I wouldn't be supporting Barack Obama if I didn't believe in him with all of my heart. I think he can get us out of Iraq the fastest and start a new era of foreign policy that the US has never seen before.

I will say that if Hillary wins the nomination, I will vote for her.

There are a couple problems that this press conference aren't likely to assuage. First is Obama's statement that he guesses he didn't know Wright as well as he thought he did. "The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I had come to know over 20 years." That's a big problem for someone running on judgment. Secondly, yesterday Obama pointed to Wright's off-message press tour as proof that the his campaign was not managing or coordinating with Wright, I suppose to distance himself from Wright prove to people that he is indeed Obama's former pastor. What is does for me is call into question his fitness to run a general.

Look, he sat there for 20 years. He knew who the guy was. Nothing he does and says can change that fact.

Obama is not going to campaign on the issues. America wants that now - we're finally sick of slogans - but he doesn't have the absolute mastery of detail that HRC has. He cannot compete with her on that front.

CNN's Bill Schneider says the same. This is an attempt to win Indiana and N.C. and get Hillary out of the race

I think it will work with the media. They're so easy. Snicker. But I don't think it will work for americans. I think Clinton will win Indiana, and I think Obama will win NC, but by a narrower margin, probably around 10.

4-McCain
5-Obama
7-Clinton

Interesting note: 3 of the 4 AA women in the group are voting for Clinton.

1. How will Wright react to Obama's criticism?
   
2. How will AA voters feel if Obama comes off as dissing the man that many AA's respect?
   
3. How will the Sharpton issue in New York play into this dividing of AA's?

Obama describes Wright as `the guy who counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me. He's a friend and a great leader.' "I got to give a special shout-out to my pastor. The guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me. He's a friend and a great leader, not just in Chicago but all throughout the country. So please, everybody, give an extraordinary welcome to my pastor, Dr. Jeremiah Wright Jr." [Obama remarks, Hampton University, June 2007

I like Obama.   I believe Hillary is more likely to be a successful candidate and President but I do like Obama.

And what Obama has done in his remarks today is send a lot of now-skeptical reporters off on a treasure hunt, where they are bound to find a  trove of material that flies in the face of what Obama said today.

Wright has framed all of this as an attack on the black church, likened it to insulting his momma and her religion, his daddy and his religious tradition.  I daresay Wright has managed to harness a lot of support for himself and his church and the black church tradition - and I cannot imagine that millions of blacks who proudly came out to support Obama are not now livid that Obama has completely trashed Wright.  Ooh, this is not going to be pretty.

However smart Obama thinks he is, it may be that Jeremiah Wright is miles ahead of him and much more tuned into the black community than Obama is; short of Wright coming out and making a political statement in support of Obama, urging black voters who have not already voted not to abandon Obama, I don't see how Obama's support in the black community does not take a significant hit.

The other edge of this double-edged sword is that Wright's remarks also tapped into the worst fears of the more unenlightened, and could pull some votes away on that score.

It's all coming apart at the seams.  

Obama Acquired Memory Loss (which is LMAO spelled backwards).

It's first member: Travis Childer, Democrat candidate for Congress in Mississippi

See for yourself:

http://www.villarrealsports.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=484

Some may understand the politics of it and vote for Obama anyway.  

Others may wonder, however, if a President Barack will throw the AA Community and their wants and needs under the bus at the first sign of difficulty or challenge and may begin to come out of their SC-induced fog and remember quite clearly how good things actually WERE under President Clinton.

Now, however, as Wright goes around the country performing as a caricature of what many white voters will perceive as "The Scary Black Man," Obama has an obligation to repudiate Wright.  Failing to repudiate Wright risks allowing the GOP (and until then presumably the Clinton campaign) to use Wright as the Black proxy with which to scare off white voters.

I'm sure the comments at
The Oceania was always at war with Europa

It's kind of scary when I know more about Wright's comments than someone who was in his church for 20 years did.

Anyway, that was listed as one of the new reasons for a more complete break with Wright.

And you cant make this stuff up

Democrat's `88 nominee Dukakis says his wife is "an Obama fanatic," believes Florida/Michigan delegations should not be let in to advantage Clinton, and gives veepstakes advice.

His own short-list finalists: Bentsen, Gore, Gephardt, Glenn.

From what I have seen, the clips they are using of Wright was from some kind of special event he did. Special as in... this is not your everyday sermon.

Imo, BO's response was very honest today.  The emotion of his response was clear; he was not angered by Wright's Press Club rant, but BO was very well controlled and reasonable.  Time and again he's shown that he is more honest* than most politicians.  Over time his comments have also shared a consistency  of logic/thinking because they always track back to his core beliefs about what's right.  His resistance to politics as a series of tactical contortions and manipulations driven by the short sighted opportunism is appealing to me.  I like that he isn't constantly changing the slogans and purpose of his campaign, the consistency inherently adds to his sincerity.  More than I've seen with a lot of politicians his reactions are based on what he feels and believes at his core**.  I like that, because I'm more resistant to micro targeting than many.

*His comments about his writing on the "gun" questionnaire, seem to be an exception.  But, there were two memos so it's likely that his comments were technically correct.  And, it's completely plausible that he didn't fill out or carefully edit that form(s), even if he did write some additional supporters on the list, which was on the first page--politicians don't usually fill out these things.  And, his response (via staff) to Tapper about smoking was questionable, but I wouldn't be surprised if his comment to the staffer was technically correct, but easily (and innocently) loosing nuance or precision when retold by the staffer to Tapper.  

Not after he compared Wright to his grandmother...

Instead of this "I didn't know" nonsense, he should have said

"yeah, I knew that Reverend Wright was a crackpot.  In Philadelphia, I defended him because I knew he was retiring, and I didn't want to hurt the thousands of good people at my church, whose work with the poor and disadvantaged is what was really important to me...."

But this just leaves Obama wide open for the GOP smear machine to question his honesty and integrity.  The far right isn't going to let Obama get away with "I didn't know", and Obama is gonna be hit with a double whammy... not only did he associate with Wright for 20 years, but now he's pretending he didn't really know who Wright was?  

How will AA voters feel if Obama comes off as dissing the man that many AA's respect?