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Secret Rev. Wright Meeting
Obama’s aides feared the worst from Wright’s return, and knew there would be only a week to recover from whatever damage he wrought before voting started in the next round of primaries.
That was when candidate Obama stepped in, as I recount in Renegade:
It was time to talk directly to Wright. Over the next week, Obama’s friends at Trinity tried to talk their pastor out of his comeback tour. But by now the church was deeply divided between Obama supporters and Wright supporters, and the conversation was going nowhere. So the candidate decided to go see Wright himself in secret, in Chicago. First came the dance over where to meet: one intermediary suggested a neutral location, but Obama said he was happy to go wherever Wright wanted. They ended up talking at Wright’s home, and Obama tried to adopt the tone of a concerned friend giving advice. He did not want to tell his former pastor what to do, but he did want to nudge him in the right direction by making him aware of what was about to happen. Wright wasn’t heading for vindication; he was heading for vilification.
“Look, you’re a pastor, you have your own role to play,” Obama said. “But I can tell you how politics in the cable and blog age works. Here’s what you need to anticipate: that it’s going to be a media circus. But obviously, you need to do what you need to do.”
Wright felt embattled and wanted to tell his side of the story to the rest of the world. He thanked Obama for his opinion, but looked and sounded like the aggrieved party.
After Wright’s disastrous appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, and Obama’s swift decision to sever all ties with his former pastor, the campaign’s polling numbers showed a steep decline in Indiana.
On the night before Indiana’s primary, Obama’s senior aides were convinced they were headed for outright defeat. “How could someone I knew, someone I trusted, do this to me?” Obama said.
Obama and his aides were proved wrong. They won North Carolina by fifteen points, lost Indiana by just one point, and beat Reverend Wright once and for all.
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Richard Wolffe is an award-winning journalist, political analyst for MSNBC, and senior strategist at Public Strategies. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book, Renegade: The Making of a President, will be published by Crown in June.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
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Richard Wolffe is Daily Beast columnist and an award-winning journalist. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book, Renegade: The Making of a President, was published by Crown in June.
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Richard Wolffe is Daily Beast columnist and an award-winning journalist. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book, Renegade: The Making of a President, was published by Crown in June.
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Richard Wolffe is Daily Beast columnist and an award-winning journalist. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book, Renegade: The Making of a President, was published by Crown in June.
Plantagenet
Rev. Wright wasn't an "adversary" of Obama. Rev. Wright was Obama's mentor, friend and pastor, who Obama kicked to the curb when Rev. Wright's controversial views became public.
BasPos
You obviously failed the reading portion of the SAT. As Rev. Wright said, "Obama is a politician." All Obama has done is to deal fairly with a man whose obvious pain over the racial divide in this country was an insurmountable barrier. I doubt he could have done it better or more gently.
whipmawhopma
"All Obama has done is to deal fairly with a man whose obvious pain over the racial divide in this country was an insurmountable barrier."
Well said.
sadie101
well i got a perfect score on that section, so guess what:
Obama did exactly what Obama does best, say one thing and do another; in this case he used Wright to get his start, then lied about hearing Wright's sexism and racism, and then shed fake tears over having to dump Wright after Obama kept losing states after the Wright Story broke and after he trumped out a nice speech on racism, that only the Press bought.
Finally, seeing that Wright MUST be dumped, even after saying "I could not more, bhah blah, blah.." Obama kicked Wright to the curb.
BasPos, you got one part right Obama is a pol, but he also a sneak who talks purdy.
Spasticula
My theory: As a very fair-skinned black man, Rev. Wright felt he had to be even more vociferous than black activists to get traction. That was the deal he made with the devil. He's sleeping in the bed he made.
I've never seen an ounce of joy in this man either before Obama dumped him OR after.
vjillh
i've always regretted that our racist culture caused this rift between those two men. i would love to see a more honest discussion of the contributions made by the Rev. Wright to his congregation and community. i was working in a mixed race inner city church at the time, and the pastor would not even consider a discussion of the legacy of the Rev.
very sad that we are so shallow...
