The Jeremiah Wright controversy gained national attention in the United States, in March 2008 when ABC News, after reviewing dozens of US President Barack Obama sermons, Jeremiah Wright's sermon, quoted passages subject to media scrutiny intense. Wright is a retired senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and former pastor of President Obama. Obama criticized the statement, but critics continue to press the issue of his relationship with Wright. Responding to this, he gave a speech entitled "A More Perfect Union", in which he attempted to place Wright's comments in historical and sociological contexts. In his speech, Obama again denounced Wright's statement, but did not recognize him as someone. The controversy began to fade, but was renewed in late April when Wright made a series of media appearances, including interviews on the Bill Moyers Journal, a speech at the NAACP, and a speech at the National Press Club.. After the latter, Obama spoke louder against his former pastor, saying he was "angry" and "saddened" by his behavior, and in May he resigned his membership in the church.
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Barack Obama first met Wright in the late 1980s, when he worked as a community organizer in Chicago before attending Harvard Law School. Wright leads the wedding ceremonies of Barack and Michelle Obama, as well as in their children's christening.
Obama's 2006 memoir title, The Audacity of Hope , was inspired by one of Wright's sermons. This sermon is also the source of Obama's main speech themes in 2004 to the Democratic National Convention.
As reported in the New York Times, Wright is scheduled to give a public prayer before the announcement of Obama's presidency, but Obama withdrew his invitation the night before the event. Wright criticized the Times because of their characterization of the incident as a deviation from the interview he gave, where he talked about Obama in a very positive light.
In 2007, Wright was appointed to the African American Religious Leadership Committee of Barack Obama, a group of more than 170 national black religious leaders who supported Obama's bid for a Democratic nomination. However, it was announced in March 2008 that Wright no longer serves as a member of this group.
On May 31, 2008, Barack and Michelle Obama announced that they had withdrawn their membership at Trinity United Church of Christ, stating that "Our relationship with Trinity has been strained by the divisive statements of Rev. Wright, which is very contrary to our own views".
Maps Jeremiah Wright controversy
Controversial preaching papers
Most of the controversial quotes that received national attention in March 2008 were taken from two sermons: one entitled "The Day of Jerusalem's Fall", presented on 16 September 2001, and the other entitled "Confusing God and Government", submitted on April 13, 2003.
"The Day of Jerusalem's Fall"
In a sermon delivered shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Wright made a comment about the interview of former US Ambassador Edward Peck he saw on Fox News. Wright said:
I heard Ambassador Peck in an interview yesterday. Has anyone else seen it or heard it? He's on Fox News. It's a white man, and he infuriated Fox News's endless commentaries. He shows - did you see him, John? - a white man, he shows, the ambassador, that what Malcolm X said when he was silenced by Elijah Muhammad turned out to be right - American chickens came home to perch.
Wright talks about the United States taking land from Indian tribes with what he calls terror, bombing Grenada, Panama, Libya, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and argues that the United States supports state terrorism against Palestine and South Africa. He said that his parish's response should be to examine their relationship with God, not "from the hatred of armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents." His comment (quoting Malcolm X) that "American chickens are coming home to perch" is widely interpreted as meaning that America has brought the September 11 attacks on itself. ABC News broadcast clips from sermons in which Wright said:
We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we reached far more than thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never fought... and now we are angry, because the things we have done abroad are now brought back to our own front yard. American chickens will come home to perch.
Belakangan, Wright melanjutkan:
Violence breeds violence. Hate breeds hatred. And terrorism breeds terrorism. A white ambassador says that, all of you. Not a black militant. Not a priest who preaches racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us awake and away from this dangerous cliff that is where we are now. The ambassador said the people we were hurt did not have the military capabilities we had. But they have people who are willing to die and bring thousands with them. And we have to overcome that.
