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Democrats Face Summer of Bitter Infighting

WASHINGTON - Supporters of Barack Obama backed away on Sunday from calls for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the presidential race as Democrats faced a long summer of bitter fighting to win the party's White House nomination.

In an interview published in The Washington Post, Clinton said she would fight all the way to the late August nominating convention, where a candidate will be chosen to face presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in the November election.

"I think the race should continue," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former Democratic presidential candidate who supports Obama. "She has every right to stay in the race. She's run a very good campaign."

Some Obama backers have called on New York Sen. Clinton to give up, citing the Illinois senator's leads in the popular vote, states won and delegates to the convention to choose the nominee.

But Clinton has used those calls to rally her supporters, saying Washington insiders are trying to force her out before all Democrats have voted. She also stressed the need for new votes in Florida and Michigan, whose earlier primary votes were rejected because they violated party rules.

"I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan," Clinton said in the Post interview. "And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention."

CAMPUS RALLY

With the next big contest coming in Pennsylvania on April 22, Clinton and McCain took much of the day off, but Obama campaigned at Pennsylvania State University. Some 22,000 people came to listen to him speak at an open air rally, which aides said was one of the biggest events of the Democratic campaign.

"I believe that the Democrats will be unified as soon as this nomination is settled. We will be unified because we understand that we do not want to be clinging to the policies of the past. We are the party of the future," Obama said.

College students have been some of Obama's most active supporters and in Pennsylvania he must score big among them if he is to do well against Clinton.

"You will have a president who has taught the constitution and believes in the constitution and will obey the constitution of the United States of America," Obama told the crowd, making a comparison between himself and President George W. Bush.

Obama supporters hit the Sunday morning television talk shows to play down talk that Clinton should quit -- at least before the final nomination contests on June 3.

But after that, with neither Democratic contender likely to have captured the 2,024 delegates needed to face McCain, they wanted a quick resolution so the fight does not last all summer. The outcome will probably lie with several hundred "superdelegates" -- party leaders and elected officials free to vote for either candidate.

"After June 3, it's important that Democrats come together and not be so divided as we have been," Richardson said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "But I think it's important that, at the end of the June 3 date, we look at who has the most delegates, who has the most popular vote, who has the most states."

That would most likely favor Obama. But Clinton backers did not see the need to hurry.

"Neither Sen. Clinton nor Sen. Obama, based on what people say the math is, can get the required number of delegates. And so you have to play it out until the end," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a Clinton backer, said on the CBS show.

Tennessee's Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen has proposed the superdelegates get together to make their choices after June 3 so the party can heal its wounds and go after the Republicans.

"You have to bring it to a closure sometime long before the end of August so that you can start that healing process and, you know, whoever wins can say their mea culpas about what they said, and bring the party back together," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, an Obama supporter who was the party's losing presidential nominee in 2004, said the superdelegates needed to make up their minds early so Democrats can organize to beat McCain.

"As a former nominee, I will tell you, this time right now is critical to us," he said on ABC's "This Week. "I think every day does give John McCain an ability to organize nationally."

Hillary Campaign Chief Profited in Subprime Biz

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign manager raked in a cool $200,000 while serving as a board member on a subprime lender that charged penalties for borrowers who made mortgage prepayments. Clinton is trying to end that very practice.

According to Newsday, Maggie Williams served as a director on the board of the Woodbury, N.Y.-based Delta Financial Corp. from April 2000 until this past December, when the firm declared bankruptcy. She became Clinton's campaign director in February.

Clinton has slammed prepayment penalties.

“I would eliminate the prepayment penalties that lead to such high rates of default,” she said on March 24 while in Pennsylvania. “I would require lenders to take into account the borrower’s ability to pay property taxes and insurance fees when deciding whether to make a loan in the first place.”

According to Newsday, Williams relayed a message through her assistant, saying that she served only in “an advisory/oversight capacity.”

Clinton's campaign also aided Williams' defense, issuing a statement from Delta senior vice president Marc Miller, who said Williams “did not have a role in the day-to-day operations and management.”

Another Clinton friend, former HUD secretary Henry Cisneros, also made big bucks in the much-maligned subprime industry. Cisneros reaped more than $5 million in stock sales and board compensation from Countrywide Financial, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Gore Plans $300 Million Climate Program

Former Vice President Al Gore is launching a three-year, $300 million effort to make the world more aware of global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The three-year campaign by the Alliance for Climate Protection will start Wednesday with TV advertising, featuring unlikely alliances like Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton, and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to be timid about enacting the bold changes that are needed until there is a change in the public's sense of urgency in addressing this crisis, Gore told the Washington Post.

The options available to civilization worldwide to avert this terribly destructive pattern are beginning to slip away from us, Gore said. The path for recovery runs right through Washington."

To help pay for the campaign, Gore is devoting the profits from his "An Inconvenient Truth" film and book, his salary from the venture capital firm where he works, and the money from his 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Donations are also being accepted at WeCanSolveIt.org.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Here’s kind of a philosophical question. If a sniper fires a gun in the woods and no one is around, does Hillary Clinton still hear it?

Hillary Clinton is now blaming lack of sleep on her embellishment of her Bosnia trip. See, that’s the difference between her and Bill. After a night of no sleep, Bill never had any trouble coming up with a believable story.

It looks like there is more fudging on Hillary's record. Remember when she said she was “deeply involved with the Irish peace process?” Turns out she just saw “Lord of the Dance."

The big movie opening this weekend is “Run Fat Boy, Run." Isn’t that what Democrats are trying to get Al Gore to do now?

Clinton's Belfast Role Draws Criticism

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Hillary Rodham Clinton cites her role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland as one of the top foreign policy credentials of her presidential bid.

Her critics point to an empty, wind-swept Belfast park _ which Clinton a decade ago proclaimed would become Northern Ireland's first Catholic-Protestant playground _ as evidence that her contribution as peacemaker was more symbolic than substantive.

"She was in charge of christening this wee corner (of the park) as some kind of peace playground. It never made any sense then, and there's nothing there today," said Brian Feeney, a Belfast political analyst, author and teacher. "Everything she did was for the optics."

Critics say the playground-that-never-was illustrates the wider lack of accomplishment from Clinton's half-dozen visits to Northern Ireland _ that they emphasized speechmaking, chiefly to women's groups, leaving no lasting mark.

Clinton twice addressed audiences of schoolchildren at Belfast's Musgrave Park, in September 1998 and May 1999. She declared that Protestant and Catholic youths must learn to play together but needed a safe place to do it _ and helped plant a tree on the spot where a special cross-community playground would be created. Belfast did have other parks.

Nearly a decade later, Musgrave Park remains as it was: a well-groomed, rather lonely place sandwiched between a hospital and a highway, where adults jog and walk their dogs amid birdsong and spring flowers. The Belfast group touting the "Play for Peace Fund" silently shelved the idea within months although Clinton often referred to the project as an inspiration to a divided world.

Clinton and her campaign aides say her championship of a greater role in the peace process for women on both sides in Northern Ireland's conservative, male-dominated politics made a substantial contribution to the result.

"Women ... were persistent in the process ... (Clinton) came back to Ireland time and time again to be with them, to hear them out, to hear about the progress they were making," said Melanne Verveer, a Clinton aide who now works on the campaign.

That's a view supported by the recollections of some U.S. officials involved in the peace process at the time.

Former Democratic Sen. George Mitchell, who brokered the peace accord, recalled Clinton as having "a sustained interest over a long period of time" in Northern Ireland's troubles and that she "became very knowledgeable about the issues and the participants."

"By virtue of her position, her stature, I think she made a real contribution to encouraging and supporting that phase of the process and the entire process itself," said Mitchell, who has remained neutral in the drawn-out struggle between Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton has described herself as a catalyst for bringing Catholics and Protestants together, even though these activists regularly were meeting each other at many forums by the mid-1990s.

In 1997 she delivered a speech to the University of Ulster that was supposed to inaugurate an annual lecture series honoring a Belfast peace activist, the late Joyce McCartan, whom Clinton briefly met in 1995 during her husband's first of three whirlwind tours of Northern Ireland. The university hosted one more such speech, in 2000, none since.

A political party established in 1996 to promote women in politics, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, drew inspiration from Hillary Clinton's words and example. Voters weren't as convinced; the party folded in 2006 after all its candidates lost in two straight elections.

"It's crazy for Hillary to say she played a role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland. ... She seems to be confusing her record with her husband's," said Robin Wilson, founder of a Northern Ireland think tank, Democratic Dialogue.

In a December 2007 interview with ABC News, Clinton said: "In just the last few weeks, the new leaders of the Northern Ireland government, Dr. Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, made a special effort to see me. Why? Because I helped in that process, not just standing by and witnessing, but actually getting my hands into it, creating opportunities for people on both sides of the sectarian divide to come together."

