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Newt on Obama's speech today

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Barack Obama gave a speech today, stemming from the recent controversy surrounding his Pastor, Rev. Wright.

Newt will be delivering his take on the speech on Sean Hannity's radio show this afternoon, and also later on both Your World w/ Neil Cavuto and Hannity & Colmes on FOX.

**UPDATE**We have audio of his appearance below, and we want to share your thoughts with the team here. I see one of our members, Jeff (concepts2), has chimed in already, noting:

"The Audacity of Hope is not character. Making excuses for, and refusing to truly distance himself from Rev. Wright says something about the content of Obama's character. He's saying that we should trust his judgement rather than our own, and I think that message rang hollow."

So what do you think?

You can read a transcript of Obama's speech here and please join in the discussion below.

Listen to Newt give his take on Hannity's radio show using the player below

Having trouble hearing this broadcast? Download the file to your computer by right-clicking here and selecting "save as" or "save target".

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Comments
By Anonymous @ Thursday, March 27, 2008 5:35 PM
Since those of us without sin are casting stones, I thought I would throw one too. Newt, I've been following you for years. Don't always agree with what you say, but you make good damn sense. Here's my thinking. My mom always said, "think before you speak". Being a 51yr old African-American female, my friends would always ask, "What the heck do you have in common with Newt?" I think, as stated before, you make good damn sense. You see, the one thing none of us can do is walk in the shoes of those before us. We can give all the suggestions in the world, but until we TRULY understand where our brothers and sisters of the world are coming from, we can't label them as being wrong or even unpatriotic. The Senator did not experience what you and I have growing up in America. The rules and laws I grew up under we not made by my colour of people, yet they had to be followed. So before we throw anymore stones, let's think a little deeper into the heart and lives of those who came before us and really ask ourselves...."Why is this being said?" It take a country as a WHOLE to bring about true CHANGE.
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 25, 2008 12:16 AM
Second Verse same as the First. The new Pastor of Senator Obama’s Church is calling the condemnation of Reverend Wright a public lynching … how dare anyone object to his racism and anti-Semitism coming from the pulpit of a Christian Church. I think Obama needs to leave the Church.
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 25, 2008 12:13 AM
Obama came on the scene as one who isn’t about race… but he plays the race card quite often if you listen well enough. Remember … before the Texas and Ohio primaries he kept saying in his rallies “the world is watching”. Isn’t that what the civil rights marchers said in the 60’s? Bull Conner, police dogs, fire hoses, etc…what’s Barack inferring here … if you don’t vote for me you’re a racist or bigot? Let’s see if he does it again before the Pennsylvania primary. Keep your ears on …
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 25, 2008 12:10 AM
Of all the horrible things Reverend Wright said from the pulpit, which everyone in the media seemed to have missed and was actually played on Greta Van Susteren Friday March 21, 2008, he mockingly called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “Condoskeezer Rice” and the whole congregation laughed. Evidently the whole church understood the joke … but Greta missed it. Obviously Greta does not know what a “skeezer” is. To call a woman a “skeezer” is the same thing as calling a woman a whore and/or a bitch. I think someone needs to call on Reverend Wright to apologize to the Secretary of State like Don Imus had to do to the Rutgers Girls Basketball Team. On the same show Reverend Sharpton made the claim that Reverend Wright never called someone the “B” or “W” word. Perhaps Greta should invite Reverend Al back on her show and ask him if he will call for a public apology from Reverend Wright to the Secretary of State for calling her a “skeezer” like he so adamantly called for Don Imus’s apology to the Rutgers Girls Basketball Team.
By Gatorwest @ Sunday, March 23, 2008 10:43 AM
Wright alerts us to the man, now listen to what Obama says! For example Obama’s speech about destroying our military superiority? As scary as Wrights words!

http://www.crosstabs.org/stories/elections/2008/foreign_relations_090_for_senator_barack_obama_d_il
By Anonymous @ Sunday, March 23, 2008 1:35 AM
Hey Newt,

I love your comments on FoxNews. But, here is another side to make your statements about Rev. Wright fair and balanced. And even Shaun Hannity (you are much more intelligent than him) avoiding America's 250+ years of Anti-Black campaign. Note: Since, America treated the African-Americans unfairly, expect to hear from more Rev. Wrights. Being, a Jew myself know what it is like to be hated. I remembers, Nazi Germany. Plus, collecting compensation from Germany still today. And, it be very stupid for African-Americans to forget what the USA is putting them through and not collecting Reparations. Rev. Wright mostlikely remembers Pres.Bush and Pres. Clinton saying "NO TO REPARATIONS!!" If Germany said, "No Compensation to the Jews for the Holocaust." I myself plus, thousand more Jews be still screaming to Germany today, "We want our Compensation Now!!!. And we know that many U.S. White Elite, financially supported Hitler.

