Obama's Minister's Inaccurate response

Rev. Wright claims that his statements have been taken out of context and unfortunately the media isn't calling his statements into account. On Monday Rev. Wright said:

"Have you heard the whole sermon?" he responded. "No. You haven't heard the whole sermon. That nullifies that question." He said criticism comes from people who only have heard sound bites playing repeatedly on television and have never listened to his entire sermons. . . .

Here is what I posted over the weekend along with links to Wright's "Goddamn America" sermon. I think that anyone who listens to this will be convinced that his speeches were accurately reported. If anything, Wright got off easy during that coverage.

Dana Milbank, at the Washington Post, described Rev. Wright's appearance at the National Press Club this way:

Speaking before an audience that included Marion Barry, Cornel West, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam official Jamil Muhammad, Wright praised Louis Farrakhan, defended the view that Zionism is racism, accused the United States of terrorism, repeated his view that the government created the AIDS virus to cause the genocide of racial minorities, stood by other past remarks ("God damn America") and held himself out as a spokesman for the black church in America.

In front of 30 television cameras, Wright's audience cheered him on as the minister mocked the media and, at one point, did a little victory dance on the podium. It seemed as if Wright, jokingly offering himself as Obama's vice president, was actually trying to doom Obama; a member of the head table, American Urban Radio's April Ryan, confirmed that Wright's security was provided by bodyguards from Farrakhan's Nation of Islam.

Wright suggested that Obama was insincere in distancing himself from his pastor. "He didn't distance himself," Wright announced. "He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was anti-American." . . .

Milbank's title for his piece is "Wright's Voice Could Spell Doom for Obama." It seems quite appropriate. C-Span has tapes of Wright's address at the National Press Club and an even more bizarre appearance at the NAACP. Here is a two minute segment from Wright's presentation.

What I find so disheartening is that Wright got such an enthusiastic response from those in the audience.