It’s only fair to point out that Barack Obama’s surprising statement –
Had the reverend [Jeremiah Wright] not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and was inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn’t have felt comfortable staying at the church.
– is ambiguous. The dexterosphere takes it to mean that two conditions were necessary for the candidate to remain affiliated with (or at least to feel comfortable at) Trinity United Church of Christ: Pastor Wright had to both retire and acknowledge that his anti-American sermons were wrong. He hasn’t done the second, so the Right accuses him of fibbing.
There is, however, an alternative interpretation, which is now the official stance of the Obama campaign: If the pastor had not retired, then, but only then, he would have had to apologize in order to remain in his famous parishioner’s good graces.
What a delightfully Clintonesque statement Slick Barry made to Barbara Walters. He has a first rate command of English rhetoric, so he must have been aware that virtually every viewer would take away the impression that the Rev. Mr. Wright had in fact “acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and was inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country”. Very few of that audience read right-of-center blogs, so the impression would have been left uncorrected. The hoped-for “take-away” was, “Obama’s preacher made some dubious statements, but he said he was sorry, so why are the Republicans making such a big deal out of it?” At the same time, the campaign had a cover story in case the media reported that Pastor Wright had not recanted: No, that bit was hypothetical, what I would have demanded of him if he were still preaching.
Of course, the cover story contradicts the tenor of the Senator’s speech last week. Its implication is that, after twenty years, he was just about to confront a man who had repeatedly maligned America, Jews and white people. But, as luck would have it, the opportunity to “turn his back” disappeared, because the demagogic clergyman slipped away into retirement. What a pity.
If that had been the overt line, nobody would have bought it. As a cover, though, it will likely work just fine. Watch how the elite media scold the “right wing” for its inability to grasp the finer nuances of Senator Obama’s language.
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