Speaking of Lunatics

As usual, Barak Obama, orator extraordinaire, gave a brilliant speech hoping to deflect the stink of his pastor's rank and incendiary remarks regarding our country. I think he did a good job of pacifying the masses and made some convincing excuses, oops, justifications for the misguided reverend. And himself. And blacks. And whites. And racists. And Christians. And the mama baby daddy. Etcetera. I thought his words were carefully chosen and eloquently executed but where he fell short for me was explaining why he's continued to seek guidance from a man who he says he profoundly disagrees with. Of course we can't and don't always agree with the people we respect the most. And of course we are all shaped by our experiences but it seems to me that if you seek council from someone for the majority of your life there is something in their character that resonates. Obama is probably too bright to gobble up all the venom that has been spewed from Wright's mouth over the years but are his baby girls and all the other impressionable minds afront the pulpit? It is this very rhetoric and vitriol that propagates the hatred and racism he rails against and is so desperately trying to disavow. I love Obama and I love his message. Mostly, I love how he doesn't have the same condescending and cavalier manner that so many in his company have. However, if I weren't leery before, and I was because he espouses views that are far left of my personal core values, I have to exercise extreme caution now.