That is the irony. A man with a long history of helping Americans is painted as anti-American by people who only help themselves.

What irony? Helping yourself is American. It is the very essence of "American."

That's why McCain got it in his "bones."

(Or was it "boner"? I didn't read the whole Noonan piece.)

What you're seeing is the beginning of a snark bubble. Instead of asset price hyperinflation it's just ass ...

After all the bubbles we've been through, it's probably superfluous to say that you don't want to be around when this particular one bursts. ;-}

Thinks name-calling based on nothing but silly assumptions somehow makes him clever.

Sad, indeed.

-- Gerry from Tallahassee

And yet call Rev. Wright a hatemonger. If you think Wright can be compared to Hal Turner, then you are the one making some bizarre assumptions or you have a different standard for bllacks than whites. Calling you as inept with language as Rev. Wright is as legitimate as calling Hall Turner a hatemonger.

This promises to be a monster comment thread.

I just came across a fantastic recipe for my mother's Famous Snark Vesuvius.

If the price of gasoline wasn't so high, I believe I could probably peddle it and make millions.

First, you make a roux.....

You're as bad with logic as you are with facts. Sean Hannity is not running for president, so who cares whom he associated with.

Just pointing to other hatemongers does not make Wright less of one.

Yeesh, are you dumb.

Let's just bomb this whole site and change it to greenwald.com so we can have more of this. Pointed, intelligent, funny, and concise.

And to a few of my fellow letter writers, try to keep your letter shorter than the article.....

I doubt anyone here thinks Wright is of no interest whatsoever in this election year. Personally, I find him to be extremely interesting, and refreshing. Voters do want to know how their candidates think, what drives them, who mentored them. And they don't necessarily want to read their books to find out. So Wright is fair game for media inspection, and inevitably that will mean lots of hand-wringing concern and some extremely shallow analysis. That's how we play it in the US of A.

But all that's got very little to do with the sudden media discovery that Obama has been mentally enslaved for decades by a bomb-throwing, flag-burning, whitey-hating, anti-American terrorist who preaches government overthrow from his secret-island-urban-church-lair, and its repeated echoing and re-echoing of this almost totally made-up story to the point that it short-circuits and even replaces entirely what could have been semi-thoughtful discussion. Especially when the same media have been so utterly uninterested in people McCain is busy hugging onstage or what simple concept he currently is stumbling over.

Please do let us know if you have further questions about the nature of the controversy under discussion here.

DM, I'm not a nice guy. Patient, but not nice. Ask GC! He knows me better than anybody.

Jebbie, all the best things on earth start with a roux, but you gotta let it go all the way to chocolate-colored, in the Cajun fashion. After that, you just let your backbone slip. I found a place that'll dry-ice as many crawdads as I can afford and ship 'em to me, so I'm planning to throw a fête this July for a few friends who long for more humidity, and a little Zydeco. Can't hardly wait.

So Wright spent time helping others. Well, by my halidom, all he was accomplishing was putting people in danger from the negative consequences of altruism! Google it, and find out about how finely social scientists have calibrated the cost-benefit ratio for altruism. They used to be called "the unexpected negative consequences of altruism" but the principle was so firmly established that it was re-named (at a charming ceremony held at the NRO offices) "the inevitable negative consequences of altruism.

Anyway, it has been figgered that that the sum total of the negative consequences of Rev. Wrights altruism could sustain the War On Iraq for .002 seconds.

And that is the man who is only a heartburn from the Presidency!

I think we must be witnessing a true Divine intervention, tearing the scales off the eyes of a gullible electorate, who seemed on the verge of embracing a false messiah. Hallelujah!

To whom has Obama pandered? Please explain.

so I'm planning to throw a fête...

And you will probably get sauce all over you!

Typical liberal!

A fete slob!

Pedinska and I think there should be cabbage. And potatoes.

A fete slob

Now that was funny!

Can someone please tell me what a 'concern troll' is?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/murphy/murphy132.html

Starts off:

When it comes to theoretical justifications for the continued occupation of Iraq, the gold standard is the Weekly Standard. Bill Kristol and Fred Kagan must be extremely intelligent and gifted writers, because whenever I read their work or hear them speak, I’m halfway to killing 30 foreigners before suddenly snapping out of it. Kristol and Kagan are quite simply masters at making their reckless positions sound eminently reasonable and "conservative."

The Wikipedia definition is unsatisfying:

he concern troll posts in web forums devoted to its declared point of view and attempts to sway the group's actions or opinions while claiming to share their goals, but with professed "concerns". The goal is to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt within the group.

but close enough for rock 'n' roll.

Who believes:

"I doubt anyone here thinks Wright is of no interest whatsoever in this election year."

I am that guy.

Jeremiah Wright's opinions are intesting as an election issue only insofar as they are shared by a candidate. And that means they are of no election interest at all, because if a candidate shares those views they are interesting because they are the views of a candidate.

Wright's opinions would surely be interesting to Obama's biographer, but Wright's opinions tell me nothing about Obama's ablitities or his intent.

We are facing a world wide food shortage; a continuing occupation of Iraq; a potential meltdown in the world's financial system; an increasingly dysfunctional healthcare system; homelessness; soaring budget and trade deficits; crumbling infrastructures; students who are falling increasingly behind; and is that enough?

When is enough enough?

At some point we will look back at these days, as the nation obsessed over a presidential candidate's opinions, with shame. Well, most of us will.

The Karl Roves and neocon warmongers will look back in pride that they were able to hijack what should be a serious undertaking, the selection of a president who is going to inherit a country that is hurtling towards the edge of the cliff.

Interesting? Jeremiah Wright? This whole thing is nothing but the age-old right wing red and race-baiting game.

Some of us fell for it again. So how do we stop? How do we leave this crap "issue" behind and get back to the serious business of vetting the people who would make life or death decisions?

I think we stop by stopping and this is my last post or comment about any of this.

Everyone - just slap your cheeks, wake up, and leave this non-issue behind. Let Karl Rove work on his next scheme and let the rest of us figure out how to keep on living.