CNN reported this morning, story here, that The Obamas have confirmed they've resigned from Trinity United Church of Christ in the wake of the latest outburst of a sermon, this time by Father Michael Pfleger.  While Senator Obama hopes this ends a very nagging problem to his candidacy, the move today raises many more concerns about his judgment.

In Senator Obama's A More Perfect Union speech in Philadelphia last March, the one he later had to walk back from after Jeremiah Wright's National Press Club performance led Obama to quickly disown his pastor, he made a very careful effort to say there was a wonderful new pastor at the church now, Rev. Otis Moss, and that he continued to value the church community. 



Going back to the Pfleger debacle from Trinity last Sunday, look again at the introduction and the wrap-up.  Rev. Moss welcomes Pfleger as a brother who has clearly been there before, and then after sitting there and watching Pfleger's racial rant of a sermon, he praises God not only for the message, but the messenger. 




Some of the questions that should be asked of Senator Obama are ones like when does he think that Trinity United Church of Christ changed?  Does he believe the church became radical only in the last few weeks?  If Senator Obama is as anti-Farrakhan as he stated when he disowned Jeremiah Wright, how could he not know of the church's past and present fondness for Farrakhan? Was Senator Obama aware of Father Pfleger's Farrakhan ties when he orchestrated hundreds of thousands of earmarked dollars to projects run by Pfleger? 

As the Democrats finish wrestling with what to do with the Florida and Michigan half-a-delegates, in a move to try and wrap up their contentious primary, you've got to think at least some of the Obama supporters out there have to be extremely concerned that it seems no friend of Obama is above being jettisoned when it becomes politically expedient to do so.

If there is one thing that has been uncovered about the character of Barack Obama during the primary process, it's his questionable judgment.  On a micro level, the space under the Obama bus is getting crowded with Jeremiah Wright, former staffer Samantha Power, Father Pfleger, and now, apparently, an entire church.  On a macro level, Obama spent all week parsing words, essentially trying to maintain he's willing to meet with any despot around the world with no preconditions, yet he's unwilling to meet with our military leaders in Iraq unless there's a precondition of withdrawal.

The question Americans should be asking as we continue the slow, methodical march to November, doesn't judgment still matter in a president, and hasn't Barack Obama demonstrated that his judgment is flawed at best?

The transcript of my conversation with Lawrence Wright from yesterday is here.  The podcast is here.  More than 90% of it is devoted to the ideological battles splitting al Qaeda today which are the focus of Wright's latest New Yorker article, "The Rebellion Within."  Near the conclusion of our conversation, I asked Wright about the battle for Iraq:

HH: I want to thank Lawrence Wright for spending this much time with us again, the author of The Looming Tower has a brand new article in the June 2, 2008, New Yorker, which I very much recommend to you. It is called The Rebellion Within. I’ve linked it at Hughhewitt.com. Lawrence Wright, I want to finish by talking about Iraq. Obviously, there’s word out of Mosul this week that even though there are some suicide bombings, that al Qaeda has lost its very last stronghold after a series of devastating blows between the United States military and the Iraqi Security Forces, and they’ve put up on some of their websites basic hand-wringing over how did we lose Iraq, et cetera. How important is it to the destruction of radical jihadism that Iraq be stabilized, and become sort of that emblematic, if not a democracy, at least a non-repressive, I don’t know, alternative to either Mubarak or Syrian strong men, or Saudi Arabian absolutism and monarchists? How important is Iraq now? 

LW: Well, you know, there are two really important intellectual centers in the Arab world. One is Egypt, the other is Iraq. And the idea behind the invasion of Iraq, which I was opposed to, was to set up this model democracy that would then become a beacon for reform all over the region. It’s going to be really hard to achieve the goal that we had set out, although now, I am in the awkward political position of being opposed to withdrawing. I think we should stay there as long as we can to try to hold this entity together until they are able to remain stable, create a fairly reliable electoral process, police force, and that kind of thing, and take care of themselves. I don’t know if we can achieve that, but it’s hopeful to see that Iraq has been, you know, I don’t want to say that they’ve been put to death completely in Iraq, but they certainly are in retreat. And that’s critical, because if al Qaeda won in Iraq, who knows how far it would go. 

Somebody please send this to Senator Obama. 

Off to tape a C-SPAN interview with Andrew McCarthy on his new book, Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad.  I am not sure when our conversation will air, but the book is a powerful account not only of the early stages of jihadist conspiracy in the U.S., but also of the limits of the prosecutorial model the U.S. used between the time of the first bombing of the World Trade Center and 9/11.  It is a fascinating must-read for anyone concerned with domestic security.

Politico.com has a fascinating story on the anger of Bill Clinton.  It begins:

With Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign on the verge of defeat, Bill Clinton has been placing blame on enemies including a brazenly biased media that tried to suppress blue-collar votes, a powerful anti-war group that endorsed rival Barack Obama and weak-willed party leaders unable to stand up to either of these nefarious forces.

