Awaken The Giant Within

Some people find inspiration and motivation from the tapes they buy from late night infommercial hucksters.

Whose motivational tapes did Barack Obama take to Harvard Law?

It [Trinity United Church of Christ] also helped give him spiritual bona fides and a new assurance. Services at Trinity were a weekly master class in how to move an audience. When Mr. Obama arrived at Harvard Law School later that year, where he fortified himself with recordings of Mr. Wright’s sermons, he was delivering stirring speeches as a student leader in the classic oratorical style of the black church. [my emph.]

Obama says he never heard the ugly, controversial Wright sermons in person. Which ones did he use to hone his oratory skills at Harvard Law?

{fade to a Cambridge apartment ca. 1990}

"God damn America! .... meh"

"God damn America! .... still not punchy"

"God damn America! .... gold!"

Be sure to read that whole New York Times piece from last year. Wright blessed Obama's house as well? The Rezko house? ohmydearlord.

UPDATE: Welcome all you Aces --- the HQ types and the Flopping kind as well. Keeping up the poker theme, have we found Obama's "tell"?

UPDATE: Thanks for stopping by Newsbusters & Stop the ACLU. Hey, thanks again, Glenn. Yikes, looks like Bill O'Reilly reads Perfunction (or maybe possibly Instapundit, hard to say...).

UPDATE: Where was Obama on the Sunday after 9-11? Answer.

Comments

[dsinope]

INSTALANCHE!!!!

Nice catch. Obama is the New Boss. Same as the old Boss

http://www.e3gazette.com/2008/03/open-letter-to-barak-obamas-supporters.html

[headrock]

What's the big deal? Democrats have always had a diversity fetish. I mean, they have an honest-to-goodness KKK grand dragon as their most senior leader in the Senate. So what could possibly be more diverse than a Black Panther as the party's presidential nominee?

[s sommer]

While it is sad for White America to have to listen to this old pastor's rants, is this really news?

Haven't you seen Chris Rock's stand up comedy where he talks about the biggest racists being "old black men?"

The other side of the coin is the fact that there IS/WAS a ton of racism in our older American generations, and not just in the South.

The town I grew up in, about as far away from the South as one could get & still be in the continental US, had "sunset laws" until the mid 60's.

For those who don't know, that means anybody black had to get out of town by sundown. For real.

I have also sat through dinners with my ex-husband's business clients: old white men, who said the most atrocious things about all kinds of people... blacks, Jews, gays, Asians... you name it.

We know that plenty of white preachers say some pretty hideous things, too.

What is Obama's excuse for playing dumb and trying to hide this friendship?

I wish he would come out & say what I expect is the truth: the man is his friend, despite his views.

Obama understands where the guy is coming from.

Does he try to change his mind? Who knows.

But, it must take some kind of "blindness" for Pastor Wright to have a US Senator (black) and two Ivy League educated (black) members of his congregation under his nose, yet keep saying that blacks are impossibly disadvantaged yet today.

Probably, it just keeps the donations coming!

(Oh, come on! Why do you THINK ministers rant and rave the way they do? For M-O-N-E-Y.)

Let's give Obama credit that he may not know how to take: He hung in there as a living example of "possibility" in a congregation that may not believe much in "possibility." Evidently, they have 8,000 members, but we have not yet seem demographics on that group. Poor? Rich? Old? Young?

If white America is unnerved and insulted to hear harsh criticisms said behind their backs, take a moment to think how often you may have heard some pretty harsh things said about blacks or other people "different from yourself" in "private."

Or, in some homogenous group setting...

Old black men are not the only ones making some snide remarks, now are they? I don't think so.

Maybe, this is good.. Maybe, we all need to talk,
all need to listen, all need to think it through.

Yeah, this black old man is a crazy racist, with harsh feelings about whites & history.

Younger people hopefully have less of this...

But, I was just in a meeting this week where a black man openly asked if the reason he was having trouble getting bids with state contracts was due to racism. I was attending a minority business meeting, or I would not have heard that asked.

I wish Obama would just open up about it, not feel he has to hide from it. There's no place to hide.

And, maybe it would help if he just would tell us how he has spent 20 some years in that church & why...

Despite the anger and pain so evident there.

SS

[Cynewulf]

"Evidently, they have 8,000 members, but we have not yet seem demographics on that group. Poor? Rich? Old? Young?"

Upper Middle-Class, with some token poor and other strata. Think black yuppies looking for a victimhood and white-hatred fix after a long stressful week pulling down big Gs in the land of The Man.

Obama wasn't an inspiration there, but merely a well-heeled peer among equals, until his campaign recently began to grow wings. Then he pretty much became a messiah there and everywhere else.

[SeaBix]

Just wonderin' what the Trinity United Church of Christ had to say this weekend. Appears that they may be layin' low and just sayin' nothing.

[Salt Lick]

And, maybe it would help if he just would tell us how he has spent 20 some years in that church & why...

And maybe in doing so Obama could vault himself into American history in a positive way. He could well and truly condemn Wright's remarks, conducting a POINT BY POINT TAKEDOWN -- Don't hate rich white people; don't hate Jews; America, a land he thanks God for living in, has not used AIDS and drugs to destroy the black community; America did not deserve 9/11, but it's enemies do, etc. This is Obama's moment; how he uses it will tell us a lot about him.

[Bacon-I Will Miss Thee]

Obama could do that but it would absolutely reek as desperate spin. He can rebuke Wright all he wants now, it doesn't change the fact that he had twenty years to do so but waited until the most important political race of his career was in full swing.

Obama is an operator in the classic Chicago style and this particular situation is living proof.

