Obama Claims Not to Have Been at Church on July 22nd 2007
March 17th, 2008
LA Times: : Website says Obama attended anti-white Wright sermon; campaign says no
photo credit: Unobtanium
Bill Kristol is the latest to cite an article I cited yesterday as evidence that Senator Obama was in attendance at Trinity United Church July 22nd 2007 during sermon’s by Jeremiah Wright making racially divisive comments. Marc Ambinder disputes that Obama was even in Chicago (picked up by Sullivan & others) and that he attended church that day, maintaining instead that the Senator was flying to Florida to attend the National Council of La Raza. I found on campaign tracker that Senator Obama was listed as being in Chicago at night, but the original article noted “Sabbath morning” sermon, removing the possibility that what was reported was actually Obama attending in the evening.
As I tried collecting more facts about what Senator Obama was up to that day, I found plenty of evidence he was in Florida. Video, speech, newspaper reports, he was definitely there. What I couldn’t pinpoint was what he did that morning other than fly and what he did that evening.
I had a thought, as I sifted through the many blogs about that day (Hot Air HispanicTips, Sweetness & Light) one blog remained absent, the Senator’s. The site doesn’t have a search bar, so it is impossible to easily maneuver what may be inside. I could not find a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly archive of blog posts.
Obama’s site gives me 10 pages of archives leading back a week or so. Where are the rest? If something had been posted that day to help fight back what was stated in the article, it is lost to me with the rest of what is said. One of the important features about blogging is history, being able to look back and follow a progression of thought, see what was happening on a site during a period of time or to do what I wanted to do, fact check.
Anyway, as of right now regardless of the blog issue the Obama campaign is maintaining the Senator did not attend church that morning and the Davis article is inaccurate at best, an outright lie at worst.
Posted in Barack Obama | 24 Comments »
March 17th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Is this really news? You people are sad and should be ashamed where you’re taking this country.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Alright lets get something straight first, I do like the Democratic Candidates, but I haven’t picked one, I’m impartial.
Your using the absence of evidence, as evidence to prove your theory. The same type of evidence that had the US go to Iraq (they aren’t letting the inspectors in so they must be hiding something). The article just says “was in attendance at the church when these statements were made on July 22.” they have no more proof that he was, than Obama is providing that he wasn’t. They just go on to cite a laundry list of things about the pastor, and how Obama goes to the church. Just because the pastor says something doesn’t mean Obama agrees with it. Your post is just saying hey, I tried to support a shaky story and I failed.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
McCain is the man…Obama is your typical self loathing victim…Blame everything on the white man….This is a representative form of government…Obabma does not represent america…He represents blacks….
March 17th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
McCain is an OLD man. Actually Hillary and McCain might even be the same person. I’ll take Obama just because he’s different.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
_NONE_ of the candidates represent America. They represent big business. If they truly represented America, they would support the Constitution. The Constitution is just an old fucking piece of paper these days. It’s disgusting.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I am an african-american and i do not support obama for his racial views as well as his racist pastor. They think this type of thinking is the norm when in fact, it is racist. Whites have been used to this (feeling guilty of what blacks think of whites, slavery), but everyone must use your brains more. not all whites had slaves and not all blacks were slaves. all i see is bitching and complaining for attention. You will see riots if obama loses. You will see riots if obama gives up. you will see riots if obama is assasinated. but if a white candidate gave up, loses or is assasinated, nothing happens. blacks are more discriminative than whites and this should stop. Grow up america. this isnt about you, its about america.
Tyrell Jackson, Mississippi
March 17th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Your net research skills are lacking:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/ObamaHQ/2007/07?page=3
Not that this link will help you in proving a negative. I’m not sure what you really expect to find there. It also omits whether he had a full breakfast or just a bagel and coffee that morning…
March 17th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Tyrell Jackson, Mississippi
You are not black. So don’t try to act like one.
