RUSH: Geraldine Ferraro is still on the warpath. She is livid at Barack Obama. ‘Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro said Wednesday that she objected to the comparison Sen. Barack Obama drew between her and his former pastor in his speech on race relations Tuesday. In the speech, Obama sought to place the inflammatory remarks of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a broader context, in part by placing them on a continuum with Ferraro’s recent remark to the Daily Breeze that Obama is ‘lucky’ to be black,’ which is not exactly what she said. She said that if he were not a black man, he wouldn’t be at this point in the presidential campaign. So Ferraro, of course she had to resign in disgrace, and she went down firing both barrels, and she’s still doing so. She said this: ‘To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable. He gave a very good speech on race relations, but he did not address the fact that this man is up there spewing hatred.’ That’s exactly right. This was not even about race. Jeremiah Wright is about anti-American hatred and separatism from the pulpit. I haven’t seen this anywhere else, but I was in the midst of show prep this morning, diligently working, getting ready for today’s program, and I saw a little crawl go across the TV screen that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is about to be honored by somebody for 40 years of distinguished service in his ministry. I’m still trying to find details.
Well, Geraldine Ferraro is still not happy, and still, ladies and gentlemen, properly characterizing Reverend Wright as a hatemonger. Now, the Drive-Bys are doing everything they can to save Barack Obama’s campaign, make no mistake about it. The Drive-Bys are in the tank for Obama, and they’re doing everything they can to extricate him. One of the techniques here is to say, ‘You know, this guy, Reverend Wright, why, he’s no different than Rush Limbaugh and all these right-wing talk radio people.’ Tuesday night, Anderson Cooper 180, CNN, fill-in host Campbell Brown spoke with Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, and her question, ‘He knew how controversial Reverend Wright’s views are. Why did Obama seem so surprised when they became public and this turned into such furor?’
PATRICK: It reminds me a little bit of that wonderful saying of I think it was Louis Pasteur, [sic] that ‘education is learning to listen to anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.’ There are candidates I’m sure who listen to the most virulent of the conservative radio talk show hosts. I know occasionally my wife listens to that stuff while she’s driving in the car, but it doesn’t mean that she accepts those points of view.
RUSH: Yeah, so it’s a moral equivalence here that they’re trying to establish, which everybody who listens to this program knows is frankly absurd. Suzanne Malveaux was on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer last night on CNN, and we have a little montage of her. She basically makes the same point.
MALVEAUX: On the table black anger, white resentment, and its expression behind closed doors.
OBAMA: That anger may not get expressed in public in front of white coworkers or white friends, but it does find voice in the barbershop, or the beauty shop, around the kitchen table. A similar anger exists within segments the white community.
MALVEAUX: That anger among a host of other emotions is now being unleashed, including conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh who took on Obama’s comments regarding the challenges of growing up biracial.
RUSH ARCHIVE: He has to trash his grandmother for being a racist because it’s part of who he is. No, it’s not. He’s trying to tell us he knows so much hatred and so much racial bias and so much segregation that he’s the guy to fix it, when he is the agent, not the agent of the healing, he’s the product of healing.
MALVEAUX: The question remains whether Obama’s call to seriously deal with America’s racism will be answered.
RUSH: His call! We’ve been asked to deal with this for my whole adult life, and every time I hear ‘we need to have a conversation on race.’ The racial progress that’s being made in this country is undeniable, and Obama’s candidacy is one of the many examples of it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: It is Texas Christian University’s Brite Divinity School that will honor Obama’s ‘fiery pastor’ Jeremiah Wright. The story is in the Dallas Morning News. ‘Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth is sticking by a decision to honor Jeremiah Wright, despite controversy over his pulpit rhetoric and relationship with Barack Obama. Texas Christian University decided months ago to salute Dr. Wright at an event later this month for his long career in the ministry.’ Congratulations, Dr. Wright. I think it’s fabulous. I think the more this guy is recognized for his great work, the more Operation Chaos will be effective.