Poll Barack's Issues with Reverend Wright Haven't Hurt Him As Much As Clinton's and McCain's Gas Tax Proposals Hurt Their Images.

A NY Times reports on a poll that found voters saying the broohaha over Senator Obama's former pastor, stimulated by opposition campaigns I believe, hasn't changed their opinion of the Illinois senator much, but  Hillary Clinton's and John McCain's proposals for a moratorium on the federal gas tax have "an overwhelming majority of voters" people thinking they are promoting it for their own political ends, not for working class families. 

Obama's denunciation of Wright's more egregious positions is seen as a political move as well according to the report.

That makes me wonder. 

 I think we all disagree sometimes with our pastors, as we should.

I'm sorry if your's has you convinced you need to treat him or her like a virtual pope, but that's really not the way God wants it to be.

I know I have had a lot of disagreements with pastors in churches I have attended.  Like Mr. Obama said: (paraphrased) "I go to church to worship God, not to worship the preacher." 

Why did Obama go to the church for so many years?   I read one report that notes that it was the place for a struggling activist to hook up with people who might have the means to help him help others. 

Isn't that a dirty no goodnik thing to do? 

An ambition for helping others, ought to be banned, right?

Why did Obama stay?

That's an interesting question.

And maybe we should also ask "did he really stay?"

Was it an important thing for him to change home churches in Chicago when he was away at college? Editing the Harvard Law Revue, or when he was a state legislator spending so much time in Springfield, Illinois? During most of his years in the Illinois legislature Senator Obama's home seems to have been in Kenwood, much closer to Springfield than Chicago according to this map I found through a yahoo search on "Kenwood, Illinois".  (Kenwood is marked with a red star centered with a white "A".  You can zoom in or out to see the relative positions of Chicago, Springfield, and Kenwood more clearly if desired.)

As a father of young children that was working so hard on a career that would allow him to help people, I imagine he was too busy to get to Wright's church much.  Ditto that in spades for the time he's  been in the US Senate.  I'm sure that most of the time the Obamas visited local churches. 

I'm glad that, so far people, are seeing through the political scheming over Wright, though I have no doubt that John McCain's camp will really Karl Rove the senator if they can in the fall.

tags: hillayr  clinton  barack  obama  john mccain  

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