Clinton's longtime claims to have played a difference-making role in Northern Ireland attracted no criticism until the buildup to St. Patrick's Day this year. To some ears, her most recent comments have raised a false impression that she helped produce the landmark Good Friday peace accord of 1998.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern came to Clinton's defense, meeting with the senator in Washington _ and making his first phone call to Obama.

"I think for anyone to try to question the Clintons' huge support (for Ireland) and start trying to nitpick and saying, 'But she wasn't sitting down at the negotiation table' _ sure, we know she wasn't sitting down at the negotiation table," Ahern said.

After suffering criticism from rival Obama's campaign and Protestant politicians in Northern Ireland, Clinton this month backed off language that suggested she was ever involved in the 22 months of negotiations that preceded the Good Friday pact.

But Clinton still suggests that she wielded a hidden hand over the diplomatic triumph.

"I wasn't sitting at the negotiating table, but the role I played was instrumental," she said in a March 13 interview with National Public Radio.

Clinton's campaign has distributed statements backing up her claim from Nobel laureate John Hume, the Catholic intellectual heavyweight of the peace process, who credited her with making "countless calls and contacts," and leaders of Sinn Fein, the party that former President Clinton helped to bring in from the diplomatic cold caused by Irish Republican Army violence.

In Northern Ireland, the endorsements from Hume, Sinn Fein and Ahern are broadly recognized as reflecting Irish Catholics' desire for maximum international sympathy, specifically from the U.S. The retired Hume, in particular, boosted his clout by carefully cultivating friendships with U.S. politicians, chiefly Democrats.

For them, a President Hillary Clinton offers the best chance of a return to the pro-Irish policies of her husband, who broke with decades of State Department deference to Britain, an approach resumed under George W. Bush.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Barack Obama is back from his vacation in the Virgin Islands. He played a lot of shuffleboard while he was there. He’s pretty smart — he’s doing that in case John McCain challenges him to a duel.

MSNBC is saying that there’s a chance that John McCain would pick Condoleezza Rice as his vice president. That’s a perfectly balanced ticket: he’s white, she’s black; he’s a man, she’s a woman; he’s always steamed, she’s rice . . .

Have you heard Hillary Clinton’s new campaign slogan? Incoming!

New revelations about the whole Hillary Clinton-Bosnia thing. Turns out she went there to hire a sniper.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Tragic news today — Herb Peterson passed away. He was the creator of the Egg McMuffin. He was 89. He said the secret to a long life was to never eat Egg McMuffins.

He was buried in a paper sack, beside a hash brown.

Arizona Sen. John McCain has pulled ahead of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in recent polls. If elected he will be 105 when he takes office.

Hillary Sniper Lie Watershed

Hillary Clinton’s misstatement about her 1996 visit to Bosnia is a “watershed event” that Carl Bernstein says reaffirms what he wrote in his Hillary biography — that she “has always had a difficult relationship with the truth.”

Clinton admitted that she "misspoke" last week when she said that as first lady she had landed under sniper fire during the Bosnia trip.

In a Bernstein article that appears on the blog of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, he quotes from “A Woman in Charge,” his 2007 Clinton bio:

“She has often chosen to obfuscate, omit, and avoid. It is an understatement by now that she has been known to apprehend truths about herself and the events of her life that others do not exactly share…

“Almost always, something holds her back from telling the whole story, as if she doesn’t trust the reader, listener, friend, interviewer, constituent — or perhaps herself — to understand the true significance of events.”

Bernstein writes on Cooper’s blog: “The Bosnian episode is a watershed event, because it indelibly brings to mind so many examples of this tendency — from the White House years and, worse, from Hillary Clinton’s take-no-prisoners presidential campaign. Her record as a public person is replete with ‘misstatements’ and elisions and retracted and redacted and revoked assertions.”

Hillary’s misstatement about Bosnia conjures up “another famous instance of faulty recollection,” Bernstein writes.

In January 1995, Hillary had just published her book “It Takes a Village,” which according to Bernstein was intended to redeem Clinton after, among other things, the failure of her healthcare program, Whitewater, and the Travel Office firings she ordered but denied ordering.

On her book tour, she was asked on National Public Radio about the discovery that week of “missing” billing records related to the Whitewater affair. Clinton said she had disclosed all relevant documents related to Whitewater, including “every document we had,” to the New York Times before the newspaper ran its original Whitewater story during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.

“Even her closest aides — as in the case of the Bosnian episode 18 years later — could not imagine what possessed her to say such a thing,” Bernstein observes.

“It was simply not true … The White House was forced — once again — to acknowledge the first lady had been ‘mistaken’ … and Times columnist Bill Safire that month coined the memorable characterization of Hillary Clinton as a ‘congenital liar.’”

Bernstein again quotes from his book: “Almost always, Hillary has stood for good things. Yet there is a disconnect between her convictions and her words and actions. This is where Hillary disappoints. But the jury remains out. She still has time to prove her case, to effectuate those things that make her special, not fear them or camouflage them.”

Bernstein concludes: “The jury — armed with definitive evidence like the CBS tape of Hillary Clinton’s Bosnian adventure — seems on the verge of returning a negative verdict on her candidacy.”

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Hillary Clinton is coming under fire for claiming she was under fire while she was in Bosnia. Luckily, she was wearing her Kevlar pantsuit at the time.

Hillary now says she just made an honest mistake . . . there was no hostile fire of any kind. Ironically, while she was away, Bill Clinton did see some action.

Is this a big deal? All candidates exaggerate. Remember when McCain ran in 2000? He had to retract a claim that he was under cannon fire from the Confederates.

Hillary also said she went to 80 countries. Turns out she only wanted to go to one country, but she booked it with PriceLine.com and had to fly through all of them.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Signs You're Watching Too Much NCAA Basketball

10. At dinner party, you make guests tip off for every pork chop

9. You got a tattoo of Jim Nantz where a tattoo of Jim Nantz shouldn't be

8. You name your child "Gonzaga"

7. Just checked into rehab to kick $500-a-day nacho cheese addiction

6. Got a 35-second shot clock in your bedroom — it's an oldie but a goodie, folks

5. Constantly asking, "What would Michigan State coach Tom Izzo do?"

4. Snack plus lack of activity equals sweet sixteen chins

3. You're so caught up in basketball, you don't even care that "The Hills" Audrina is about to go on her first date since breaking up with Justin Bobby

2. Kick everyone's ass in Scrabble by putting "Krzyzewski" on triple word score

1. You'll watch anything leathery and orange on CBS — even Letterman

David Letterman

It was so nice in New York City today, that thing on Donald Trump’s head shed its coat.

Ringling Bros. Circus is in Madison Square Garden. They have a contortionist that’s so good, Eliot Spitzer sent over a drink.

I want to clarify something: The Ringling Bros. is a three-ring circus. The governor and Mrs. McGreevey is a three-way circus.

I don’t think I’m going to the circus this year; if I want to see clowns at Madison Square Garden, I’ll go to a Knicks game.

Craig Ferguson

Not such a great day for Robin Williams. His wife is filing for divorce. According to the paper, the cause for his divorce is every film he’s done since 1997.

Some kids found what might be D.B. Cooper’s parachute. He’s wanted by the FBI for stealing $200,000. MC Hammer called the kids; he wants his pants back.

D.B. Cooper is the only criminal to get away by jumping from a plane. I want to sky dive. Sky diving is good for finding out what you’d look like with a facelift.

Obama Seeks to Quell Flap Over Pastor

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday sought to quell concerns over anti-American remarks by his former pastor, saying people are paying too much attention to a small number of "stupid" comments.

Obama gave a sweeping speech on race and condemned the incendiary remarks of Rev. Jeremiah Wright last week, but the words of the former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago continue to dog the candidate. Reflecting the campaign's concern about the fallout, Obama used a question about religion at a town hall forum as an opportunity to address the issue.

"This is somebody that was preaching three sermons at least a week for 30 years and it got boiled down ... into a half-minute sound clip and just played it over and over and over again, partly because it spoke to some of the racial divisions we have in this country," Obama told an audience in this central North Carolina city.

"There are misunderstandings on both sides," the Illinois senator said. "We cannot solve the problems of America if everytime somebody somewhere does something stupid, that everybody gets up in arms and forgets about the war in Iraq and we forget about the economy."

On Tuesday, Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, weighed in directly, saying: "I think that given all we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor."

The controversy began earlier this month when videos of Wright sermons surfaced, including one in which the pastor shouts "God damn America" for its treatment of minorities.

