Many diarist on here today are asking us to give Hillary a break. To give her the benefit of the doubt. To believe that she was simply misquoted or taken out of contest.

Well, I'd like to ask those diarist and the pro-hillary commenters who agree to consider the reverse of this situation.

I don't need to be called a racist because I'm going to post about Wright, thank you.

There's little doubt that most of the blogosphere or online progressives or whatever you'd like to call it, back Obama. It was over 70 percent for those that attended the Take Back America conference. I think that's probably about what it is in the liberal/progressive side of the blogosphere too. I'm in the other 30 percent or so, where Clinton (even though my 5th or 6th choice starting out among all those that could have been the nominee-- Warner, Gore, Clark...) happens to be the alternative left; that's how these things go some times. The reason why? Because I thought that Obama was too untested for the partisan GE... hmmm. So there we were a week ago, locked in an epic battle, with accusations of racism and race-baiting flying, and the Wright videos arrived.

I was disgusted by what Wright said, and didn't mind saying so. I said that Obama needed to throw Wright under the bus and run him over a few times, to move on from this fiasco. But unfortunately, Obama didn't, or couldn't, do it. That's too bad, and will be costly for his chances. But it's even worse that, caught up in a presidential contest in which denouncing Wright has been seen only through the prism of supporting Obama, progressives have been silent about Wright's wrong and divisive words. That's a terrible precedent to have set.

Pull off the blinders that have you supporting a particular candidate, while being blind to the bigger issue. If progressives are not going to have the guts to call out those who foster divisive talk, and demand their renouncement, no matter where it comes from, it's a bigger loss than an election.

Update [2008-3-19 21:58:49 by Jerome Armstrong]: I've had this nagging thought above all day, but I should also point out that the conservative Victor Davis Hanson has also written about this today, here and here; without a doubt, they will be reminding us of the problem of the silence that doesn't demand Wright himself renounce, or Obama totally reject him, during the next public outcry over some racist commentary we confront.

Update [2008-3-19 22:25:4 by Jerome Armstrong]: McCaskill today, seemingly winging it (video here), implys that never before has a black leader come to the American public as anything other than the victim, before Obama. That's right about Obama individually, but having supported a certain fiery populist candidate in 1988, I resent that alongside Jesse Jackson. She also gives out some ammo to the Republican that is gonna run against her next time, saying "There are good works obviously this man (Wright) has done." Yea, Imus probably has done some "good works" too, right?

Update [2008-3-19 22:38:0 by Jerome Armstrong]: bruh21 asks, "Is it because we aren't the "magic negros" you imagine us to be?"

I was able to live in a small village while I was in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone. I'm not black, and am white, but after going weeks and months on end there, only among African friends, I can honestly tell you, whatever fascination or feeling of difference simply from skin color I had from growing up in the US, was replaced by a deeper bond of human familiarity.

I've simply no patience for racism no matter where its ugly head rears up and expect the Democratic Party to represent that ideal.

More, from Keith "Reject and Renounce" Olberman (what a hypocritical joke he's become):