[michelle johnson]

I was listening to some of Obama's supporters and they are defending the pastor's remarks and saying that this is how people talk in black churches. I am white and have been married to a black man for 30 years and have been to several black churches and they do not talk like that. Some of the white people that support him have never been to a black church and if they thought this is how people generally speak in a black church they will think twice. The pastor's comments need to be repudiated. I may not agree with Obama on most issues but I always felt he was an honet sincere person but now that is in question.

[Jeff]

Obama wants to run on his superior "judgement", vis a vi Iraq ...

That is the same judgement that made him a member of a racist church for 20 years and the same judgement that made him good friends for 15 years with one of Chicago's most connected political fixers, and a dirty one to boot ...

Now thats the kind of judgement we need in the White House ...

[NikFromNYC]

Hmmm...Obama was 27 in '88 when he went to law school. Motivating himself with evidently disgraceful taped speeches was not then a youthful indiscretion, nor standard issue "activism" of the 60s, which was going to be my argument until I looked him up on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia also links to a video example of Wright's "hate speech":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdJB-qkfUHc

It's from Fox News. They show. You decide. Looks like an "old black guy" who indeed actually lived through real racism yet I don't think "hate speech" counts that includes the conclusion "Jesus taught me to love the hell out of my enemies." Claiming the country is controlled by "rich white people" isn't exactly racism any more than would it be for me to say "high crime inner city ghettos are controlled by poor minority gang members," for it merely describes the fact.

P.S. Calling Tony Robbins, who is the *one* exception that exists in a crowd of late night hucksters, means you don't know much about Robbins. Who else has *unpaid* video endorsements from normal success stories (unlike Scientology). His nutrition advice is junk, but he got both myself and my brother into business, and my rich lawyer girlfriend enough balls to quit her last in a series of miserable stodgy law firm jobs into a wonderful new job at the best company to work for in the world. View a copy of Tony's "Overcoming Overwhelming Loss" for an example of him turning a suicidally bankrupt businessman into a confident person again. On 9/11, Tony was literally in the middle of giving a seminar that my brother was at (one of the really expensive ones in Fiji) and several Muslims in attendance spoke up that they fully understood why this might happen and that is was in a way "our fault." This began a small shouting match in the audience. By the end, it was hugs all around.

[Rob Mixon]

Senator Obama Please! You used this minister Pastor Wright) as your inroad to be accepted in the Black Community, You used him to help you in seeking your initial foray into American Politics, This was not the first time that he (Rev.Wright) had made inflammatory sermons. You did not repudiate those sermons, but how ingenuous cn you be now to say you are appalled. Son, you may not know enough about the Black American experience in America. But to coin one of your phrases: "You need to Get it Right on Day 1".. You are the worse kind of politician. At least be man enough to ride your indiscretions even the religious ones. "Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged". Does that sound familiar? I'm a Black American for the past 62 years, and and my total ancestry for near 4 centuries is rooted here. I don't believe in this political process, but its the best thing we have going, don't make a mockery of it. On a minor note, its strange that your caucasion staffers have to tell you when they construe something as racist or bigoted. I don't think you know, and have to be led....

[lester tye]

I'm still waiting for someone to explain what part of Wright's comments were not correct? Hillary isn't black. She wasn't raised poor, etc.

[Mark]

I dislike hate speach and it does not matter what color the speaker is. I was raised in a poor black area ,and as a white kid it was not always easy. Hate comes in all colors. Wright is speaking hate.

[marko]

obama cannot deny the facts. The issue is not that the pastor is a ultra left wing anti amrican liberal. The issue is that he is truly dangerous. it is scary to know that man actually leads any group of good people. he is brainwashing people and it is sad. Even more sad -- obama whom is running for president of the Unites States of America looks up to and has learned from the pastor for many yars.

[Rob Mixon]

Lester,
I agree that Hillary is and has never been any of those things. I wish to remind you that neither was Obama. Whats your point?
He may be your color, but he's not your kind...Thats just a fact of this life. This man has never fought for this country or served in its military. He has never suffered the indignities of being Black in America. I can't give him a pass. Of all the qualified, educated Black Americans with roots in this nation what the hell are we as a people doing? Sorry Oprah, you got it wrong too. In the south the elders would have never asked "Are you the one?"
As for his minister, our Country right or wrong. I never hope nor pray that God damn America. He may damn some of Her people for bigoted, and inappropriate behavior, but never Damn the Country that we should love, and if you don't, Pack your bags Bro, and find a better place to live... I don't think you'll be leaving anytime soon.....

[Ann Blanton]

I'm older than many of you, so I probably heard more racist comments when I was young than you did. But that, even here in the South, is fairly unusual these days. When it is heard, it is directed toward unpleasant types of behavior-- perhaps in a black person-- but really a remark on the distasteful behavior itself. "I was sorta scared" said when in a spot alone with a scarey looking person of a different race, as black." Or "He's not interested in work; he's sloppin' around," perhaps said about a sloppy worker that happens to be dark skinned. There are so many wonderful people, dressed well, well-educated, kind, fun, and black. They are our co-workers, teachers, TV or movie stars, or even our grandchildren. Don't overlook the normal and the good in our country. What the minister did was try to replay old tapes and build a congregation of "yes" men. The danger is that it influences and affects people: as Obama's wife. Very sad.We don't need it and I am glad it is in the open so that we can discuss it and realize its inappropriateness. I hope the black community takes up the challenge to speak against this type of dishonesty and hate-mongering.

[ruthie]

As for Obama's church and preacher, it is all wrong! The church is not a place for such as what we hear by "Rev." Wright. The Church is where the Word of God is to be taught, and only the Word of God, The Holy Bible; not our opinions and ideas and gripes. It is a trick of the devil himself to get people off on the wrong track. Even if "Rev" Wright did this only once or twice, it was wrong! It is a sin no matter which way you look at it. Acts 2:46,47 tells us what Church is for and nothing less.