About another Rev. Wright who was 'White', Rev. Francis Schaeffer aka the presidents' friend:

Please, realize that U.S. presidents supported Rev. Frank Schaeffer's messages which was anti-American etc.. In fact, he was invited by them to White House dinners even though preaching about overthrowing America. etc.

This article from World Net Daily includes photos.

http://wnd.com:80/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=59599

THE WRIGHT STUFF
Francis Schaeffer's son: Dad 'worse' than Obama's pastor
Charges black minister's 'anti-America' rhetoric mild by comparison

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted: March 21, 2008
11:41 pm Eastern

By Art Moore
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Francis Schaeffer
The anti-America rhetoric of Barack Obama's Chicago pastor is mild in comparison to pronouncements made by Francis Schaffer in the 1970s and 1980s, charges the late evangelical thinker's son.

Frank Schaeffer, who has written a book distancing himself from his evangelical roots, asserts in a newspaper column that Obama has been unfairly "smeared" by his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the Illinois senator's self-described spiritual mentor and moral compass.

Schaeffer, writing in the Baltimore Community Times, charges "the far-right Republicans and the stop-at-nothing Clintons are using the 'scandal' of Obama's preacher to undermine the first black American candidate with a serious shot at the presidency."

"Every Sunday thousands of right-wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits," Schaeffer writes. "They tell us that America is complicit in the 'murder of the unborn,' has become 'Sodom' by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children."

Obama, after what he called a "firestorm" sparked by the airing of sermon videos that captured inflammatory pronouncements by Wright, gave a speech Tuesday in which he denounced his pastor's remarks but refused to "disown" him.

In a January 2006 sermon, Wright called America the "No. 1 killer in the world" and blamed the country for launching the AIDS virus to maintain affluence at the expense of the Third World. The pastor reportedly said in a sermon just after 9/11, "The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color." In a 2003 sermon, Wright encouraged blacks to "damn America" in God's name and blamed the U.S. for provoking the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by dropping nuclear weapons on Japan in World War II and supporting Israel since 1947.

In his column, Frank Schaeffer, meanwhile, argued "right-wing preachers" say, "as my dad often did, that we are, 'under the judgment of God.' They call America evil and warn of imminent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted 'controversial' comments were mild.


Frank Schaeffer

"All [Wright] said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton," says Schaeffer, a convert to the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1990.

He argues that "while Dad and I crisscrossed America denouncing our nation's sins, instead of getting in trouble we became darlings of the Republican Party."

"We were rewarded for our 'stand' by people such as Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family," Schaeffer writes. "The top Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American."

'Christian Manifesto'

The highly influential Francis Schaeffer, who died in 1984, is known for his intellectual defense of Christianity and challenge to secular humanism, which he described as a worldview in which "man is the measure of all things." He was featured in two film series produced by his son that were widely viewed in evangelical churches in the 1970s and 1980s, "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?" and "How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture.'

An ordained Presbyterian minister, Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith, also an accomplished author, came to Switzerland from the U.S. in the 1950s and established L'Abri Fellowship, which became a crossroads for many spiritual seeker and now has branches around the world. Many evangelical leaders today regard him as an important influence on their thinking, and he is credited with helping inspire political activism by evangelicals, particularly the pro-life movement.


Edith and Francis Schaeffer

Schaeffer's "A Christian Manifesto" in 1981 – a response to the communist and humanist manifestos – spoke of a decline of commitment to objective truth in society's institutions that had come about "not because of a conspiracy, but because the church has forsaken its duty to be the salt of the culture."

In his column, Frank Schaeffer referred to "A Christian Manifesto," calling it an "immensely influential America-bashing" book that "sailed under the radar of the major media who, back when it was published in 1980, were not paying particular attention to best-selling religious books."

