Israel Matzav

Obama and Dems trying to keep Jeremiah Wright out of the picture

Professor Jacobson reports that the Obama campaign has gotten an early start on playing the race card to make sure no one brings up the name Jeremiah Wright in 2012 (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

But as happened in 2008, the Obama campaign relied on a surrogate to make charges of racism. Just as Team Obama left it to James Clyburn to play the race card on Bill Clinton, this time Team Obama left it to Tad Devine, a senior Democratic operative. As reported in The Hill:

Democratic strategist Tad Devine, an adviser to the Al Gore and John Kerry presidential campaigns, accused Mitt Romney’s campaign of invoking the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a recent ad.

Devine said Wednesday that he was “shocked” to see what he believed was imagery of an African-American church in an ad released Tuesday by Romney’s campaign team and airing in New Hampshire. The ad, Romney’s first of the campaign, is “clearly an attempt to bring back Rev. Wright and race,” Devine tweeted.

The charge is based on two images which float through the video so quickly you’ll miss them if you blink. Again as reported by The Hill:

In the ad, a series of images including those of a foreclosed home and empty businesses flash by as text criticizes President Obama’s economic record. But at two points, the imagery cuts to well-dressed African-American women walking down a large hallway, and pans over a predominantly black audience.

“It appears to be a congregation of African-American people,” Devine told The Hill. “In the first scene there are no white people at all, in the second … it is all African Americans except possibly one person, [whose race] you can’t really tell.”

Devine said he believes these images were selected intentionally to invoke race and the controversy involving Wright, the president’s former pastor.

I never heard of Tad Devine before, but he is pathetic and disgusting in his role of race card player.

First, the notion that showing images of blacks in a video is an attempt to invoke Jeremiah Wright is preposterous. There also were plenty of whites in the video; momentary flashes of non-whites does not give the video a racial overtone.

Second, and most important, this was nothing more than a pre-emptive Democratic attempt to make it toxic for anyone to bring up Obama’s long association with Wright by making charges of racism even when Wright is not mentioned. That shows you how much the Democrats fear a true investigation of Obama’s background and his ridiculously incredible claims that he did not know that his pastor and mentor was a race-baiting flame thrower.

Republicans should be making an issue of Jeremiah Wright - explicitly and not just through a picture flashing by. It's not racist. Jeremiah Wright is a hate-mongerer and the fact that Barack Obama spent 20 years in his church speaks volumes as to who Barack Obama is and why he should not be reelected President, especially for a term in which he would essentially be a lame duck for four years.

No Republican candidate should win the nomination without openly attacking Obama for his associations with Wright, Ayers, Khalidi etc. They are extremely relevant. We had enough of ignoring them four years ago.

And the Democrats know it.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Jeremiah Wright

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:31 PM