Barack Obama, The View, ABC, April 11 2007, MSM, main stream media, Imus fired comment, hypocrisy

On March 27, 2008 I posted an article about Barack Obama’s response on April 11, 2007 to the Don Imus comment, “nappy headed hos.” Obama called for Imus to be fired and made the following comment:
“And the notion that somehow it’s cute or amusing, or a useful diversion, I think, is something that all of us have to recognize is just not the case. We all have First Amendment rights. And I am a constitutional lawyer and strongly believe in free speech, but as a culture, we really have to do some soul-searching to think about what kind of toxic information are we feeding our kids,”

This reaction by Obama came almost a year before he was forced by political circumstances to denounce the racist, hate filled comments by Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s long time minister and mentor. I was surprised to find out that The View on ABC on March 28, 2008 had Obama on the show and actually asked him about his comments regarding Don Imus in 2007 and his lack of response to Jeremiah Wright then. That is the good news. The bad news always seems to be the same. Obama did not answer the question. He went on a long soliloquy and spoke in generalties. Obama was never pressed to answer the question. I was pleased that the questions were posed, but it came across as a setup to make it appear he had addressed the issues. Here is a video of the segment where Obama was asked the questions:

http://abstractionreaction.com/2008/03/30/obama-confirms-rumored-affair-with-sherri-shepherd/

One of the Jeremiah Wright quotes referred to on the show is the following:

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003 sermon. “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

Obama responded:

“I never heard him say some of the things that have people upset,”

“I’m not vetting my pastor,”  “I didn’t have a research team during the course of 20 years to go pull every sermon he’s given and see if there’s something offensive that he’s said.”

An article on ABC about the show can be viewed here:

http://abc.go.com/daytime/theview/info?pn=news