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Was Obama In Wright’s Christmas Audience?

As we have previously noted, Mr. Obama is now claiming that he has never heard his pastor for twenty years say anything untoward:

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 or heard him utter in private conversation.

Indeed, Mr. Obama has specifically denied attending Mr. Wright’s fiery Christmas 2007 “sermon”:

But, at least according to the New York Daily News, Mr. Obama was home in Chicago for the holidays:

I’m no Muslim, says Barack Obama

By Michael Saul

Sunday, December 23rd 2007

PLEASANTVILLE, Iowa - A day before he will fly back to Chicago to spend Christmas with his family, a voter asked Barack Obama to explain his “Muslim background” - an Internet-fed fallacy that continues to dog his campaign…

And the Associated Press says so as well:

For candidates, relative peace marks holiday

Published: Wednesday, December 26, 2007

MANCHESTER (AP) – Christmas Day offered a brief break from the campaign trail for presidential hopefuls, but their ads didn’t stay off New Hampshire televisions.

With less than two weeks to go before New Hampshire voters cast ballots in their first-in-the-nation presidential primary, campaign staffs stayed close to the offices, and the candidates stayed on the air.

“Historically, they’ve not really campaigned on Christmas Day, but this is completely different,” said Andrew Smith, a University of New Hampshire political scientist.

With Iowa and New Hampshire contests coming so soon after the holidays, taking a break wasn’t an option.

“They’ll be doing some sort of campaigning. It may just be making sure the press sees them going to church services,” Smith said…

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., will celebrate the holiday with his wife and daughters in Chicago.

“We’ve got family coming in to spend the holiday with us, and we’re looking forward to taking a little break to celebrate before the final sprint.” …

So are we to believe he did not take his family to his church for Christmas?

Moreover, Mr. Obama may have also been in attendance during Mr. Wright’s January 13, 2008 rant sermon.

For Mr. Wright appears to have acknowledged his presence, according to Fox News:


Obama’s Spiritual Mentor May Put Church in Hot Water

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

By Jeff Goldblatt

… “There is a man here who can take this country in a new direction,” Wright said during his Jan. 13 sermon, according to recordings obtained by FOX News…

This is the same “sermon” in which the Reverend Wright also intoned:

Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain’t! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty.

Of course Mr. Wright may have just been speaking generally about Mr. Obama. But it’s difficult to find the video to verify the context.

(By the way, the young man who “pats” Mr. Wright on the back in the clip is Trinity’s new, more moderate, replacement pastor, Otis Moss, III.)

And what little media coverage it received, even downplayed Mr. Wright’s rhetoric. In fact, the only quote about Ms. Lewinsky was:

Some argue that blacks should vote for Clinton “because her husband was good to us,” he continued.

“That’s not true,” he thundered. “He did the same thing to us that he did to Monica Lewinsky.”

Many in the crowd were on their feet, applauding - amazed, amused and moved by the fiery rhetoric of their preacher, who is about to retire.

A longer clip from this sermon has since been removed from YouTube “due to terms of use violation.” (They have such high standards, you know.)

Mr. Obama was photographed with Mr. Wright around this time:


The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright (left), pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune / January 17, 2008)

Though it is unclear where exactly this photograph was taken, or even when. Since Mr. Obama was campaigning in Nevada on January 17, 2008.

Of course it is still highly possible that Mr. Obama was absent on either or both of these two occasions.

Indeed, it is hard to believe that the media would not have tagged along to church with the candidate. And if they had been there, it would have been very hard for even his most besotted fans to ignore such a performance.

But then again, maybe not.

Maybe the reporters wouldn’t have even noticed what Rev. Wright was saying since hey probably agree with him — except for perhaps his cracks about Bill Clinton.

(Thanks to Bohemianwaxwing for the heads up.)

 Update!

Reader (and well known internet researcher) Wallaby has pointed out that Mr. Obama was in Las Vegas on Sunday, January 13, 2008, as evidenced by the following from the January 14, 2008 edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Obama rallies union members

Molly Ball, Las Vegas Review-Journal

January 14, 2008

Obama had a full Sunday in Southern Nevada, first making a surprise appearance at a downtown black church, where he spoke at the end of the service.

Before he arrived, the pastor of the Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ, speaking from the pulpit, advocated for Obama, possibly breaking the law. Pastor Leon Smith told the congregation that “the more he (Obama) speaks, the more he wins my confidence, and … if the polls were open today, I would cast my vote for this senator.”

He urged them to do the same, saying, “If you can’t support your own, you’re never going to get anywhere. … I want to see this man in office.”

Under federal tax law, nonprofits such as churches are prohibited from endorsing or opposing political candidates. The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that the forbidden partisan activity includes speech from the pulpit that indicates the church favors a particular candidate.