Wright has said the U.S. government invented AIDS to destroy "people of color" and has also suggested that U.S. policies in the Middle East and elsewhere were partly responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

In a highly publicized speech last week, Obama sharply condemned Wright's remarks and the preacher's refusal to acknowledge progress in race relations. But he refused to repudiate his longtime spiritual mentor, saying he could no more disown Wright than he could disown his white grandmother.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Hillary Clinton was supposed to be our guest tonight, but she got pinned down by sniper fire.

Who would have guessed Hillary would have more war stories than John McCain?

Hillary’s campaign is claiming she misspoke when she said she landed under gun fire during her trip to Bosnia. Turns out it was gun fire on a trip to L.A.

She now admits there weren’t any snipers. And today Bill Clinton said, “Hey, if I would have known there weren’t any snipers, I would not have sent her there in the first place.”

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten U.S. Airways Excuses

10. Thought it would be fun to shoot empty liquor bottles

9. Air traffic controller's "Clear to land" misheard as "Squeeze off a round"

8. Media never reports when plane takes off and pilot's gun doesn't go off

7. Pilot thought he saw one of them "Cloverfield" Godzillas — Buy "Cloverfield" on DVD April 22nd

6. Oh, like you've never fired a weapon onboard a passenger plane before

5. Don't worry — His parole officer was in the cockpit

4. Chillax, bro

3. This is what happens when you let Dick Cheney fly a plane — Did you see it coming folks?

2. If you didn't want gunplay, maybe you should have flown United

1. Pilot distraught after picking Duke to win it all

David Letterman

What a beautiful day here in New York City. Such a beautiful day, that new governor, David Paterson? He was using drugs in the park.

You can tell it’s spring because that governor and his wife had a foursome with Ben & Jerry.

Hollywood news: Pamela Andersen got an annulment from her marriage. You have to hope things will work out better for whoever she marries next month.

She goes through husbands like New York goes through mayors.

Craig Ferguson

Not such a great day for Hillary Clinton. Been caught telling a lie. Said when she landed in Bosnia 12 years ago, she was dodging bullets. Comedian Sinbad broke the story. Nothing says great journalism to me like the co-star of “Jingle all the Way.” Sinbad went on a trip to Bosnia with Sheryl Crow and Hillary Clinton. Sounds like a Movie of the Week on Lifetime or something. “Can a standup comedian, a woman rocker, and a tough drill-sergeant heal the war-torn Balkans?”

Crazy if Hillary’s campaign is derailed by a comedian. It has happened before. When John McCain first ran for the Senate, he was called a liar by the most famous comedian of that time: Mark Twain.

Barack Obama called Hillary today to thank her for distracting everyone away from the whole crazy pastor thing. Obama’s campaign is all about hope — hope Hillary keeps saying stupid crap and getting herself in trouble.

Clinton 'Lied' on Bosnia Trip

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said she "misspoke" last week when she said she had landed under sniper fire during a trip she took as first lady to Bosnia in March 1996.

The Obama campaign suggested it was a deliberate exaggeration on Clinton's part.

Clinton often cites the goodwill trip she took with her daughter and several celebrities as a part of her foreign policy experience.

During a speech last Monday about Iraq, she said of the trip: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

According to an AP story at the time, Clinton was placed under no extraordinary risks on that trip. And one of her companions on it, comedian Sinbad, told The Washington Post he has no recollection either of the threat or reality of gunfire.

When asked Monday about the New York senator's recent remarks on the trip, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson pointed to Clinton's previous written account in her book, "Living History," in which she described a shortened welcoming ceremony at Tuzla Air Base, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Clinton wrote: "Due to reports of snipers in the hills around the airstrip, we were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac with local children, though we did have time to meet them and their teachers and to learn how hard they had worked during the war to continue classes in any safe spot they could find."

"That is what she wrote in her book," Wolfson said. "That is what she has said many, many times and on one occasion she misspoke."

The written account in Clinton's book contradicts the comments she made last Monday about the welcoming ceremony.

Just after her speech last Monday, she reaffirmed the account of running from the plane to the cars when she was asked about it by reporters at a news conference. She said was moved into the cockpit of the C-17 cargo plane as they were flying into Tuzla Air Base.

"Everyone else was told to sit on their bulletproof vests," Clinton told reporters. "And we came in, in an evasive maneuver. ... There was no greeting ceremony, and we basically were told to run to our cars. Now, that is what happened."

A spokesman for rival Barack Obama's campaign questioned whether Clinton misspoke, saying her comments came in what appeared to be prepared remarks for her speech on Iraq. The Obama campaign statement contained a link to a text of Clinton's speech that is still posted on her campaign Web site including the account of running to the cars.

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a written statement that Clinton's Bosnia story "joins a growing list of instances in which Senator Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic policymaking."

The Obama campaign statement also links to a CBS news video taken from her Bosnia trip and posted on YouTube, which shows Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, walking across the tarmac from a large cargo plane, smiling and waving, and stopping to shake hands with Bosnia's acting president and greet an 8-year-old girl.

"This is something that the Obama campaign wants to push cause they have nothing positive to say about their candidate," Wolfson said Monday in the conference call.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Yesterday, kids all over America spent the day looking for Easter eggs. Today, parents in New York at Bear Stearns spent the day trying to find their nest eggs.

Today at the White House, President Bush hosted the annual Easter Egg Roll, where kids roll Easter eggs across the White House lawn with spoons. What fun that must be for kids — if this was 1908.

Big controversy after State Department officials looked at passport files for the three major candidates. Turns out they got a hold of John McCain’s Social Security number. Know what it is? 3.

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says he still considers himself loyal to the Clinton family despite endorsing Barack Obama. Loyal! Even Bill was more faithful to Hillary than that!

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Signs The Government Is Spying On You

10. You turn on television and see a live feed of your shower

9. While you're ordering pizza, mysterious voice on the phone tells you to forget the mushrooms

8. There's been an ice cream truck parked outside your house for nine months

7. Your dog has an antenna

6. You came home early and found an agent dusting your wife for prints

5. Your cat has an antenna

4. After eating a falafel, your name was added to the "Do Not Fly" list

3. Drudge Report features exclusive news about your breakfast

2. CIA director Hayden calls and says, "Judging by these surveillance photos, you should get that thing on your ass looked at"

1. During State of the Union, president suggests you to ask your doctor about Levitra

David Letterman

Yesterday’s Easter Egg Hunt in Central Park was amazing. They found 1,500 eggs. Fifteen hundred eggs. And three dead guys.

Everybody was in the Easter spirit. In fact, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer spent the day with someone named Bunny.

Two State Department officials were fired — this is a bit of a scandal — because they were looking at Barack Obama’s passport files. Not only that, the same person was looking at John McCain’s Civil War record.

Sen. Larry Craig did not sign up for re-election. He’s not going to run for office again . . . Don’t let the stall door hit you on the way out, Larry.

Craig Ferguson

The White House held their annual Easter Egg Roll. They do it every year. And just like every year, the president got all confused again . . . he ordered the egg roll and a side of rice.

Celebrity birthdays today: Payton manning and Star Jones. One is an unstoppable machine that will destroy anything that gets in the way, the other is Payton Manning.

People magazine has published the first pictures of Jennifer Lopez’s twins. I got all excited and went out and bought the magazine . . . and it’s pictures of her children! Not what I expected at all.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

President Bush spoke about the war in Iraq again today. This week marks the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war. Bush said turning back now would harm all the gains we’ve made. You know, like 100 dollars for a barrel of oil, a worthless dollar, a recession.

Today John McCain was in England where he visited his birthplace . . . Stonehenge.

According to a new poll out today, John McCain is now in a double digit lead over the Democrats. Give you an idea just how far ahead John McCain is in the polls, today Hillary offered him the vice presidency.

Some more embarrassing revelations for Hillary Clinton today. According to a report released by the national archives, it now seems that Hillary Clinton was in the White House the day Bill was having sex with Monica. In fact this is the first documented proof that Bill has had sex . . . with Hillary under the same roof.

Conan O'Brien

A new survey shows that beer drinkers prefer John McCain to Hillary Clinton. Which is surprising because you’d think Hillary would be more popular with guys who like a “cold one.”

Starbucks has canceled its plans to sell a one-dollar cup of coffee. A company spokesman said, “You’ll still be able to get a one-dollar cup of coffee at Starbucks but it’s going to cost you eight bucks.”

In Los Angeles, a 500-pound man was arrested for stealing food from a restaurant. Police say it took five minutes to catch the suspect and two hours to pat him down.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is threatening to sue one of her biggest fans because he’s trying to put out a Harry Potter encyclopedia. The man says he’s not happy about being sued by Rowling — but at least it’s technically some form of contact with a girl.