He points to a passage in the book in which his father wrote: "If there is a legitimate reason for the use of force [against the U.S. government] ... then at a certain point force is justifiable."

Frank Schaeffer writes that when his father purportedly "denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush Sr."

Francis Schaeffer did say Christians had an obligation at the time of Hitler to defy the state, just as they do now to stop abortion. But he made it clear he was not advocating theocracy.

"State officials must know that we are serious about stopping abortion," he wrote. " … First, we must make definite that we are in no way talking about any kind of theocracy. Let me say that with great emphasis. Witherspoon, Jefferson, the American founders had no idea of a theocracy. That is made plain by the First Amendment, and we must continually emphasize the fact that we are not talking about some kind, or any kind, of a theocracy."




Frank Schaeffer points to another passage as purported evidence of his father's "anti-American" rhetoric.

"In the United States the materialistic, humanistic world view is being taught exclusively in most state schools. ... There is an obvious parallel between this and the situation in Russia (the USSR). And we really must not be blind to the fact that indeed in the public schools in the United States all religious influence is as forcibly forbidden as in the Soviet Union. ... "
When "A Christian Manifesto" came out, Frank Schaeffer argues, "no conservative political leader associated with his father" was "running for cover." Instead, he says, his father was a guest at the White House, "a hero to the evangelical community and a leading political instigator."

If his father's words were put in the mouth of Obama's pastor or any black American preacher, "people would be accusing that preacher of treason," he contends.

"Yet when we of the white religious right denounced America, white conservative Americans and top political leaders called our words 'godly' and 'prophetic' and a 'call to repentance,'" says Frank Schaeffer.

He declares the "hypocrisy of the right denouncing Obama, because of his minister's words, is staggering."

"They are the same people who argue for the right to 'bear arms' as 'insurance' to limit government power," he says. "They are the same people that in the early 1980s roared and cheered when I called down damnation on America as 'fallen away from God' at their national meetings where I was keynote speaker, including the annual meeting of the ultraconservative Southern Baptist convention, and the religious broadcasters that I addressed."

Today, he says, "we have a marriage of convenience between the right-wing fundamentalists who hate Obama, and the 'progressive' Clintons who are playing the race card through their own smear machine."

'Crazy for God'

WND contacted some of L'Abri's offices but no one was available for comment.

The evangelical writer and social critic Os Guinness – who lived with the Schaeffers and became a close friend of Frank Schaeffer – declined to respond to Schaeffer's column. But in an article in the current issue of Christianity Today's Books and Culture review journal, he responded to Schaeffer's book, "Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back."


Os Guinness

Guinness challenges, "with everything in me," Frank Schaeffer's central premise that his parents lacked intellectual integrity and that there was a "lie at the very heart of the work of L'Abri."

"For six years I was as close to Frank as anyone outside his own family, and probably closer than many in his family," writes Guinness, who noted he lived in the Schaeffer home for more than three years and was the best man in Frank Schaeffer's wedding."

"There is all the difference in the world between flaws and hypocrisy," Guiness writes, "Francis and Edith Schaeffer were lions for truth. No one could be further from con artists, even unwitting con artists, than the Francis and Edith Schaeffer I knew, lived with, and loved."

Guinness argues the Schaeffers have left an enduring legacy.

"No one who witnessed the stature and diversity of the thousands who came to L'Abri's 50th-anniversary celebration in 2005 could doubt the depth of quiet, enduring gratitude that thousands owe to Francis and Edith Schaeffer," he writes. "For many of us, they changed our lives forever and set us off on the strenuous and costly path we are still pursuing decades later with no reservations and no regret."

Guinness says Frank Schaeffer's "broad dismissals of faith different from his own are often absurd, and his portrayal of recent Christian history is woefully ignorant."

"On the one hand, he routinely conflates evangelicalism with fundamentalism, or disdainfully dismisses evangelicalism as 'fundamentalism-lite,' the child of an older fundamentalism," he writes. "The reverse, of course, is true. Fundamentalism is the recent movement, and evangelicalism pre-dates it by centuries. On the other hand, he inflates his own role in founding the Religious Right, even if out of self-flagellating disgust."

