Redstate

Posted at 10:15am on Mar. 17, 2008 The Audacity of Barack Obama

By Erick

I cannot put it better than Juan Williams put it on Fox News yesterday, but I will reiterate it -- the more we learn about Barack Obama, the more we learn he is an inauthentic, disingenuous politician who does not offer hope and change, but more of the same.

In his past, Barack Obama used his connections to Jeremiah Williams and his church to solidify himself in the black community. Al Sharpton has questioned the genuineness of Obama's commitment to the black community, but Obama has been able to hide behind his mentor, Jeremiah Wright, whose commitment is not questioned.

For twenty years Obama has attended a church whose preacher has focused on the topic of black nationalism. Jesus was persecuted by the white man, Rev. Wright claims, just as the white man even no persecutes the black man. Obama has relied on those ties to help him overcome questions of authenticity and commitment to his community.

Unfortunately for Obama, his ties to his church are no longer convenient. He has tried to disown the rhetoric of his church without disowning his pastor. The church itself and the United Church of Christ (not to be confused with the Church of Christ, an actual Christian denomination) have struck back against what they label a 'character assassination.'

And now comes this news that Obama was in the attendance one Sunday morning when Rev. Wright

tore into America, referring to the "United States of White America" and lacing his sermon with expletives as Obama listened.

Obama stayed silent. In fact, Barack Obama, as recently as this weekend, claimed he was shocked by Rev. Wright's objectionable statements. Facts are problematic for Senator Obama these days.

For now though, let's ignore the fact that Obama was in attendance during at least one of these hate filled, anti-American sermons and never objected. Let's instead consider this.

Obama has been a congregant at this church for 20 years. In every church I have ever attended, in small groups of friends from church, the topic of the church inevitably come up. Statements of the preacher inevitably come up. Sermons come up. Church activism and evangelism comes up.

It defies credibility for Obama to claim no knowledge of his own preacher's statements from his own church's pulpit over a span of twenty years. Either Obama goes to church for show and has no relations within the church, in which case he is a fraud, or he does have relations in the church and does pay attention, in which case he's just a liar.

Either way, the change he's offering no longer looks like it amounts to much.

UPDATE by Leon: Here is a smattering of Jeremiah Wright's sermons - if you wall want to spend some time with YouTube this afternoon, you will get the clear picture that there is no way whatsoever that Barack Obama did not know the sorts of things his pastor apparently says on a regular basis. Be warned, some of this material might not be stuff you want to listen to if you're at work:

I especially like the part about the government "inventing" HIV as a means of eradicating black people. Yeesh.

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