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Obama Watch
In March 2006, Barack Obama promised Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace that he would appear on the Sunday morning news talk show that airs on the Fox broadcast network and repeated later in the day on the Fox News Channel. Wallace said yesterday:
Many of you have sent us e-mails asking why the senator won’t come on Fox News Sunday and face tough questioning. It has now been 730 days, 13 hours, 53 minutes and nine—no, 10 seconds and counting since Obama agreed to be a guest on Fox News Sunday. Tune in next week for the latest.
Hillary Clinton has appeared on the show twice, while John McCain has been a guest six times.
Topic: Campaign 2008, WorldMagBlog
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back to top56 Comments to “Obama Watch”
It was a dumb promise to make, because now he looks like he’s running scared. He never should’ve agreed to appear. What’s he got to gain? The FOX News demographic is heavily skewed toward older white people, the very demographic which is least likely to even consider voting for him.
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I won’t belabor the point, but boo hoo! So what if a politician picks and chooses his interviews? Obama has the big MO on his side, why should he wander into the so-called conservative ghetto of Fox News Sunday? This is not going to make any sort of dent in Obama’s campaign.
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Cock-a-doodle-do!
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I’ve noticed that Faux News anchors are the most arrogant when it comes to demanding that politicians appear on their show. Then they wine and wine until the person shows up.
If I were Barack, I would never have promised to show up because Faux News is not a legitimate news organization.
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Typical of a “feel good” campaign: many promises, little action.
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Bob B,
Did you mean, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk?
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I was reading in the Chicago Sunday perspective how Obama released all this tax returns while Hillary and McCain refused. Also, he published all his senate earmarks. Guess which Washington insiders refused that also? Hint, they also refused to release their tax returns. The Republicans as so desperate to dig up dirt on him. It’s difficult when you are honest. All they have left are imaginary smears or guilt by association.
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I agree with Night Train. It was a dump, spur-of-the-moment promise. Obama gains nothing by doing that interview.
When you listen to a lot of Obama’s rhetoric you realize that there is not a lot of there there. He needs to stick with piffle and twaddle until he gets past Hillary. But I think in the national election he is going to have to actually put up some plans.
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Obama gains nothing by doing that interview.
I think you are wrong. Obama was interviewed by Major Garrot of Fox news and walked away looking sincere and honest. Garrot looked like petty and small by comparison.
Obama needs to show Fix news he is strong. It could only help him. I suspect he is just tired of Republican racist. There constant smears and yapping gets old real fast.
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“Obama was interviewed by Major Garrot of Fox news and walked away looking sincere and honest. Garrot looked like petty and small by comparison.”
YOu must have watched a different one than I did.
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Wow, let’s play the name game.
If Fox is Faux, then CNN is legitimately the Clinton
News Network by the same standard. Come on, seems like everyone is on March Madness overload.
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#6 ADIOS
Yes, but I couldn’t figure out how to spell it or get the cadence in.
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Anlir wrote of some newscasters, that they are “the most arrogant when it comes to demanding that politicians appear on their show. Then they wine and wine until the person shows up.”
Anlir has a point, but not in this case. If Obama actually did agree to appear, then this particular newscaster has a right to hold him to the promise and point it out.
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Can we at least admit that you see and hear things on FOX that you don’t on other networks? That’s the main reason I use the FOX News website as one of my sources for news.
Can we also admit that people on both sides label as “legitimate” the news outlet(s) that most reflect their own viewpoints?
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If Obama can’t take the heat of hardball questions he ought to get out of the kitchen of presidential politics.
Spengler has an interesting article today in The Asian Times, The peculiar theology of black liberation, cogently arguing that:
Senator Barack Obama is not a Muslim, contrary to invidious rumors. But he belongs to a Christian church whose doctrine casts Jesus Christ as a “black messiah” and blacks as “the chosen people”. At best, this is a radically different kind of Christianity than most Americans acknowledge; at worst it is an ethnocentric heresy.
If Obama can’t satisfactorily explain this church relationship on Fox and other networks, his candidacy is toast.
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Why can’t Jesus be black? Why is that heresy?
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RDEan, Christianity is essentially a universal religion, not tied to any one ethnic group or nation. That’s why it has been accepted all over the world. The only ethnic group with a legitimate claim as a chosen people would be the Jews.
