Garlic Noses?

Fox News, Newsmax and CNS News are all reporting that Obama's [former] pastor, mentor and "uncle" Rev. Jerimiah Wright has slurred Italians referring to them as "garlic noses."
Wright, who is now "pastor emeritus" of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago included the slur in a piece published in the most recent issue of his Trumpet Newsmagazine.
"(Jesus') enemies had their opinion about Him," Wright wrote in a eulogy of the late scholar Asa Hilliard in the November/December 2007 issue. "The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans." Wright continued, "From the circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth . . . up to and including the circumstances surrounding Jesus' death on a cross, a Roman cross, public lynching Italian style. . ."
"He (Jesus) refused to be defined by others and Dr. Asa Hilliard also refused to be defined by others. The government runs everything from the White House to the schoolhouse, from the Capitol to the Klan, white supremacy is clearly in charge, but Asa, like Jesus, refused to be defined by an oppressive government because Asa got his identity from an Omnipotent God."
Put Wright's aside the hateful anit-American rhetoric for the moment and focus on his ethnic slurs.
Over the course of many years I've heard my share of slurs and guttural language used against Italians and Italian-Americans. But this is surely a new low - and couched in religious terms, to boot.
Rev. Wright is a man who apparently harbors deep and lasting hatreds and resentments.
In failing to clearly and completely disown Rev. Wright, Obama has committed a grievous error.

Clinton On Wright

Hillary Clinton on Rev. Wright:
He would not have been my pastor. You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend. You know, I spoke out against Don Imus, saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that. I just think you have to speak out against that. You certainly have to do that, if not explicitly, then implicitly by getting up and moving.
Clinton made her comments during a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review interview. For a video clip of Clinton's comments on Wright click here.

Gerry: 'I Won't Forget'

Calling it "divisive for the party" Geraldine Ferraro today says Barack Obama "didn't have to bring me into" his remarks last week about Rev. Wright and race. Ferraro says she was "appalled" at the way Obama brought her (and his grandmother) into the speech and compared their comments to those of Rev. Wright.
Ferraro made her comments on the Laura Ingraham talkfest and expressed her gratitude to Laura for giving her the chance to tell her side of the story. Ferraro says she's upset at the way she's been treated by Obama and other some other Democrats and adds: "I won't forget this. I can't forget this."
BTW: Obama ends his Virgin Islands vacation today to return to campaigning. Obama says he observed Easter at an impromptu private ceremony with his wife and two children.
At last report Rev. Wright was hiding out at the Ritz Carlton in Puerto Rico.

The Speech

Quick observations on the Barack Obama speech today in Philadelphia:
1) The bulk of the speech was well crafted but (like most Obama oratorical efforts) it could have been much shorter. After Obama addressed the Wright controversy (the real reason for the speech) the remarks could have ended. Instead, Obama careened off into a rather typical campaign speech.
2) It occurs to me that it's hard to have it both ways. One can't say we must get beyond race and then, in effect, play the race card. On the significance of race the great actor Morgan Freeman has said "I don't downplay it. I just don't play it." And when asked how we might end racism, Freeman responded: “Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man, and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.” Today, Obama talked and talked and talked about it.
3) I think it was a mistake for Obama to allow himself to be introduced by former Pennsylvania Senator Harris Wofford. Not because I do or don't like Wofford but because I think that Obama should have just walked to the podium and made his statement. No introduction. No buildup. No cheeleading. Let the speech speak for itself.
4) It's standard for Obama to use a teleprompter (he seems ill at ease without one) but today he seemed to pay particular attention to the teleprompter screens on either side of him to the point where he rarely looked straight ahead to the camera, the TV audience. This detracted from the power of the remarks.
5) In the quest for the presidency, your own personal story will only take you so far. Once we know your story, we want to get beyond it and discover what your plans are, what your real philosophy is. We want not just your narrative but the essence of you and what it will mean to the future of our country if we choose you. The story and the philosophy must make sense together. Today, Obama went back to the story. And that's OK, I suppose. But this alone will only will only take him so far. We're still asking: "Is this all that defines you? Where's the rest of you? What do you really believe?"