Anderson@Large

The Audacity of Rev. Wright

I grew up in the Baptist church. I was baptized by the Rev. Dr. Gardner C. Taylor, the "Dean of Black Preachers."

I don’t have a church home at present, but I frequently attend service at churches of various denominations. In all my church visits, I never encountered a pastor like Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Like most Americans, I was deeply offended by "snippets of those sermons." On "FOX News Sunday," Barack Obama said:

I think that it is also true that to run a snippet of 30-second sound bites, selecting out of a 30-year career, simplified and caricatured him, and caricatured the church.

In his "performance" before the National Press Club, Obama says Wright "caricatured himself." But for most Americans, those "rants" contextualized the YouTube and cable TV snippets. His good works notwithstanding, Wright may indeed be "wackadoodle."

Wright’s wackiness is wreaking havoc for his former congregant. So in a hastily called news conference, Obama flipped the script.

Obama said Wright’s dismissal of his speech on race as political posturing was a "show of disrespect to me" and "an insult to what we’re trying do in this campaign." He now hopes to distance himself from his audacious former pastor.

Good luck with that. Six weeks ago in Philadelphia, Obama said:

As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children… I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.

With polls showing him losing ground, Obama threw Wright under the bus.

Obama’s crazy uncle chickens have come home to roost.

Voting in America: Picture This

A week from today, voters will go to the polls in North Carolina and Indiana. Voters in both states are eager to have their voices heard in the Democratic nomination battle. But voters in the Hoosier State, including the 300,000 who have registered since January, must bring more than enthusiasm to the polling place. They better bring a valid photo ID.

In the most important voting rights case since Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s law requiring voters to present a current photo ID. The law was passed by Indiana's Republican-controlled legislature on a party line vote.

In a 6-to-3 ruling, the Supreme Court held the requirement did not impose an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote:

The application of the statute to the vast majority of Indiana voters is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process.

Never mind that there is no evidence of in-person voter fraud. But there is evidence that the ruling will have a disparate impact on elderly and low-income voters.

Mary G. Wilson, president of the League of Women Voters, said:

This is a disgraceful decision by a court that has no credibility on election issues. The court has shown once again that it does not respect voters.

Because of the procedural status of the case, there was no record on which the Court could judge how great the burden of a photo ID requirement would be on voters. Nonetheless, the three key justices found that the burden was not "excessively burdensome." This finding is "intellectually as well as morally bankrupt.

Wilson added:

There is a concerted effort in this country to disenfranchise legal voters and, unfortunately, this Supreme Court has joined those ugly efforts. …

We can no longer look to this Supreme Court to ensure fair elections.

The fight to protect voters and remove barriers to the voting booth continues.

Wright Sings the Blues

Words matter. So in politics, words and associations are fair game. A reality that Barack Obama acknowledged on "FOX News Sunday":

The fact that he is my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue. So I understand that.

I think that it is also true that to run a snippet of 30-second sound bites, selecting out of a 30-year career, simplified and caricatured him, and caricatured the church.

And I think that was done in a fairly deliberate way, and that is unfortunate, because as I've said before, I have strongly denounced those comments that were the subject of so much attention. I wasn't in church when he made them.

Like it or not, politicians use 30-second ads to define their opponents.

Still, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. is trying to put his incendiary remarks in context:

The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly. What is not the failure to communicate is when something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public.

But Obama and Rev. Wright still don’t get it: You can’t contextualize "God damn America." For the overwhelming majority of Americans, God has blessed America. To suggest otherwise is unpatriotic. Period.

One needs look no further than the verdict in the Sean Bell case to know there’s something “wrong with this country.” But the response to injustice and the black condition is to fight to perfect the American union, not to damn America. We are, after all, "blues people."

During his interview with Bill Moyers, Rev. Wright gave a brilliant lesson on how black folks used the blues to survive in this imperfect union:

Blacks learned how to sing the blues rather than just giving up on life. A guy's wife walks out on him with his best friend. And he's crushed. So what does he say? Instead of going out and taking a gun and killing he sings a song. "I'm going down to the railroad to lay my poor head on the track. I'm going down to the railroad to lay my poor head on the track. "And when the locomotive comes I'm gonna pull my fool head back." I'm not giving up life over this. That life goes on beyond this. Pain is just for a moment. This whole notion about what we're going through is only a season. And this came to pass, didn't come to stay. That's what the blues do. And that's what the music tradition does. That's what the spirituals have done and that's what the gospel music has done, historically, in our church. So, yeah, trying to keep that as an integral part of worship is crucial for us.

Rev. Wright will address the National Press Club today. While he may not have "trouble in mind," his reemergence focuses attention on Obama’s pastor disaster.

The Wright Stuff

Rev. Jeremiah Wright is starring in numerous YouTube videos and an endless loop on FOX News. In defiance of John McCain, North Carolina Republican Chairman Linda Daves says the show will go on:

Contrary to any media reports, the "Extreme"€™ ad will run as scheduled next week. There has never been any intention to pull the ad and it will air. ...

