On ensuring that Hillary will never become president. You must be proud.

#1:  Donations to a church really is a risky topic to touch on.  However, donations to a church are not donations to a pastor.  Furthermore, the fact that one magazine issue praised Farrakhan(for social work, I believe..) is pretty marginal in regards to your question.  You're sort of sensationalizing that aspect.
#2:   See Number #1.
#3:   Stop trying to make Obama look anti-semitic.  David Axelrod, Barack Obama's top aide for years now, is Jewish.  Correct me if I'm wrong there..
#4:   Again, stop trying to make him and his church seem anti-semitic.
#5:   I think it's fair to admit that it's hard for anyone to get that estimate right.  However, a rough idea would be suitable.
#6:   Again, that's not the kind of estimate that someone could accurately make unless he goes very often or hardly often.  It's only good for the vaguest of guesstimates.
#7:   Plenty have.  This came up during a recent debate.

But he listened to Wright's tapes while he was at Harvard Law School from 1988 to 1991.  And he says that he's been a member of the church for 20 years, which means he joined the church in 1988.

Do any of those videos correspond to those years?

I wrote a second update that expresses, in part, my reasons for writing this and other recent diaries.

It is impossible to express to those who decry my work how very much I do not like doing this.  But something -- somehow -- has to wake people up before it is too late.  I've written a great deal about the great differences between Barack and Hillary on health care, economic plans, Iraq, and more... but the material above is also fair game because it speaks to WHO this man is.  And his dissembling excuses in the last week have also informed us about WHO this man is.  

Read my update above, at the end of the article, for more.  I doubt any of you attacking me will agree with anything I say.  It would be silly to expect you to see beyond your own views.  

But I can tell you that the revelations of the last week have profoundly affected how AVERAGE Americans view Obama.  And they do not like what they are hearing and seeing.  

I live surrounded by such "average" Americans -- fine people -- people who work hard, have served our country's military, dedicate much of their time to help others -- and they will not vote for Barack Obama.  You have my word on it.  And that terrifies me because that means we'd end up with McCain.  Unless the Democratic party wakes up and nominates its most experienced, most able candidate, Hillary Clinton.

I've never been more wrong in my initial assessment of another human being than I was of you.

"Numerous Republican senators have mentioned that, despite his rhetoric about "reaching across the aisle," they saw little or no evidence of such in his short time in the Senate."

This is a pretty silly critcism.  It's been my impression that Repuplicans tend not to heap praise on Democratic front-runners in an election season.  

Excellent work, as usual.

Hillary 08-Hope is for losers! That or Hillary 08: see Obama might be as bad as I am, vote for me!

they'll believe it from a person who believes it. this isn't that person.

Not in light of the vicious, racist (!), unAmerican comments of his pastor for 20 years.

"no bedrock voting American?"

What the hell does that mean?

The preaching of his church is very divisive.  The paster has been a significant figure in Obama's life.  I want to know how much they share in common, because it will surely reflect the way Obama govern the country.

If Obama disagreed with the church ideology, why he didn't walk out 20 years ago.  Why do it now when it threatened to hurt his candidacy.  If that's the case, for me it shows that Obama doesn't have the strength to stand up for his believe.

If Obama didn't know, why did he told Rev. Wright that he might be a problem later on in the campaign.  Obama told Wright that he might have to disassociate himself from Wright.

If Obama knew,  why he told us last week that he didn't know.

I think a lot of people want Obama to answer these important questions.  It will help us gauge how Obama will govern this country as president.

I'm pretty sure she's not a dem, or if she is one, she's not a Hillary supporter, after one would expect at least one postive diary if she supported Hill.

Nobody (at least around here) seems to understand that this goes past the patriotism and anti americanism of the pastor. What kind of pastor or church condones breaking a comandment in a sermon? The church doesn't even come off a Christian with that kind of statement.

Taking the lords name in vain IS breaking a comandment.

But they recently claimed that they have received $250,000 of Rezko cash.  I hope Obama plans on returning more Rezko cash to charity.

Hopefully he goes back on my new favorite news channel, Fox. They're the only ones with the jouralistic standards, ethics, and bravery to ask the questions everyone should be asking.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/3/17/2326 53/485

/snark!

If you think Obama offers no specifics, you haven't been paying attention.

An opportunist = someone who wants lots of different people in an electoral coalition.

an answer is fair game.  

Or, Obama could say, those comments are a personal matter and I won't comment.  If he said that he'd be at 70% negatives overnight, so he must respond.

"This is as un-American an idea as any I can imagine. You are calling on a candidate to answer questions about his church?  "

No, we are expecting as voters for the candidate to answer questions about hate speech, regardless of the venue it is spoken in.

In the family where I grew up if someone came in and spoke anything that hinted of racism, or told a racist joke, they were yelled out of the house and told not to return. That included relatives, neighbors, whoever. There is no way we would tolerate that poison around us.

I do expect a candidate who is asking for our trustand support  to lead this country to answer questions about the hate speech we have just seen on video from the person Obama cites as his "mentor" and "spiritual guide."

How do you know what the average sermon and service is like?  

With all due respect, perhaps you do not have a full picture of Wright and the church.  I ask you to read the Wright sermon from which Obama took the phrase the audacity of hope and then tell us what you think of those ideas.

The full text of Jeremiah Wright's "Audacity To Hope" sermon in 1990:

   Several years ago while I was in Richmond, the Lord allowed me to be in that city during the week of the annual convocation at Virginia Union University School of Theology. There I heard the preaching and teaching of Reverend Frederick G. Sampson of Detroit, Michigan. In one of his lectures, Dr. Sampson spoke of a painting I remembered studying in humanities courses back in the late '50s. In Dr. Sampson's powerful description of the picture, he spoke of it being a study in contradictions, because the title and the details on the canvas seem to be in direct opposition.

   The painting's title is "Hope." It shows a woman sitting on top of the world, playing a harp. What more enviable position could one ever hope to achieve than being on top of the world with everyone dancing to your music?

   As you look closer, the illusion of power gives way to the reality of pain. The world on which this woman sits, our world, is torn by war, destroyed by hate, decimated by despair, and devastated by distrust. The world on which she sits seems on the brink of destruction. Famine ravages millions of inhabitants in one hemisphere, while feasting and gluttony are enjoyed by inhabitants of another hemisphere. This world is a ticking time bomb, with apartheid in one hemisphere and apathy in the other. Scientists tell us there are enough nuclear warheads to wipe out all forms of life except cockroaches. That is the world on which the woman sits in Watt's painting.

   Our world cares more about bombs for the enemy than about bread for the hungry. This world is still more concerned about the color of skin than it is about the content of character--a world more finicky about what's on the outside of your head than about the quality of your education or what's inside your head. That is the world on which this woman sits.

   You and I think of being on top of the world as being in heaven. When you look at the woman in Watt's painting, you discover this woman is in hell. She is wearing rags. Her Georgefredericwattshope tattered clothes look as if the woman herself has come through Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Her head is bandaged, and blood seeps through the bandages. Scars and cuts are visible on her face, her arms, and her legs.

   I. Illusion of Power vs. Reality of Pain

   A closer look reveals all the harp strings but one are broken or ripped out. Even the instrument has been damaged by what she has been through, and she is the classic example of quiet despair. Yet the artist dares to entitle the painting Hope. The illusion of power--sitting on top of the world--gives way to the reality of p