By Daniel Johnson-Kim, Sports Editor
Ever have a friend speak for you when you didn’t want them to? Maybe a buddy said some thing controversial you didn’t agree with, and you were guilty by association.
If so, you and presidential candidate Barack Obama should start a Facebook group.
Obama’s mentor, pastor and friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright has been on a media rampage defending and restating controversial and divisive comments about the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States’ relationship with Israel and the ridiculous claim that the AIDS epidemic is a government plot to exterminate African Americans – Obama must be slapping himself on the forehead.
Over the past couple of days, Wright did an interview on PBS with media legend Bill Moyers, and took the stage at the National Press Club and at an NAACP event. By doing so, Wright threw gasoline on a fire the Obama camp thought they put out at the end of March.
Questions about Obama’s connection and relation to Wright first hit the national news cycle last month when clips of Wright’s controversial comments went viral on YouTube. Soon after, Obama gave a speech on race in America to dispel any connection between Wright’s views and his own. He courageously addressed the racial divide in this country and the rage and mistreatment that fuels angry reactions like
Wright’s. Most importantly, Obama made it clear that his pastor did not speak for him – he spoke for himself.
But Obama’s articulate speech addressing the media’s questions about Wright, was apparently for nothing, and déj… vu is starting to kick in.
In his latest rants Wright declared that, “America’s chickens are coming home to roost . you cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back to you,” and defended the now famous YouTube clip with him shouting “God damn America,” for its actions domestic and abroad.
And though Wright has defended his vicious comments and spat out more controversial sound bites – being played on again on the TV stations and the Web – it should not matter; Wright is not running for president.
Obama never made the comments that have the political columnists and YouTube fools up in a storm. Obama never said the words that made Sean Hannity and other FoxNews fools make angry faces. Obama got lumped in with an angry man looking for national attention.
Do not look at the man screaming and shaking on stage like a fool; look at the man who is running to be president of the United States- don’t judge a candidate by his pastor.
