WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. March 15, 2008: Well you can tell the Clintons are really out to get Senator Barack Obama now.  

Somehow two of America’s right wing commentators got the DVDs of Senator Obama’s church pastor into the hands of CNN and the Reverend’s impassioned comments have been glommed over by the CNN commentators  like cocks fighting for two nights now on the 10 o’clock Cooper 360 Program to CNN’s lasting discredit.

It's not a story. Just as Geraldine Ferraro's comments are not a story. These are "Get Obama" commercials. And CNN and the rest of the point and shoot TV newsboys are falling for it hook, line and expense account.

 Obama was cool and collected, disassociated himself from the comments, but was attacked repeatedly and integrity questioned in the interview.

What a “get” job.

This is a news network? Please!

Cooper on Thursday evening even attempted to justify running the tape, obviously feeling a little guilty.

Then he compounds the felony of being used by a political party, by running it over and over Friday evening, when a few other things went on Friday.

Where was the commentary on the economy; the explanation of the Bear Sterns blunders; the panic on Wall Street, and analysis of inflation, which the government says is down, but everyone knows it’s not!

Who’s editing this show? The Clintons? John McCain? “Very Right Wing- I’m-not-a-Klansman-Fascist-or-a-Nazi-But-I’m-Close Radio?”

This country is in so much trouble economically and no one knows why or cares at the big CNN?

Once a pesky upstart, now a genuine threat to derail the Clinton express back to the White House, Barack Obama has to be stopped by the Clintons at any cost in Pennysylvania – that’s what CNN’s masochistic rerunning of the Pastor Tape was designed to do and possibly will do – even if the yo-yos who made this news judgment do not know it yet.

CNN may as well have run a 30-minute Clinton infomercial. The Republicans apparently want Hillary Clinton after all to run.

But maybe it’s the power establishment –  both the McCain camp and the old guard, old money, old oil, old insurance, old pharmaceutical,  supporters of the democrats, who are very comfortable with Bill and Hil – who want to make absolutely sure that Senator Obama is finished off  by a Hillary Clinton decisive Pennsylvania win.

Pennsylvania's voters should have the sophistication to realize the race card  ("You don't want a black man as President, do you?") is being subtlely played for the Clintons, however inadvertently by the establishment right -- whether they are liberal or conservative.

Far be it that the Clintons would even think to play the race card in the Keystone State!

Why did this surface?

Because Senator Obama must be stopped in Pennsylvania cold.

The Clintons must win Pennsylvania big time to turn the Superdelegates to the Clintons’ way on the second ballot. This has been apparently the Clinton strategy all along, to string Obama out, but beat him on the second ballot.

Even now the disingenuous Clintons are plotting to get the Michigan and Florida delgations to the convention on their side –  in readiness for the all important second ballot – which could tip the nomination to them, I believe.

That has been the strategy all along.

However, should Senator Obama come within 5% or 10% of Senator Clinton in the Keystone State – and still hold his lead in delegates with the popular votes and caucuses – the Clintons will have a hard time swinging the nomination her way on the second ballot (when all pledged delegates are released!) because it will be unseemly.

Hence this tape coming out.

Actually, it is a little too early to affect Pennsylvania. Or, maybe it is just right. For four weeks, Senator Obama is going to have to be answering questions and attacks throughout Pennsylvania on how he can support his former Pastor, whether he heard these remarks before.

The white support for him is shaky at best.

Mr. Obama’ s integrity will be questioned for a month. It is a very insidious ploy by  “Very Right Wing- I’m-not-a Fascist-or-a-Nazi-But-I’m-Close Radio.” (Great line, don’t you think? I liked it so much I used it twice. )

Meawhile, John McCain solidifies his ties with his Christian zealot preachers – which he was shown doing Friday on the same CNN program. The "Pastor Play" this week works both ways it embarrasses and taints Obama, exploits white fear and prejudice, and paints this as a racial choice -- not a policy choice in the worst way.

Far be it that the Republican candidate has any ideas for fixing the mess we are in. Set up a fear and strength campaign and ignore the chaos that is their strategy.

The Republican strategy you would almost think was brokered by the Clintons. But, how can that be true?

This was the big news Friday evening on CNN – the Obama Pastor comments. This on a day when the dollar sank against the Euro to $1.56 per Euro.  Bear Sterns sank. Atlanta got hit with a tornado. And, oh, yeah the Fed is considering another cut in the prime rate – the third in about a month – isn’t it?

That is an unbelievable story in and of itself!

Hey, Anderson – how about getting Lou Dobbs in for just a little commentary on finance? Just a weence?

Imagine say if the Vince Forster suicide had surfaced in some manner –  by some other commentator raising doubts about whether it was a suicide  -- boy would the Clintons have cried foul.

Earlier this week, Geraldine Ferraro did the racial job on Mr. Obama too, saying essentially he’s only winning because he’s black, then claiming that statement was not racist.

Could the Clintons and Mr. Obama and the McCain camp wake up and look around?

This campaign is not about race or religion.

We are not going to pray our way out of the financial storm.

We’re not going to hate our way out of the financial storm.

By November, whoever wins is going to be studying Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration and be reviving it to get persons back to work.

By November, no one is going to be taking out loans, banks are going to be paying persons to take loans, the prime rate should be below ZERO then.

By November, retirement portfolios are going to be a shadow of what they are today.

The Democrats could run Eliot Spitzer and he’d win then.

The stimuli are not working, because the banks are keeping the money to shore up their balance sheets, folks.

How come Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain are hiding their heads in the sand and talking religion?

How come CNN and the news media are even covering the comments of a Pastor that were previously echoed in hyperbole and invective and disgusting prayers against certain groups by conservative Christian religious stars in previous years and covered seriously?

Giving credence to outrageous statements is crazy.

When has religion turned from a philosophy of love into a philosophy of true believers? My faith is better than yours?

American guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

End of discussion.

What Senator Obama’s pastor says means nothing.  And besides as harsh as the Pastor's words sound, he is right. The black community has come a long way, baby, but really not so far.

 It was just very uncomfortable to hear if you're a white person. And, far be it that anyone should be made to feel guilty.

But you know, focusing on this defocus  at the ignoring of the problems our great country (and great state for that matter) face, is a very bad thing.

To devote at least two hours of prime time to this, two nights in a row in the face of the real news that CNN and MSNBC ignored is a disgrace. The innuendo that Mr. Obama should have known these views of his pastor, and he was being dishonest about it, was subtle -- whether intentional or not.

Wake up and turn in your teleprompters, CNN.

There's big news that you are choosing not to cover or do not understand enough to cover, let alone find out who is to blame for the financial miscalculations and blunders, and just plain dumbo management that is a threat to our nation right now.

Cover the real stuff, please.

The Anchors and Editors of America  should turn around and look at the financial Titantic  being captained the last 35 years by America’s brilliant financiers and capitalists whose greed, invention of phantom products, and ruthless exploitation of working man and woman and young person and minority has set the stage for the wrecking of the economy due to a system of rewarding their rich friends and the oil-rich export nations to this nation’s peril.