Plantagenet
The simple fact is that Obama broke with Rev. Wright after 20 years of friendship when Rev. Wright's nutty views became a problem for his campaign. Obama's pretense that he didn't "hear" Rev. Wright's nutty speeches even though he attended his church for 20 years is an obvious lie.
Jen821
@ sadie:
you can't really think obama is sexist at all or would support any sexist views, as he actually cares about women's rights.
and i highly doubt that obama was ever a religious man. seems more like an agnostic or a theist to me.
xbainx
No Reverend Wright is a douche who nearly cost his friend the presidency. All the former black leaders, who couldn't win a single state in any election were jealous. Malcom X warned about those house negroes. They want the system to stay the same so they can eat better.
numonk
What?
The man spoke his mind. If his opinion is abject to those of others, should he be silenced? The comments made by Jeremiah, in the light of factual history of the American experiment, seem more lucid in the contextual soundbites utilized during the campaign than anything that Barrack has said; the difference being positive versus negative context.
How does a house nigger eat better? Than who, the slaves? Certainly not the proprietor, or many of the white folk who were not land-owners or slave-owners during the time period of American slave trade. Certainly not better than my college-aged colleagues who snack Ramen three or four times a day so they can afford to live under a roof.
Although the use of Jeremiah by the ridiculous system of religion, tax protected, is prostitution, it is no different than the religious prostitution this country has exacted since the days when the founding fathers were silenced by those who saw the danger in an educated and unfearful electorate, (which can be extrapolated to many of the slave and land owning whites that have given so much paranoia to the "free" black folk today, such as those in the depths of Baltimore, Philadelphia, NYC, ect. ; or those who may impregnate the white folks' daughters).
What system? Now we are fucked based not on race or gender so much as familial status. We are in the unraveling of a second Gilded Age. You can talk positive about the future as much as you wish, but those who do not learn from the past fuck over all of those who actually did learn from the past, and history does not repeat but it sure as fuck does rhyme.
SC0TTBL4M
Rev. Wright wasn't the victim in this and Obama wasn't the betrayer. Rev. Wright came out with his controversial sermon when Obama was on the campaign trail.
You never watched any actual news about this did you...
logicwhore
I still cannot believe that with all the real live actual tangible present day current right now issues we face this is the dribble we are choosing to waste brain cells on - In china during the first revolution in 1912 kids ages 9 to 16 would go from village to village and if people were talking, singing, painting, writing about anything other than revolution, the kids would behead them. Now I definitely will never advocate assassinations but the larger view of the seriousness and the scope of whats actually taking place in America and the world warrants a more serious approach by Americans...not her politicians but from her citizens indeed.
Potomac-Will
In light of the recent killing of Dr. Tiller, I found chilling your reference to beheadings delt to people who didn't stay on message, so to speak, during China's 1912 revolution.
Even more chilling was this statement: "Now, I will never advocate assassinations, but ..." In a construction like that, nothing after the coordinating conjunction ever is very convincing.
Str8UpNoChaser
Plantagenet,
I don't think that you're an ignorant person, I simply believe that you haven't stopped to think rationally about the Rev. Wright issue. Pause for a moment please. Let's take it slow.
The Obama's attended the church for 20 years. Let's say there are 52 Sundays in a year. We won't even count other sermons. But if we simply stick to Sundays, that gives us over 1000 sermons to consider. Now (still with me?) if Reverend Wright consistently preached hatred, bigotry, and other controversial views from the pulpit, then tell me why we've only seen 15 second snippits from a couple of sermons?