"Confusing God and Government"
The clip from Wright's sermon, titled "Confusing God and Government", is also featured on ABC Good Morning America and in Fox News. In the sermon, Wright first made the distinction between God and the government, and showed that many governments in the past had failed: "Where the government lies, God does not lie.When the government changes, God does not change." Wright later stated:
The [United States] government lies about their belief that all human beings are created equal. Actually they believe that all white people are created equal. The truth is they do not even believe that white women are created equal, in creation or civilization. The government must pass an amendment to the Constitution to obtain white women in the election. So the government must go through the amendment of the same right to obtain equal protection under the law for women. The government still thinks a woman has no right over her own body, and between Uncle Clarence who sexually abuses Anita Hill, and the closed Clan court, which was a setback to the 19th century, was elected by Daddy Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, between Clarence and the stacked court, they will cancel Roe vs. Wade , just as they barely take affirmative action. The government lied in its founding documents and the government is still lying today. The government is lying.
He continues:
The government lied about Pearl Harbor as well. They know Japan will attack. The government is lying. The government lied about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. They want that resolution to take us in the Vietnam War. The government is lying. The government lied about Nelson Mandela and our CIA helped put him in jail and kept him there for 27 years. The South African government lied to Nelson Mandela. The government is lying.
Wright later stated:
The government lied about Tuskegee experiments. They deliberately infect African American men with syphilis. The government is lying. The government lied about the Cambodian bombing and Richard Nixon stood in front of the camera, "Let me make myself very clear..." The government is lying. The government lied about drugs for the Contra Scheme weapons arranged by Oliver North, and then the government forgave all the perpetrators so they could get better jobs in government. The government lies.... The government lies about creating the HIV virus as a genocidal tool against colored people. The government is lying. The government lied about the relationship between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and the relationship between 9.11.01 and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The government is lying.
He talked about the government's reasons for the Iraq War:
The government is lying about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a threat to the peace of the United States. And guess what else? If they do not find them some weapons of mass destruction, they will do like LAPD, and inculcate them some weapons of mass destruction. The government is lying.
Wright then commented on God and the government:
And the United States government, when it comes to treating people of Indian descent fairly, it failed. He put it on the reservation. When it comes to treating Japanese citizens of their descendants fairly, he fails. He puts them in an internment camp. When it comes to treating its citizens of African descent fairly, America fails. He puts them in a chain, the government places them in slave places, puts them in the auction block, puts them in the cotton fields, puts them in low school, puts them in sub-standard housing, puts them in a scientific experiment, puts them in the lowest payouts. work, put them outside the same legal protection, keep them away from their racist fortress from higher education and lock them into desperate and helpless positions. The government gave them drugs, built a bigger prison, passed a law of three strikes and then wanted us to sing "God Bless America". No, no, no, not God Bless America. American shit - it's in the Bible - for killing innocent people. Good Lord America, to treat our citizens as less than human. Damn America, as long as he tries to act like he is God, and he is the highest. The government of the United States has failed most of its citizens of African descent.
The tomb of this sermon was widely seen in early 2008 on network television and the internet.
Reaction
Barack Obama
When Wright's comments were broadcast in the national media, Obama abstained from them, telling Charles Gibson of ABC News, "It's like we picked up five of the dumbest things I've ever said or ever said in our lives and compressed them and put them there - I think people's reactions will be, understandably, annoyed. "At the same time, Obama states that" the words that humiliate individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the stump of the campaign or on the pulpit. directly by Rev. Wright in question. " Obama then added, "Suppose the pastor does not retire, and if he does not admit that what he said has been very offensive to people and inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its shortcomings, then I will not feel comfortable living in church. "
Obama declared that he was aware of Father Wright's controversial comments, and personally had heard "controversial statements" in Wright's church, but denied hearing certain statements of inflammation broadcast during the campaign. Obama was specifically asked by Bill O'Reilly if Reverend Wright said the white man was bad, which Obama responded to that he did not. In his book The Dream of My Father Obama has quoted Pastor Wright in a sermon "This is the world, where cruise ships dump more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white man's greed runs a needy world. "Obama said that the statement had been his concern at the start of his presidential campaign, but argued that since Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of Obama's strong relationship with Trinity, he did not think it was appropriate to leave the church. He began to distance himself from Wright when he called his minister the night before the February 2007 announcement of President Obama's candidacy to withdraw his request that Wright deliver a prayer at the event. A spokesman later said, "Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church, but... Decides to avoid the statements and beliefs used out of context and force the entire church to defend itself." Wright attended the announcement, prayed with Obama before, and in December 2007 Obama named him at the African American Religious Leadership Committee in his campaign. The Obama campaign released Wright after the controversy.