The campaign said the pastor simply had made supportive statements about Obama’s record. The church could not be reached late Sunday.

As Obama took the stage, the church choir of mostly red-jacketed women swayed behind him, breaking into song at the word “change,” the Obama campaign’s byword.

Obama spoke to the congregation of more than 400 for more than 20 minutes. He told them about his home congregation in Chicago and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who is somewhat controversial for his black-separatist views…

So apparently Mr. Wright was just using a figure of speech in his January 13th sermon.

Still, Christmas Day is unaccounted for. Even on Slate’s handy “Map The Candidates” site.

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 at 10:46 am. You can leave a response.

24 Responses to “Was Obama In Wright’s Christmas Audience?”

  1. bill
    March 15th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Obama’s song, “Jive Talking” by the BeeGees.

  2. JohnMG
    March 15th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

    Hey, Bill.
    How about “Jeremiah Was A Bull(shit artist)frog” by Three Dog Night?

  3. Media_man
    March 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    It seems to me that Obama is now toast. If he somehow gets the nomination, he’ll get slaughtered in the general election. McCain will win Pennsylvania by 20 points, which might help alot of GOP candidates in Congressional elections, that otherwise might have gone to the Dems.

    I had been rooting for Hillary as the weaker of the 2 candidates to win the primaries but now I am definitely cheering for Obama.

    The GOP can simply run ads of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright & Michelle Obama talking about what an awful & racist country the USA is. Hello President McCain.

  4. B17Engr
    March 15th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

    Obama will make a change,Yeah , Sure! HA! HA! HA!
    There would be a change! It will NOT be better for Americans!

    This guy has no love for this country!!!!!!!!!!!
    How the heck did he ever become a Senator?

    Well, I really shouldn’t wonder, we got Kerry and Kennedy here. HA! HA! HA!

    I cannot understand why Obama and his wife have so much hate for the USA it really scares me!
    He should be running under the Taliban or El Quada party ticket.

  5. Noyzmakr
    March 15th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    He knew and I can prove it. Watch this 12 second clip and tell me who you see at the end of it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enMWfQl_Qeg

    TIP: Pause the player when Pastor Wright says the word “Dirty”….10 seconds in.
    This clip is from a short snippet of a longer video of a “sermon” about Bill and Hillary.

    Now we know Barak Obama was and is being”mentored” by a radical racist but he’s also an “Outright Liar”.

  6. SG
    March 15th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    Thanks for that YouTube link, Noyz.

    But to be fair, I suspect Mr. Obama shows up a the end because that was the way Fox News edited the clip. That is to say, they were then going to go on to talk about Obama.

    A tip off is that Mr. Obama has a couple of white people around him. Something that wouldn’t be as likely at Trinity Church.

    I’m not sure it shows him at the church at the time. But I could be wrong. I’d love to see an extended clip to be sure.

  7. sheehanjihad
    March 15th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

    Wait until Drudge gets this! It will be a scoop for him. Again.

    (this was posted for all to read so when it does happen, SG gets the real credit…with noyz getting a high five).

  8. SG
    March 15th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    Well, I doubt that MD picks this up, SJ. And, truth to tell, I still have doubts about whether Mr. Obama was there on either of these two occasions.

    Primarily because I would think the media would have gone to church with him. And if they had been there, and knowing he was there, it would have been very hard to ignore the story.

    But maybe not. Maybe they wouldn’t have even noticed what Rev. Wright was saying.

    And you would think he would attend church on Christmas Day, being such a strong Christian and all.

  9. Noyzmakr
    March 15th, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    You know SG…the more I look at the end of this clip I believe you are correct. He appears to be shaking hands and all of the people, except for Obama, in the foreground and background appear to be whites.
    That certainly wouldn’t be the case in HIS church. This must have been a FoxNews edit. My bad.

    “Sorry folks”; he said as he slinked away.

  10. SG
    March 15th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

    Don’t be sorry, Noyz. It’s always better to explore every possibility.

    Especially when our media refuses to.

  11. Noyzmakr
    March 15th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    I could always claim ignorance. I did go to government run public school!

  12. Wallaby
    March 15th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

    Obama was in Las Vegas on Sunday, January 13, 2008. In fact, he spoke at a church. Here’s a clip from the Las Vegas Review-Journal the following day (”Obama rallies union members, Molly Ball, Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 14, 2008):

    Obama had a full Sunday in Southern Nevada, first making a surprise appearance at a downtown black church, where he spoke at the end of the service.

    Before he arrived, the pastor of the Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ, speaking from the pulpit, advocated for Obama, possibly breaking the law. Pastor Leon Smith told the congregation that “the more he (Obama) speaks, the more he wins my confidence, and … if the polls were open today, I would cast my vote for this senator.”

    He urged them to do the same, saying, “If you can’t support your own, you’re never going to get anywhere. … I want to see this man in office.”

