I see the Daily News is full of letters this morning parroting the Republican Party’s latest talking points regarding Jeremiah Wright, the minister of Obama’s church and how shocked, shocked and appalled the writers are that he said America deserved 9/11 (I haven’t read his statements, so I don’t know if that’s accurate description, but it doesn’t change the point of this post).

Funny, I don’t recall a huge flood of outraged letters when Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell said the same thing right after 9/11. Or Billy Graham’s daughter, a few months later, expressed the view America had it coming. Or Sen. James Inhofe for saying that by pressuring Israel to trade land for peace, we opened a “spiritual door” for God to punish us.

None of them were ever labelled “America hating” for their statements. Nor do I recall a vast upswelling of calls for Bush to denounce Falwell and Robertson, with whom he’s claimed to discuss matters of policy and ask their opinions on such matters as selecting a Supreme Court nominee or whether to invade Iraq.

So is the horror at Wright’s statements because it’s a convenient way to target a Democrat, or because it’s more unsettling when a black man says something like that than when white guys do it? Or a mix of both?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 6:06 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.