People here in North Carolina should know that this ad is focused on Democrats Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue.  By endorsing Barack Obama, they allied themselves with the most liberal person in the United States Senate.  He is a candidate out of touch with the voters of North Carolina who does not share the values of North Carolinians.  By refusing to stand up and rightfully denounce the statements made by his controversial former associates, Perdue and Moore are giving us the impression that they share these extreme views.  The voters of North Carolina should be allowed to ask a legitimate question of candidates in North Carolina. ...

Meanwhile, Obama's former pastor breaks his silence. In an interview with Bill Moyers, Rev. Wright says:

The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly.

When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public. That's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me, a "wackadoodle."€

It'€™s to paint me as something: "€œSomething's wrong with me. There™s nothing wrong with this country...for its policies. We'€™re perfect. Our hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them. That'™s not a failure to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the sound bites is exactly what those pushing those sound bites want to communicate.

Rev. Wright’s interview with Moyers airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET. To check your local listings, click here.

N.C. GOP Tars Obama in Ad

The North Carolina Republican Party plans to run an ad linking Barack Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and two Democratic candidates for governor who have endorsed Obama.

In an open letter to North Carolina Republican Party Chair Linda Daves, John McCain asked her to pull the ad:

From the beginning of this election, I have been committed to running a respectful campaign based upon an honest debate about the great issues confronting America today. I expect all state parties to do so as well. The television advertisement you are planning to air degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats. In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement.

This ad does not live up to the very high standards we should hold ourselves to in this campaign. We need to run a campaign that is worthy of the people we seek to serve.

But we need not engage in political tactics that only seek to divide the American people.

Once again, it is imperative that you withdraw this offensive advertisement.

The party wants McCain to butt out. State party spokesman Brent Woodcox told the News & Observer:

We think this is a legitimate question to ask, and we don't think we're the only ones asking it. We feel this is a North Carolina issue.

And what happens in North Carolina won’t stay in North Carolina. According to the Washington Post, the ad is one of the GOP strategies to link Democratic candidates with Obama's controversies, including Bittergate.

Clinton's Keystone State of Mind

As expected, Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary. In her victory speech, Clinton said:

It’s a long road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and it runs right through the heart of Pennsylvania.

Demographics foretold Clinton’s destiny. Barack Obama won Philadelphia, Harrisburg and a handful of rural counties, but Clinton cleaned up in the rest of the state.

CNN exit polls show the racial divide. Obama received 90 percent of the black vote to Clinton’s eight percent. Clinton won 62 percent of the white vote to Obama’s 38 percent. Clinton won white voters of all ages, including 52 percent of independents and voters age 18-29.

Clinton’s 10-point victory keeps her in the game and bolsters her case that she is more electable in the general election. While Obama maintains a slim lead in pledged delegates, the Democratic nomination race is increasingly about race.

Twenty percent of Pennsylvania Democrats said the race of a candidate mattered. More revealing, 17 percent say they would vote for McCain or stay home if Clinton is the nominee. Twenty-five percent would vote for McCain or not vote if Obama is the Democratic standard-bearer.

Obama won Philadelphia with 65 percent of the vote. But he needed to win in a landslide to offset his limited appeal among blue-collar workers and voters who “cling to guns or religion.” Obama’s Philly margin might have been bigger if he had not bypassed campaigning in predominantly black areas, including Rep. Chaka Fattah’s congressional district.

CNN’s Roland Martin noted that having a rally of 35,000 people is good, but you have to be able to close the deal. I was at Independence Mall. The atmosphere was more like a concert or sporting event than a voter mobilization rally. Polls show that voters who made up their minds in the last week broke for Clinton 58 percent to Obama’s 42 percent.

In this improbable primary season, race has become the Democratic Party's Achilles heel.

Showdown in Pennsylvania

The Democratic nomination race stops in the Keystone State, where 8,328,123 Pennsylvanians are registered to vote. A record turnout is expected in today's primary election. Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortés said:

It is unprecedented for a primary election in Pennsylvania, and it is very exciting to see so many people want to participate in the electoral process.

The excitement notwithstanding, the election outcome will settle little. Hillary Clinton told CNN’s Larry King:

A win is a win. We're going to go all the way through this process and see where we stand in June.

While the Obama camp debates when a win is a loss, the circus campaigns will pack up their negative ads and head south to North Carolina.

But there will be no debate leading up to the May 6 primary. Obama has eliminated going another round with Clinton. The Clinton camp pounced:

It is unfortunate that Senator Obama has chosen to brush off the people of North Carolina by flatly refusing to debate. But we are willing to move forward with another time and location for the debate so that he has no excuse for not participating.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton pushed back:

It’s unfortunate that the Clinton campaign decided to play politics with this -- especially considering that Senator Obama agreed to a North Carolina debate long before Senator Clinton did, and their campaign took three weeks to consider and ultimately reject that proposal.

So Obama was for the debate until he was against it. Hmm.