Obama's Church Addresses Controversy

CHICAGO -- The new pastor of Barack Obama's Chicago church said during Easter Sunday services that recent national scrutiny of the church is a test that will only make the congregation stronger.

"Any time you go through a crucifixion experience ... eventually they have to lift you up," said the Rev. Otis Moss III, who did not shy away from the controversy surrounding his predecessor at Trinity United Church of Christ, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

Wright retired from Trinity's pulpit last month but retains the title of senior pastor. Video from some of his more inflammatory sermons has surfaced online and on television in recent weeks.

Moss said Sunday that Wright's critics and the news media "are just lifting us up to give us the opportunity to speak love to this situation."

Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate, has responded to the flap by condemning Wright's statements but expressing admiration and support for the pastor who officiated at his wedding, baptized his two daughters and inspired the title of his best-selling book, "The Audacity of Hope."

In a speech last week that took the country's racial divide head-on, Obama _ the son of a white woman from Kansas and a Kenyan father _ said black anger persists over injustice in America, and whites shouldn't be surprised about the way it's expressed in sermons.

"The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning," Obama said.

Obama did not attend the Easter Sunday service.

Trinity describes itself as "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian," a declaration some consider separatist and even racist. In recent days, a CBS News poll indicated most voters have heard at least something about Wright's comments.

But at the church itself, the "unashamedly black" identity can be seen in the African and African-American art on the walls and windows, as well as in the traditional African clothing of the choir. It can be heard in references to rapper Tupac Shakur in Moss' Easter Sunday sermon, which was titled "Gangster's Paradise."

Moss told the more than 3,000 worshippers at one of four Easter services that the controversy has opened an unprecedented dialogue about race.

"We are talking in ways we have never talked as a country," he said.

Trinity is fighting back, including by launching its own YouTube channel and blog.

The spotlight has placed the 8,000 mostly black members of the church in the unusual position of being asked to explain something deeply personal _ their faith and the way that they worship.

Linda Thomas, a professor of theology and anthropology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, has been a member of Trinity since 1997. She said she views the scrutiny of the church "as an opportunity for teaching."

"What's happened has opened up an opportunity to learn more about the prophetic ministry of Trinity United Church and of our awesome pastor Dr. Jeremiah Wright," she said. "And it brings in our new pastor in a big way."

She said she hopes people will realize Wright's comments have been taken out of context.

"A sound bite cannot capture ... a whole sermon," Thomas said.

James Carville Compares Bill Richardson to Judas

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's unexpected endorsement of Senator Barack Obama was “An act of betrayal,” fumed James Carville, an adviser to Mrs. Clinton and a friend and former Bill Clinton aide.

“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Carville said, referring to Holy Week, according to a report in the New York Times.

Carville's blast came on the heels of Richardson's endorsement of Barack Obama's and what Richardson described as a heated phone call he made to Senator Clinton.

“I talked to Senator Clinton last night,” Richardson said Friday, describing his telephone call to tell Senator Hillary Clinton that, despite what the Times called "two months of personal entreaties by her and her husband," he would be endorsing Senator Barack Obama, and not Hillary.

"Let me tell you: we’ve had better conversations,” Mr. Richardson told the Times.

Carville's remark is the latest salvo in a war of words between Obama and Clinton supporters.

The Associated Press reported that in Charlotte, N.C., last Friday, speculating about a general election matchup pitting his wife against Republican John McCain, Bill Clinton told a group of veterans: "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

Retired Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak, a co-chairman of Obama's campaign, took offense and accused Clinton of being divisive and trying to question Obama's patriotism. Standing with Obama at a campaign stop in southern Oregon, McPeak repeated Bill Clinton's comments for the audience, then said:

"As one who for 37 years proudly wore the uniform of our country, I'm saddened to see a president employ these tactics. He of all people should know better because he was the target of exactly the same kind of tactics."

That was an apparent reference to Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, when he was accused of dodging the Vietnam War draft.

McPeak also made off-the-cuff remarks to reporters Friday in comparing the former president's comments with the actions of Joseph McCarthy, the 1950s communist-hunting senator.

"I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it," McPeak said.

3 Candidates Passport Files Breached

The passport files of the three presidential candidates - Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain - have been breached, the State Department said Friday.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the breaches of McCain and Clinton's passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the privacy breach regarding Obama's records and a separate search was conducted.

McCormack said the individual who accessed Obama's files also reviewed McCain's file. This contract employee has been reprimanded, but not fired. The individual no longer has access to passport records, he said.

"We are reviewing our options with that person" and their employment status, McCormack said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with at least Obama and Clinton on Friday and expressed her regrets. State Department officials also planned to brief the staffs of all three candidates on Friday.

McCormack declined to name the companies that employed the contractors, despite demands by a senior House Democrat that such information is in the public interest.

"At this point, we just started an investigation," he said. "We want to err on the side of caution."

Traveling in Paris, McCain said any breach of passport privacy deserves an apology and a full investigation.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Winter officially ended this week. Today, Al Gore blamed winter's end on global warming.

Nothing but disasters in the country — floods in the Midwest, fires in Texas, the Democratic Party . . .

John McCain is now 10 percent ahead of Hillary Clinton and 7 percent ahead of Barack Obama. This is after Iraq, a recession, and no healthcare. Imagine if the Republicans had actually done something.

John McCain received a warm welcome in Israel. He’s always been hugely popular in Israel, ever since he stood with the Jewish people against the pharaoh.

Conan O'Brien

A new study shows that wine drinkers prefer Hillary Clinton to the other candidates. After hearing this, Bill Clinton asked, “How much wine have they had?"

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has reportedly entered therapy for a sex addiction. Spitzer said his therapy is going well and that his therapist has a fantastic rack.

In New Jersey today, there were dangerous winds with gusts up to 50 miles an hour. The winds were so strong that they blew former Governor McGreevey off his chauffeur.

A big insurance company just announced they will give $10 million to anyone who can invent a car that gets 100 miles per gallon. Meanwhile, Exxon says they’ll give $11 million to anyone who kills that guy.

Obama: Grandma Is 'Typical White Person'

On Thursday, Sen. Barack Obama described his grandmother's racial attitudes as those of a "typical white person."

During a morning interview with Philadephia's WIP and its host Angelo Cataldi, Obama was asked about his reference to his white grandmother in his recent speech on Reverend Wright.

Obama responded:

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, uh, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know there's a reaction that's been been bred into our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it."

Listen to Obama's Speaking About "Typical White" Grandmother

During his speech on race Obama said his grandmother was "a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world," but he then qualified that description by noting she was also "a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

Some Republican critics have pounced on Obama for comparing Wright's incendiary rhetoric with his 86-year-old grandmother's prejudices.

"I also think it was, intellectually, fundamentally dishonest," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News after the Obama speech. "To [compare] a 20-year relationship with a public figure to his grandmother is just wrong. It's emotionally powerful, but it's just wrong. I mean, the core question that Senator Obama has to answer is very simple. For 20 years, he was a member of a church where he now says his pastor, a public figure, was saying things ... forget that they were hateful, forget that they were divisive: They were wrong. They were fundamentally, factually wrong."

The New York Daily News election blog quoted Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman, offering a clarification: “Barack Obama said specifically that he didn’t believe his grandmother harbored any racial animosity but that her fears were understandable and typical of those often shared by her generation.”

The News wrote: "Ummm, that’s not what he said."

LaBolt continued: "But the campaign also said the senator did not mean to suggest all white people share his grandmother’s reaction to seeing a black person pass her by on the street."

“His intentions may have been misconstrued,” he said. The Obama campaign has also argued that many of Pastor Wright's comments have been "taken out of context."

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

President Bush spoke about the war in Iraq again today. This week marks the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war. Bush said turning back now would harm all the gains we’ve made. You know, like 100 dollars for a barrel of oil, a worthless dollar, a recession.

Today John McCain was in England where he visited his birthplace . . . Stonehenge.

According to a new poll out today, John McCain is now in a double digit lead over the Democrats. Give you an idea just how far ahead John McCain is in the polls, today Hillary offered him the vice presidency.

Some more embarrassing revelations for Hillary Clinton today. According to a report released by the national archives, it now seems that Hillary Clinton was in the White House the day Bill was having sex with Monica. In fact this is the first documented proof that Bill has had sex . . . with Hillary under the same roof.

Conan O'Brien

A new survey shows that beer drinkers prefer John McCain to Hillary Clinton. Which is surprising because you’d think Hillary would be more popular with guys who like a “cold one.”

Starbucks has canceled its plans to sell a one-dollar cup of coffee. A company spokesman said, “You’ll still be able to get a one-dollar cup of coffee at Starbucks but it’s going to cost you eight bucks.”