Critics of Obama found this response inadequate. For example, Mark Steyn, writing in the conservative publication National Review , states: "Pastor Wright ['s] appeals against the racial bitterness that should be all President Obama will surpass.Nowadays, it sounds more like the same -You are welcome. "
On March 18, after the controversy, Obama delivered a speech entitled "A More Perfect Union" at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During a 37-minute speech, Obama talked about divisions formed from generation to generation through slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow's law, and the reason for the kind of discussion and rhetoric used among blacks and whites in their own communities. While condemning a statement by the pastor, he attempted to place them in a historical context by describing some of the key events that have shaped Wright's view of racial issues in America. Obama did not deny Wright, whom he labeled as "old uncle", for not recognizing the black community. The speech was generally well received. Obama said that some comments by his pastor reminded him of what he called "the tragic history of America when it came to the race."
Other Presidential Candidates
In an interview with the editorial board of Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on March 25, 2008, Hillary Clinton commented on Obama's presence at Trinity United Church of Christ, stating, "You do not choose your family, but you choose which church you want You attended. "Later that same day, during a press conference, Clinton talked about his personal preference in a minister:" I think given everything we've heard and seen, [Wright] will not be my pastor. " A spokesman for Obama's campaign confirmed that Clinton's comments were part of a "transparent effort to distract from the story he made about avoiding sniper fire in Bosnia" the week before. A few weeks later during the Pennsylvania debate in Philadelphia, Clinton said, "For Pastor Wright has given his first sermon after 9/11 and has blamed the United States for the attack, which took place in my city in New York, it would be just unbearable for me."
Future Republican candidate John McCain defends Obama when it comes to guilty accusations by the association, saying, "I think that when people support you, it does not mean that you support everything they say." Obviously, these words and statements are statements that none of us would associate with, and I do not believe that Senator Obama will support them, too. "
Government officials
Vice President Dick Cheney weighed on Wright's problem on April 10, 2008. He appeared on Sean Hannity radio show and said, "I think some of the things he says are really horrible... I have not been into business trying to judge how Senator Obama handles it, or not to overcome it, but I think, like most Americans, I am stunned at what the preacher preaches in his church and then puts up on his Web site. "
Lawrence Korb - Director of the National Security Study at the Council on Foreign Relations, and former Assistant Secretary of Defense in the administration of Ronald Reagan - defended Wright military service, stated, "We have seen on television, in seemingly endless circles, Rev. Wright's lecture Some of Wright's comments are unforgivable and inappropriate and should be condemned, but in calling him 'unpatriotic,' let us not forget that this is the person who handed over six of the most productive years of his life to serve his country... he has demonstrated its patriotism. "
Media
Commenters and experts
Conservative radio talk show and television host Sean Hannity expressed surprise and anger when he heard the comment, saying, "First of all, I will not give up on this issue, if the pastor goes to Libya, Tripoli with Louis Farrakhan, a wicked, anti Racist who is symbolic, his church gives Louis Farrakhan a lifelong achievement award.It has been a Barack Obama pastor for 20 years and we will continue to expose this until someone in the mainstream media has the courage to take this. "
The editor of the Salon Salon Joan Walsh writes: "the whole idea that Wright has been attacked for 'sound bites,' and if Americans see all of their sermons, in context, they will feel different, now sounding ridiculous.The long clip that Moyers plays only confirms what's broadcast in the trailer ". He went on to note: "My conclusions Friday night were supported by Wright's new recordings coming out this weekend, including one that caught him saying the Iraq war is 'the same thing that al-Qaeda does under different color banners', and quotes which is much longer than the 'God damn America' sermon that denounces 'Condoskeezer Rice... ' ".
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly said of Wright, "In my opinion, Rev. Jeremiah Wright is not an honest man, he teaches anti-white and anti-American rhetoric, while making money from him."
Kelefa Sanneh's cultural critic searches for Wright's theology and rhetoric back to Frederick Douglass, analyzing his 1854 reference to US Christians before the war as "bad, corrupt, and evil."
