First Principles

When I first heard about Barack Obama’s radical church, I was troubled. But as a friend of mine put it, I initially “scoffed” at the idea that it would make much of a difference in the election. Besides – even though I wouldn’t vote for him, I respected that he wasn’t overtly playing the race card and sinking into the open demagoguery of other minorities who had run for the presidency. I never cared for his politics, but I liked him. You got the impression that, while he didn’t think conservatives were right, he also didn’t think they were evil. He spent his energy looking forward, not complaining about the past. That’s a guy, I thought, that you could root for as President of the United States, even if you didn’t agree with him on policy.

Then I saw the videos of his pastor. And wow.

Today, after I even heard uber-left wing radio talker Randi Rhodes complaining about it, Obama wrote a “denunciation”. He said:

The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.

Let me repeat what I’ve said earlier. All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn. They in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country.

The only way to buy this is to believe one of two things.

The first is to believe that Obama is incredibly, irredeemably, certifiably stupid. That means that he never bothered to learn about the Church’s overtly racist “10-point vision” (their website’s “About Us” section uses the word “Black” five times, “Africa” or “African” three times, and “Jesus” zero times). It means that he didn’t understand what his “spiritual mentor” was talking about most of the time, including his belief that the Bible says Jesus was a poor black man oppressed by rich white people, just like Obama. (Which verse that is, I’m not really sure, but then I guess I can’t claim to be a “respected biblical scholar,” like Obama described “Rev.” Wright.) And it means that he honestly thinks the new pastor who succeeded Wright in retirement will be cut from a different cloth. You have to imagine that he was so out of touch with America that he couldn’t understand how any of this stuff might be seen as “particularly controversial.” And you have to buy that in two decades of listening to sermons and being mentored by him, he never once picked up on the deeply anti-American and racist sentiments that clearly form the foundation of his friend’s special brand of “Christianity”.

Does anyone honestly think that Barack Obama is dumb?

The only other possibility is that Obama is simply not being honest when he says that he was completely unaware, up until just a few years ago, that his pastor was a racist, conspiratorial, paranoid demagogue who believes we are a nation which deserves to be damned by God. And he is likewise not being honest when he suggests he is offended by the sentiments. What kind of person chooses to sit around in a church pew for 20+ years and listen to “inflammatory and appalling remarks” that “in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country” and which “pain[] and anger[]” you?

Obama is left in the unenviable position of trying to convince us that he’s not an America hater nodding along with racist rants, but just that he’s really, really, really dumb. Either way, he’s not fit for the position he seeks, and whatever personal admiration I once had for the man is gone.