BAD NEWS FOR THE GOP: NO ONE CARES ABOUT REV. WRIGHT BUT YOU

More than Hagee or Wright, THIS is the relationship on voters' minds

After Woody-KKKpecker (R-LA) got his ass whooped in Louisiana Saturday-- in one of the reddest districts in America-- the Republican Party immediately put out a press release insisting their losing strategy was correct and that they would continue using it. Next week we'll see if it works any better in an even redder district (PVI- R +10) in northern Mississippi, where Democrat Travis Childers squares off against another cookie-cutter wingnut a week from tomorrow.

In today's NY Times Ad Nag and Marjorie Connelly report some stats that Tom Cole and his coordinating buddies in the GOP front groups might want to consider carefully before dumping another $4 million into MS-01 whining about Obama's former preacher. "A majority of American voters say that the furor over the relationship between Senator Barack Obama and his former pastor has not affected their opinion of Mr. Obama... [M]ost Americans said they approved of the way Mr. Obama had responded to the episode and considered his criticism of Mr. Wright appropriate." What we do care about are the issues that drove the Democratic victory in Baton Rouge Saturday: the catastrophic Bush Regime economic policy agenda. And there's bad news here for the two huckstering presidential panderers too. John W. McCain and Hillary R. McClinton better pay attention to the NY Times/CBS News poll as well.

[A]n overwhelming majority of voters said candidates calling for the suspension of the federal gasoline tax this summer were acting to help themselves politically, rather than to help ordinary Americans. Mr. Obama’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, has made the suspension of the gas tax a centerpiece of her campaign in recent days.

Before this poll came out, we got an e-mail from an old DWT correspondent we haven't heard from in a while, Tony Guzzi, the man who first introduced us to Paul Hodes and has captured the Lieberhound on film in some compromised situations. Tony was listening to "Looking For A Leader" from Neil Young's Living With War album and it moved him to write.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

-by Tony Guzzi

“Looking for a Leader. Maybe it’s Obama, but he thinks he’s too young.”- Neil Young


Obama took the bait. He made a rookie mistake. The pundits, experts, wingnuts and village idiots dangled it out there like a fat earthworm on a hook. “There’s really nothing else he can do. He’s either going to do nothing and let the Rev. Wright thing drag him down or he can denounce him and cut all ties. It is his only choice.” And Obama, feeling the pressure from the Establishment and the talking morons, bit on the hook. For now, he has been reeled into the Big Boat, far away from Change We Can Believe In. The sad truth is, no matter which of these supposed ‘choices’ he made, there is a snowball’s chance in Hades that the Wright ‘controversy’ is going to go away. The Matthews, Russerts, lizard face Andrea Mitchells and their ilk will never let go of Wright and would be more than happy to arrange a pay per view steel cage death match between the ex-Marine and the junior Senator. They smell blood in the water and plan to pour salt on the wounds until somebody screams in pain. It’ll probably be me. The deck is stacked and Obama needs to think bigger.
 
Indeed, there was an opportunity in this most recent Wright escapade and the mistake Obama made was in not recognizing the faux choices laid out for him by the smart people, probably even some in his campaign. There was another choice. In his speech in Philadelphia, Barack Obama said all he needed to about Rev. Wright. For an oh-so-brief moment in the afterglow of the next morning, there was commentary about how ‘he spoke to us like we were adults.’ Imagine that. There was a little gem for some astute staffer to hold onto and want to be sure that the Campaign repeated. Speak to the ‘American People’ like they were adults using coherent sentences and logically formulated ideas.
 
The choice then, and the opportunity was, for Obama to remind Americans that Rev. Wright’s supposedly offensive comments-- whatever they were, I think he said “God Damn America”, oh the heresy!-- are protected under the 1st Amendment to our Constitution. Remember that document that built our Nation? Judging by the lines I witnessed recently stretching around the block at the National Archives in D.C., I would say that those folks surely do.

Obama’s true choice was to stand up and state that while he may or may not agree with some of Reverend Wright’s views, his Right to espouse them, whether from a pulpit or the Press Club, is protected by the 1st Amendment of the Constitution and as President he would be sworn to protect and defend the Constitution. Something our current occupant has chosen to forget.
 
He could have taken the opportunity to illustrate for Americans the egregious double standard regarding the endorsement of McCain, an endorsement that he sought and gladly accepted, by Pastor John Hagee who made some truly despicable “chickens coming home to roost” comments of his own, after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. In his case, it was God that was doing the roosting as punishment for the sinners of New Orleans. Why isn’t there a Pastor Hagee ‘controversy’? If Obama had made the courageous choice today, that would have been Change I Could Believe In. Unfortunately, however, Obama took to the path of ‘renouncing’ and ‘distancing’ and all the other marketing swill that this whole God Damned primary season has become. By doing so, he is trying to ‘appease’ the Establishment, but as we all know, appeasing Fascists never works out. Realistically, how long before someone questions his loyalty to Wright, or a Fox News crawl blares, “Did Obama flip-flop on Rev.Wright?”
 
Reverend Wright, for reasons of his own, or someone else’s, has decided to take his ‘opportunity’ to speak to the American People and until nobody else invites him, will probably continue to do so. You can’t really blame him. This is his chance to get his message heard. As an ex-Marine who served his Country and defended the Constitution, unlike so many chickenhawks currently populating our Government, Wright must feel he has earned his free speech. How inconvenient it must be for those who don’t want to hear what he has to say. To be honest, I heard it and I wasn’t offended. I’m trying to figure out which comment Sean Vannity found most offensive, that the U.S. may have introduced the AIDS virus into urban communities or the snipe at the draft dodging Cheney.
 
The opportunity missed for Obama, and the opportunity hopefully to come for him again, is to use the spotlight and his God given eloquence to speak to us as adults and Americans and remind voters of the Rights bestowed to them in the Constitution. Scream it out if he has to. Drown out the ignorant and inane rantings of so many blathering fools. The rabid partisan attacks designed to marginalize Wright and Ron Paul and even Jimmy Carter are testimony to the veracity of some of, if not all of, what these men are saying. The truth always gets hit hardest. Oddly enough, aren’t Wright and Paul saying some of the same things? 9/11 was partly to blame on blowback for U.S. Policies in the Middle East? Seems like an opportunity to me. Who will Ron Paul endorse? Might want to start some coalition building right there.
 
Speaking the supposed unpopular view takes courage and leadership. This is what Obama has said he would do. He would unite the Country by providing truth and by reaching across the aisle. There seems to be plenty of opportunity for that. This could very well be the last Presidential election where the candidates are still able to talk to the voting public, before Corporate Campaign Awareness kicks in and then we won’t have to be looking for a Leader, he will be given to us.