Then I guess we can forgive Trent Lott for speaking so warmly of the racist pig Thurmond

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., condemned racially charged sermons by his former pastor Friday and urged Americans not to reject his presidential campaign because of "guilt by association."

Obama's campaign announced that the minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., had left its spiritual advisory committee after videotapes of his sermons again ignited fierce debate in news accounts and political blogs.

Obama spoke warmly of Wright, who retired last month as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Wright is a man "I've known for 17 years, [who] helped bring me to Jesus, helped bring me to church," he said.

Trent Lott:

the United States would have avoided "all these problems" if then-segregationist Strom Thurmond had been elected president in 1948.

Jeremiah Wright:

SAYS ABS NEWS: "Obama's Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Has a History of What Even Obama's Campaign Aides Say Is 'Inflammatory Rhetoric'." The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has been Barack Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side. And he loves a conspiracy theory. He told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that "America's chickens are coming home to roost". The Wall Street Journal hears more: " We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God." And : "We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . ." On America's blacks : "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... 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." God damn. Looking from the outside in on America, it's always noticeable how American everyone is. Even in highlighting disunity and perceived unfairness, the American succeeds in sounding only like an American. He demands to be heard. ...

Both equally as reprehensible, and un american, and factually, GALACTICALLY STOOOOOPID.

Why should we not regard Obama as having for his pastor, VOLUNTARILY, and in full view of history, a man with the most reprehensible and negative of faiths in America, and Americans as his CORE SET OF BELIEFS ABOUT AMERICA AND WHAT AMERICANS DO AND WILL SANCTION?

If it was anyone else but a candidate for president, as we saw with Trent Lott, we'd all think that such core beliefs in his pastor reflect CLEANLY Obama's personal beliefs, and wonder what the hell was going on when God gave him judgment. He warmly regards this man?

Obama remained a congregation member without objection to these hideous representations for his ENTIRE MARRIAGE.

This is NOT guilt by association, and the Obama campaign's continual reference to this as the basis for questioning Obama, belies just how terrified they are about this objective truth. Nor is this the first time in his campaign this (guilt by association as a defense for his judgment, and lack of required knowledge - to be exceptionally kind- about his advisers) has come up. Or the second.

"'If I Had Heard Them Repeated, I Would've Quit' the Church"...HAVE YOU YET?

Your pastor is an American hating racist, who thinks we deserved what we got (Ward Churchill), and jews are South Africans, and we invented AIDS to get the blacks. Are you kidding?

'Hey I didn't know'

He married you.

He baptized your children.

You are going to tell America that in the quiet of dinners with him such topics never came up? Such is not my experience with our congregation leader. Topics are wide ranged and clear. And she was not so involved at the birth of our family.

GIVE ME A BREAK. You are a typical pol with a nicer voice than most, and worse judgment than almost all, Trent Lott excepted.