Noting that "many observers argue that Wright's sermons convey a more complex message than simple sounds can be expressed", the Chicago Tribune publishes a long quotation in the article "Opinions Rev. Jeremiah Wright: Voice Bites vs. citation sermons ".
Economist and social expert Thomas Sowell writes that there is "no way [Obama] does not know about Jeremiah Wright's anti-American and racist criticism from the pulpit." He writes that Obama is "not an ordinary member" of the church, having once donated $ 20,000 for it, and that Obama's speech is "like a Soviet show trial during the 1930s purge", intended only to convince supporters.
Comments on media coverage
The controversy triggered continuous media coverage both in the national media and in local sources. More than 3,000 stories have been written about the issue in early April.
The Wright Church, Trinity United Church of Christ, criticized the media coverage of his past sermons, said in a statement that "the character of Wright is being killed in the public sphere.... This is an indictment of minister Dr. Wright's legacy to present a global ministry in a sound bite of 15 or 30 seconds. "
Lara Cohen, news director at Us Weekly, notes that his publication "has been accused of distracting people from the 'Important Problem ' " because of its focus on supermarket tabloid issues, and says that mainstream media "talks about the head of love to tut-tut about how the attention to celebrity gossip caused massive destruction of American society." He alleges that, given the sensational coverage of Wright, mainstream media no longer have a reason to make these criticisms of Us Weekly, and turn the charge back into mainstream media. Cohen stated, "The hallmark of sensational journalism is fueling controversy to drive sales, and for the mainstream news media Wright is a specially crafted tabloid icon.With newspaper sales at record lows, a news tank network and a 24-hour news channel desperate to fill all 24 hours, Wright's explosion is a mainstream medium that is equivalent to Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch - no railway crash can turn away from and so they are milked, regardless of the impact on the race they are supposed to cover objectively.
Republican commentator and former National Security Council staff member Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North (who Wright mentioned in his controversial commentary) said about media coverage of the controversy, "Rather than serving more nonsense about Jeremiah Wright, editors, producers and program directors would better serve us all by sending their commentators and correspondents to protect those who volunteer to serve in our military. "
Stephen Colbert quipped what he described as a media obsession with Wright's story. Jon Stewart similarly mocks media obsessions with Wright, calling it the "Festival of Wrights" and "Reverending Story".
Investigative journalist Robert Parry contrasted the mainstream media attention to Wright with his almost total silence on the topics of South Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon and his relationship with Republicans and especially the Bush family.
On July 20, 2010, the Conservative News and Consumer News website The Daily Caller reported that a group of reporters and columnists for a major magazine that is part of JournoList LISTSERV has been working together quietly to devise a strategy to minimize damage to Barack Obama's campaign by describing as racist those political figures or media who seek to make Wright a problem in the campaign. This is explicitly discussed as a strategy to safeguard the right of maintaining state control.
members of Trinity United Church of Christ
Lisa Miller at Newsweek reports that, before the political controversy erupted, "Trinity is already in the throes of a difficult generation transition." After the period of Wright's lecture before the national audience, Miller described how "the reaction was sadness and anger" among church members and that the three basic factions developed among them: those who wished Wright would not speak again, those who believed in what he said, and those who just hope the whole controversy will be lost.
Academics
Many academics have commented on Wright, the black theology, and the political controversy that accompanies it in the wider context of American history and culture.
In 2004, prior to the Wright controversy, Anthony E. Cook, a professor of law at Georgetown University, provided a detailed comparative analysis of the sermon delivered after 9-11 by Jerry Falwell, T.D. Jakes, and Jeremiah Wright. Cook argues that the overall goal of Falwell and Jakes' sermons is to use Christianity as a justification for the War on Terror, while Wright's overall intent is to fight war and to get listeners to engage in introspection about their daily behavior and relationships with God.
