Obama Attempts to Clarify "Typical White Person" and Which Offensive Comments He Heard at Church

I just have one thing to say about Obama and that is he has no religious conviction at all to go to a church where the pastor stands in the pulpit taking the Lord's name in vain. Our country is in trouble if we elect a racist like Barack Obama.

marianna, thanks for the feedback. sadly, i must admit that i was 18 when nixon first got elected. my reaction was the same - how can they vote for him? can't they see how much better the dems are? this can't be happening...., etc..... (in nixon's case, we know how it worked out, but that doesn't change the reality that we were fooling ourselves about how the country would agree with us).

obamaites have much to learn. sadly, we shall all pay for their education.

To so saddened: Excellent post. I was 18 when Reagan first got elected. My friends and I were shocked because we just couldn't fathom that anybody would vote for "that old man". And now the Obama youth are thinking the same thing about McCain. Boy are they in for a rude awakening.

I'm also ready to kiss off the Party over their latest elitist lefty savior. They just don't seem to get it no matter how many times they lose.

so saddened...I think he threw the kitchen sink under there with her.

gonzalo, what's really sad is that she ISN'T dead. he trashed his living grandmother on national tv.

the issue really is that obama is cut slack by the media at every turn he makes. so-and-so was a typical black person. let's see now, if hillary or geraldine ferraro said such a thing, good lord! they'd be crucified! if hillary's mentor and spiritual advisor of 20 years said 'god d*mn america' because the country is sexist, one gender speech wouldn't do anything. go ahead and nominate obama - he cannot win the swing states. he'll even lose a couple of blue states. then we won't have to listen to him or the rest of his glazed eyed minions anymore. welcome to the real world - it sucks sometimes, huh?

I have no doubt that if he was not in the congregation on the day Pastor Wright made those comments, then he would have at least heard of them from other congregants of the church.

Let's remember that his wife, children, and community also attend the same church - surely in 20 years, someone must have told him what kind of statements Pastor Wright was making?

How many times does Obama lecture to use using the phrase, "I want to be very clear." It makes me want to vomit everytime I hear it. Anyone else as tired of hearing that phrase?

The problem with his statement was that he said if a white person was walking down the street they would automatically be defensive. That's bull and he knew it immediately becaused he paused knowing he misspoke. Today, he's crafted a clever story to cover his blunder. He didn't say in a bad neighborhood or at night. Honestly, I'd be afraid of any person passing me at night. I say to Obama, whatever, man.

Obama is toast in the general. I think just about everybody except the Obama worshipers and MSM have already figured that out.

It's not just the Wright problem, it's also Rezko; the Florida and Michigan primaries problem; his lack of experience and substance; his arrogance, etc. And this is only March, there's going to be plenty more dirt come out on him before November.

"mel" - you are either a liar or miseducated. Obama has never called Bill or Hillary a racist. I DARE you to prove otherwise.

A'm I confused, Or a'm I the only one watching the WRIGHT CRAP.. This has to prove how angry OBOMA really is, It's sad to say but its true, cause no matter how good he did , he was still black. why else would a father expose his young daughters to this extreme prodigies against a race which they are at least 25%.. Seems to me this would harder to deal with. Please let me now if I'm wrong or just confused.

What do I think? I think that if the majority of the comments in this post reflect the broader feelings of the electorate, than those people will get exactly the candidate they want.

I want to preface the rest of my comments by saying, I don't think Obama is the perfect candidate. I disagree with some of his positions on certain issues. I think he should have exercised better judgment with the Rezcko land deal, and, because most people in this country can't seem to separate politics from spirituality, he shouldn't have put Rev. Wright on one of his committees, even if it was just an advisory role. Perception is everything in this country.

With that said, despite his imperfections, I still think he will be a great President. He doesn't have the experience that McCain (not Hillary--sorry, no executive experience by osmosis for me), has, but I think that experience, does not automatically translate into good judgment; and the last seven years have been a perfect example of that. And personally, I don't think any of the candidates have their hands clean when it comes to previous political/financial relationships and spiritual advisers. And I know we should be raising the bar, but if we honestly think we are going to find someone who hasn't made mistakes in their lifetime, than we are all deluded, because such a person doesn't exist. Except Jesus, and I doubt he will every run for the presidency.

