Barack Obama Meets The Press Part II

   A little more on Tim Russert's interview with Senator Obama on NBC's  Meet The Press

  On the discussion of Reverend Wright and a few of his comments that Obama did not care for, and Obama not letting Wright do the invocation when he ( Obama ) announced his candidacy back in 2007.

  Edited for brevity:  

   But, but that doesn't detract from, you know, my belief that, ultimately, what he has represent--what he has been saying about the United States over the last several months and over the last several years, particularly some of the statements that I had not heard before, are contrary to who I am and what I stand for.  And, look, I think it's important to, to put this in context, Tim. You know, I'm somebody who is born to a white mother and a, and an African father.  It's in my DNA to believe that we can bring this country together and that the people are the same under the skin.  And that's what I've been fighting for all my life, and, you know, the--to, to a large degree, everything that I've done as a community organizer, everything that I've done as a state legislator and a United States senator embodies those ideals that we can get people who look differently or speak differently or come from different experiences to recognize what they have in common.  That is a set of principles that I think Reverend Wright was dismissing and diminishing, and that's why, ultimately, you know, I had to forcefully state how wrong I thought he was.  

MR. RUSSERT:  You're done with him?  If you're elected president, you won't seek his counsel?

SEN. OBAMA:  Absolutely not.  Now, I think it's important to keep in mind, Tim, that I never sought his counsel when it came to politics.  And I--you know, some, some of the reporting that implies that somehow he's my spiritual advisor or mentor, as he himself said, overstated things.  He was my pastor, and he built a terrific church.  I'm proud of that church.  We've got a wonderful young pastor who's there who's doing--continuing the terrific work that the church does.  And that's my commitment.  My commitments are to the values of that church, my commitment is to Christ; it's not to Reverend Wright.

 Transcript

  Senator Obama has now faced the Wright issue and answered the questions which needed to be asked. Maybe now the MSM and the Republicans will find something else to bitch about, for a change.  Move along folks, nothing to see here.

  Next up: Obama's Patriotism

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,Reverand Jeremiah Wright,Meet The Press,2008

Barack Obama Meets The Press

  Senator Barack Obama appeared on NBC's Meet The Press today, and of course the first topic of discussion was Obama's views on his former pastor Reverend Wright. We all know the little disturbance that Wright has been causing this past week with a few of his comments, so host Tim Russert wasted no time in getting to the subject.

    Mr. Russert began by asking Obama what effect had Wrights comments made on his campaign.

SEN. OBAMA:  Well, obviously it's distracted us.  I mean, we ended up spending a lot of time talking about Reverend Wright instead of talking about gas prices and food prices and the situation in Iraq.  And so it, it's, it wasn't welcome.  But, you know, I think that the American people understand that when I joined Trinity United Church of Christ, I was committing not to Pastor Wright, I was committing to a church and I was committing to Christ. And it is a wonderful church. But when I saw, this week, him come out and speak in a way that was just as divisive, that didn't explain or apologize, but rather worsened some of the comments that he had made previously, I felt it was very important to make clear that that's not who I am, that's not who I stand for.  I don't think it represented well the church or the African-American church.

  On why it took so long for Obama to come out and say something about Wrights previous comments:

But when he came out at the press conference of the National Press Club, not only did he amplify some of those comments and defend them vigorously, but he added to it.  He put gasoline on the fire.  And what that told me was not only was he interested in using this platform to continue to make statements that I fundamentally disagree with and that offend me, but also that he didn't have much regard for the moment that we're in right now here in the United States where we can't be distracted or engaged in this divisive, hateful language.  Instead, we've got to bring the country together to solve problems.  And, so in that sense, what became apparent to me was he didn't know me as well as I thought he did, and I certainly didn't know him as well as I thought I did.  And, and that, you know, was disappointing, but something that I had to clearly speak out about.

  Senator Obama spent the entire hour speaking with Russert and I'm not about to get into the whole hours worth of transcript at this time. However, if you wish to, you can read it Here at your leisure. I will be bringing up some more of this conversation later on.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,Tim Russert,Meet the Press,Reverand Jeremiah Wright