20 years Plantagenet. 1000 sermons. Two 15 second snippits. Does that add up to you? If there was more to see and hear, the media would've been all over it. They practically staked out Trinity for the duration of the campaign, but still came up with nothing other than "chickens coming home to roost" (which was actually Rev. Wright quoting someone else) and "G-Damn America". Surely there has to be more material if your assertions are correct. I look forward to your response.
scough
Wow! If this is an example of the explosive content, this book must be a real page-turner.
Banjo1
You're right, this is pretty thin gruel.
roger37
The Reverend Wright was not a mentor of BHO. The Reverend Wright is a total egomaniac who got involved in this to advance his own agenda and personal agenda.
His ludicrous antics in front of an audience could have cost the United States their first African-American president, but I really don't think that Wright gave a damn.
numonk
Half black is not black.
I have 1/32 African descent in myself, am I qualified to be a black president.
scough
The Kool-Aid drinkers are all desperate to use "BHO" to refer to Obama. Like JFK, FDR, LBJ, and on and on. Let it go....
roger37
Up yours.
neverlate
Anytime a reporter doesn't genuflect to Obama it is considered news.
Ozone69
Obama sat in that Church for 20 years and never heard Wright's inflammatory rhetoric before? Please.
vjillh
i don't think the Rev. was treated fairly by our press - and i wish we could have a more honest dialog about all the good that man did for his community.
scough
I don't care, but I don't think Obama has/does go to church on a regular basis. All that stuff is put out there for public consumption. He probably went to Wright's church three or four times in 20 yeaRs. Again, not any of my business.
Mary50
I think it's funny that Obama was so wounded by the Clinton campaign's drug/Muslim remarks, which she went out of her way to apologize for. Did Obama apologize to Clinton for his campaign race-baiting her, and when she took the bait, they smeared her as a racist? A charge that has permanently ruined her reputation? Did Obama apologize for his supporters wearing t-shirts saying "bros before hos", or "I wish Hillary Clinton had married O.J. instead?" For his supporters' rape fantasies? It continues to amaze me the way Obama is portrayed as the victim in the Obama/Clinton primary campaign. What a joke.
mikefromArlington
Obama is responsible for the action of every one of his supporters? Gotcha.
commonsense25
You are likely one of the people who blamed and continue to blame John McCain and Sarah Palin for what some of their extremist supporters chanted while never mentioning the t-shirts that extremist Obama supporters wore at his rallies that called Palin a "c**t". You can't have it both ways. Extremists are dangerous on both sides.
bobvious
"A charge that has permanently ruined her reputation?"
Huh? Yes, she's had a hard time functioning as Secretary of State because she was, as you put it, "smeared as a racist."
Clinton was never smeared as a racist. Her codified campaign speak, just like Obama's, has been filed away. Move on.
indieinva
Jeez, Mary. Are you really still bitter about the Primary? You may benefit from the advise I give my young children when they can't/don't have the maturity to let something go; Visualize putting it all in an imaginary bubble and blowing it away up in the sky..... OK, all better now!
Clinton's reputation today seems very positive and intact, OBTW.
Chevalier
Clinton's reputation seems positive? Yes, because all that is important for a *woman* is to have a spotless reputation? The misogynists' club and the 16th century called, indieinva....they all want you back.
Clinton's reputation, indeed, may all be well and good. But we once again got saddled with a half-brained idiot in the President's seat making decisions that affect all of us. And that's what I'm bitter about - the better candidate lost because of a biased, bought-out media and an as-stupid-as-ever public.
indieinva
Chevalier, you are seriously projecting your own issues on other people's comments.
Calling Obama a "half-brained idiot" speaks volumes about the validity of your opinion and thought process. You may absolutely disagree with his approach and policies or the fact that he outright won the primaries (which seems to be your real issue), but anyone with half a brain cell still intact can see that our current President is nowhere near an idiot (like him or not).