Why do you think that there will be riots when obama loses. And who do you think is going to start these. I guess, you are saying the blacks will. Well, if you are a real black guy you have some work to do and tell your brotha’s and sista’s not to riot when Obama loses. Or don’t you like to represent your Black folks, because you don’t represent all of them. You think you are a special black guy with a brain and many are dumb, so because of that you know what kind of crazy stuff they are going to do, but you as a real good black guy just disagrees with it and stays at home when the riot. Well guess what, every other black guy thinks the same.
Greetings from a real Redneck..
March 17th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Who the fuck cares?
March 17th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
If you read the interviews by Jeremiah Wright (referenced by Limbaugh and Hannity on their shows today), Wright said that he had discussed this with Obama, and Obama had said, I paraphrase: “Your sermons get a little rough, we may need to ask you to step aside later on.” If Obama knew Wright’s sermons got “a little rough” then he must have known what they contained.
My question is, since Barack has denounced certain of Wright’s statements, how will those people (both black and white commentators) who are defending Wright’s statements as true, now feel about Obama? Is he a hypocrite who believes this stuff but doesn’t want to say so on national TV?
March 17th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
So you cited the Newsmax article before you “collected more facts”?
March 17th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
So basically because the blog history does not reveal where Obama was (even though countless other sources do), he must have been in the Church that day, right? I have a better idea. Obama was attending a gay-orgy in Pakistan that day because, hey, his blog history does not say where he was that day so I must be right. Right?
March 17th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
[...] The Obama campaign refuted a Newsmax article claiming the Senator nodded during a July 22nd sermon while his pastor made anti-white and anti-American statements. Obama was flying to Florida and not in the state of Illinois that morning.http://www.electiongeek.com/blog/2008/03/17/obama-claims-not-to-have-been-at-church-on-july-22nd-200… [...]
March 17th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
For all the fools that try and say it doesnt matter what is up with a Presidential candidate and his judgment or lack of judgment, get real!
Are we voting for class president or US president!!?? Believe it or not IT MATTERS! The truth is these posters know it matters and they are simply following the talking points submitted by the Obummer campaign.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I don’t give a damn what his pastor said. I don’t give a damn what his baby-sitter said or did. I don’t give a damn what his doctor believes. I don’t give a FUCK what the people in his life have ever said or did! I care what he says. I care about what he believes in. That will never be represented by SOMEONE ELSES BELIEFS. IDIOTS.
He will be our next president, get comfortable or commit suicide. Those are your only two choices for happiness at this point.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
There is no evidence presented in this article to prove that the report of Obama at church that morning is false. There is a morning service at the church at 7:15. He was scheduled to speak between 1:30 and 3:00. A look at his speech would indicate that it did not take up all of this time. I would also assume he was likely to have spoken closer to the end of this time window. The flight from Chicago to Miami takes about 3 hours. The time loss of 1 hour also must be accounted for. The timing would have to been tight but it is at least possible that he attended both events that day.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
@John
Obama is self-loathing? Please give evidence.
Obama blames white people
a) for what?
b) please give evidence
Normal people will entertain your arguments, and respond, but you at least have to make some effort to sound reasonable.
I could come on here and make up a bunch of crazy lies about McCain or Hillary, but where does that get us?
March 17th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
FAIR AND BALANCED?
I have been listening to all the networks and reading all the comments by the reporters and the various blogs just to see if finally they would be fair and balanced as they claim to be, I find that the NONE SO FAR , but you all can do a pole, I want the bloggers to again read and learn, this is a transcript of a comment made was after 9/11 by Rev. Jerry Faldwell and Pat Robertson, and as I am not condoning any of it, you have not heard any comments by the press or written media on this, why? Are the on the side of the moral majority Republicans, was it okay for Trent Lott to state that the United States would have been better off if then-segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond had won the presidency, is anyone questioning McCain, or questioning the 30 year relationship on Bill Clinton’s mentor J. William Fulbright who was a segregationist and voted against the civil rights act.
