I don't think anyone here denies that he's a politician, though I wouldn't go so far as to say "just another." He's different, but certainly no political messiah. Still, as I've said before, the idea that he converted to Christianity and began attending TUCC for political reasons is rather ludicrous. It applies an unheard of level of prescience - such that if he's that able to see into the future, maybe he
is the messiah
It would be far easier for supporters to shrug Wright off and say "he just needed som 'black cred'" than for people like me to waste time here posting and trying to educate people about things like black liberation theology, which I've had exposure to and experience with long before this Rev. Wright issue came up. It would have been far easier for Obama to do the politically expedient thing and just say Rev. Wright was a mistake and move on from that. And if he were as interested in doing what's politically expedient as you seem to think (no doubt he's interested in that, but not to the level you seem to believe), then he wouldn't have freely written about his past drug use in his book.
When you spend time learning about Obama as a person - not simply from Fox News soundbites, but by actually reading about his background and what the people who have dealt with him over the years have to say (and what they have to say is remarkably similar, whether it's someone he knew back in college, or a student he taught at UofC) - then you find that, while a politician, he's certainly not "just another" politician. He's no American messiah, and he won't turn America into a land of milk and honey with roads of gold after 8 years in the White House, but he does have the kind of character I want in a politician. Not someone I'd necessarily like to sit around and have a beer with, but someone who is intellectually curious and makes a point of listening to and learning from others, regardless of the source.
Oh, and loquiter's right, except it should be reworded: Obama is a
human being - he makes compromises. That's life.
I don't expect my politicians to be perfect, and neither should you. In the grand scheme of political imperfections, Rev. Wright is a speck. There are
far worse flaws that he could have.
In other news:
Clinton Pastor Backs Reverend Wright