However, in general, I feel that Obama is a man of integrity, and does want people to unite in this country so that we can move forward. As far as this whole race flap? I too, went back and did my own research with regards to Rev. Wright's statement, and even though I still don't agree with his conspiracy about AIDS and the government (though I understand the historical perspective with the Tuskegee experiment), or his divisive statements about race, I fail to see why this is such a big deal? Correction, now I understand exactly why this is a big deal. We are getting this story from the same news media that failed to conduct any meaningful inquiry into the legitimacy of war in Iraq. Why should I be surprised? If back then, people had the courage and foresight, to actually investigate, challenge, dissent, and report on meaningful stories, maybe things would be different five years later. But here we are again. With this race issue, some are trying to have an honest discussion about it, while others can't resist a scandal or a soundbite and instead want to get people all riled up.

Personally, I think it is sad that Obama has to clarify anything. Not because I think he is trying to cover anything up, but because his comments were pretty obvious the first time he made them. He specifically said that his grandma was not a racist or harbored racial resentment but was influenced by the cultural and generational norms of her time, and for that she was a typical white person (I agree with this statement, and I feel comfortable with calling myself the typical black person from my cultural experiences and generation). From there, people picked up on "typical white person", and completely ignored the rest of the statement. Now, we have people on this blog saying he threw his grandma under the bus, and he himself is a racist. Again, I would say that I am shocked that his comments were so easily distorted and misunderstood, but that would be a lie. As soon as he said it, I knew which part of his comments the media and others were going to leap on, and predictably they did. Obama has tried to talk honestly about a lot of things that have been said and unsaid about race in this country and for that, not only is he now the "race candidate," but a racist himself. Nevermind that it defies logic, since he is both Black and white, or reason, since he too acknowledged harboring his own stereotypes and worked to move past them. It seems like a lot of people aren't interested in those concepts, and for that reason, I no longer look forward to this election this November.

I think Obama, being mixed, just doesn't think of race as a big problem of course. That's why he usually doesn't talk about it & why should he. He's both black & white. And that's really what's needed in an environment where the media is always trying to make mountains out of mole hills & tap racial divisions for dollars.
I don't think Obama is a racist. I think he just made a stupid statement out of ignorance because he probably just hasn't really given the subject as much consideration as all of the other "pure" blacks & whites have been forced to by the media in this country.
I considered him the best candidate this country has seen in decades before he made that statement, and it hurt him I think, but I'll still swing-vote for him over McCain. I just wish that if someone who is white makes a stupid statement like that it change everyone's minds about them either, but that's not Obama's fault.

"Can you imagine if Hillary Clinton said someone was a "typical black person?" "

If Hillary's mother were black, I bet I would say "She's half-black so shut up"

I bet that's what I would say. Just like I point out that Obama is half-white.

Newsflash: Obama's mom and grandma are white. What does that mean? He is just as white as he is black.

Obama is HALF-WHITE!!!

End of story.

Given that Obama has been able to call Jeremiah Wright a “good friend” even as he ignored publicly expressed views that are “completely unacceptable and inexcusable”, I truly believe that he is the only candidate that can befriend Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well. Given his desire for dialog with Iran, we can only hope that he will do a better job influencing the religious leaders of Iran than he did influencing the religious leaders of his own presidential campaign.

So now he's clarifying what was to be a clarification of a comment he made in a speech? What a bunch of BS! I won't stand for him claiming he didn't know this or that for ONE MORE MINUTE! He has to have known the ideology of good old "Uncle Pastor" all these twenty years. Remember, he wasn't just the pastor - Obama claims he was like an UNCLE to him!

I find it interesting that so many people are outraged that Obama discussed his WHITE grandmother recently. If she had been BLACK (or other NON-WHITE) would they have been so outraged? I think not. I think what is clearly happening is that white people identify with the white grandmother, and feel defensive about any suggestion about their own biases.

Bias is a part of the human experience. It's not limited to race, but it includes race. It doesn't have to be outright prejudicial, but we can't eliminate bias and prejudice by stubbornly claiming that we "don't see color" and never thinking about it. The only way to eliminate prejudice is to periodically reflect on one's thoughts and actions and ask how one can be fairer and more just in one's actions on a daily basis.

I find it so interesting that Obama is so willing to speak of his dead grandmother(who helped raise him) in such a negative light. I mean he did compare her basically to Wright during his race speech. Do you really want to vote for a candidate who would rather speak ill of the dead to do so of his pastor? Is this the courageous Obama we all speak of.

Sorry, I watched the videos and I listened to the Obama interviews. All smoke, mirror and lies!!