With many decades left before him, expect Bill to nurture his grudges and act on them.

What will fascinate is his and Hillary's conduct between now and November.  Will he and she undermine the already troubled Obama candidacy, having concluded that four years of McCain and a return to the White House in 2013 is to be preferred to eclipse at the hands of a rookie and his band of radical friends and backers?

If the DNC Rules Committee does other than either seat all of the Michigan and Florida delegates or punt, its anti-Clinton members will go on to the payback list.  Better for some, surely, to punt to the Credentials Committee and get out of the middle of the Clinton-Obama wars.

Today's program features the former Massachusetts governor and the New Yorker's Lawrence Wright, as well as Fred and Mort, Larry Kudlow and Congressman John Campbell.

Wright's new article on the internal divisions within al Qaeda, "The Rebellion Within." is must reading.  Our interview will be transcribed and posted here later, and the audio will be posted here. 

I'll be on Hannity & Colmes tonight to discuss Obama's latest explanation for his questionable choices when it comes to close friends and spiritual mentors. 

Here's more from last Sunday's sermon at Barack Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ, featuring Father Michael Pfleger, recipient of a $100,000 earmark from Obama, defending Louis Farrakhan.

The Washington Post reports on CIA Director Michael Hayden's assessment of al Qaeda after a year of defeats in many theaters.

Combine this report with Lawrence Wright's in-depth reporting on the fissures within al Qaeda in the latest New Yorker, "The Rebellion Within," and the account of the last year of the battles in Iraq in Michael Yon's Moment of Truth In Iraq, and the picture emerges of a series of decisive defeats for the jihadists throughout the past 18 months. 

Perhaps someone should tell Senator Obama, Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi?

My new Townhall.com column is up.

The Politico.com story on the anger towards Obama among Clinton supporters doesn't mention Obama's radical friends like Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayes and Bernadine Dohrn and now Father Pfleger, and it doesn't mention Michelle Obama's outrageous rhetoric either.  It does quote GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway:

These women have two issues at the top of their agenda that require experience and reasonableness—war and economy,” Conway said. “For many of these women, when they hear Barack Obama talk about change they hear revolution, not incrementalism.

 

My emphasis, but this is the background noise that has grown in volume week to week behind Obama, and the Pfleger video from Memorial Weekend Sunday Services at Obama's own church and the reaction to it from Obama's fellow parishioners for 20 years is going to further unsettle an already suspicious segment of the Democratic Party base that does value mocking Hillary and doesn't believe they owe reparations for wrongs done to African-Americans decades before they were born.

The DNC Rules Committee has plenty of reasons to punt to the Credentials Committee tomorrow, thus keeping the opening available to push the increasingly radioactive Obama to the sidelines.

Obama's friend, neighbor, mentor and financier Tony Rezko waits for the jury to come back in Chicago, and while he does, more bad news arrives from Las Vegas:

A Las Vegas judge has issued a felony arrest warrant for a politically connected Chicago businessman whose ties to Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama have become an issue in the campaign.

Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who is standing trial on federal corruption charges in Chicago, is wanted in Las Vegas for failing to pay $472,275 in gambling debts to Caesars Palace and Bally’s and related processing fees to the Clark County district attorney’s office.

The total unpaid Strip bill comes to more than $800,000, however, because the Bellagio obtained a judgment of default against Rezko a year ago for not repaying $331,000 in gambling markers.

A federal jury has been deliberating Rezko’s fate the past two weeks following two months of testimony in a corruption trial linked to the administration of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Stay up to date with everything Rezko at Rezkorama.com.

One of the great veterans seeking a seat in the next Congress, Tom Rooney deserves your support, even if he is a Steelers' fan (his grandfather founded the team).

A subscription to our new Townhall Magazine, which brings along with it a copy of Michael Yon's wonderful new book, Moment Of Truth In Iraq.

In fact, the magazine and the book would make a great gift for anyone who needs some help understanding the war and deciding for whom to vote this fall.

Jim Geraghty has the transcript of Father Michael Pfleger's rant at Barack Obama's Trinity Church this past Sunday.

Here's the video:


Jake Tapper has the background on Pfleger:

a fiery liberal social activist and a white reverend at an African-American church -- St. Sabina’s Catholic Church on the South Side of Chicago -- is a longtime friend and associate of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, having known him since the presidential hopeful was a community activist. In September, the Obama campaign brought Pfleger to Iowa to host one of several interfaith forums for the campaign.

Their relationship spans decades. Pfleger has given money to Obama's campaigns and Obama as a state legislator directed at least $225,000 towards social programs at St. Sabina's, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Add Pfleger to the list of friends that Obama has to disown that includes Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and Tony Rezko.