Spengler remarks:
Since Christianity taught the concept of divine election to the Gentiles, every recalcitrant tribe in Christendom has rebelled against Christian universalism, insisting that it is the “Chosen People” of God – French, English, Russian, Germans and even (through the peculiar doctrine of Mormonism) certain Americans. America remains the only really Christian country in the industrial world, precisely because it transcends ethnicity. One finds ethnocentricity only in odd corners of its religious life; one of these is African-American.
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No Jews are black?
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Isn’t it true that some black groups in Africa actually see themselves the as the original decendants of the Torah and feel those Jews that look white are are actually converts from Europe? I heard that somewhere. I don’t know how feasible it is.
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What does the color of Jesus’ skin have to do with “Bawk” O“bawk”ma not keeping his promise to go on a Conservative-leaning talk show?
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Then they wine and wine until the person shows up.
They actually drink on the set?
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Wow. This is almost exciting as when Oprah went 16 years before appearing on Letterman.
Almost.
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RDean, the blacks claim that Jesus was a black man who favored the conquest of black people over evil white people is totally bogus. Christ came as the Son of Man quite without regard to race, ethnicity, and nationhood. Christianity is unquestionabl a universal religion. Black people, contra Wright, are welcome to Christianity but by no means chosen over any other people.
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“Why can’t Jesus be black? Why is that heresy?”
The Bible gave specific prophecies regarding the Messiah so that we would recognize Him when He came. One of the prophecies was that He would be born in Bethlehem (Remember the wise men asking Herod where he was so that they could worship him?).
Other prophecies indicate that He would be of the offspring of David, a Jew. (This is why the genealogies in Matthew and Luke are so important – they trace His lineage through Mary and Joseph back to King David to prove His Jewish ancestry.) So if the Messiah is not a Jew who was born in Bethlehem, then He is not the Christ.
Many, many prophecies of Jesus arriving in history when and as He did shows God’s hand in it. Literally fulfilled prophecy is one of the most important marks of God’s existence.
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On the Jesus-as-black issue: When I taught black children, I specifically told them Jesus was Jewish, and I clarified the difference between Jews and Gentiles and explained that ALL of us were Gentiles. All of us were sort of approaching the Bible as “outsiders” who have been called into a Jewish faith. I’m sure the early church would be shocked to see a primarily Gentile institution today.
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Peter – 23
YOU WRITE:…… “Christ came as the Son of Man quite without regard to race, ethnicity, and nationhood.”
Jesus was born into a Jewish family, He was a Jew.
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Micah 5:2
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; Romans 1:3
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, Galatians 4:4
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Jesus certainly was born and grew up as a Jew; however, in his role of the Messiah and Son of Man he is universal.
As I mentioned in an earlier post the Jews are the only ethnic group that may claim to be the chosen people of God, though Christ as the Messiah came to serve the world’s people. Wright’s claim that Christ was a black man come to remove the oppression of white people is absurd.
Obama’s pastor based his church on James Cone, the most prominent theologian in the “black liberation” school, who taught as follows:
Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.
This theology on which Wright based the Chicago Trinity Church is an abomination. Further, Obama, being a bright, well educated man, must have known the basis of Wright’s theology.
Obama is trying desparately to pass Wright off as a jutifiably angry black man of the fifties and sixties, when in fact he has consciously involved himself in an extreme form of black racism. Martin Luther King, a black man of the fifties and sixties, would hardly have involved himself with Cone’s racist theology.
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I’ll certainly agree with Kyle A that you hear things on Faux News that you won’t hear on any other network. As it’s the only network that openly boasts of it’s ties to one political party (R), it has set a new nadir in the journalistic standards of honestly and fairness.
Obama should never have agreed to go on Faux News. He’s got to get smarter and realize that he will never get a fair shake on the Republican “news” channel. That’s like going to a sword fight with both hands tied behind your back.
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Anlir – 28
If Obama is so weak that he can’t be questioned by those on FOX News he certainly would never be able to deal with the all the nations around the globe.
YOU WRITE:……. “That’s like going to a sword fight with both hands tied behind your back.”
I haven’t seen Obama make strong points in his debate talks. He doesn’t have any specific ideas. I hope that those at FOX News ask direct questions which Obama has NO CHOICE but to answer. All this dancing and prancing about can end, while Obama gives some thought to EXACTLY what he would do, and HOW HE WOULD ACCOMPLISH IT, not some dream beam stuck in his eye while he pontificates some ideas he hasn’t thought through. I don’t give a one toot where he attended school, … so far this guy hasn’t given anyone a reason to believe he knows where he’s going with his ‘catch phrases’-
A future President will never have an easy time when confronted by those who oppose his beliefs and that of the American people, if he’s AFRAID of FOX News and the questions they might ask.
