Obama May Not Have Fully Contained Damage From Ex-Pastor

[DeepModem Mom]

WSJ: Obama May Not Have Fully Contained Damage From Ex-Pastor
By NICK TIMIRAOS
April 7, 2008; Page A4



Sen. Barack Obama's Philadelphia speech on race relations last month seemed to put the controversial remarks of his former pastor behind him. But three weeks later, there is evidence of lingering damage. "It has not been defused," says David Parker, a North Carolina Democratic Party official and unpledged superdelegate. He says his worries about Republicans questioning Sen. Obama's patriotism prompted him to raise the issue of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.'s remarks in conversations with both the Obama and Clinton campaigns....

National polls show the Illinois senator hasn't suffered among Democratic primary voters. Contests in Pennsylvania on April 22, Indiana on May 6 and West Virginia on May 13 could serve as an important test. His performance among largely white, less-urban voters could show how well he can secure critical swing states in November.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has argued that she can better withstand Republican attacks. One of her senior advisers last week told the Talking Points Memo blog that he had raised the Wright issue with superdelegates. The campaign didn't dispute the report. "Certainly, as you recall, it was very heavily in the news and people, you know, sometimes have it on their minds," Sen. Clinton told reporters last week.

Recent polls suggest that, in key swing states, the New York senator fares better in head-to-head matchups with Republican nominee Sen. John McCain than does Sen. Obama. In Ohio, Sen. Clinton led Sen. McCain 48% to 39%, while Sen. Obama led Sen. McCain 43% to 42% in Quinnipiac University polls conducted in the last week of March. In Pennsylvania, Sen. Clinton had a 48% to 40% lead against Sen. McCain while Sen. Obama was ahead 43% to 39%.

The polls credit Sen. Clinton's advantage to her strength among white voters. No Democrat has won the presidency with a majority of white voters since 1964, and no president from either party has been elected without winning two of the three swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida since 1960. In those three states, some 23% of white Democrats would defect to Sen. McCain in a matchup with Sen. Obama, compared with 11% who would abandon Sen. Clinton, according to the Quinnipiac polls.

"It's a reasonable assumption that ... part of that drop-off among white voters would result from his pastor's notoriety," says Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120752539182393613.html

[bowens43]

1. Not this again....give it up. It's a non-issue.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. As always --

I am a neutral poster of articles here, posting articles both positive and negative about both candidates, because I think it's valuable for both supporters and detractors of both candidates to know what's out there in the press. I almost always post articles without comment.

And, if you'll look down the list of posts in this forum, you'll see my posts, falling into those categories. If articles aren't equally divided between the two candidates any given day, that's a reflection of what I find in the press on that day.

That said, I am an Obama supporter, but admire and respect Clinton, and would happily vote for her if she's the nominee.

[John Q. Citizen]

9. And a big thank you for your efforts, DMM. I appreciate it!

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Thank you, John -- I needed that this a.m.!

:hi:

[onehandle]

13. Of course. It's not your fault that DUers are largely close minded.

I want to read everything I can. This is one reason I don't use the ignore "feature."

I don't want to be a Liberal Dittohead.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. Me, too -- onehandle. I got no one on "ignore." nt

[John Q. Citizen]

15. I have no one on ignore but I don't find DUers to be largely closed minded. I do think

that the closed minded among us though have the widest open mouths.

What did mom used to say? When one body part closes another one opens? Or something like that! :)

[DeepModem Mom]

16. Good point! nt

[onehandle]

17. Very true.

And the loudest around here say the same things over and over.

I believe that many have been shamed by them into silence.

[Royal Oak Rog]

2. Do you have a Sean Insanity view of this story?

Seeing it's from a Ruppert Murdoch publication, the right wings and Hillarys favorite kind of swift boat like attack dogs. How you people can even claim that there is so much hate coming from the Obama side is ludicrous.

[rocktivity]

3. DING DING DING! Royal Oak Rog, you're our grand prize winner!

Consider the source.

:boring:
rocknation

[DeepModem Mom]

8. For the record --

I am a neutral poster of articles here, posting articles both positive and negative about both candidates, because I think it's valuable for both supporters and detractors of both candidates to know what's out there in the press. I almost always post articles without comment.

And, if you'll look down the list of posts in this forum, you'll see my posts, falling into those categories. If articles aren't equally divided between the two candidates any given day, that's a reflection of what I find in the press on that day.

That said, I am an Obama supporter, but admire and respect Clinton, and would happily vote for her if she's the nominee.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Once again --

I am a neutral poster of articles here, posting articles both positive and negative about both candidates, because I think it's valuable for both supporters and detractors of both candidates to know what's out there in the press. I almost always post articles without comment.

And, if you'll look down the list of posts in this forum, you'll see my posts, falling into those categories. If articles aren't equally divided between the two candidates any given day, that's a reflection of what I find in the press on that day.

That said, I am an Obama supporter, but admire and respect Clinton, and would happily vote for her if she's the nominee.

[Saturday]

4. I think the first 2 responses to this thread

pretty much prove what the article said. Obama has not lost support for the Wright situation from Democratic primary voters but taking this issue into the GE is another issue altogether. Voters there will not be as forgiving IMO. Recommemded.

[billbuckhead]

7. Can't be post racial during the week and go to an ethnocentric church on Sunday.

[onehandle]

10. This will return in the GE. Primarily from swiftboat types.

"Do you want a President who worships at an Anti-American church, who doesn't wear a flag pin, and may be a radical Muslim?"

Hopefully the kids will get to the polls this Fall. Unlike every other election in history.

We'll have to work our asses off for Clinton or Obama. Both have negatives that will be broadcasted loudly by the opposition.

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. Have to say

I could care less about Obama's personal faith. But one does not sit in a pew for years and take a book title from a sermon without having been significantly impacted by the message coming out of that pulpit.

The good reverend Wright is wrong for all the same reasons that Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Rod Parsley, et al are wrong. Different agendas and political views but the same unholy marriage of faith and poitics. IMHO using faith to advance any political agenda is unconscionable.

I have to wonder why Obama listened to the reverend advance his agenda for so long - and just exactly what he thinks is the appropriate relationship between faith and politics.

FWIW, I will vote for whoever gets the Dem nomination in November. But I think both the remaining candidates suck.