March 20, 2008
Obama ties to ‘separatist’ pastor raise big questions
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Yet, the black church is vastly more than a caldron of inspiration via rage. It is also a place of exhilaration for a better way, a new way. Obama says he represents that new way; he is the apostle of "change" and a torch of the new politics. Yet, revelations about his infusion with Wright represent his tie not to the new century but to the decades-old politics of bitterness, rage and hate.In a political defense that now ranks with Bill Clinton's assertion that he "never inhaled" and "never had sex with that woman," Barack claims he was never in the pews when Wright expressed his hateful sermons.
Obama's defense that he did not know of Wright's bigotry is opposed by record itself. More than a year ago, Obama suddenly uninvited Wright to offer the invocation at a major campaign event.
Wright told The New York Times in March 2007, "Fifteen minutes before Shabbos, I get a call from Barack.... One of his members had talked him into uninviting me." Wright pointedly chose the Yiddish term Shabbos to refer to the Friday night time.
Wright told The Times, "When his enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell." He added, that Obama advised, "You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we've decided is that it's best for you not to be out there in public."
For Obama, it seems like a lose-lose situation. Either he has repeatedly lied to the nation about his knowledge of Wright's bigotry, or for 20 years, he was ignorant of his own mentor's views being broadcast worldwide every Sunday.
The Jewish community has long self-censored on Obama's hate links. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) even recently issued a press release that it was satisfied that Obama had disavowed Wright's race hatred and anti-Zionist fervor.
But now, in a weekend interview, ADL national director Abraham Foxman said his view is different.
"More is now known," Foxman said. "It is not a casual, one-way way relationship with pastor Wright."
Foxman has joined the growing chorus of disbelief about Obama's ignorance: "It is very difficult to believe that throughout these years, Obama has been unaware of the conspiracy, bigotry and anti-Zionist views."
While most in America are worried about playing a race card, Obama has shown he is still carrying around a full deck.
Edwin Black on assignment for the Washington Post was the first Jewish journalist to interview Louis Farrakhan as part of his investigation of the Nation of Islam. This article is adapted from a longer piece from The Cutting Edge News at www.thecuttingedgenews.com.
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