Guinness says the "real truth is that Franky, as he then called himself, was spoiled. He was more like a poster child for Benjamin Spock than the son of 'fundamentalist missionaries.'"

"Having been born well after his sisters, and having survived polio as a child, he was rarely challenged, disciplined, or denied," he writes. "As a result, he grew up a 'little Napoleon,' as some of the L'Abri students called him. He would boast that he could twist his parents around his little finger, and time and again he proved it."

Guinness says Frank Schaeffer's idea that such a man as his father was "'crazy for God,' let alone a two-faced con man, is and will always be utterly anathema to me. I was there. I saw otherwise, and I and many of my friends have been marked for life."

Guinness says that with Frank Schaeffer's "prodigious but wayward talents, my old friend still has the air of the restless prodigal."

"But we all have journeying still to be done – in Frank's case, a long and winding journey home indeed," he writes, "but with both a waiting Father and a waiting father and mother at its end."
By Anonymous @ Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:53 PM
The veil has been pulled aside just a little to reveal the racism preached in predominently black churches. The initial concern about Obama's background among Muslims is now enlarged to include his real relationship with racist Jeremiah Wright. It cannot be washed away with a few words. We now see why there is so little integration within churches. The verbal vitriol of this man, Wright, is calculated to inflame. It is sediton from the pulpit.
By Anonymous @ Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:26 PM
It is not only Obama's initial flip-flop on this issue (I heard nothing/ I might have heard something/ I did hear something) and his lack of judgement as well pointed out. It is his vision for America that it is harmful.
Luckily he will not recover; as a matter of fact, if I was an advisor to him I would tell him to take the high road, accept the votes in FL and MI and allow himself the next 4 years to clean his act and learn to love America. Hillary is offering him his best exit.
By Anonymous @ Thursday, March 20, 2008 11:17 AM
The criticisims are well taken. Remember that we must somehow proceed to the red, white and blue as opposed to red vs blue. How? The good senitor must present a process that works where the rubber meets the road. He must also forcefully denounce messages that devide.
By Wally @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 9:50 PM
To trust Obama's Judgement Over Your Own is what the Big Government Socialists Want for you to do. Give up your individual thought and ability to freely think about and discriminate among ideas and simply surrender to the Big Government Social Will.
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 7:37 PM
I have taken the time to read and the comments and I would have to say that many of us on here have a varying number of viewpoints.

Look I am a black male in my 30's and must admit that I really think many on here and many of the white establishment (not all) truly get it. I really think you have to recognize and understand that we as blacks see things in a different way. There has been sooooo much done to us sand we have been so disenfranchised that we hold very different views than others. I have been to churches, among friends/family, even with elected politicians that understand our differences. For such a long time our issues have been pushed to the side (or in some cases ignored).

Do you really think all of us look to give excuses of "the race card"? Trust me these thoughts are very real and are talked about and discussed in many other places than the church. Can we as a nation just get a grip and deal with these issues? Or are we wanting to just keep things as is? Someone please answer!!!
By zlegatoz @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 3:20 PM
No, that's not anonymous. That is my post just below this one.

:)
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 3:18 PM
Dear "Anonymous" ("feigning conservatism" dude) posted Wednesday, March 19, 2008 6:07 AM"

Hey man, don't be so angry. It's all gonna be ok. Even if Obama manages to make it, Newt will have spent 6 years building a ground-swell for reform, and the country will be ready for it. Have faith. The pendulum always swings.
By stock517 @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:13 PM
I heard Obamas speech. The problem is clear-he failed to distance himself from Wright or his message. Obama admitted to 20 years of bad judgment or fundamental weakness of character-either way making him unelectable. But more troubling-is this-the Black Church is a clear source of racial tension in this Country-weekly it reinforces the notion that Blacks are the victims of White discrimination-Obama accepted those comments as the normal course of action in those Churches-
he should have called on those "Preachers" to change the message-if they want to preach "love" how about a little for your own nation-if he is claiming to be an agent of change-how about starting in his own back yard!
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:43 PM
From: http://corner.nationalreview.com/

I found Obama's speech profoundly depressing. It was cold, precisely calculated, and, on the Chris Matthews Legometer, stunningly effective, and (as Victor says below) likely to have very wide influence. A reader makes the following point:

How can we call on the "good Muslims" to bravely denounce and actively counter the jihadi terror-endorsing clerics who give their children permission to kill and to hate on behalf of Allah when we seem to be afraid to ask the good African-American Christians to stand up against those, like Wright, who call for the "damn"-ing of America, blame everything on "rich white" people, blame Israel and Jews for a host of imagined sins, and tell their children it is their duty to Jesus to "destroy" people because their skins are white?