In Los Angeles, a 500-pound man was arrested for stealing food from a restaurant. Police say it took five minutes to catch the suspect and two hours to pat him down.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is threatening to sue one of her biggest fans because he’s trying to put out a Harry Potter encyclopedia. The man says he’s not happy about being sued by Rowling — but at least it’s technically some form of contact with a girl.

Labels: J

Understanding the Black Church: Reverend James David Manning

RUSH: We have five sound bites from a pro-Clinton preacher. His name is the Reverend James David Manning, and he preaches at the ATLAH Worldwide Church in Harlem. This is now on YouTube, ladies and gentlemen. And, as I've warned you prior to the conclusion of the last hour, this is rough stuff. This is really, really rough stuff. But, this is something I think we all need to learn and expose ourselves to, because we're being told that we are ignorant when it comes to the traditions and the context of the dynamics, if you will, of the traditional black church in America. So it's just another example of what's going on in a black church. This is in Harlem, the Reverend James David Manning, a pro-Hillary pastor.

MANNING: Obama is a mack daddy. Obama pimps white women and black women. He got started -- you didn't notice him 'til he brought out those big-chested white women with their tight T-shirts and their short pants. That's what a pimp does. A con. You don't get your campaign started with a big-chested white woman, she must be a 54-D, double D. And a pair of shorts on. That's what started his campaign! He put his name on two big 54-Ds. Obama, that's where you first saw his name, that's the first place I saw it, on two great big old (bleep). He's a mack daddy. He pimps white women and black women. Obama is a long-legged mack daddy. I haven't trashed Obama. His African-in-heat father went a-whoring after a trashy white woman. He was born trash. I said he was born trash. I didn't trash him. I'm speaking the truth about him. Now, once again, I am a diplomat, but I'm not a compromiser. I got a word in my mouth! I said I got the Word of God in my mouth, and God's not afraid of Obama or anybody else or Ted Kennedy or that little Caroline or anybody else!

RUSH: All right, this is from February 16th of 2008. I told you, I told you this is rough stuff. Now, if you watch the video, if you watch the video, they've put together the Obama girl and the shorts and the T-shirt and so forth that Reverend James David Manning here is talking about. Here's the next bite.

MANNING: He gave a quarter of a billion dollars to this community, up came all the new stores, restaurants, financing for condos, all of this happened, made this for you, and now you're trashing him. I'm not making these statements because I'm supportive of Bill Clinton. When he was doing that, I told you about him, just like I'm speaking about this long-legged freak called Obama, I told you about Bill Clinton, a man that has built your home the way this home is built, and now you are trashing him and his wife, after he's given you all that he's given to you, from a man you have no idea what he's going to do, and the reason why you're doing it is not because of honor and integrity, but simply because he got a black face? But I told you, he also got a white mama! You hypocrites, you. You spineless you-know-what, you don't have enough sense to pull piss out of a boot and you're talking about Obama as your president. You're despicable! No honor, no integrity. Well, I'm not in favor of Bill Clinton, but if a man has done for you as much as he has done and then for you to trash him away, you are trashing him makes you less than a maggot. But that's how black men are, they don't have anything. Again, black men don't have a pot to piss in nor a window to throw it out of, and they're looking for Obama to give them more irresponsibility and unaccountability!

RUSH: Oh, my! This is painful to listen to you. This is happening in a church in Harlem last February 16th, the Reverend James David Manning, who is a pro-Clinton pastor. Will Hillary now be forced to have to defend this guy? I don't know if he's on her advisory committee or not. I told you this was rough stuff. But, you know, we're being told to ignore Reverend Wright here. It's not about Reverend Wright, we don't understand what goes on, we don't understand the history and the historical experiences and so forth and so on, and I'm here to tell you that listening to all this stuff, I will agree, I don't get it. I don't understand it. Now, the next bite, Reverend James David Manning in Harlem goes after affirmative action.

MANNING: They're looking for the easy way out. They're pimps and players. Black men, is who they are. Black women are player lovers. That's why you go to the churches that you go to. You're player lovers, rather than people of integrity, people of honor. You are the weakest people on the planet, and you have the audacity to accept affirmative action, which says that you are not as qualified as someone else, and you made it alone. You have accepted affirmative action and grinned and held parties to celebrate when the white man says we'll make a law similar to the Dred Scott decision that says that you are not as qualified as others because of racism and slavery, therefore what is required of the white race is not required of you! And you have applauded affirmative action. You are ignorant, you are despicable through and through!

RUSH: He's talking to his own congregation here. Now some people might agree with that. Some people might think he's got a point here, talking to his flock regarding affirmative action. Now he, I think in this next bite, uses the word that Don Imus was fired for using.

MANNING: I am the voice crying in the wilderness of planet Earth to the black faces, return and repent, saith the Lord of Hosts of your wicked doings. I got this word from God. It's in my mouth. The future of you African and African-American people is in my mouth! It's not in your hand; it's in my mouth! And I don't have to compromise with not one of you nappy-head people. The Word of God is in my mouth. Your health is in my mouth! Your ability to eat bread is in my mouth. If I don't speak, you don't eat. The Word of God is in my mouth.

RUSH: The Reverend James David Manning of Harlem here in a sermon February 16th, 2008, pro-Clinton preacher who has had some very unkind things to say about Barack Obama in our early first sound bite. This is probably going to irritate some people, but I'm beginning to think maybe now I understand why liberals do not want American history taught in schools. They'd rather it be taught by preachers, be they Reverend Wright -- hey, and if some of you are cringing over this, and I can imagine I'm using my empathy here, "Rush, why are you playing it?" Well, I told you why we're playing it. If you're cringing over this, did you cringe over Jeremiah Wright? Look, we heard Jeremiah Wright, and everybody started making excuses, we gotta understand, we gotta understand, gotta understand the rage. Well, this guy is filled with his own form of rage, and he's preaching it to the flock. Now, the difference, this guy is fully able and willing to insult his flock, in his own way. Jeremiah Wright is I guess doing so in a different manner. Back now to the big finish, and we return with James David Manning to Barack Obama.

MANNING: I'm here to speak the Word of God! I don't have to compromise with you. You've been in this country as slaves for 500 years and you're still marching and complaining that you don't have anything, after 500 years! There must be something deficient about your intellectual strength. There must be something deficient about your God to let you be on the bottom as long as you're on the bottom, and two years from now, Mexicans are going to be running your life and writing your paycheck. If I don't stand up, I'm your last hope. After me, there will be no hope. Farrakhan didn't get it for you. Barack is an emissary of the devil.

RUSH: There is one common denominator, ladies and gentlemen, between the rantings -- uh, sorry -- the sermons of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright in Chicago and the Reverend James David Manning in Harlem. There is one common denominator. Do you know what that might be? In the case of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the United States is the rotgut place it is because of rich white people. In the case of James David Manning, Obama is trashed because he had a white mother. So the common denominator in both of these reverends is that the problem is white people. The reason that this guy hates Obama is because his mother's white, and he went out there and he appeared in a TV ad with a white woman, so he's called a pimp and that sort of stuff. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, of course, is down on America, and everything wrong with this country is because of rich white people. That's what their flocks hear. Some of you might be saying, "Why are you doing this?" Ladies and gentlemen, this is a political campaign, we've got Operation Chaos going on here, and this is equal time. If we're going to have to all of this audio from a pro-Obama preacher, we have to have audio from a pro-Hillary preacher. It's the only way to be fair.


END TRANSCRIPT

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

According to CNN News, John McCain would win if only beer drinkers voted. A Democrat, either Hillary or Barack, would win if only wine drinkers would vote. Here’s the interesting part: If we all got drunk on tequila, Ralph Nader might actually have a shot.

John McCain is in Iraq this week. He said his goal as president would be to introduce the Iraqi people to the concept of the early bird special.

Vice President Dick Cheney also in Iraq. He told the Iraqi government that their leaders have to show progress on both the domestic and economic fronts. And the Iraqis said to Cheney, “Uh . . . you first.”

Today marks the five year anniversary of the war in Iraq. President Bush says his decision to invade was remarkably effective. Bush also went on to say that Bear Sterns is just going through tough times, with victory just around the corner.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Reasons To Watch The New Season Of "Battlestar Galactica"

10. "In the dramatic season opening episode, we save 15 percent by switching our insurance to Geico"

9. "You'll find out what's in the hatch and who gets off the island — crap, wrong show"

8. "My character creates a line of "Honey Roasted Space Nuts"

7. "What else are you gonna do, read a book?"

