Huckabee defends Wright

HUCKABEE: made the point, and I think it's a valid one, that you can't hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do. You just can't. Whether it's me, whether it's Obama...anybody else. But he did distance himself from the very vitriolic statements.

Now, the second story. It's interesting to me that there are some people on the left who are having to be very uncomfortable with what Louis Wright said, when they all were all over a Jerry Falwell, or anyone on the right who said things that they found very awkward and uncomfortable years ago. Many times those were statements lifted out of the context of a larger sermon. Sermons, after all, are rarely written word for word by pastors like Reverend Wright, who are delivering them extemporaneously, and caught up in the emotion of the moment. There are things that sometimes get said, that if you put them on paper and looked at them in print, you'd say "Well, I didn't mean to say it quite like that."

(snip)

And one other thing I think we've gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say "That's a terrible statement!"...I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told "you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus..." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.


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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/19/72716/0494/229/479797

This could be a way to help mitigate any future damage from such statements coming out. He could say when under fire from Democrats "I defended Obama...".

It's just he knows the MSM and "conservatives" don't make a big deal over what a white pastor says, unless, of course, he's picketing a soldiers funeral.

or it could be that he seemingly has more decency and compassion than many Clinton supporters, which should be a wake up call (when fundie nuts are outshining you on the compassion meter).

Huckabee DOES have nutty statements, but they're not in hiding somewhere. He's very upfront w/his nutty positions. But when it comes to race & civil rights, he's been very progressive. I remember on MLK Day, someone made a crack about how Huckabee was probably out playing golf - and it turned out that he was at the Atlanta Ebenezer Baptist church w/Bill Clinton, giving a speech to honor MLK. He appeared for a presidential forum on race relations at Morgan University, and said that he was embarrassed that the leading GOP candidates didn't come. He's spoken out against the racism against Hispanic immigrants, even though that probably cost him many Republican votes. I can't help respecting him.

like when he instituted a wellness program in Arkansas-one of the few good things he did. I think he made good points about blacks in the Old South.

they're both involved in these whacky charismatic over the top christian churches. Ugh..I hate that shit. I don't even care specifically "what" wright said...I am profoundly turned off by those type of churches and their preachers. It did come as a shock to me that Obama went to on eof these. I suspect it's turned many people off...many of us are not at all religious and can't stand "fervor".

I totally agree with what you are saying. But the fact Obama is a christian should not be a shock to you. He attends a regular, black, christian church. What christian church out there isn't that over the top? Most are.

We have a very long way to go before religion doesn't have influance on our politics, right now you have to play with the cards you got.

I've been to a couple of baptisms in my time...both black and white. Nothing like this whacky stuff. Doesn't mean I won't vote for him in the GE...I already pulled the lever for him once. It's just taken the luster off some of my perception of him.

How much more regular can a Congregational Church be?? Have any in your neck of the woods??? Baracks Church just happens to be mostly AA. If I were in the Chicago area, I would have no problem at all attending his Church.

just for invited celebrations. I'm an atheist. But yes, regular churches....with no charismatic howling and shouting. There's the sermon...whatever other traditions they follow...and you go home...unjarred. I've been in the other kind too...it's jarring.

wouldn't vote for him, of course, but I do like him. His comment "No bridges fell in Arkansas!" during the FAUX News debate when they were grilling him over raising taxes as Gov. made me a fan.

He has the kind of disarming off-the-cuff candor that McCain had 8 years ago. Glad they didn't nominate him.

He's a good guy, but I wouldn't want him President.

no way the corporate whores the GOP woulda let an economic populist get the nom.

Too bad so many of his policy positions are completely nutso

Not that that's apropos of anything, I just think it's kind of neat.

On the point of Huckabee, I think he could have beaten Obama or Clinton in the GE because the combination of social conservatism and economic populism is a very strong electoral mix.

who got raped and then sentenced to 200 lashes, he stuck up for hillary after her teary moment and now this.

We all have friends who make stupid statements and we make them, too. Huckabee didn't have to stand up for Obama, but he did. I don't think people should make fun of him for doing so.

Wright has done nothing wrong at all. He is a minister and he can say whatever he wants. We all have freedom of religion in this country! Obama is the one who should have known better than to draw a political spotlight into a Church that was not in the mainstream.

I mean, I've always thought Huckabee was the most likable of the Republicans, and in many ways the most real, but to hear him say something I profoundly agree with, even more so than most of the people in my own party... Wow.

This is why I like the guy. IMO he's being very sincere here & good for him for sticking up for a Democrat.

He basically said that guilt by association was bullcrap. ALL politicians understand this...Huckabee is just one (from the Republican side no less) that is willing to be open-minded. Oh, and McCain did too.

He said that Wright's comments weren't right at all, but to judge Wright by those comments was ridiculous. He said preachers can easily say things that they'd later take back.

...that have done PLENTY of good.

For evangelicals, God is more important than even country. The savaging that Wright has gotten, along with the disdain that evangelicals have for McCain, may actually help Obama among the evangelical voters.

Apparently Huckabee is more liberal on race issues than many of the most prolific posters on DU.

I spent a lot of time in the same kind of area that Huckabee did, and I saw the same things: the "whites" and "colored" signs, refusal to allow blacks seating in restaurants, heard the "N" word over and over and over again.

Yeah, I'd have a chip on my shoulder too, at being treated that way.

I liked what Huckabee had to say on this.

I've seen segregation too. And I've heard and seen the insults in all parts of the country. In the 60s and 70s and even 80s white people still made openly racist remarks. I'd hear it in schools. I wasn't brought up to think that way toward people different from me. It used to anger me to hear other kids use the "N" word so casually.

