I think he would make a poor president because of his ideals, not his intelligence. Small government simply wouldn't work these days. Essentially I think he is good, honest and intelligent but his beliefs and ideals would cause him to be a disaster of a president.

Oh and I'm glad Obama has distanced himself from this guy. Hope he gets the presidency.

I don't believe it is a simple matter of Obama "distancing himself" from this man, because if you are involved with a man who spouts this much hatred and venom for a long period of time, say 20 years, it will rub off on you in some way. Obama seems like a nice fellow, but the comments his wife made a month or so ago, "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of America," could be the result of following the spiritual leadership of this one man, Mr. Wright.

Also! Since Mr. Wright was a Pastor at the time he is saying these things, that means that he is part of a 501c3 correct? That means that he is a non-profit (I believe religious) organization. As such he CANNOT lawfully tell his congregation to support one candidate over another. He sure sounds like he was telling people to vote for Obama by defacto default. Rule out Clinton and there is Obama waiting in the wings. Mr. Wright should be investigated by the IRS and have his tax-exempt status stripped and possibly tried for tax evasion, if the law will permit it.

The damage has been done though by this "Spiritual Leader" of Obama's. He cannot distance himself enough to cleanse himself of this hate filled rhetoric. Obama may not win the Democrat nomination, there-by splitting the party between those who believe that the party nod was denied him because he is black, and those who support Clinton.

This is shaping up to be a very interesting and intriguing Presidential cycle. Though it is the most over-hyped and nauseating beauty-contest I have ever seen.

Obama's pastor proves that Ferraro was right.
Go figure.

 I've not agreed with most of the things you've posted but certainly agree with you here. If Wright endorses a candidate then he should certainly lose his tax-exempt status. There is far too much of this -- on both sides -- and it needs to stop.

*sigh.*

That guy is a terrible example of Christians. But, that's pretty easily understood by the size of his church. 99% of so-called "megachurches" teach what people want to hear - not what they need to hear. The Bible, and Christianity, is about what people need, not what they want.

True Christianity is, thankfully, nothing like that.

You call that an apology? Every self respecting figure in politics blasted her for days on end until she gave that mild 'apology to blacks'.  Forced, contrived, and insincere is what that was.  The clintons have lost my respect forever.

The moment Obama finds out that Pastor Wright is spreading inflammatory remarks, he apologizes and rejects it immediately.

You really are just picking at anything you can find about Obama, and god help you if anyone in power ever decides to hold YOU responsible for the actions of a friend or a teacher associated with you at some point in your life.  I had an amazing english teacher in high school that changed my life and really helped me find focus in my life.  It wasn't until many years later it came out that he was a raging racist... the man was my hero when I was a teenager, and it felt like a kick in the guts to hear about it. 

I guess somehow you associate this Pastor Wright as the same level of indignity as Ferraro, an active member of Clinton's campaign.  It's not the same.  It's probably more like McCain's 'spiritual advisor' gone nuts who wants to wage a 'war on islam'. 

When it comes to religion - everyone is fucking crazy, especially the religious leaders.  In your first post you state this "HORRENDOUS preaching. I thought church was about religion not reverse discrimination. "  When you know full well that much of religion is fear mongering and hate mongering against other religions.  You're nothing but the worst sort of troll, and I can only hope the mass media informed robots voting in this election can see through to a sparkle of truth about the character of these candidates.

that is gonna kill Obama. Having a shithead as close mentor and family friend.

Now here is an intelligent argument, as opposed to sam12's trolling.  When you look at this situation, you have to stop for a second and once again realize that we are all human, even the people who trust as authorities or leaders.  That said, we all have good parts and bad parts, and that's human nature.

The question is - do the bad parts that Pastor Wright have displayed outweigh the good parts?  The call to civic duty, championing the poor, reaching out to drug addicts, transforming lives from dark to light?  I am incredibly cynical when it comes to religion, but I recognize that many churches, especially those like Trinity, are active congregations that genuinely perform some good in this world to the people that have been left behind, spat on, and covered up.

We always intensely focus on the negative aspects we find, ignoring whatever good we may find.  That also is human nature sadly.  Personally, I believe that the good things Obama got from his church and community far outweight any of this disgusting rhetoric.  Just because President Bush has been our president for 8 years, do we believe his dumbshit rhetoric about how we're 'winning the war'?  No. 

We all make our decisions on what we believe.  No one else makes that decision for you, no matter who teaches you..... the question for us is whether we believe someone can transcend the experiences he has been exposed to, or even whether he needs to. 

As a former clinton supporter, I obviously decided Hillary could not transcend the negative issues fogging her campaign.  Obama is not perfect by any means, but he is the only candidate I can see that has any chance of rising above his imperfections to meet the challenges of the presidency.

"You call that an apology? Every self respecting figure in politics blasted her for days on end until she gave that mild 'apology to blacks'. Forced, contrived, and insincere is what that was. The clintons have lost my respect forever.

The moment Obama finds out that Pastor Wright is spreading inflammatory remarks, he apologizes and rejects it immediately."

You people make me sick. You just can't admit it's your own personal preference for X. You have lie and exaggerate to make Y sound even worse.

Exactly, or else we wouldn't even have a thread with people actually believing that Obama is controlled by his pastor.