I'll say from the outset that I've been a supporter of Sen. Clinton all along.

Clinton is far from perfect, but what has bothered me most about Obama is my perception that he has painted himself as a new kind of politician and much of his history contradicts that.

I believe that Obama joined that church as a man with strong political ambition who saw this afro centered church as a base on which to build a political following, and an essential asset for a mixed race man who would run for his first office from a district in which he needed all the AF/AM support he could get. It gave him credibility in that community.

I'm sure he's far from the only person who chose a church that would allow him to 'get ahead,' but it is not a choice that I could ever respect.

Now that the church and his former pastor/mentor are a liability to him, he distances himself but does not make a complete bread - in my view, not because he honorably believes that the church or his pastor are wrong, but because he knows that completely throwing them under the bus could lose him part of his most fervent constituency - African American support.

No, I can't prove the above, but this is how I see candidate Obama, and I'm pretty sure that many others will now see him that way also.

Do you also feel that he married his African-American wife, who has been a Trinity parishioner, for political reasons? Or what about all his community organizing work in the S.Side before he entered politics? Was that simply for ambition? The philosophies of the church regarding community upliftment, empowerment, and social justice, completely align with Obama's own thinking and the work he has done in his life. I don't see any deception there.

I'm an Obama supporter. My questions are about Obama's maturity. If he associates himself with such a radical minister, he's not such a bright politician. I still love the guy. He's still a fantastic politician and would have made a fantastic president in my view. He fucked up by attending a church like this, and at the same time promoted unity and colorblindness. I question that Obama hasn't ever heard Reverend Wright talk derogatorily about white people. Its just beyond my realm of imagination. Just because from video I've seen, this reverend Wright is way out there. Nothing subtle about his words or emotions.

ChristineATL:

Do you also feel that he married his African-American wife, who has been a Trinity parishioner, for political reasons? Or what about all his community organizing work in the S.Side before he entered politics? Was that simply for ambition? The philosophies of the church regarding community upliftment, empowerment, and social justice, completely align with Obama's own thinking and the work he has done in his life. I don't see any deception there.

I'm not suggesting that Obama makes all his calculations through the prism of his political ambition. OK, he worked as a community organizer, and then in his first run for political office he has his campaign workers sift through his opponents' (there were at least three) nominating petitions, takes them to court and has them all kicked off the ballot, including his former mentor.

So he gets to run unopposed by using hardball political tactics and then wants us to think of him as a new breed of politician - sorry, doesn't work for me.

It's not as if those tactics are unheard of - I've seen them used in the city where I spent much of my adult life. I didn't admire the tactics then, and I don't now.

I think Obama knocked the ball out of the park with the speech. I think he explained in the best way possible why he still could be a member of the church and not disown a man who has meant so much to him, BUT has said some hateful things in his sermons that Obama strongly disagrees with. Obama made the absolute best of a very bad situation. But I doubt it helps him enough with people who were not already enthralled with him.

His problem is essentially this: How does he square what his admirers believe about him with his being comfortable in a church where the pastor could say such things incendiary without causing a pall over the room? Turn the situation around. If any politician asking for my vote was say, a trustee of Bob Jones University, or not a trustee even but a member of that community. How would I feel about such a pol? If that politician assured me that they did not share the beliefs as about separation of the races, in fact vehemently disagreed, but that Bob Jones was so much more, and greater than simply its anachronistic views on "race mixing". On an intellectual level I could understand that politician, and appreciate his position. But on a gut level, I wouldn't feel comfortable giving that pol my vote. I'd always wonder how they could be so comfortable in that crowd. That I fear may be Obama's fate.

Larrybid, well said, sir.

It is not only his pastor's words but also the consistent actions like going to Libya with Louis Farrakhan & Co and then giving him a Lifetime Achievement Award. It is not about a single speech.

If you are closely associated with a congregation for such a long time, you ought to know at least that your spiritual advisor travelled to Libya with Farrakahn and the rest of it. Neither he said anything about that nor about Michelle's angry comments. It is not going to go away if you don't address it.

Obama chose a field where every action past, present and future is questioned. Good, bad or ugly, Clintons are still being questioned after decades and eight of those years were in Whitehouse. John MCCain is being questioned.

It is neither something exclussively done to him, nor it has anything to do with his race, him and his are making it a race issue. Come out clean, don't spin, admit if you have done something, don't wait until conrnered, don't cry wolf, control the tempers, rhetoric and hype.

Thank you and regards.

Najam, NJ

We are speaking of this church and this pastor as if we knew something about them. If you haven't found a TUCC sermon online and listened to it in its entirety, you are taking the word of Fox news and its imitators that Rev. Wright is a hateful, racist man. Please find a long excerpt of a service and listen before you pass judgement. A ten minute listen will at least give some perspective. Yes, he is a black liberation theologist, but he is well-grounded in history, intelligent, and preaches love for others. You may not like what he says, but at least give him a fair hearing and resist media manipulation.