    Under federal tax law, nonprofits such as churches are prohibited from endorsing or opposing political candidates. The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that the forbidden partisan activity includes speech from the pulpit that indicates the church favors a particular candidate.

    The campaign said the pastor simply had made supportive statements about Obama’s record. The church could not be reached late Sunday.

    As Obama took the stage, the church choir of mostly red-jacketed women swayed behind him, breaking into song at the word “change,” the Obama campaign’s byword.

    Obama spoke to the congregation of more than 400 for more than 20 minutes. He told them about his home congregation in Chicago and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who is somewhat controversial for his black-separatist views.

    Obama gave his speech about unity and change and ending business as usual in Washington, drawing lots of applause.

    “It’s not surprising that people are frustrated,” he said. “If you work, you shouldn’t be poor in America.”

    At one point, a gray-haired woman in a purple lace dress stood up in the third row, her hands raised, palms forward. Then she clasped her hands to her chest and nodded with obvious emotion.

    Speaking to reporters outside the church Sunday, Obama was asked about Clinton’s criticism of his Iraq war record. She has said his much-touted opposition to the war in Iraq, dating to before the war began, should be questioned because in 2004 he said he was unsure how he would have voted on the war authorization and, when he took office in 2005, voted to continue funding for the war.

    Clinton voted to authorize the war in 2002, when Obama was an Illinois state senator running for U.S. Senate, and voted for war funding until recently.

    Asked about her criticisms, Obama said, “Senator Clinton started off trying to make history, and now she’s trying to rewrite it. She’s trying to rewrite it about my record and hers.”

    He said the 2004 statement was in answer to a question about the then-Democratic nominees, John Kerry and John Edwards, who voted for the war, and “I was trying not to throw the Democratic nominee and vice presidential nominee under the bus.”

    He voted for war funding in the Senate, he said, because “once we had our troops two years into a war, it was important that we try to do the best possible job on it.”

    Obama also defended his lobbying-reform bill, which Clinton has called ineffective. Clinton, he said, “hasn’t taken the issue of lobbying very seriously. These are the people who fund her campaigns.”

    After his speech in the church, one parishioner, Jamesella Kountz Proctor, said she was still undecided between Obama and Clinton. Obama was “interesting,” she said, but hadn’t allayed her concerns about “whether or not he can really deliver” on his promises.

    Proctor, 54, said she was from Arkansas and had come to admire Clinton for “what she stands for, and she has done things that we can really document. I would rather have someone that’s seasoned.”

    Another congregation member, 53-year-old Saundral Preston, called Obama “awesome” and said she definitely would be caucusing for him on Saturday. Preston, a schoolteacher originally from Chicago, said Obama’s visit to the church “let the people know that we’re not forgotten. Nobody’s a little person to him .”

  13. wardmama4
    March 15th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

    To those who started this with songs (perhaps He Who Cannot Be Named should consider picking) over at Michelle Malkin’s site - someone sent her an email on this story came up with the old REM song - Losing My Religion:

    That’s me in the spotlight
    Losing my religion

    Oh no I’ve said too much
    I havent said enough

    Of every waking hour I’m
    Choosing my confessions

    The hint of the century

    The slip that brought me
    To my knees failed

    Seems extremely appropriate considering the coverage that is being given to this particular point of the story (Did he or did he not hear these ’sermons’) . . .

    He Who Cannot Be Named just found out what it really means to be a political contender in America - cover your a** or it will be handed to you.

  14. Noyzmakr
    March 15th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

    The whole idea of him hearing the sermons or not is really moot and I’ll tell you why.
    Ask yourself this. How do you choose a church? I asked my 78 year old, devout christian mother, who rarely misses a service, this question. Mind you, she’s a life long democrat only because she grew up loving FDR, but voted for Regan and Bush. Her answer..”You pick a church by chosing a message you tend to agree with and believe and the congregation are those who hold the same standards, priciples and beliefs you do”.
    You may try for years to find the right church for yourself. Some people even give up and watch at home. Like me. You might get married or maybe even have your children babtized in a church if you don’t agree with it’s message and teachings. But you don’t go to that church for TWENTY YEARS!!! You don’t call that pastor your “moral compass”, “spiritual advisor” or “mentor”!! You don’t donate thousands of dollars to a cause you don’t believe in.
    This Pastor didn’t just start saying this trash. It’s what attracted Obama and his wife to begin with. No wonder Obama’s wife, who graduated from Princeton University and held a $300,000.00 a year job and is married to a US Senator millionaire, isn’t proud of America and thinks we’re “mean”. And…he’s allowing his children to hear this racist message.
    This proves his judgement is very flawed and he doesn’t come close to the stadards of being a major party nominee, much less president.
    One other note. My wise mother also stated that when she did miss a sermon others in the congregation would call her to tell her what the message was and who attended.
    Conclusion….he’s lying through his pearly whites and the press and his followers will give him a pass. No wonder he doesn’t say anything in his speeches. Like most liberals, if he said what he really thought, he would have never been elected to the position he holds now.

