When Katon Dawson, the chairman of South Carolina's GOP, decided to run for national chair of the RNC
he quit his whites-only country club. Noting that his membership would be a distraction for Republicans trying to win elections, Dawson also called for an end of the discriminatory restriction included in the club's deed (which is actually unconstitutional and unenforceable).
One
GOP critic says that if Dawson wins the post, it further proves that the GOP has been reduced to "a Southern regional rump party that's held hostage by intolerant crackpots."
Barack Obama has left Chicago's Trinity Unity Church of Christ after 20 years, on a weekend dominated with news of a
Florida and Michigan deal and the Puerto Rico primary. Addressing his resignation, Obama said:It's clear that now that I'm a candidate for president, every time something is said in the church by anyone associated with Trinity, including guest pastors, the remarks will imputed to me even if they totally conflict with my long-held views, statements and principles. I have no idea how it will impact my presidential campaign but I know it was the right thing to do for me and my family.
Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote a
great piece about the other pastor with outrageous YouTube
clips. John McCain sought out and received the endorsement of the Reverend John Hagee, the pastor of a Texas megachurch. Some of Hagee's most controversial statements include calling for a "holy war" against Iran, referring to the Roman Catholic Church as the "Great Whore" and saying that God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina because the city was holding a gay pride parade that Monday.
At a press conference today, Barack Obama said he was was outraged by his former pastor's, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, recent assertion that criticism of his controversial sermons is an attack on the black church.
Obama had some strong words for the Reverend's person and positions: The person I saw yesterday was not the person I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but they also give comfort to those that prey on hate and I believe they do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church.
Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright wrapped up a weekend of appearances
this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. After the somewhat comical and seemingly drawn-out import given to the Wright controversy at the last
Democratic debate, I imagine some are ready to retire this topic.
Jeremiah Wright doesn't seem to want to retire it, as much as rebrand it — from a political discussion concerning the beliefs of Barack Obama to a cultural and racial discussion about the state of faith.
Barack Obama has just
delivered a speech addressing the spiraling recurrence of questions and debate surrounding remarks made by Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright. The inflammatory statement made by Obama's spiritual adviser led to poll results released yesterday showing that 56 percent of voters would be
less likely to vote for Obama given the remarks. Acknowledging that the subject of race has also become unavoidably prominent, Obama boldly and powerfully addressed the effect of both on his candidacy saying,
On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the man who's been Barack Obama's pastor for 20 years, who performed his marriage, baptized both of his children, inspired the title of his book, The Audacity of Hope, and is a part of his African-American Religious Leadership Committee knows a thing or two about damning statements. In a
film just circulated, Wright was shown
delivering an inflammatory sermon to his Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
