that this church was just like any other church, except every so often the pastor launched into virulently anti-American, black nationalist sermons, and Obama happened to skip services, purely by coincidence, on each and every one of those days over the past 20 years. That is a pretty convenient coincidence, even for someone leading a charmed life, like Obama.
But even if we could accept those claims, Obama's excuses still don't work. There is no way his church is a normal Christian institution with just the periodic black nationalism tacked on. From everything I have read, his church is more of a political movement hiding behind the guise of a church, rather than a traditional church which happened to employ a lone militant. In the same way that Hitler tried to manipulate the Lutheran church into becoming a wing of the NSDAP, or the "liberation theology" scholars tried to turn Catholicism into a wing of socialism, the black nationalists have found that they can hide their more extreme activities, and gain a veneer of respectability by hiding behind nominal churches. And that seems to be true of Obama's place of worship and his spiritual mentor of the past 20 years.
All of which makes me doubt that these anti-American sermons were an aberration. Far more likely, there was a strain of militant black nationalism and anti-Americanism present in every sermon, as a part of the unstated philosophy driving the church itself. Nor do I think that the pastor himself made any effort to hide his heart-felt beliefs.
So, if Obama managed to attend this church for 20 years, while also being in close contact with the pastor, close enough to call the man an influence on his thinking, and failed to notice this strain of militant black nationalism and anti-American sentiment, then he has to be superhumanly inept at understanding human nature. If we accept his claims, then his simple lack of perception, and failure to grasp even the basics of human nature seem to make him unqualified to hold office.
But, of course, I don't believe he is that obtuse. Far more likely all of this is simply a convenient lie. Which should also disqualify him for office. But, as we all know, Democrats have no problem with lies, as long as they are "just about sex" or one's liberal beliefs.
ADDENDUM
As I said in my update today to "
Changing Predictions", at the moment superdelegates are shifting back to Obama due mainly to the Ferraro brouhaha and Hillary's racism mea culpa. I think the MSM will try to bury the Wright story to keep Obama viable, but, should the fifth estate (the alternative media) keep this story alive, we may see those superdelegates realign more heavily in Hillary's favor once again.