6. "There's a good chance you'll see me naked"

5. "There's a good chance you'll see me naked"

4. "New FTL drives will allow the Colonial fleet to better adjust to gravitational variations and achieve maximum superluminal travel to outrun the pursuing Cylon basestars — I don't know what the hell I'm talking about"

3. "We engage in a life-and-death battle against evil robots . . . You know, same s*** as last year"

2. "I take on the most challenging task of my political career -- doing a lame Top Ten list on a third rate talk show

1. "Watch me lead us into war against the Cylons without an exit strategy"

David Letterman

Here’s a sure sign spring is around the corner: Donald Trump evicted a family of robins out of his hair.

Gotta pay your income tax. My accountant wants me to move the show to the Cayman Islands.

John McCain recently said that he supports George Bush’s Iraq policy. And I say “Sure. Slice me eight more years of that.”

I like that John McCain. He looks like the guy who’s a regular at the paint store.

Conan O'Brien

Today it was revealed that Eliot Spitzer’s call girl appeared in a “Girls Gone Wild” video when she was a teen. When asked about it, she said, “That was during my embarrassing pre-hooker days.”

It’s now being reported that the former governor of New Jersey took part in threesomes involving his wife and his chauffer. It’s your move, Spitzer.

A threesome in New Jersey is known as mullet on mullet on mullet action.

According to USA Today, Starbucks in going to market an energy drink. It’s for people who get tired while waiting in line at Starbucks.

Excerpts of Obama's Speech on Race

Excerpts of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's speech on race Tuesday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions.

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy.

Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across the ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least 20 more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution _ a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States.

What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part _ through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience, and always at great risk _ to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

I chose to run for president at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction: toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

And this belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own story.

At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every single exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it's only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wild- and wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.

On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation and that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy, and in some cases, pain.

For some, nagging questions remain: 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 the church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely, just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagree.

The church (Trinity United Church of Christ) contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and, yes, the bitterness and biases that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding and baptized my children.

Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.

He contains within him the contradictions _ the good and the bad _ of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are part of America, this country that I love.

Now, some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not.

We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro in the aftermath of her recent statements as harboring some deep-seated bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America: to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through, a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect.

And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding _ understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point.

Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their world view in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.

That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians to gin up votes along racial lines or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews.

That anger is not always productive. Indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems. It keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity within the African-American community in our condition, it prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.

But the anger is real, it is powerful, and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns, this, too, widens the racial divide and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. And contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle or with a single candidate, particularly _ particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction, a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people, that, working together, we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that, in fact, we have no choice _ we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope _ the audacity to hope _ for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

Now, in the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination _ and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past _ that these things are real and must be addressed.

Not just with words, but with deeds _ by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations.

It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams, that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.

We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction, and then another one, and then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option.

Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time."

Documents Shed Light on Lewinsky Affair

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton was home in the White House on at least seven days when her husband had sexual encounters there with intern Monica Lewinsky, according to Sen. Clinton's schedule, released Wednesday among 11,000 pages of papers from her years as first lady.

The words of the schedules are dry, but they take on emotional weight when coupled with revelations about the sex scandal that eventually came to light. A year later, the schedules show her pressing ahead and showing her face at public events as revelations about the scandal upended her life and threatened Bill Clinton's presidency.

The papers also shed light on her struggle for health care reform early in the Clinton administration, her scaling back when that effort failed, her travels abroad and the legal woes that dogged the Clintons in the White House.

She also was an early champion of the North American Free Trade Agreement that she now criticizes in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. The papers show her holding at least five meetings in 1993 aimed at helping win congressional approval of the deal.

It's unlikely she would be surprised at this late date to learn that the president was cheating on her while she was home in the White House. But the release of the documents reminds voters anew about Bill Clinton's affair and the impeachment proceedings that brought Washington to a halt for a year.

The private crisis came at the most public of times for the first lady.

She had speeches scheduled, at home and abroad. She appeared by President Clinton's side at an education event where he angrily dismissed the reports of having sex with Lewinsky.

Her schedule has her choosing flowers for a black-tie dinner, congratulating "Guns Aren't Cool" award winners and reading to kids in the week in January 1998 when allegations of the scandal begin coming out. She denounced a "vast right-wing conspiracy" in a TV interview.

Almost a year earlier, the schedules show, she was home on Feb. 28, 1997, the day the report by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr says Bill Clinton had a sexual encounter with Lewinsky in an Oval Office bathroom in the early evening, staining her blue dress.

Mrs. Clinton had "drop by" events or meetings in the Map Room and Diplomatic Reception Room between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. that day, according to her schedule. It also lists plays that night and a concert, but it's not clear whether she attended.

More than a year earlier, on Nov. 15, 1995, the first lady went to a mid-afternoon "meet & greet" photo opportunity at the White House with Nobel Laureates and their families. That night, Lewinsky had what she later said was her first sexual encounter with the president, in the private study off the Oval office.

On Jan. 21, 1996, the first lady and the president privately toured an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. That afternoon, Lewinsky said, she and Bill Clinton had a sexual encounter in the hallway by the private study.

The schedules indicate Hillary Clinton was home on at least four other days when her husband and the intern got together.

Twice, Mrs. Clinton was overseas at such times.

The National Archives released the papers in Washington and at the Clinton presidential library in Arkansas after months of pressure from critics who say the Clintons were delaying the disclosure. The issue has dogged her bid for the White House.

In all, 11,046 pages have been made available. Nearly 4,800 pages have parts blacked out. Archivists said that's to protect the privacy of third parties. Schedules for more than 30 days of activities were not included in this release.


Clinton, now New York senator, said in her memoir that she had little choice but to carry on with her appearances after the Lewinsky revelations. It was on Jan. 21, 1998, when her husband woke her up, sat on the edge of the bed and said, "There's something in today's papers you should know about." He told her of the reports of his relationship with the former intern, and she said she believed his denials.

But on Saturday, Aug. 15, 1998, with the investigation closing in on the real story, he woke her up again and owned up to his misbehavior. She said in her book that she was grateful there were no public events that weekend.

Before the Lewinsky ordeal, Mrs. Clinton faced her own legal troubles in 1996 during the criminal investigation of the Clintons' Whitewater real estate dealings in Arkansas.

In the Whitewater probe, one of the pivotal events occurred on Jan. 4, 1996, a day in which Mrs. Clinton's personal calendar for late that afternoon is marked "Private Meeting" with her chief of staff, Margaret Williams.

Several hours earlier, an aide had discovered inside the White House family residence long-sought billing records of Mrs. Clinton's legal work on Whitewater-related real estate transactions that turned out to be fraudulent.

Furious prosecutors, who had subpoenaed the records 18 months earlier, ordered Mrs. Clinton to testify before a federal grand jury about the records. She appeared on Jan. 26, 1996.

Her calendar for Jan. 26 says "No Public Schedule," although the first lady stood before a bank of microphones in front of the federal courthouse in Washington, and declared: "I am happy to answer the grand jury's questions." Several hours of testimony she gave that day made her the first first lady to ever be hauled in for such questioning.

Neither the federal probe by Independent Counsel Starr nor Republican-led investigations on Capitol Hill were ever able to sort out why the records of Mrs. Clinton's work had never been turned over to investigators. She said she had no idea where the billing records had been.

Prosecutors concluded they did not have enough to prove she was a knowing participant in criminal conduct by others, including Whitewater business partner Jim McDougal.

Her Democratic presidential campaign released a statement Wednesday saying the schedules spanning her two terms as first lady "illustrate the array of substantive issues she worked on" and her travel to more than 80 countries "in pursuit of the administration's domestic and foreign policy goals."

Clinton says her years as first lady equip her to handle foreign policy and national security as president.

But the schedules show trips packed with plainly traditional activities for a first lady, along with some substance.

For example, in her January 1994 visit to Russia with her husband, her schedule is focused on events with other wives. She sat in on a birthing class at a hospital, toured a cathedral and joined prominent women in a lunch of blinis with caviar and salmon.

The Clinton campaign said the schedules are merely a guide and don't reflect all of her activities.

The papers show her tackling health care reform out of the gate in 1993, with a meeting three days after her husband's inauguration and many more as the year went on, before her effort ultimately failed.

She also pushed NAFTA on multiple occasions, including one in November 1993 at a closed meeting with 120 participants. As a presidential candidate, she blames the pact for job losses and promises to renegotiate it.

Her White House policy role diminished markedly after the collapse of the health care initiative.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Everyone’s wearing green today. You know where you’re not seeing any green? Wall Street.

Why does everybody dye food green? Green doughnuts, green cookies, green bagels . . . we won’t eat any real food that’s green — spinach, broccoli, lettuce — but dye a Cinnabon green . . .

What’s going on with Geraldine Ferraro? She said a leprechaun wouldn’t be in the position he’s in if he wasn’t green.