Pre-speech, Mickey Kaus offered the following advice, untaken by the Senator:

There are plenty of potential Souljahs still around: Race preferences. Out-of-wedlock births. Three strike laws! But most of all the victim mentality that tells African Americans (in the fashion of Rev. Wright's most infamous sermons) that the important forces shaping their lives are the evil actions of others, of other races. ...

That is the psychosis that has left so much of the Muslim world mired in backwardness -political, social and economic. It's sad that the first viable black candidate for the US presidency has chosen to endorse it domestically.
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:36 PM
Based on your analysis of Obama's speech, you have definitely gone down in ratings as someone who is capable of making appropriate judgements on issues pertaining to the U.S.
I could not believe u sat there on air last night to make statements which condemned Obama for the words of his pastor.
I would have expected a lot more from a knowledgeable man like yourself in this day and age.
You definitely spoke like an individual who has no sense of discretion. It is people like you who hinder America from moving forward.
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 9:15 AM

Saying that Reverend Wright, "has been preaching this stuff for 20 years," is easy to say, but simply untrue. Have you read his books of sermons? Have you followed his career? Have you looked at his biography? Under his leadership, the church has undertaken extensive, positive community work. Are you saying that the church has grown from 79 members to over 10,000 because of a relentless 20 year assault of Rev. Wright's blame America, hate-America sermons? Because that's what you sound like.

Have you taken even the briefest amount of time to look beyond the YouTube clips to see what this man and this church are about?

Is there any chance you could balance your reaction to Wright's inflammatory and totally inappropriate statements against the actual good he's done over the past 20 years. OR is it just too easy to speew the expected conservative line?

It's easy to demonize someone in our 24/7 media driven world. But no one is one-dimensional, least of all a preacher. Wright has done much good. But I guess on a network devoted to being "fair and balanced" it's just not important to actually BE fair and balanced.

Bottom line: I expect more from an actual "thinking Republican" like you.
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 7:13 AM
MR NEWT, I AM HIGHLY DISSAPOINTED THAT SUCH AN EDUCATED MAN LIKE YOURSELF....(SO IT SEEMS) COULD DESCEND TO SUCH LOW LEVELS IN THE ANALYSIS OF OBAMA'S SPEECH ON RACE.

IT SHOWS HOW BACKWARD THINKING FOLKS LIKE YOURSELF ARE IN PRESENT DAY AMERICA.

WHY SHOULD STATEMENTS FROM HIS GRANDMA BE PRIVATE, BUT STATEMENTS FROM HIS PASTOR BE PUBLIC?? WHY???

STATEMENTS FROM HIS GRANDMA IS A REFLECTION OF WHAT USED TO HAPPEN AND STILL HAPPENS IN HOMES IN AMERICA TODAY!!! PLAIN TRUTH.

OBAMA SIMPLY PULLED BACK THE CURTAIN BACK ON ISSUES WHICH HAVE BEEN TALKED ABOUT PRIVATELY IN HOMES IN AMERICA OVER THE YEARS. I AM HIGHLY DISSAPOINTED IN YOU. IT IS SUCH A SHAME.....YOU ARE SUCH A SHAME!!!!!!!
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 6:07 AM
I find it interesting the number of people feigning conservatism all the while excusing Obama's behavior.

His wife gives speeches denouncing corporate America; she also speaks about how it's the first time she's been proud of her country: he won't wear a flag pin; he won't place his hand over his heart during the national anthem; he never saw the NIE reports about Iraq and claimed opposition; he didn't vote "yes" or "no" in the Illinois state senate he voted "present"; he is listed as the "most liberal senator in history" since his election to the Senate in Washington; he goes to a church that denounces America; he supports a pastor who speaks racial hate towards Americans; throws his grandmother under the bus in his speech in attempts to justify his behavior and CHOICES.

This is the reality - it's before you.

You tell yourself whatever you want, but facts are facts.

Excusing someone's behavior to justify your own.

