"OBAMA SUGGESTS HE WOULD HAVE LEFT HIS CHURCH IF WRIGHT HAD NOT RETIRED"

First, the fact that Obama is changing his position yet again on this issue indicates to me that there is still significant fallout from his association with Rev. Wright. Second, is he serious to be changing his position at this late date? Now Obama says this:

“Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn’t have felt comfortable staying at the church,” Obama said Thursday during a taping of the ABC talk show, “The View.” The interview will be broadcast Friday.

But in his speech on race he said this:

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias. . . . .

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias. . . .

When I read Obama's now famous race speech I realized how many logical holes and unanswered questions there are.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

OK, that seems clear enough, but then he says:

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. . . .

So this week it comes out that Obama clearly knew of some "controversial" statements when he was apparently approvingly quoting from Rev. Wright's sermon on "where white folk's greed runs a world in need."

So what is Obama saying that he knew? For his new claim though, it really doesn't matter because in his race speech he knew everything and said that he couldn't disown Wright. Now he is saying that he was planning on doing just that. Of course, the Friday before the speech Obama said that he had only heard of one of these controversial remarks by Wright and on that Tuesday it appeared as if he were saying that Wright was acknowledging much more in order to put this behind him. If Obama was a typical candidate, the press would tear him apart for these statements.