After political controversy erupted, Georgetown University sociologist Michael Eric Dyson stated, "Patriotism is the affirmation of one's country in the light of its best values, including attempts to correct it when it is wrong Wright's words are a strong love of war-speaking patriot mind. "J. Kameron Carter, professor of theology and the study of the black church at Duke Divinity School, stated that Wright" voiced in his preaching the pain that must be interpreted in the tradition of black prophetic Christianity. "
Martin E. Marty, a professor emeritus of religious history, criticized the "naivetÃÆ' Â ©" journalist about the civil rights movement. He put Wright's comment in the context of his church: "For Trinity, being 'shamelessly black' does not mean to be 'anti-white ' ". He also argues that black shame is a debilitating legacy of slavery and segregation in society and the church, and argues that Trinitarian Trinism "should not be more offensive than a" Judeo-centric "synagogue or that the Irish parishes in Chicago become 'Celtic- centric '. "
Bill J. Leonard - Dean of the religious faculty and professor of church history at Wake Forest University - argues that Wright "stands and speaks out of the affirming news tradition in the United States", which he says "dates back to Puritan"; Leonard states that this is something "used by black and white ministers since the 17th century in this country." Leonard explained that the Jeremiad tradition deals with "woe and promise and moral failure not only in the church but in this country." James B. Bennett of Santa Clara University says that Martin Luther King, Jr. shared the same feelings with Wright about some US activities, quoting King saying, "the biggest perpetrator of violence in the world today - my own government," and that "America was founded on genocide, and the country founded in the genocide was destructive."
Stephan Thernstrom, professor of Winthrop history at Harvard, and Abigail Thernstrom, political scientist and vice chairman of the US Commission on Civil Rights, wrote that "[Wright] argues that blacks and whites have completely different brain structures, one dominant, dominant right. "This is nothing more than the updated pseudo-science version that was once used to maintain segregation in Jim Crow South." They also wrote: "Clearly, Rev. Wright does not speak for the main black churches - and he has done very bad things by claiming to do so." Former Harvard lecturer Martin Peretz agreed, endorsing the article and saying that it "puts Trinity in its proper place in relation to other black churches and shows how different they are from."
Jeremiah Wright's next appearance
Reverend Jeremiah Wright publicly discussed the controversy in depth in an hour-long interview with Bill Moyers on April 25, 2008. This included a clip that was longer than his preaching, along with his explanation of what he said. There are also clips of ministry and parishioners at various points of time since he became pastor in 1972, in an attempt to show what Trinity realized and achieved. Wright states that his comment "is taken out of context" and that "those who have heard the whole sermon understand communication perfectly." He went on to say: "When something is taken like a biting sound for political purposes and constantly puts it repeatedly, looped in public, it's not a failure to communicate." Those who do it communicate exactly what they want to do, that is, painting me as a fanatic or as an educated journalist from the New York Times called me, 'wackadoodle'... The message being communicated by sound is exactly what drives the sound bite wants to communicate. "The conservative conservatives and the PBS ombudsman criticized Moyers for being too soft on Wright.
On April 27, Wright gave a keynote address at a fundraising event for Detroit-the NAACP chapter. In front of nearly 10,000, he discussed the controversy, saying, "I am not running for the Oval Office", referring to what he considers the Republican effort to create a controversial part of the campaign. Earlier in the day, he delivered a sermon to 4,000 people at the Western-Buddhist Baptist Church in Dallas. On April 28, he spoke to the National Press Club, where he discussed the Black church.
In his speech to the NAACP, Wright speculated that, "Africans have different gauges, and Africans have a different tone of voice.The Europeans have seven tones, Africans have five White people applaud different from blacks. and African-Americans are completely brain-oriented, subject-oriented in their learning styles.They have different ways of learning. "The comments are labeled as racist, and are likened to eugenics. It started a revival of controversy, which was slowly diminishing.
Former President Ronald Reagan's assistant David Gergen called Wright's tour "the stupidest, most selfish, most narcissistic thing I've seen in 40 years covering politics." Libertarian commentator Andrew Sullivan said Wright's comments on the tour were "arrogant, ugly, abominable, nasty look, selfishness, and self-worth." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich marked the tour speaks of Wright as an attempt to deliberately hurt Obama, and declares that Wright's sense of self-interest seems to be his motivation. Columnist Bob Herbert of The New York Times also suggested that Wright be a "narcissist" and try to "destroy" the Obama campaign.
