Richard Cohen - Obama's Farrakhan Test - washingtonpost.com:
Barack Obama is a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said 'truly epitomized greatness.' That man is Louis Farrakhan....
...It's important to state right off that nothing in Obama's record suggests he harbors anti-Semitic views or agrees with Wright when it comes to Farrakhan. Instead, as Obama's top campaign aide, David Axelrod, points out, Obama often has said that he and his minister sometimes disagree. Farrakhan, Axelrod told me, is one of those instances.
Fine. But where I differ with Axelrod and, I assume, Obama is that praise for an anti-Semitic demagogue is not a minor difference or an intrachurch issue. The Obama camp takes the view that its candidate, now that he has been told about the award, is under no obligation to speak out on the Farrakhan matter. It was not Obama's church that made the award but a magazine. This is a distinction without much of a difference. And given who the parishioner is, the obligation to speak out is all the greater. He could be the next American president. Where is his sense of outrage?
So the daughters of the minister of Obama's church endorse the egregious Louis Farrakhan. Obama has already he said he disagrees with said minister's opinions on Farrakhan. But this Cohen idiot has his panties in a bunch because....why? Just expressing disagreement is not enough to make Richard goddamn Cohen comfortable that Obama has enough outrage to suit him.
I guess he won't be happy till Obama literally spits in Farrakhan's face and pisses on his shoes. Because, as we know, every time a black person says or does something stupid, Barack Obama is required to openly deplore it, and to dance that dance until white people are happy with the
length and
sincerity of the deploring.
Pheh. Is anyone asking any of the Republican candidates to distance themselves from the hateful bullshit of Republican supporters like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin? Hell, no.
Barack Obama has, so far, been canny enough to avoid playing some of the usual games the press has tried to run on him. I hope he not only refuses to play this one, but to ask the next ninny who asks him to "speak out" against Louis Farrakhan why he's not asking Mitt Romney to "speak out" against his hate-filled supporter Ann Coulter.