No SWORDS needed, just answer the questions, without skirting the issues.
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Every time I hear a conservative say “just answer the question” I think of the Inquisition.
Conservatives are very good at badgering and intimidation.
What people like Obama should do is attack the very foundation of their questions, which are usually dishonest from the get-go.
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Obama is burnt toast. It was fun for liberals while it lasted, but it crashed and burned this weekend. He’s lying through his teeth when he says he had no idea Wright believed these things, and everyone knows it.
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Sure Anlir, attack a question you can’t answer, OR AVOID it, OR making a question out of it and hope no one notices. How predictable you are with your comments!
Poor Obama, maybe he needs a nap, or better yet, have answers that make sense, without the prancing. He can’t do it, he doesn’t have the answers-
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Night Train, we agree on this point!
Maybe there were two sermons for every Sunday, the one given would be only if Obama turned up.
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Victoria:
You don’t even have any right to ask me questions because I totally reject the fundamentally dishonest nature of your so-called “questions”. Well, they’re never really questions, so much as statements (screeches, actually) which are designed to impugn the integrity and motives of anyone who doesn’t agree with you.
The fact that you “scream” them on here (which is what boldface type is), makes them even more out of bounds. The angrier you get the more bold type you use, which make you even more out of bounds.
Apparently you haven’t figured out yet that people don’t like being “screamed” at on a blog, or else you just don’t care. Either way, you need to learn the rules of civil dialog and how to ask questions honestly if you want people to respond to you.
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#9 and #10 and Victoria
re Obama’s appearance on FOX — he made the interviewer look petty and rude while he himself was in complete control.
#17 Peter quoting Spengler
America remains the only really Christian country in the industrial world, precisely because it transcends ethnicity.
A heavy dose of American exceptionalism here. I can think of an other country which transcends ethnicity and doesn’t even have problems related to race.
#18/19
Ethiopian and Yemeni Jews claim they are the descendants of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. She converted while she visited him. A large group of Eastern European Jews are converts from the Khazers, a Turkish people in the Ukraine, who converted to Judaism in the 8th Century. The ancedote surrounding the conversion of the Khazars has the leader searching for the best monotheistic religion. The Orthodox and Catholics wanted 10%, the Muslims wanted to ban alcohol and the Jewish rabbis didn’t demand either and hence the Khazar leadership chose Judaism.
Thus the racial diversity in Judaism.
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re #32 — you asked a question??
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From #27:
And, let’s not forget, this very same James Cone is one of WoW columnist Anthony Bradley’s favorite theologians.
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Well well well…it’s already started.
Here’s just a little sample of what will be all over the airwaves come this fall.
Don’t tell Obama words don’t matter.
Enjoy!
http://snipurl.com/21zmu
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Anlir – 34
YOU WRITE: …… :“You don’t even have any right to ask me questions because I totally reject the fundamentally dishonest nature of your so-called “questions”. Well, they’re never really questions, so much as statements (screeches, actually) which are designed to impugn the integrity and motives of anyone who doesn’t agree with you.
Calm down Anlir, you may not have realized it but for over a year, people have been using BOLD on many blogs.
As for your comment about my being dishonest that’s just another personal attack, and a lie on your part. I haven’t been dishonest and you know that, but it serves your ego to ‘hurl’ something like that on this thread.
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NT – 32
What a HOOT!
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Night Train I should have said your post 39 SORRY!
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Let the healin’ begin!
http://snipurl.com/21zn9
It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!
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After watching many clips, and footage of Wright’s comments, one of the most troubling aspects is the LOUD APPLAUSE, SHOUTING and excitement from those in the audience where Wright is speaking.
If this is the ‘mood’ of his congregation, where they become this excited and happy over the kinds of things he has uttered from the pulpit, worst of ALL using the LORD’S name in vain, over and over again, agreeing in loud comments as they listen, with NO DISSENT that tells me what the attitude’s are of those who go to his church. The membership exceeds 6,000 people, so they must agree with what he says, or they wouldn’t be members.
I wonder how many other churches there are like this?
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Good point, Victoria. I pointed this out the other day as further evidence that these sermons weren’t aberrational one-offs. Not only did no one walk out, people were standing and cheering, and the men on the podium were slapping Wright on the back. No one at the church appeared to be shocked to be hearing this stuff out of their “non-controversial” preacher, and most of them were eating it up. Obviously Wright’s far from the only person at TUCC who feels this way.