Victor Davis Hanson on the baby boomers' appetites and the problems they create.  A sample:

History has seen something like them before in the “blame them” years of Demosthenes’ Athens, the self-indulgence of Julio-Claudian Rome, the “after me, the deluge” generation of late 18th-century France, the Gilded Age, and the Roaring Twenties.

What are the baby boomers’ collective traits? Like all perpetual adolescents who suffer arrested development, we always want things both ways: Don’t drill or explore for more energy, but nevertheless demand ever more fuel from other suppliers.

A letter to the editor in the Detroit Free Press:

Those who ridicule the need to count the results of Michigan's 2008 primary miss the point. They underestimate the feelings of Michigan Democratic voters who are incensed because our votes were stolen from us twice: the 2000 presidential election and the 2008 primaries.

This is not a partisan issue of support for either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton. It is an outrage that the silly rules artificially imposed by the Democratic National Committee should trump the honest attempt of millions of voters to express their political choice.

If this stupidity prevails, these demoralized millions may just decide to drop out of the system and refuse to vote in future elections. After all, if your vote never seems to count, why bother?

Pundits can write all kinds of hogwash from their ivory towers. The reality is the voters themselves, and we are furious.

Robert Tell

 

Mr. Tell's anger is shared by many other Michigan voters, and as that state's economic woes continue to deepen, Senator McCain has an opportunity to turn a blue state red with straight talk about the need to slash taxes and invigorate manufacturing.  Obama's tax hikes would further burden the already reeling state, and the DNC's absurd plan to take half the state's convention votes away just underscores how oblivious Beltway liberal elites are to the actual concerns of voters.   The party of the union member is about to strip one of its traditional fortresses of half of its power because Howard Dean wanted to be a power broker.

Ford is about to lay off as many as 10% of it salaried workers.  GM's stock is at its lowest level in a quarter century and is also reported to be about to engage in another round of restructuring. Michigan's Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm, pushed through a massive set of tax hikes last year, and yet a new 300 million dollar deficit was announced this week.  Can you imagine the impact of Obama's tax hikes on this already reeling state?

Michigan is a sad experiment in letting Democrats set economic policy. It is also about to become a symbol of their bizarre ideas of political fairness when it comes to elections.  Expect the fall's campaign to center on the source of Michigan's woes not only as Senators McCain and Obama compete for the state but also as a lesson for the rest of the country on how not to govern.

Scott Johnson has laid out the outline of this crucial bit of history for Senator Obama and his staff.  His conclusion:

The following year brought the Cuban missile crisis, another sequel to Khrushchev's reading of Kennedy's weakness. Close as the Cuban missile crisis brought the two sides to war, however, it was perhaps not the most consequential effect of Khrushchev's reading of Kennedy's weakness. Persuaded that he needed further to demonstrate "fearlessness and backbone," in the words of William Manchester, Kennedy observed to Reston that the only place where the Communists were challenging the West in a shooting war was in Southeast Asia. Summarizing Kennedy's own evaluation of the aftermath of the Vienna conference in his 2003 biography of Kennedy, Robert Dallek writes that Kennedy "now needed to convince Khrushchev that he could not be pushed around, and the best place currently to make U.S. power credible seemed to be in Vietnam."

In short, the Vienna conference resolved no issue between the United States and the Soviet Union. On the contrary, if anything, it precipitated crises that were resolved through the display and use of military force.

What harm can possibly come of a meeting between enemies? There are many, like Obama, who say that no harm can come from talking. To paraphrase JFK's June 1963 Berlin speech, let them come to study the Vienna conference.

It has become obvious in a very short period of time that Senator Obama attended some very fine schools and learned almost nothing of American history.  He has, however, hung out with radicals for the past few decades, and their view of America and its history has sunk in, leaving Obama not only gaffe-prone, but wholly unprepared to be the Commander-in-Chief.  He's a product of his years and years in the Chicago machine with its nonsensical view of why things are the way they are and how the county and the economy works.  This takes us back to the Rev. Wright and Obama's two decades of listening to and reading the pastor's worldview, and before that to his college years in California and New York, and working as a "community organizer" in Chicago.  Senator Obama has lived his entire life in places where the distorted history of left-wing radicalism prevailed, and the consequences of this long immersion in pseudo-history and pseudo-economics are easy to see and will be disqualifying for most voters.

Obama's success at Harvard Law has persuaded most credential-driven MSMers that he is very, very smart, but a facility with the ways of law school and law exam test taking do not an educated man make.  Because legal education values certain skills, success at it says almost nothing about a law student's wisdom or grasp of history.  What is becoming obvious is that Senator Obama simply doesn't know a lot of what we take for granted in presidential nominees --an understanding of how America came to be and why it is so special, so exceptional.

UPDATE: Dean Barnett is reaching the same conclusion.