How many people have taken the time to learn about Rev. Jeremiah Wright beyond the clips?

You’re absolutely right! I will think for myself…....and I think I will not dig in to your proposed research.

Besides, I find British political scandals far more entertaining.

I haven’t, but it’s because I like Obama regardless. Plus, I agree with Wright’s sentiment.

flower, you’re right. “think for yourself” is perhaps to accusatory and divisive. I’ll remove that now. I’d still encourage you to take a look if you get the chance. Guess I can’t edit it out but please understand it to be removed.

zaid…...the US presidential (candidacy) race is only interesting to me for the occasional entertainment value….it’s your choice who wins, not mine.

flower, understood.

I have purposely steered clear of all the hoopla regarding Rev. Wright.
Senator Obama has my continued support.

I’ll add, though, that Wright is a total a—hole for his selfish and self serving showboating in this most recent media cycle, especially after Obama went to bat for him previously.

McBealer and Kevbo, while i respect that you are entitled to your decisions and conclusions, I’d really recommend taking a look at the Bill Moyer’s interview. If for no other reason than to be informed by a different perspective.

I’m very intentionally avoiding all that mudslinging. I’d rather be informed about the issues than who happens to know someone who knows someone who has Hitler on their myspace friendlist.

Nope, I don’t care to.

Delirium, i’m with you on that. I’d say that rather than mudslinging, the links i gave just try to give some background on a personality that has been thrust upon us. I guess i’m just inherently curious.

wright is a race baiting, anti American peice of shit

I can’t say whether I’ll get around to watching those clips (again, not really interested), but one doesn’t have to look at them to understand that if Wright at all cared about Obama’s chances to become president he would have kept his mouth shut until after the election.

You make racist comments, even in a soundbite, and you must be accountable for them regardless of whatever else you may drum up. That being said, I have looked into the Reverend’s history, and I must say that I’m 100% positive he’s racist against whites. Being persecuted doesn’t give one the right to fling it back. Maybe the media is doing a disservice to him, but they at least haven’t misrepresented that he is a black racist.

This is one more case in an unending series of examples demonstrating that no matter what you think you know from what you’ve heard, your understanding of a situation that’s far away from you, seen only through the distorting lens of media, is incomplete at best and dangerously skewed at worst. Our opinions of Wright, I am pretty sure (and this is without watching your videos yet, but on general principal) fall into one of these two categories: incomplete or wrong. As we form opinions, especially about things with which we have no direct experience, we should be open to having these opinions challenged and improved.

This is one of the great challenges of democracy. We are built, as a species, to deal with what is concrete and immediate, yet we must make informed decisions about people and issues that we don’t have time to inform ourselves about and which are so distant from our experience as to exclude all our intuitive decision making capabilities from helping us. I think this is Jon Stewart’s perennial point: the media lets us down.

Moreover, the public turns fast, and it is a deep and subtle skill to be able to communicate with them effectively without having your intention distorted. Kevbo, you’re right that Wright made a tactical error, though I’m pretty sure he’s pro-Obama. I wouldn’t be surprised if his error is due to him not understanding the nature of the audience he’s trying to communicate with.

Overall, I’m with delirium too. Better to avoid making decisions based on these kinds of issues. Sadly, a lot of people do.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright speaks truths and facts (and intelligent assumptions too) that are a long time coming. I wish Jeremiah Wright was President Obama’s Chief Policy Advisor. Rev. Wright also quotes his sources, and names the books he reads. No one can dispute what Wright said about the Tuskegee experiments. Or COINTELPRO. Or Ajax.

Wright speaks the scary truth about America that Americans are scared to death of learning.

I am not turned off by his inflammatory tone; he’s a preacher, not a politician.

And yeah, during the campaign, he should have shut up for tactical reasons; but none of that takes away from the truths this man has spoken about.

This question was interesting and I ended up reading more and more about Rev. Wright. I support every thing that man has said in any sermon I’ve ever seen. But I cringe when he blames “the Jews” for crimes of Zionists, such as in his interview with the Daily Press of Newport News. But then he corrected himself on his Facebook page saying he meant Zionists, not Jews.

I think it’s always horrible though when Jews as a whole get blamed for the ideology or actions of Zionists. When that happens, all knowledge gained devolves into chaos for a period of time.

I watched several clips of the preacher and tend to agree with most of what he said. His “god damn America” was a rhetorical device and not a condemnation of the country. Almost every quote written about him was taken out of context.