"L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace" was a favorite saying of General George S. Patton quoting one of his heroes, Frederick the Great.
I think that George and Fred would agree that both Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. and his pastor of choice for about a score of years, Reverend Jeremiah A. "God damn America!" Wright, Jr., are very audacious men.
It takes plenty of audacity for a young rookie United States Senator without military or executive experience to deem himself (or herself) presidential material.
Senator Obama did that and still hopes to be elected before the whole truth becomes generally known and the absurdity of his presumption is generally appreciated.
Unfortunately for Senator Obama and his wife Michelle (a middle-aged woman who puts the Black community "first and foremost" and finally became "really proud: of America for the first time after her husband's preposterous presidential campaign was well received), their pastor of choice (the man who married them and baptized their daughters as well as inspired them with his Sunday sermons) was Reverend Wright.
The Rev, Wright who said America deserved to be attacked on September 11, 2001 (among other outrageous things).
Senator Obama, a Harvard-educated lawyer, is pleading ignorance!
Obama expert Andy Martin: "...Obama’s claim that he has been a part of an institution for over twenty years, and yet had no awareness of the controversial claims being preached from the pulpit, is completely unbelievable, mendacious and probably a bald-faced lie. And this man wants to be president? He’s running on judgment, intelligence and bringing us together?"
Senator Obama is all about audacity, Andy.
When Senator Obama got serious about running for president, he did what presidential hopefuls usually do: have a book about himself published.
That book, titled The Audacity of Hope, was published in 2006 (the year before Senator Obama announced his presidential candidacy).
Rev. Wright is not listed in the book's index, mentioned in its text or even acknowledged, even though Senator Obama credited him with bringing Senator Obama to Jesus and Rev. Wright famously gave a Sunday sermon titled "The Audacity of Hope" that Senator Obama heard in Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois.
Could that possibly be because Senator Obama realized that scrutiny of his relationship to Rev. Wright would be politically catastrophic for him?
It wasn't because Senator Obama always tried to put distance between himself and Rev. Wright.
In Senator Obama's first book, titled Dreams of My Father and published in 1995 (after he had been elected president of the Harvard Law Review but before he had been elected to public office), Senator Obama wrote at length about Rev. Wright and his moving "Audacity of Hope" speech.
In Dreams, Senator Obama explained how he met Rev. Wright, whom he mentioned had been "dabbling with liquor, Islam, and black nationalism in the sixties."
He acknowledged that Rev. Wright immediately had given him fair warning that he was controversial, by quoting Rev. Wright as having said: "Some of my fellow clergy don't appreciate what we're about. They feel like we're too radical. Others, we aren't radical enough. Too emotional. Not emotional enough."
He also acknowledged that Rev. Wright let him know at their first meeting that he looked unfavorably on America and expected to continue to do so, by stating, "Life's not safe for a black man in this country, Barack. Never has been. Probably never will be."
Senator Obama left with one of Rev. Wright's "Black Value System" brochures.
When Senator Barack listened to Rev. Wright's "Audacity of Hope" sermon, September 11, 2001 was years away, but, Senator Obama admitted in Dreams, Rev. Wright castigated America.
Senator Obama put it this way: "Reverend Wright spoke of Sharpsville and Hiroshima, the callousness of policy makers in the White House and in the State House. As the sermon unfolded...the stories of strife became more prosaic, the pain more immediate...."
So it's hard to believe that Senator Obama was not familiar until very recently with Rev. Wright's position on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It's even worse for Senator Obama and Rev. Wright.
In Obama: From Promise to Power, by the Chicago Tribune's David Mendell, Mr. Mendell relates (pp. 159-160) a meeting between Senator Obama and Rev. Wright when Senator Obama was deciding whether or not to run for the United States Senate:
"'My name should be out there,' Obama told his pastor. 'but Carol Moseley Braun won't say what's she's going to do, and I'm not gonna run against a black woman. If she's gonna run, then I'm out. Until she says yes or no, I can't say anything."
Yet the Obama campaign was furious that 1984 Democrat vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro had said that race was working against Hillary Rodham Clinton in her battle with Senator Obama for the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination.