Things are not looking good for the Democratic Party. In fact the tension between Barack and Hillary is almost as bad as the tension between Bill and Hillary.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Things Overheard At The New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade

10. "Is that green beer or New York City tap water?"

9. "50,000 people. 200,000 beers. One bathroom"

8. "Put your shirt on, Mr. McGreevey — this isn't the Gay Pride Parade"

7. "When are they going to clean up the garbage from New Year's Eve?"

6. "Some guy just tried to sell me a bag of primo Mexican 'four leaf clover'"

5. "Larry!!!"

4. "Wanna grab a beer at O'sama's?"

3. "No number 3 — writer out drinking"

2. "Letterman's wearing his green hairpiece"

1. "That's not a leprechaun, it's Mayor Bloomberg"

David Letterman

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Tomorrow, of course, is Let’s Join AA Day.

Up in Albany today, women were wearing buttons that say, Kiss Me I’m $4,000.

They were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Washington. President Bush was so confused. He came out onto the White House lawn and pardoned the corn beef.

Tragedy today. Mayor Bloomberg was in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, and he was hit by a jumping stock broker.

Conan O'Brien

We had our famous St. Patrick’s Day parade today. It started out on 44th Street and ended up in rehab.

Today Hillary Clinton said the war would end up costing $1 trillion. She wasn’t talking about Iraq, she was talking about her war with Barack Obama.

It’s been reported that Barack Obama’s Secret Service name is Renegade, and Hillary Clinton’s Secret Service name is Evergreen. Meanwhile, John McCain’s Secret Service name is Enlarged Prostate.

Craig Ferguson

Did you hear? A bar in New York City has banned the song “Danny Boy.” On St. Patrick’s Day! Isn’t that outrageous? It’s like West Hollywood banning the song “It’s Raining Men.”

The new governor of New York is blind, which is a big improvement. If he’s ever caught with a prostitute, he can say “I thought it was my wife.”

By now, we all know what happened to Eliot Spitzer, the old governor of New York. Last week he was caught with a high-class call-girl. I am not sure what makes a call-girl high-class. I think they use an English accent when they spank you.

Some Voters May Be Banned in Mich. Revote

LANSING, Mich. -- One of the sticking points holding up a possible do-over election in Michigan is a rule that would ban anyone who voted in the Republican presidential primary from voting again.

That ban would apply even to Democrats or independents who asked for a GOP ballot because Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the only major candidate left on the Jan. 15 Democratic ballot.

To cast a ballot, voters would have to sign a statement that they hadn't voted in the GOP primary.

The effect of blocking those voters could be greatest on Sen. Barack Obama, since his supporters were more likely than Clinton's to have crossed over to vote in the GOP primary. The national party had punished Michigan for holding a primary before Feb. 5, stripping it of all its delegates. Clinton's name was on the ballot, but Obama and several other Democratic candidates took their names off to avoid angering other early voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.

Obama has also had more success than Clinton in attracting the votes of independents and Republicans in states where they're permitted to vote in Democratic contests.

Michigan's Republican primary drew 867,271 voters, including 18,106 who voted "uncommitted." The Democratic primary drew 593,837 voters. Clinton garnered 328,151 votes, or 55 percent; 237,762, or 40 percent, voted "uncommitted;" 21,708, or 4 percent, voted for Rep. Dennis Kucinich; 3,853, or less than 1 percent, voted for Sen. Chris Dodd, and 2,363, or less than 1 percent, voted for former Sen. Mike Gravel.

According to exit polls, 7 percent of GOP primary voters said they were Democrats and 25 percent said they were independents or something else. That means nearly 61,000 people who voted in the GOP primary were Democrats, while more than 217,000 were independents.

A group of Democratic leaders from Michigan are trying to set up a June 3 do-over Democratic primary so the state can get its delegates seated at the Democratic National Convention.

The Clinton campaign said Monday it would go along with another election, but the Obama campaign so far has said only that it's reviewing the proposal. Potentially at stake are a hefty 128 pledged delegates that Michigan had before it was punished by the DNC for moving up its primary date.

Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer says the party has the right _ and the responsibility _ to prevent non-Democrats from having a say in who the party's presidential nominee should be.

Michigan doesn't require voters to register by party in order to vote, so the political parties have to use other tools to stop crossover voting. Both parties are due to get a list of who voted in the Jan. 15 primary and which ballot _ Democratic or Republican _ they chose.

It's unclear if poll workers would use those lists to challenge anyone who had voted in the GOP primary.

Brewer said he regrets that some Democrats won't be able to vote in the second Democratic primary if one's held, but says there's nothing he can do about it.

"I regret that that might be the case, but it's a national party rule and we have no choice but to follow it," he said.

Even if more than 278,000 Democrats and independents would be barred from voting in a do-over primary, Brewer estimated that a June 3 election could still pull in at least 1 million and possibly 1.5 million people.

Obama supporters at the state Capitol in Lansing appeared determined to head off a vote on legislation creating a June 3 primary. But U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, one of four Michigan Democratic leaders trying to find a way to get the delegates seated, was calling lawmakers to urge a vote.

Figures are from exit polling for The Associated Press and television networks.

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Hillary Struggling with Loss of Black Support

WASHINGTON -- African Americans liked Bill Clinton so much that he was once dubbed "the first black president," but perceptions that his wife's campaigning has been racially tinged have taken a toll on Hillary Clinton's White House bid.

Some accuse Clinton's campaign of trying to cast her rival Barack Obama as a candidate of limited appeal in order to marginalize his candidacy and enhance her chances of winning the Democratic Party nomination.

Sen. Obama would be the first black president if he won the nomination and then defeated Republican John McCain in the November 4 national election. Obama is leading Sen. Clinton in the fight for delegates to the August convention.

Clinton would be the first woman president. But some black Americans have grown mistrustful of her campaign because of statements by her, her husband and other surrogates. African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Her suggestion of a "dream" ticket with Obama as her vice presidential running mate reminded some of the days when blacks, regarded as second-class citizens, were ordered to sit at the back of buses.

"No offense, but that is typical of a white person to offer you second place and say they'll take first place," trucker Jasper Clark, 53, said at a recent Obama rally in Jackson, Mississippi.

The mere mention of Clinton's name drew boos from that mostly black audience.

Obama discusses his life as the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya to highlight his message that the United States can move beyond racial divisions, but the issue keeps bubbling up.

TRADING BARBS

Last week, the Clinton and Obama camps traded barbs over a flap involving Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro, who became a trailblazer for women when she joined the unsuccessful Democratic ticket as a vice presidential candidate in 1984.

In comments some viewed as racially divisive, Ferraro attributed Obama's lead so far in this year's Democratic race to his being black. "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she said.

Ferraro later resigned from her role on Clinton's fundraising committee and Clinton said she repudiated and "deeply" regretted her supporter's comments.

The Clinton campaign accused the Obama campaign of drawing the race issue into the campaign by calling attention to Ferraro's remarks.

Some analysts said the Ferraro remarks could provoke resentment from some white Americans over "affirmative action" policies aimed at helping minorities overcome discrimination.

Many U.S. blacks say such resentment often causes their accomplishments to be overlooked.

"It's the idea that a black person with a Harvard Law degree and a distinguished legislative career only got to where he is because of his skin color. That's surreal," said William Jelani Cobb, a history professor at Spelman College in Atlanta.

"It is comparable to the same tiresome argument that accomplished black professionals often hear: 'He or she only got that job because of affirmative action,'" said Patricia Gunn, a law professor at Ohio University, who supports Obama.

SUPPORT DROPS

In polls, Clinton had been splitting black support with Obama as recently as late last year.

But many took offense when Bill Clinton compared Obama's victory in the South Carolina primary in January to success there by Jesse Jackson, an African American who ran for president in 1984 and 1988, but attracted little support on the national stage. Some said Bill Clinton's comments were a bid to marginalize Obama as a candidate only of black America.

Clinton said last week she was sorry for the flap. "You know, I was sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive," she said.

Bill Clinton said "there is a total myth" that the Clinton campaign played the race card. "We had some played against us but we didn't play any," he told CNN.

In South Carolina, eight in 10 black voters supported Obama. That margin increased to more than nine in 10 in the primary last week in Mississippi.

Bill Clinton said he wasn't surprised by Obama's overwhelming support among blacks. "No, that was going to happen. Once African Americans understood that they had a candidate that had a serious chance of winning the nomination and of winning the presidency," he said.

Obama supporters, who hope his message of transcending racial divisions can have broad appeal, have emphasized that his wins have come not only in states like Mississippi with large black populations, but also in mostly white states like Iowa, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Idaho.