This man is unfit to be President.

Get this straight - YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR CHOICES - EACH AND EVERY ONE. Obama is responsible for his choices regardless of other people's behavior.

He and his wife CHOSE these actions, words and deeds.

"What you're doing is so loud, I can't possibly hear what you're saying".
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 4:45 AM
Newt Gingrich, my wife and I have been sympathetic to you for over two decades, going back to the times I saw you as a kindred spirit in the transport dereg wars. But we were greatly disappointed with your comments on Obama'sspeech. You fell into the demonization of Wright mode, whereas Obama tried to distinguish his pluses and minuses, and get us beyond yesterday's racial deadlocks. You seem to have locked into discrediting Obama by any means, instead of joining in trying to make a better United States, and moving on to substantive issues. Frankly, you played the role of moral pygmy, instead of showing the generosity of spirit and expansive view of America's possibilities we have appreciated about you in the past. We are so sorry that you have descended to this level, and we think history will not judge you kindly for having done so.
By zlegatoz @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:47 AM
I'm sorry this post is going to be so wordy. This post is going to be a bit critical of what is going on here, so I want to make a few things known first:

1. I am a HUGE Newt fan.
2. I am a conservative, period.
3. I'm NEVER going to vote for Obama.

And so . . .

If you read ALL of the Obama speech and you listen to ALL of what Newt said here, you have a mixed bag. Here's my list:

1. Obama artfully illustrated the racial divide we have, both from the black perspective and the white. I think his analysis of "how it is" and "what we need to do" from a purely rhetorical standpoint is pretty right on. This, however does not qualify him to be president.

2. Newt is right. Obama isn't going to do anything to undo the bureaucratic stranglehold on our education system. He desperately needs the teacher's unions. Obama also illustrated his complete lack of understanding of American business when he said, "...we want to talk about the fact that the corporation you work for will ship (your job) overseas for nothing more than a profit."

3. Newt referred to Obama simply "not noticing" the Pastor's insanity. This is factually incorrect. Here is the quote from Obama's speech: ---------
"Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely . . ." (Sorry Newt. I love ya, man but I think you missed it on this one.)

4. There's an assumption at work here that Obama should have been obliged to confront Pastor "Crazy Pants" about his sermon. I think that is a false assumption.

5. I think we're focusing on the wrong things here. We're spending a lot of bandwidth talking about Obama when we should be talking about a ground-swell of support for a McCain agenda. We're wasting precious time. Why isn't the news cycle being bombarded with dramatic policy initiatives from the McCain campaign? We gotta start promoting our guy...not wasting time on Obama and Pastor Psychopath.
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:21 AM
Newt! I love you, I wish you were still Speaker of the House or running for president! Great job on Hannity tonight!
By Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:32 AM
The unfortunate fact of this whole thing is that it is a situation rooted in race and our inability as a nation to not deal with it as such. As an african american that was born in Chicago I know first hand the reasons/rationale behind why many of my fellow man see things the way we do. A quick snapshot of the vast discrepancies (ie. police brutality, healthcare, education, and the list could go on forever) will force you to acknowledge that "Houston, we have a problem." Racism has occurred with me and my brother in our 40 years here on this earth so much that we are just used to it--this is very sad and unfortunate. Both of us have done well for ourselves and have what many would say have "made it" but we still get pulled over by police for no reason and questioned when totally unncecessary. Now we still do go to our community to uplift our bretheren that are still struggling. The truth is that although I cannot state that I speak for all african americans, many would agree that Dr. Wright's comments truly strike a chord and speak to the racial divisiveness this country emanates from its core. Many of us just feel the way Pastor has spoken and untll we deal with these issues in a sincere and appropriate manner we will continue to be divided. I pray not though.
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 9:31 PM
Mr. Speaker,

Your level-headed polite and brilliant and articulate analysis of Obama's attempt to cover up his failures, was just fantastic. The USA needs real honest leadership and leaders of your integrity and intellect to command the respect of the world.

Where can we obtain a transcript of your brilliant comments to Kirsten on Hannity and Colmes today?
Your comments need to be broadcast to every American.

