UPDATE 10/31/08:  The McCain campaign and supporters have focused on a sleazy attempt at character assassination of Obama, in my view because they sense it's their only chance to dissuade others from voting for Obama because they don't stand a chance by talking about the really important issues. Much of that tactic has been intended to ascribe guilt by association, that Obama associated with Wright, Ayers, Khalidi, etc., as here, and therefore that Obama shares their views.

The important question is not whether and to what extent Obama associated with people of questionable character. The important question is "so what?" Does the fact that Obama went to Wright's church for twenty years necessarily imply that he shares all of Wright's views, particulary when Obama has condemned in very strong terms the remarks Wright made and felt so strongly about it that he left that church? Does the fact that Obama knew and sometimes worked with Ayers imply that Obama shares or sympathizes with the terrorist beliefs Ayers had back in the '60s?" That's what these smear tactics would have you believe.

If you have 100 friends and 3 of them have radical beliefs, is it fair for me to infer that you share their radical beliefs? What if I asked you if you shared their beliefs and you said no, and I had no evidence to the contrary? Would it be legitimate for me to go around telling everyone that you have radical beliefs? Or would that be dishonest?

I have relatives and friends who are conservatives. If I spend considerable time with them, as I do, is it legitimate to infer that I'm also a conservative? Obviously not, if you're familiar with my political stances from what I've written on RIA.

See, that's the problem with this guilt by association stuff. It depends on unwarranted, illogical assumptions. Obama, as a politician, probably has thousands of acquaintances and he probably associates fairly frequently with hundreds of them. Does that mean that he shares all of their beliefs? That's an unwarranted, illogical assumption, particularly when he's stated that his beliefs are different, has stated what his beliefs are, and there's no evidence to the contrary.

So is it legitimate for McCain and his supporters to deliberately keep harping about the bad parts of a few people Obama knows? If you're honest, you'll admit it's a deliberate, smear tactic, it's dirty politics, it's dishonest and fraudulent, and it shows a lack of moral integrity. But the McCain campaign and supporters obviously feel "the end justifies the means," i.e., smear tactics are justified if it accomplishes getting McCain elected. Is that the kind of morality you favor? Is it okay with you that people do that? It isn't okay with me. I despise this lack of honesty, decency, morality, and integrity.

ORIGINAL COMMENT 10/8/08:  Hard for me to stand in his shoes.  Maybe the aging process affected his brain, maybe not, but sometimes having a pulpit can be a bad thing if a person can't control his/her mouth.  In the context in which he was speaking, his comments were not nearly so outrageous as when taken out of context, but nevertheless he should have known better.  Not the kind of stuff for a person on a national stage to be saying, even if he was thinking it.  That kind of talk doesn't foster good racial relationships.  Pretty much forced Obama's hand, even though Obama tried to be loyal to him as long as he could, but that kind of talk has to be disowned.

At the risk of being accusd of being a racist, I'm going to throw my couch in here and psycho-social-analyze (coughbullcoughchitcough). 

Obama was born to a white woman who had the poor judgement tomarry an already man despite the dissaproval of both sets of parents and two years after Barak's birth, the father turns into a dead beat father (as he appears to have been with the children he had first with his first wife).  While this would be shrugged off in this day and age, in Obama's youth it could not have been a common nor an accepted thing for woman to be an unwed mother, let alone a parent to a bi-racial child.  I think she strove to provide Obama with opportunties and education, however that he could never quite reconcile his white and black parts.  Having suffered his first rejection (his father's departure) he then suffered his second (his mother sending him to his white grandparents) where his struggles with his idetniy and self-confidence/doubts resulted in conflict with his grandparents, an inability for him to deveop a close relationship with people who he likely blamed for his father leaving, and of whom he thinks of as 'typical white' people, he turned to abusing substances in highschool despite having a relatively privaledged home environment. 

When Obama left to make it on his own, he went searching for acceptance, for something he could relate to and he gravitated towards people who spoke to his underlining dissatisfaction with his view of the world... and his need for a father figure.  His mother had lied to him for many years about the man his father was- the reality of Senior being a drunk who died in a car accident, having fathered several chidren and been really something of a dreamer-ne'er do-well... ah, and whath does he find? A large black population where he's steered in the direction of powerful black voices who are saying things he's always felt, but getting away with it in the public forum in the guise of being a charitable/religious organization.  He sat in a theatre of hate for twenty years, knowing full well the words that were being said, the message that was being perpetrated, and learned how to give speeches that would strike the chord to garner just the sort of support he wanted.  He used the church to further his career asperations and then blithely pushed it aside (as Oprah had to the same church) when it interfered with his future goals.

People know so very little about Obama and what he stands for as he is either deliberately refraining from sharing due to fearing a misstep that could hurt him (heck, nevermind the coke, the druggie room mates, and so forth).. but I suspect it's because he does not really know what he stands for, who he is....

If he sat in that church for twenty years and did not believe in what they have said, then he has not denounced them long or hard enough and should be ashamed of rising to his position on the backs of the poor (now wait a minute, Wright has a damned fine house in a fine white, gated community.. god damn) who put their trust in him. 

His "Uncle" is no doddering old fool, but an agitator.   It's not just an association, it's a doctrine he lived and breathed for twenty years, celebrated his marriage with, and introduced his children to. 

A shameful association. I wonder if at any moment we will receive news about his relationship with Farrakhan?

Nasty minded sonofabitch.

I'm not sure what Obama's explanation is about this, (maybe he sleeps in church, like so many others do) but he has moved to distance himself from the guy. I'd like to hear a better explanation from him, just like I'd like to hear McCain explain his relationship with James Hagee, the anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic pastor. 

The guy is a clown, but frankly a lot of people on this site would watch an episode of Webster and somehow equate the two.

I'm going to rush to judgement (like most other reviewers) even though all I know about this guy has been gleaned from a couple of inflammatory sermons posted on the net by his detractors.

Perhaps he's the bitter man (with good reason) he appears to be?

Maybe he's a charlatan, performing for bitter people (who have good reasons to be bitter)?

Of course he could just be a bit of both.

Anyway, watching him on YouTube, I was reminded of something Frank Zappa once said, "I'm not black, but there's a whole lot of times I wish I could say, "I'm not white.'"

Yeah, in 20+ years Wright only had five minutes where he nutted out. Barry's first explanation of Rev. Wright was weak, his second a few days later wasn't any better.

who is this guy? even if the republic can candidate Mccain/Plain bring him up it will not have an affect on the election.

I just hope their long association doesn't cause Barry to slip up when singing "God Bless America."
UPDATE: I am appalled that this vile and inflammatory comment hasn't mustered a single funny...

I'm willing to believe that there's more to this man of Gd's life than the five seconds they keep repeating over and over.

Yeah, he's a scary, frightening dude.  Is he scarier than the guy who protects Sarah Palin from witchcraft?  Could be.

Nothing like a BFF like the Rev. Wright to clarify someone's thinking about a whole range of issues.  All that racism, for all those years, but Obama never noticed it.  Truly, a "new" kind of politician.