I wish Faux News would give Huckabee's remarks as much time as they are continuing to give the Rev. Wright business.

--much of it---to racism. He said this in his first few debates. I was REALLY surprised he had the guts to say that.

Anyway, he's interestingly independent of the party line at times.

... as a pre-emptive defense strategy.

The GOP has undoubtedly figured out that if they make Obama's pastor's comments an issue, the Dem retaliation will be to revisit the statements of people like Falwell and Robertson.

Let's not forget that in addition to all of the other unsavoury things those two have said and done over the years, they both blamed 9-11 on Americans (abortionists, homosexuals, etc.) And if there's one place the Republicans don't want to go it's the world of "Blame Americans First" if it can come back on them in the midst of an election cycle.

By having Huckabee defuse that ticking time-bomb, they've done themselves a favour. And who better than Huckabee to make the statement?

It was a smart move on their part - and if Obama benefits by it, all the better.

at least he's standing up more than any Democrat on this issue, who all seem to be running scared. I think it says a lot about his integrity.

... reasonable, and thoughtful man. However, he has a tendency to be so when it suits a broader purpose.

His statements were not a show of "integrity", but rather a plea, on behalf of his party, that we all just walk away from this nonsense about whose pastor said what and when - because such scrutiny would hurt the GOP a lot more than it would hurt Obama, or the Democratic party as a whole.

which is probably also the reason that McCain took up for Obama.

They know they don't want us mentioning their pastors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed1Tb-vrEww

Out of hundreds of hours of tape of Wright's sermons, they came up with a few minutes of "controversial" rhetoric.

There are tens of thousands of hours of people like Falwell, Robertson, Hagee, et al - not only delivering sermons, but appearing on 'Christian' talk shows, regular-fare TV shows, news shows, etc.

Wouldn't take too much effort to find hundreds of 'questionable' statements in all of that publicly-available footage, would it?

The GOP really don't want us to go there.

he's making these statements at the behest of the Republican party with the purpose of asking anyone to walk away from nonsense about whose pastor said what.

As has been made amply clear in the past week, perceived "anti-white" rhetoric will be exponentially more vilified than anti-black rhetoric, anti-gay rhetoric, anti-anything rhetoric. Where was the outrage when Bush spoke at Bob Jones University? Bush made an affirmative, deliberate, political statement by speaking there. Bush was hoping that his speech would be covered! The media didn't have to scour tens of thousands of hours of videotape to find something racist about Bob Jones University. Racism was written into the school bylaws.

... and the GOP's constant connection between any Christian rhetoric being better than the "non-Christian attitude" of the left, this kind of thing was considered "acceptable".

It's now a whole new ballgame. The Republicans have an uphill battle on their hands as it is - the Iraq war, the economy, the debt, etc. The LAST thing they want to add to the mix is a battle over whose religious leaders are the wackiest.

The GOP is a lot of things, but STUPID they ain't. They know that an ad showing Obama's crazy pastor will be countered by a dozen ads showing their RW Fundie preachers at their worst.

And do you really think McCain wants ads in circulation comparing his comments about 'crazy Fundies' that end with footage of his embracing those Fundies when he thought it politically expedient to do so?

When it comes to religious extremism, the GOP doesn't want to go there, because if that becomes the focus of the months leading up to November, they have a lot more to lose than we do - and they know it.

will care too much about the Republicans' insane and rabidly anti-gay preachers.

But there's much more than that out there - and the Republicans know it.

They also know how things can be "taken out of context" (being masters at that game) and shown in a quick TV ad that would make some of the Fundie preachers's comments make Wright's comments tame by comparison.

There is also the fact that they don't want to be seen as "attacking" any "Christian faith" - no matter how that faith manifests itself. It immediately puts them in a defensive position, rather than on the offence - a position they don't want to play on this topic, nor any other.

IMHO, religion is a topic the GOP would just as soon avoid in an election year.

Sean Hannity? Bill O'Reilly?

Who is our loudmouth, no-nothing mouthpiece who's not afraid to say anything? Michael Moore only makes a movie every few years. And 99.9% of the population does not even know where Air America is on the radio dial.

Do you really think the GOP wants to see an ad of McCain denouncing Robertson as a nutcase, followed by a shot of him hugging him?

Not the image the Republicans want the voters seeing ...

here's to hoping that we go full bore on the images of McCain sacrificing any principles he may have once had by chumming it up with these idiots. And let's hope it works.

Which brings me back to my first reply on this thread: Huckabee's statement was a pre-emptive defence. "Let's just agree NOT to go there, okay?"

The Republicans never avoid a battle they think they can win - they only suggest a "truce" when it's a battle they know they will more than likely lose.

I always learn a lot from your posts Nance.

did exactly that tonight. He hit it out of the ballpark.

but Huckabee seemed in some ways the best of a bad lot. At least more human in some ways.

Actually I'm glad he didn't get the nom because I think he could be tough to beat. And Huckabee as prez would be awful.

Standing up for the "little guy". My Repuke friends - yes, I have a few - thought that he was horrid because he raised taxes (to benefit the schools) and didn't care if people were illegal immigrants. While I disagree with him on most things, I think that he's overall a decent human being. He's also a minister himself, so he's been where Rev. Wright's been.

... or they're willing to latch onto the flimsiest excuse to be against Obama, hiding other reasons.

there is a reason walmart Republicans supported you and not the wall street republicans.

I posted this yesterday and got no support


It's true. It has to be.


People can't honestly believe half the shit their RW nut job Religious Leaders say. I think the Religious Leaders know it to, they must.


Some circles might not like the speech but the Religious Right are gonna respect him for not throwing Wright under the bus.

Certainly has more integrity than McCain or the rest of the GOP field, and probably Hillary too.