Obama faces a controversy of his own over racially charged and inflammatory rhetoric by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor at his church in Chicago. Comments such as Wright's contention that the United States believes in "white supremacy and black inferiority" put Obama on the defensive. He has attended Wright's church for 20 years.

Obama said he rejected the "incendiary" comments by Wright, who resigned from his role as spiritual adviser to the Obama campaign.

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Obama Attended Hate America Sermon

By: Ronald Kessler

Clarification: The Obama campaign has told members of the press that Senator Obama was not in church on the day cited, July 22, because he had a speech he gave in Miami at 1:30 PM. Our writer, Jim Davis, says he attended several services at Senator Obama's church during the month of July, including July 22. The church holds services three times every Sunday at 7:30 and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Central time. While both the early morning and evening service allowed Sen. Obama to attend the service and still give a speech in Miami, Mr. Davis stands by his story that during one of the services he attended during the month of July, Senator Obama was present and sat through the sermon given by Rev. Wright as described in the story. Mr. Davis said Secret Service were also present in the church during Senator Obama's attendance. Mr. Davis' story was first published on Newsmax on August 9, 2007. Shortly before publication, Mr. Davis contacted the press office of Sen. Obama several times for comment about the Senator's attendance and Rev. Wright's comments during his sermon. The Senator's office declined to comment.

Contrary to Senator Barack Obama’s claim that he never heard his pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. preach hatred of America, Obama was in the pews last July 22 when the minister blamed the “white arrogance” of America’s Caucasian majority for the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.

Senator Obama has sought to separate himself from his pastor’s incendiary remarks, issuing a statement Friday rejecting them as “inflammatory and appalling” but failing to renounce Wright himself for his venomous and paranoid denunciations of America.

In his press release, Obama claimed, “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity [United Church of Christ] or heard him utter in private conversation.”

Appearing on cable news shows this past weekend, Obama claimed when he saw recent videos that have Wright making such comments as “God damn America,” he was “shocked.” Obama implied that the reverend had not used such derogatory language in any of the church services Obama attended over the past two decades.

If Obama’s claims are true that he was completely unaware that Wright’s trademark preaching style at the Trinity United Church of Christ has targeted “white” America and Israel, he would have been one of the few people in Chicago to be so uninformed. Wright’s reputation for spewing hate is well known.

In fact, Obama was present in the South Side Chicago church on July 22 last year when Jim Davis, a freelance correspondent for Newsmax, attended services along with Obama. [See: ”Obama’s Church: Cauldron of Division.”]

In his sermon that day, Wright tore into America, referring to the “United States of White America” and lacing his sermon with expletives as Obama listened. Hearing Wright’s attacks on his own country, Obama had the opportunity to walk out, but Davis said the senator sat in his pew and nodded in agreement.

Addressing the Iraq war, Wright thundered, “Young African-American men” were “dying for nothing.” The “illegal war,” he shouted, was “based on Bush’s lies” and is being “fought for oil money.”

Obama’s most famous celebrity backer, Oprah Winfrey began attending Wright’s church in 1984. Last year, Newsmax magazine reported that Winfrey abruptly stopped attending years ago, and suggested that she did so to distance herself from Wright’s inflammatory rhetoric. She soon found herself a target of Wright, who excoriated her for having broken with “traditional faith.”

The Reverend Wright’s anti-white theology that Senator Obama expressed surprise over is evident on the church’s website. The site says the congregation subscribes to what it calls the Black Value System, which is described as a disavowal of “our racist competitive society” and the pursuit of “middle-classness.” That is defined as a way for American society to “snare” blacks rather than “killing them off directly” or “placing them in concentration camps,” just as the country structures “an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.”

“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01,” Wright wrote in the church-affiliated magazine Trumpet four years after the attacks. “White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”

The Relationship Unravels

Senator Obama now is attempting to minimize his long and close relationship with the controversial minister.

On Friday, John McCain’s campaign distributed a Wall Street Journal op-ed “Obama and the Minister” written under my byline based on my reporting for Newsmax going back to early January of this year.

The op-ed included details of a sermon Wright gave at Howard University blaming America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs, shamelessly supporting Israel, and creating a racist society that would never elect a black man as president. [See: “Obama’s Minister’s Hatred of America.”]

Obama’s campaign quickly responded to the Wall Street Journal op-ed, posting a statement on the Huffington Post. In his statement, Obama acknowledged that some of Wright’s statements have been “inflammatory and appalling.”

Saying he strongly condemns Wright’s comments, Obama continued, “I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.” [emphasis added]

Again, Obama moved to narrowly distance himself from specific comments Wright had made, while still praising his minister in recent interviews for leading him to Jesus and preaching a “social gospel.”

Obama went on to claim that he first learned about Wright’s controversial statements when he began his presidential campaign. But this assertion conflicts with the fact that just before Obama’s nationally televised campaign kickoff rally on Feb. 10, 2007, the candidate disinvited Wright from giving the public invocation.

At the time, Wright explained: “When [Obama’s] enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli” to visit Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, “a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.”

According to Wright, Obama then told him, “'You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.'” Still, Obama and his family prayed privately with Wright just before the presidential announcement.

Apparently Obama never foresaw Wright’s sermons making national television or becoming a sensation on YouTube. But lending graphic detail to the saga, ABC News and other networks began running a 2003 sermon in which Wright said, “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent people ... God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” [Click Here to see video]

Obama has described Wright as a sounding board and mentor. Wright is one of the first people Obama thanked after his election to the Senate in 2004. Obama consulted Wright before deciding to run for president. The title of Obama’s bestseller “The Audacity of Hope” comes from one of Wright’s sermons. Obama’s “Yes We Can!” slogan is one of Wright’s exhortations.

Apologists for Wright have said that what he says is normal in black churches, and many blacks claim such preaching cannot be understood by whites.

“If you’re black, it’s hard to say what you truly think and not upset white people,” the New York Times quoted James Cone as saying. Cone is a professor at Union Theological Seminary and the father of what is known as black liberation theology.

But Juan Williams, a Fox News commentator and author of “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America,” tells Newsmax that Wright’s sermons reflect “the victim mindset that is so self-defeating in the black community and one that is played on by weak black leadership that chooses to have black people identified as victims rather than inspiring them as people who have overcome. In posing as victims, they say the most prejudiced and vicious things, not only about whites but about America. They call it theology. In fact, it’s nothing but bigotry.”

In failing to condemn Wright himself and claiming that he was unaware of the preacher’s hate-filled speech, Obama is continuing a longstanding pattern.

Obama often refers to Wright as being "like an old uncle, who sometimes says things I don't agree with." Wright is not Obama’s “uncle” — a person born into a blood relationship — but a man he has cultivated for decades as a close friend, mentor and adviser.

After Newsmax broke the story on Jan. 14 that Wright’s church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan in December for lifetime achievement, Obama again sought to denounce his minister’s action without criticizing Wright himself.

Like Wright, Farrakhan has repeatedly made hate-filled statements targeting Jews (calling Judaism a “gutter religion”), whites, and America. He has called whites “blue-eyed devils” and the “anti-Christ.” He has described Jews as “bloodsuckers” who control the government, the media, and some black organizations.

After the Newsmax story, Obama issued a statement purportedly addressing the issue.

"I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan," Obama said.

Again, Obama was careful not to condemn Farrakhan himself or Wright who had spoken adoringly of Farrakhan and put their church behind the award to the controversial Nation of Islam leader.

“When Minister Farrakhan speaks, black America listens,” Trumpet quoted Wright as saying. “His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening. He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest.”

Obama adroitly said, “I assume that Trumpet magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree.”

In fact, Trumpet is published by Wright’s church using the church’s offices. Wright’s daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.

Having gotten away with sidestepping Wright’s adoring comments about Farrakhan, Obama told Jewish leaders flatly in Cleveland on Jan. 24 that the award was because of Farrakhan’s work with ex-offenders. To date, no news outlet has pointed out that Obama’s claim is false.

Obama went on to explain away Wright’s anti-Zionist statements as being rooted in his anger over the Jewish state’s support for South Africa under its previous policy of apartheid. As with his claim that the award to Farrakhan was made because of his work with ex-offenders, Obama made that up. Wright’s statements denouncing Israel have not been qualified in any way.

On Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes on Friday, Obama said he would have quit the church if he had “repeatedly” been present when Wright made inflammatory statements. He was not asked why he did not quit the church when it gave an award to Farrakhan.

Having considered Wright a friend and mentor for two decades, Obama now often mentions that his pastor recently retired. Wright suggested to the New York Times last year that he and Obama might have to do something of a distancing act in the run up to the election.

"If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me," Wright was quoted by The New York Times. "I said it to Barack personally, and he said, ‘Yeah, that might have to happen.'"

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