  15. kid twist
    March 15th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    Here’s Obama taking part in an ad for the Trinity Church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bMjyAJ0qIM

    It’s a little fuzzy, but he makes his appearance at ~ 1:46.

  16. Noyzmakr
    March 16th, 2008 at 7:59 am

    Good catch kid twist.
    This proves my point. You don’t allow yourself to be a part of a commercial for a cause you don’t believe in. He’s a typical radical liberal that the press is propping up because they know that Hillary will lose. Her negatives are too high and even liberals don’t want 4 more years of the Clintons.
    Thank God for S&L and the rest of the New Media. Nobody would have ever heard anything close to the truth about the man who’s name cannot be spoken.

  17. Noyzmakr
    March 16th, 2008 at 8:38 am

    From Cybercast News Service:

    Obama: Sermon on Mount Justifies Same-Sex Unions

    “In terms of my faith, there has been so much confusion that has been deliberately perpetrated through emails and so forth, so here are the simple facts,” he said. “I am a Christian. I am a devout Christian. I have been a member of the same church for 20 years, pray to Jesus every night, and try to go to church as much as I can when they are not working me. Used to go quite often.

    “These days, we haven’t been at the home church–I haven’t been home on Sunday–for several months now. So, my faith is important to me. It is not something that I try to push on other people. But it is something that helps to guide my life and my values.”

    http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPol.....0303b.html

    These are the last two paragraphs of the story. It appears that he’s saying that when he is home on Sundays, he goes to church. It should be easy to check when certain sermons were given and when Obama was home.

  18. SG
    March 16th, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Thanks, Wallaby!

    So Mr. Wright was just using a figure of speech on January 13, 2007.

  19. clifcrds
    March 17th, 2008 at 3:47 pm

    NewsMax’s Jim Davis filled a report back in August 2007 stating he personally was at one of Wright’s Sunday hate filled sermons one month earlier and that Obama was in attendance:
    http://newsmax.com/kessler/Oba.....80870.html
    and
    http://archive.newsmax.com/arc.....4812.shtml

    The plot thickens . . .

  20. SG
    March 17th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    As you probably have heard, Clifcrds, the Obama camp is denying that Mr. Obama was there. They point out that he was at a La Raza confab (which we posted about) on that date.

    Though Slate’s “Map The Candidates” does claim he was also in Chicago that day — but without any documentation.

  21. clifcrds
    March 17th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    Yes SG I have read the denials. BUT its hard to imagine why Davis would write something like this purely for “something to do”. Just makes me wonder? ? ? ?

  22. Petra
    March 17th, 2008 at 11:47 pm

    They’re pretty desperate when they use La Raza as an alibi. Laura Ingram is using the NewsMax story by Kessler on her show tonight. The reporter said Obama was nodding his head when his nastiness was preaching about the United States of White America.

    I’m sure it’ll suddenly appear a few days before Philly just like the lost files that magically turned up on a coffee table for Hillary a few years ago.

  23. Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
    March 18th, 2008 at 5:39 am

    “He should be running under the Taliban or El Quada party ticket.”

    Hey B17Engr,

    Isn’t that what the Democratic Party is?

    O/T: My dad was a B17 navigator in WWII over in England. (Nuthampstead) What was your affiliation with the Flying Fortress if you don’t mind me asking?

  24. bohemianwaxwing
    March 19th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

    I’m only a frequent lurker on SnL, but I’d like to share some of my research related to whether Obama knew of the contents of Wright’s Christmas sermon.

    We know that Obama was in Chicago with his family on Christmas and that his aides deny he attended Trinity on Christmas.

    I believe that that’s probably true. Only 2 days before Christmas, the Trinity choir director was murdered in his apartment, and by the holiday, the case was still unsolved.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318267,00.html

    So, it’s quite conceivable that the Obama family and guests became “Secret Service shut-ins” over the holidays.

    However, that doesn’t mean that the Obamas were left without a spiritual message on that day, since Trinity has Live Webcams of their services (And “Video on Demand” if one happens to miss the live stream).

    http://www.tucc.org/home.htm

    During last Friday’s interviews, Obama had a nice turn of phrase about the controversial segments of Wright’s messages that were given play by the press:

    “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 or heard him utter in private conversation,” the posting said, adding that over the years, “Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23634881/

    It’s interesting that he kept repeating the same words throughout all the Friday interviews; that is, “only when I was in the pews” or “when I was in private conversation.”

    My gut tells me that Obama was giving us a Billie Jeff “truth” here (”blow-jobs are not sex”).


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