The Boogeymen-Misogynists Under Every Bed Club called... you've been made a Platinum Member.
boredwell
The Rev Wright drama did, as Obama predicted, turn into a circus. The media is responsible for reporting the sermon out of context much like it did with Michelle's infamous the-first-time-I'm-proud faux pas. Both Wright and Michelle were rendering POV's based on their perspective: that is, being black in America. Apropos, the reportage highlighted a line from each person's speech manipulating their words into incendiary indictments and unpatriotic sentiments. This, I know, was blatant bias, another form of racism.
vjillh
i agree... sadly, we are not able to look very deeply into the complexities & failures of people, while still acknowledging the good they have done. we all bring our own short sightedness and frailties to our world view - but it astounds me that the rush limbaugh fans can be so angry at the world view from a black mans perspective & not recognize even a hint of their own ignorance
BenGil
This comment is directed towards Ozone 69 and the others complaining that Barack Obama must have heard Rev. Wright's controversial views prior to the presidential campaign, and yet Barack Obama still claimed to have a close relationship with him until Wright's views went public.
Ignoring the blaring possibility that Barack Obama had indeed not heard Rev. Wright have such a fierce outbust prior to the incident in question, and assuming that Obama did indeed put on an act, can you really blame him for talking up his religious affiliation? Let's face it, a young, African American senator of Chicago with no military experience and who 1 out of 10 American believed was Muslim (An April 1st 2008 poll by USA Today) was going to have a hard enough time winning over conservative Americans without him promising that he had a strong Christian background. If he had not, it would have simply been another reason for Fox News to smear him as UnAmerican.
myarticles77
Richard stop making up stories in trying to sell your new book. It can't be that Obama and wright met without anybody else in the whole world knowing about it except Mr. Richard Wolffe. Don't be like these others hacks on tv, I've always thought you're authentic. Don't let selling abook ruin your credibility
Issywise
I can't start caring about Wright after decades of seeing politician pander to the likes of Falwell, Robertson and Roberts.
If anything, Wright is less dangerous that those fools who thought or think that God tells them what public policy should be in America.
Banjo1
Issywise can always be depended on to peddle the embittered gay left line.
TavernWench
I pre-ordered the book from Amazon and can't wait to read it! Richard's writing is always excellent, and since the much-anticipated Newsweek campaign book was godawful, Wolffe is filling the void with this entry. Fantastic!
awb2921
Obama joined the Church for political reasons. He is a spiritual man but not religious. If you read his books this is very clear.
Rev Wright like Jesse Jackson grew up as a negro in America. Obama grew up multiracial in Hawaii.
They bring completely difference points of view to the table.
Rev Wright provided a senior figure to a fatherless Obama. And out of respect for him Obama stayed with him.
If he was the cold calculating person some of you try to depict he would have dumped him long before - like when Oprah dumped the Church.
Barack Obama defies categories - something that makes his enemies nuts. He is a truly unique figure in American politics.
Logical
Richard Wolffe you have piqued my curiosity, I can't wait to purchase a copy of this book. I have a business trip on Wed and I think I have found my reading material for the flight.
buzzsaw1
He used Wright to gain credibility within the Chicago community. He needed Wrights approval.
What he didn't need was for the world to know was who he was actually cozied up to in Chicago.
KofTX1
It amazes me how much vitriol still exist among some people who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries. Face it, the Clintons were head of the Democratic Party for almost two decades. THEY WROTE THE PRIMARY RULES for heaven's sake. They underestimated Obama, were careless and got beaten. The whole thing was really over after Texas, when he actually got one more delegate than she. The media knew it but couldn't part with the unbelievable ratings the Dem race was generating. After his 11-straight primary and caucus victories, Obama had built a virtually insurmountable lead in delegates. All Clinton was left with after that was the small hope that her clout within the party and a large (not larger) percentage of the popular vote would change the super delegates' minds. But they could not change ignore the fever-pitched excitement Obama was generating from present and future voters. And his unmatched fundraising wasn't something to turn there nose up at either. She lost to a better candidate with a better campaign. Period.
Thank you.
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