Anyone who does not understand or accept your essential and unassailable point of view on this critical subject today has something very seriously wrong with them. There is no way or any basis upon which one can whitewash or make excuses for Obama’s idolizing the racist Wright. His now trying to distance himself from his admiration of Wright and pretend he never knew in 20 years about anti-American and Anti-Semitic tirades is outrageous and not believable. Obama knows very very well all about Wright and his views and those of Farakhan and his likes. It’s an insult to the public to even attempt to play this game of feigned innocence, similar to someone cheating on their spouse in a hotel bedroom and then pretending it didn’t happen. This is far worse! Goodbye Obama.
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 7:26 PM
To anonymous about Rev. Wright.

http://www.tucc.org/home.htm is the website for Rev. Wrights church which was mentioned on Fox. I read somewhere they sell a cd of his sermons, but on the website they also reproduce some of them. I watched a few.

I guess what I am trying to say is that we still have a couple of generations of walking wounded from the war for black American freedom. Maybe we Americans of other races who were unscathed should not judge the black Americans who cherish them. as should we all. The rage may be misplaced in time, but hidden wounds seldom heal.

Thanks for your comments,

edde froehlich
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 7:07 PM
Congratulations Newt!!!! I saw you on FOX today and consistent with your history, you once again came across as a TOTAL IDIOT! I wonder how many hundred self inflicted holes you have in your feet?
Don't give up your day job!
By newt.org @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 6:13 PM
I'm sorry we don't have a transcript of Newt's remarks yet. We hope to have one soon.
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 6:09 PM
IT'S NOT RACE, it's HATE!

Obama did a great job, and much of America has race sympathy. But Obama has tried to embrace this far left leaning, Farrakhan hugging, American hate spewing Minister and explain it away as a race problem. He should have called it for what it is – not race but American hate! The far left message boards are filled with it! From mostly whites! Obama CANNNOT embrace “American hate” & American at the same time, even if he does call it race. Good try Obama!
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 6:05 PM
Interesting comments Edde, thank you for sharing.

Do you perhaps know where one can find some of Rev. Wright's other sermons?

The idea of comments coming from unhealed wounds is understandable, but shouldn't a preacher be more about healing wounds than re-opening them? Especially when that is the message Obama says he himself is delivering?
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 6:02 PM
I'd like to see a transcipt of Newt's comments on this matter.

Wright isn't preaching religion. It's hate America leftist politics.
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 5:47 PM
I am upset that anyone would suggest a veteran of the war for black civil rights like Rev. Wright should be shunned or ostracized by his friends, his congregation, or by any of us.

We who have lived long enough to remember the horrors to which black people were subjected in their war for freedom, things that never happend to us, cannot pretend the war is over as long as any of the victims still survive -- and enough bad stuff is still going on to keep the memory fresh.

I would not deny this old warrior his rage. Part of him is still lost in time back in the horrors of the battlefield, and his war can never end while he lives. Look instead how this survivor has functioned, has faithfully served his God and his congregation.

The younger people in his congregation understand, in the only way they can understand, they try to share his pain. Sen. Obama understands. Even I, protected and unwounded, understand. Maybe before we judge we should watch all his collected sermons, not just these snippets generated by unhealed wounds.

Edde Froehlich
By Matt Scofield @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 5:43 PM
Thanks for your comments Ron, I do have to disagree with them though.

I agree, our political system is great because of the opportunities it offers to all Americans.

I do not understand how you think either Newt or his staff are stirring any hatreds. We simply posted the thoughts of one our longtime members about the speech and encouraged others to do the same.

I'll echo what concepts2 said in his post, which is chiefly give specifics. Its obvious you disagree with the quote we provided from concepts2, but you could share more about what exactly it was he said that is stirring up hatred, if you are interested in a conversation about the issue.

Personally I found it to be a good speech generally, but I would like more specifics from him on his 20-year relationship with his pastor and if he has ever confronted him before about some of his statements or actions.

A man's religion is a private thing, but given the inflammatory nature of some of Rev. Wright's comments, and Obama's long association with him, issues of Obama's judgement have been raised and need to be resolved.
By Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 4:47 PM
As an observer of the American system, I have been admiring the opportunities that the country offers to women and blacks in the political system. I am however discouraged by your comments and obvious partisan approach to today's speech by Obama. You simpley seem to be stirring the pot of hatrid in order to divide the nation. Shame on you
Ron Johnson
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