Now is this fair and balanced, Barak Obama is one of the best candidates and person that I have seen in my lifetime, has denounced many times what his pastor stated, and as he has stated judge him on his own merits, is it that the Republicans and the Billary team feel so threatened that he will win and they have searched and searched and not want to do a character assassination of Barak Obama, the politics of the Old and not the new, I still believe that most in this country are not so narrow minded.
Here is the transcript:
These words were spoken by Jerry Faldwell on September 13, 2001, as a guest on Pat Robertson’s The 700 Club. The transcript: JERRY FALWELL: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we’ve been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters — the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats — what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact — if, in fact — God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve. PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that’s my feeling. I think we’ve just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven’t even begun to see what they can do to the major population.
JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this. PAT ROBERTSON: Well yes.
JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I’ll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say “you helped this happen.”
PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we’re responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, are the court system.
JERRY FALWELL: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU and all the Christ-haters, People for the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang “God Bless America” and said “let the ACLU be hanged”. In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time – calling upon God. ~~~ PAT ROBERTSON: Amen. These comments were made on September 13, 2001, on national television for public consumption. The White House’s response: “[Bush] does not share those views, and believes that those remarks are inappropriate.” It was good enough for America. Whatever we think of George W. Bush, we never supposed that he agreed with every last thing that the clergymen who support him said. (But for Barak Obama it appears that he is held to a higher standard, I would say if it was okay that Bush said it was inappropriate then Obama saying that he denounces the statements THAT SHOULD BE GOOD ENOUGH).
Then there’s Rev. John Hagee, who said:
Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist. [God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, Sarah Posner] And…All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that. [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]John McCain’s response:
Well I think it’s important to note that Pastor John Hagee who has supported and endorsed my candidacy supports what I stand for and believe in. When he endorses me, it does not mean that I embrace everything that he stands for and believes. And I am very proud of the Pastor John Hagee’s spiritual leadership to thousands of people and I am proud of his commitment to the independence and the freedom of the state of Israel. That does not mean that I support or endorse or agree with some of the things that Pastor John Hagee might have said or positions that he may have taken on other issues. I don’t have to agree with everyone who endorses my candidacy. They are supporting my candidacy. I am not endorsing some of their positions. [McCain Media Availability, 2/29/08]
Now tell me is this fair and balanced, WHY DOES THE MEDIA NOT THINK THAT THESE CONTROVERSIAL MINISTERS DESERVE THE SAME SCRUTINY OF MINISTER WRIGHT? COMMENT ON THIS AMERICA
I am just wondering with the country in so much crisis would it not be more important for the media to report on the 5th largest securities bank going under with 10,000 employee’s losing their 401k, pensions and jobs?
March 17th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Kristol printed a retraction. I fully expect you’re going to do the same, due to your high standards and journalistic integrity.
Right?
March 18th, 2008 at 12:11 am
name one predominantly country that is ran by a black person that is civil?
March 18th, 2008 at 2:56 am
“name one predominantly country that is ran by a black person that is civil?”
… did you mean to say, “Name one country that is run by a black person that is civil?”
Anyway, you’re either amazingly racist or woefully uninformed. I’m willing to bet, based on your command of the English language, that it’s both.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
So Obama was traveling to the National Council of The Race?
I thought race didn’t matter. Why is he attending something that highlights race?
If this article is correct, its even more troubling than Obama nodding at the ‘hate whitey’ speech.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:30 am
I can tell that the blogger here and his/her followers aren’t Christians. They’d prefer to see Wright and Obama hanging from a tree.
Jesus wouldn’t hang out with you people if he walked on this earth today.
Pathetic. Come out from the bad side of the moon.
March 26th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
[...] Obama Claims Not to Have Been at Church on July 22nd 2007 | Election … LA Times: : Website says Obama attended anti-white Wright sermon; campaign says no photo credit: Unobtanium digg_url =www.electiongeek.com [...]