Obama response
Obama is trying to further away from Wright, as he expressed anger and shock at a press conference on April 29:
I am angry with comments made and saddened by the spectacle we saw yesterday... The man I saw yesterday was not the person I met 20 years ago. His comments are not only divisive and destructive, but I believe they end up giving consolation to those who prey on hatred, and I believe that they do not accurately depict the perspective of the black church. They certainly do not accurately depict my values ​​and beliefs. And if Pastor Wright thinks it's a political stance, as he says, then he does not know me well. And based on his statement yesterday, well, I probably did not know him as well as I thought good.... What became clear to me was that he was presenting a worldview contrary to who I am and what I strive for, and what I think mainly makes me anger is his suggestion somehow that my previous statement about his statements somehow political posture. Anyone who knows me and anyone who knows what I know knows that I try to bridge the gulf and I see similarities in everyone.... [A] after seeing the appearance of Reverend Wright, I feel as if there is a total abandonment of what the Americans experience and the need for them to unite to solve this problem.... [W] any relationship I have with Rev. Wright has changed, as a consequence of this.
Reactions
Obama's second statement of controversy raises various responses. Noam Scheiber of The New Republic wrote, "I think Obama puts the distance he needs between himself and Wright now... The other remaining question is whether people will wonder again how Obama can have friends with people this is for 20 years.This is a legitimate concern, but if it does not burden him too much after the Philadelphia speech in March, I would not expect him to do it right now.'Wright's performance yesterday I think it's new and brash to ensure that reaction different from what Obama would have done in the past. "
Victor Davis Hanson writes, "Obama, with what he wrote in his memoirs, with what he said when he spoke in his campaign speeches, with his frequent praise about Wright, and with his presence over the next 20 years, and subsidies for, Obama knows exactly the racist and anti-American nature of his unclean priest. "American expert and social commentator John McWhorter wrote," Now Pastor Wright has toured and given us a full dose of professionally alienated postures from other times, it is good to see that Obama has the courage to decide firmly on him, sadly - he is his pastor, but there is one more way that Mr. Obama is studying what the hardball really is. "
Obama leaves Trinity United Church of Christ
On May 31, 2008, Barack and Michelle Obama announced that they had withdrawn their membership at Trinity United Church of Christ, where Wright had previously served as a senior pastor, stating that "Our relationship with Trinity has been strained by the divisive statements of the Pastor Wright., Which is very contrary to our own views ".
Impact later and controversy continues
Wright stated in a June 10, 2009 interview that he still elect Obama for the President, despite controversy. She says that she has no regrets about her comments. He also alleges that "they are Jews" in the Obama administration prevents them from talking to each other. He also suggested that Obama did not send the delegation to the Durban Review Conference in Geneva due to Jewish pressure, saying: "[I] he is a Jewish voice, the AIPAC voice, who controls it, who will not let him send a representative to Darfur Review Conference, it speaks of this madness in this journey, because they are Zionists, they will not let him talk to someone who calls that shovel. "
The Anti-Defamation League released a statement condemning Wright's statements as "inflammatory and false." The idea of ​​Jewish control over the White House in the Reverend Wright's statement reveals classical anti-Semitism in its most heinous form. " Rabbi Scott Gurdin at Temple Sinai said Wright "lost the opportunity to build alliances and bridges." The National Jewish Democratic Council shared a written statement, "Obama showed good judgment by greatly separating himself from Reverend Jeremiah Wright."
Wright modified his statement the next day, saying that "I'm not talking about all Jews, all Jewish people, I'm talking about Zionism." He also supported anti-Zionist books of Judaism Not Equal to Israel by Marc Ellis and Palestinian Cleansing by Ilan Pappe. He commented, "[e] Thailand's cleansing is a sin and a crime against humanity, and they do not want Barack to speak like that". The Atlantic author Jeffrey Goldberg states that "In other words... [h] e regret speaks clearly rather than spreading euphemism." On June 11, classical historian and columnist Victor Davis Hanson compared Obama's continuing criticism of Wright on the Glory of Greek Mythology.
