The Audacity of Rhetoric
The Audacity of Rhetoric - Now that would be a good campaign slogan.
My take: If a candidate was being very careful about the friends he chose 20+ years ago, it says one of two things about his choice in a church he continued to attend for 20 years. He was either sorely and consistently lacking in the judgement required to distance himself from a man who would ever spew the kind of vitriol that Pastor Wright has spoken, or he carefully chose his church as well, and backs the beliefs espoused by its leader.
You can’t choose your family. You CAN choose your friends, and your church. The american people will figure out this guy is the political equivalent of cotton candy, sooner or later. Fluffy and sweet, but ultimately lacking any real substance. I just hope they figure it out in time.
Elissa:
I dunno, politicians often find themselves associating with people who hold views deviant from their own, because that’s politics. Within the activist black community, Wright looks less woolly than he does to white old you and I, which is maybe unfortunate, but it’s a fact. McCain thinks thimerosal causes autism, which is frankly just as wrong and potentially harmful as saying the gummint created AIDS to keep the black man down, but I expect you’ll be voting for him.
March 26, 2008, 1:41 pmNeo:
Well, frankly, McCain’s not a doctor and likely doesn’t keep up on these things as much as someone who has a scientific background. However, I think it’s unlikely that this particular misunderstanding, while unfortunate, is going to be as harmful as one which could be used as justification for a militant popular uprising if believed to be true.
Also, it’s one thing for a politician to associate with people with views deviant from his own “because that’s politics,” and another for a 20-something law student to choose to associate with someone this hateful before he’s entered the political arena, and continue the association for over 20 years, up to the point of referring to this man as his “spiritual advisor.”
March 26, 2008, 1:57 pmElissa:
I think a popular uprising is at least as unlikely as epidemics of preventable diseases causing thousands of children to die unnecessarily because their parents didn’t vaccinate them. Which is worse? Your call, I guess.
Also, it has long been my suspicion that political expediency is a big part of Mr. Obama’s faith. That probably scandalizes you, but it doesn’t worry me, for obvious reasons.
March 26, 2008, 2:10 pm