Sherry Chandler

I have said that I’m uncomfortable in judging Jeremiah Wright on the basis of cherry-picked clips.

Here is some context for the chickens coming home to roost:

Watch at YouTube.

Trinity United’s YouTube Channel.

Via.

Likewise, consider this from Jane Hamsher:

If you can show me how a candidate’s personal religious beliefs have affected their political positions or their voting record, I’ll pay attention. I haven’t seen any demonstrable proof that Obama’s association with Jeremiah Wright have. I’ve always been troubled by Hillary Clinton’s culture warrior stuff regarding video games, but haven’t seen any evidence that this was a position she changed to please any particular religious group. As someone who has watched it over time I think she really just believes it.

On the other hand, John McCain has twisted himself into a morally pliant pretzel trying to please every religious right loon who stumbles along, so there are good reasons to question who he is associating himself with because they have had considerable influence over his decision making process in the past.

If it’s just a matter of someone’s personal religious beliefs, as long as they are committed to a separation of church and state I frankly don’t see any reason why I should care.

And also this:

The dog whistle antennae of the main stream media are finely tuned when they’re talking about Democrats. It’s the overt stuff from the GOP that seems to throw ‘em.

So while I’d love to be proven wrong, I’m guessing we’re not going to hear all that much about a McCain aide being “suspended” for pushing a YouTube of Obama, Wright and Malcom X that reinforces every racist attack currently in circulation. Says lobbyist Charles Black of the McCain campaign:

“What Sen. McCain has said repeatedly, is that these candidates cannot be held accountable for all the views of people who endorse them, or people who befriend them,” Black said recently. “I don’t think Sen. McCain wants to get in the middle of a discussion about Sen. Obama’s former pastor, or his faith. He believes that people who endorse you, people who befriend you are entitled to their own views, but you are not held personally accountable.”

Which is to say, McCain knows he can outsource this stuff and the beltway bores will never hold him accountable, so simply “suspending” the aide will be enough. David Broder saves his disappointment for those “missed opportunities” when McCain just does not crack the whip with those dang Iraqis. He won’t lower himself to deal in the messy stuff.

I will not link to the YouTube video in question here. It is vile.

And just to give us a little context on why we need separation of church and state:

On this day in 1556 Thomas Cranmer, the Reformation-minded Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake. As Henry VIII had executed Sir Thomas More for being too Catholic, so his daughter, Queen “Bloody” Mary I, executed Cranmer for being too Protestant — over 300 such being put to death in her five-year reign.

Update: Huckabee on Wright:

I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I’m going to be probably the only conservative in America who’s going to say something like this, but I’m just telling you: We’ve got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, “You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus.” And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had a more, more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

Link from Suburban Guerilla.

Spring is official but no one has told the farm. More floods. Stoner got to 18.6 feet yesterday morning. Eighteen feet is flood stage. We’ve had 4.65 inches of rain this month, twice the average. Walking on the farm is more like wading, so much standing water. The grass is greening, but nothing is putting out leaves except the bush honeysuckle and the fence roses. Nothing much was stirring yesterday except our redwing blackbird, staking out his territory. He likes to pose dramatically in the very tippy top of the tree, but prefers you to admire him from a distance.