Wright wrote on his Facebook page apologizing for his statement on 12 June. He wrote, "I am wrong and I sincerely do not mean to harm or harm the American Jewish community or the Obama administration... I deeply respect the Jewish Faith and the basic (and central) part of our Judeo-Christian tradition." , "I love President Obama as my son, and support him and respect him as President of the United States and the leader of the free world." Reverend Amos Brown - former San Francisco supervisor and pastor of Third Baptist Church - defends Wright and denies allegations of antisemitism. He said, "[p] people hear pieces of things and they run with them rather than sit and dialogue, the way Jesus involves people".
Opinion Polling
In mid-March, a Rasmussen Reports, a nationwide telephone voters poll found that only 8% had opinions that supported Jeremiah Wright and 58% had unfavorable views. 73% of voters believe that Wright's comments are divisive, while 29% of African-Americans say Wright's comments make them more likely to support Obama. 66% of those surveyed had read, seen, or heard the news about Wright's comments.
During these events, Hillary Clinton briefly took the lead in a Gallup national poll, ahead of Obama by 7 points on March 18. On March 20, the Clinton leadership declined to 2 points, a statistically insignificant number. On the same day, John McCain led 3 points over both Democratic candidates in a hypothetical election match, with a margin of error of 2 points. On March 22, Obama has regained his lead over Clinton and climbed 3 points. The editor-in-chief of Gallup Poll said that the effects of the controversy "died after a few days".
A CBS poll taken from March 15 to March 17 found that sixty-five percent of registered voters said there was no difference in their view of Obama, while thirty percent said it made them unprofitable.
At the end of March 2008, as more than 40 countries have hosted their main Democratic process, Barack Obama is building on his national Gallup daily poll results to become the first candidate to open double digits since Super Tuesday, when rival Clinton. have the same margin. On March 30, polls showed Obama at 52% and Clinton at 42%. The Rassmussen Reports poll - taken over the same time span - shows Obama's superiority of five points. The poll followed weeks of heavy campaigning and hot rhetoric from both camps, and other late March polls found Obama maintaining its positive ratings and limiting its negative ratings, better than Clinton's main rival, even considering Obama's involvement in the controversy during that period. The NBC News and Wall Street Journal polls show Obama lost two points of positive ratings and earned four points from a negative rating, while Clinton lost eight points from a positive rating and earned five points from a negative rating.
Following the resurgence of the controversy surrounding Wright in late April 2008, several polls show that Obama's image among voters has suffered. According to a Gallup poll, Obama's national favorable rank fell from 50% to 45%, while Clinton's rating rose to 49%. In this poll, McCain beat Obama by four percentage points in an election match, while Clinton is tied to McCain. On May 5, Gallup polls Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters showed Obama with a 5% lead over Clinton for Democratic nominations.
In poll data released May 3, 2008, from The New York Times and CBS News, Obama's favorable/unfavorable ratings among white Democrats remained the same from last summer. During the same period, Clinton's poor ranking among black Democrats increased by 36 percentage points. The Times theorize that the shift of opinion among blacks is because Clinton's campaign tactics are labeled "racist" by many vocal elements in the media, including Hillary Clinton's "reinforcing" allegations of Wright's infidelity. several times.
Comparison with other candidates
Some commentators have drawn a comparison between media treatment of Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright with the treatment of political candidates allied to white religious leaders who have made controversial statements. The critics say that John McCain is actively seeking the recommendation of John Hagee, who has been criticized for anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim claims and has described Hurricane Katrina as "God's judgment in the city of New Orleans" for the city-level "sin" (specifically the plan of pride gay plan). E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post argues that white religious leaders who make controversial statements often retain their political influence. He specifically mentions the statements of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who agree that gays, feminists, and liberals share mistakes for the 9/11 attacks, but there is no call for rejection by politicians with whom they have relationships. Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote that Rudy Giuliani's relationship with Monsignor Alan Placa did not receive much media attention. (Placa is an old friend of Giuliani and marries both; Giuliani hires him to work in his consulting company after Placa is banned from his priesthood duties for sexual harassment charges.) Conservative commentator John Podhoretz says Wright's comparison with Hagee is "completely face-to-face", since Obama has long-term relationships with Wright and McCain have no personal relationship with Hagee.
Footnote
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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