If Hillary were black, Barack would not be running against her, because he's "not gonna run against a black woman."
Is it Hillary's fault that she's not black (or half-black)?
Mr. Mendell next wrote about Senator Obama's reportedly stunning experience with the Congressional Black Caucus and, if Rev. Wright is to be believed, there's plenty of booze and promiscuity and little if anything else at black caucus events.
Mr. Mendell:
"But what struck Wright from the meeting was Obama's astonishment over the black caucus event in Washington. It opened Wright's eyes once again to just how innocent and idealistic Obama could be about the world of politics.. The conference was nothing like what Obama had envisioned, but it was exactly the way Wright, a former adviser to Chicago's only black mayor, Harold Washington, recalled it.
"'He had gone down there to get support and find out who would support him and found out it was just a meat market,' the pastor said in an interview, breaking into a laugh. 'He had people say, "If you want to count on me, come on to my room. I don't care if you're married. I am not asking you to leave your wife--just come on." All the women hitting on him. He was, like, in shock. He's there on a serious agenda, talking about running for the United States Senate. They're talking about giving [him] some pussy. And I was like, "Barack, c'mon, man. Come on! Name me one significant thing that has come out of black congressional caucus weekend. It's homecoming. It's just a nonstop party, all the booze you want, all the booty you want. That's all it is." And here he is with this altruistic agenda, trying to get some support. He comes back shattered. I thought to myself, "Does he have a rude awakening coming his way."'"
Whether or not all the women at the black caucus event were tramps and all the men but Senator Obama there were there for "booze" and "booty," or Rev. Wright is nuts, I don't know, but the notes to Mr. Mendell's book credit Chicago Tribune religion reporter Manya Brachear with having interviewed Rev. Wright in October 2006 about the discussion reported in Mr. Mendell's book.
It turned out that Senator Obama, his wife Michelle, their Obamamaniacs and Rev. Wright all had a rude awakening coming their way and it appears to have come in sufficient time for America.
The Obama campaign would have collapsed instead of boomed a year ago if the whole truth about the young presidential hopeful's long-term relationship with his crazed anti-American pastor of choice had been fully appreciated and fully publicized then.
Interestingly,The New York Times obviously smelled the smoke long ago, but did not call attention to the raging fire behind the smoke.
Its March 6, 2007 article by Jodi Kantor, titled "Disinvitation by Obama Is Criticized," put the blame for the disinvitation of an unnamed campaign adviser's "apparent fear of criticism over Mr. Wright’s teachings, which some say are overly Afrocentric to the point of excluding whites."
But the article set forth facts that called for further investigation instead of an implication that white racism in America had led a very-race conscious Obama adviser to convince the candidate to risk offending some black religious leaders by disinviting his pastor and praying with him in private instead of in public:
"...back in January, Mr. Obama had asked Mr. Wright if he would begin the event by delivering a public invocation."
"Mr. Wright said Mr. Obama called him the night before the Feb. 10 announcement and rescinded the invitation to give the invocation."
"'One of his members had talked him into uninviting me,' Mr. Wright said, referring to Mr. Obama’s campaign advisers."
"Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said the campaign disinvited Mr. Wright because it did not want the church to face negative attention."
"'Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church, but because of the type of attention it was receiving on blogs and conservative talk shows, he decided to avoid having statements and beliefs being used out of context and forcing the entire church to defend itself,' Mr. Burton said."
"In Monday’s interview, Mr. Wright expressed disappointment but no surprise that Mr. Obama might try to play down their connection.
“'When his enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli' to visit Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Mr. Wright recalled, 'with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.' Mr. Wright added that his trip implied no endorsement of either Louis Farrakhan’s views or Qaddafi’s."
"Mr. Wright said that in the phone conversation in which Mr. Obama disinvited him from a role in the announcement, Mr. Obama cited an article in Rolling Stone, 'The Radical Roots of Barack Obama.'"
"According to the pastor, Mr. Obama then told him, '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.'"
Those drinking the Obama Kool-Aid really believe that he didn't know about all those outrageous remarks by Rev. Wright that he finally condemned after the media started playing the video of Rev. Wright over and over. But, even if they're right, then their candidate obviously lacks the sensitivity and judgment to be President.
