It was another fun-filled week for Senators Obama and Clinton as they took turns marginalizing themselves in the eyes of moderate Americans. Senator Obama started the festivities by heading to San Francisco, that ever steady bastion of centrist common sense, where he explained why he was struggling to win lower class white votes in the small towns of Pennsylvania: “You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone for 25 years and nothing has replaced them . . . And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” We know from Ohio that both candidates are on board for the anti-trade sentiment, so that would appear to be a positive consequence of the alleged bitterness, but what about this business concerning religion? It seems as though Senator Obama was more closely describing the congregation of which he is a part than any small town in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t so long ago that Senator Obama was listening to sermons from the world’s leading expert on religious bitterness, Reverend Wright. Yet lost in all the coverage of the Rev. Wright debacle was the critical fact that those clips we heard played time and again were not aberrations or occasional examples of the good Reverend crossing the line, rather they were standard examples of what the Trinity United Church of Christ offers up every Sunday! A quick trip to the church’s own website (http://www.tucc.org/talking_points.htm) reveals exactly the sort of bitterness Senator Obama had in mind. The “Talking Points” page provides a valuable summary of the church’s ideological and intellectual roots. The page tells us that the church takes its bearings from the work of Dr. James Cone and his book “Black Power and Black Theology.” Sure enough, Dr. Cone and his book happen to be full of good old fashioned, hard left, radical nonsense and plenty of bitterness. The Encyclopedia of African American History and Culture summarizes the argument of Dr. Cone’s foundational work: “Cone contended that the 1960’s Black Power movement was the revelation of Jesus Christ. Conversely, North American white churches represented the Anti-Christ and therefore were not Christian.” Charming stuff! Reverend Wright didn’t get to that on video yet but the website promises on its front page that he is “Back by popular demand” and will be heard on the radio every Sunday. I hope Senator Obama won’t hold it against those bitter Pennsylvanians if they decide not to tune in.

Senator Clinton, meanwhile, has been busy reminding everyone why she has the highest negative ratings ever for a presidential contender from either of the two major parties. Seizing on Obama’s inclusion of guns in the infamous “symptoms of bitterness” list, Clinton took the opportunity to recall her own deep emotional and intellectual commitment to the second amendment: “You know my dad took me out behind the cottage my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl. . . People enjoy hunting and shooting because its part of who they are, not because they are bitter.” I don’t know if it was her life-long anti-gun record or her outspoken support of the DC handgun ban, a law which will likely be struck down by the Supreme Court this summer, but somehow I had never realized that shooting was in Senator Clinton’s bones. Then again, I never realized that after all those years in the White House with Bill she actually opposed Nafta, or that it could possibly make sense to vote in favor of a bill regarding bankruptcy while hoping it would fail. When taken together, these examples remind me of the one thing I did know about Senator Clinton; that she is just as disingenuous as her husband and will say and do whatever it takes to get elected. Lets hope that that includes asking Senator Obama publicly if he actually believes any of the drivel espoused by his church of the last 20 years.

Link to the encyclopedia entry on James Cone: The link itself is too long for the Blog Format. I encourage you to check it out for yourself by going to the library’s “Encyclopedia of Religion” and searching James Cone.

Update, 4/29: Good to see this stuff is finally making it into the media! http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/the_real_rev_wright.html