The Audacity of Opacity

 
America is still the No. 1 killer in the world...

When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign.

We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers... We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi...

Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life...

We put Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God...

And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn...

We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic... We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means...

As I've told Reverend Wright, personal attacks such as this have no place in this campaign or our politics.

We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means! ...And. And. And! GAWD! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS S**T!

I don't think of the pastor of my church in political terms.

We started the AIDS virus... We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty...

I first joined Trinity United Church of Christ nearly twenty years ago... [Wright's] congregation... does not merely preach social justice but acts it out each day, through ministries ranging from housing the homeless to reaching out to those with HIV/AIDS.

The Government lied about Pearl Harbor!

I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit.

The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment and purposely infected African-American men with syphillis!

[These statements don't] detract from my affection for Reverend Wright or appreciation for the good works he has done.

Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body...

Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it's important to judge me on what I've said in the past and what I believe.

We are doing the same thing that Al-Qaeda did with a different flag!

I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial.

Black men turning on black men... That is fighting the wrong enemy!

...because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.

The government lied about the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color!

I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good.

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am proud of my country.

I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said...

'...we're a divided country, we're a country that is "just downright mean," we are "guided by fear," we're a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents.'

...but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in...

We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day... Folks are just jammed up, and it's gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I'm young. Forty-four!

...on my values, judgment and experience to be President of the United States.

Barack Obama: "In a dangerous world, it’s judgment that matters."