Obama is lying through his teeth when he says he wasn’t aware of this stuff. Wright’s been preaching this way for decades, as I’m sure we’ll see more evidence of down the road. He boasts on his website that the church’s teachings are based on the theology of James Cone, who said blacks can only worship a god who wants to kill their white oppressors, and that the white man is pretty close to being the devil. It defies belief that Obama went there for 20 years and somehow missed all this.
Liberal blogger Matt Yglesias had the best take on this. Obama probably doesn’t believe all this stuff (although he surely agrees with some of it). Twenty years ago Obama was a wet behind the ears “community activist” with an eye on a future in politics who didn’t feel like an “authentic” black man. He was afraid of being seen as “an oreo”, and so he joined TUCC precisely because Wright preaches this garbage, to himself legitimacy and street cred with poor blacks on the South Side of Chicago. Now it’s coming back to bite him in the rear end.
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Obama talks a lot about hoping for change. Apparently, one thing that will not change with him is that the politicians will still lie and pander shamelessly.
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#34: impugn the integrity
Shame on you. You can only impugn integrity when you have some yourself. You know that.
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Rdean – Jesus had to be Jewish (decsending through the Davidic line) – which would have made it necessary for him to be Semitic. Not pale, by any means, but not what we would commonly call black.
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I believe your right Night Train, but I’m not happy about this at all.
I hate to see things like this happen in our country. Much of the racism has vanished, but this just stirs a pot which most of us hoped had cooled down, on BOTH sides. I’m going to pray about this situation, I believe GOD can heal and HE can change peoples hearts, even Wright and those who follow him.
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I wonder how many other churches there are like this?
Well, according to WoW columnist Anthony Bradley, this sort of preaching occurs in most of the black churches in this country. He put up a post today called “Wright Under Unfair Attack”. (Which tells you plenty about where Bradley is coming from – remember, one of his favorite theologians is James Cone, who says the god of black Christianity wants to kill the white oppressors.) In the 2nd comment, Bradley said this:
Most black preachers preach for AT LEAST an hour. Maybe because I grew up hearing this stuff but it’s standard black mainline preaching. He didn’t say anything that you wouldn’t hear in most of the 46,000 black congregations in America.
http://snipurl.com/21zq7
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I’m going to pray about this situation, I believe GOD can heal and HE can change peoples hearts, even Wright and those who follow him.
Yeah, well, good luck with that. Let me know how it works out for you.
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Do you think he will heal Robertson, Parsley, Hugee and all those other white evangelical leaders who preach hate and intolorance against the gays?
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Night Train – 51
I know you don’t believe but I do. GOD has a plan, it’s HIS plan not anyone else’s.
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SteveHu at #24: Other prophecies indicate that He would be of the offspring of David, a Jew. (This is why the genealogies in Matthew and Luke are so important – they trace His lineage through Mary and Joseph back to King David to prove His Jewish ancestry.) So if the Messiah is not a Jew who was born in Bethlehem, then He is not the Christ.
Jesus wasn’t black, but he also wasn’t the lanky European with long flowing hair that appears in many paintings in many Western churches and that nobody seems to object to.
On the other hand, if the message of Jesus is universal, what’s wrong with people of different races envisioning him as being somewhat like them? Jesus is obviously more appealing to Europeans and Americans of European origin if he is portrayed as a European even though, ethnically, he wasn’t. Why is that ok, but a black Jesus is not?
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HRW, that country would be? And don’t say Canada because you guys can’t even handle two groups of whites — the English and the French. Vive Libre Quebec and all that (something like that, I don’t speak French). Seems you guys have quite a violent history there with riots and kidnappings.
The vision of the black Jesus that Wright has is not a “universal” vision of the Christ merely with a black face in a painting. It is a vision of a Christ who hates white people. That’s not okay because it is a false image of Christ. Jesus doesn’t hate anybody.
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I remember going to a church for a decade that preached that the gifts of the Holy Spirit (in 1 Cor. 12-14) had passed. I heard the teaching more than once, but did not believe it. I had already been to a couple of other churches previously that did teach that the gifts continued, and I had witnessed them in action myself.
So I can sort of imagine Mr. Obama hearing the diatribes against whites and not committing to them – because of the love shown him from his own white part of the family.
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