When a presidential candidate who is not known for reaching out to the media suddenly makes himself available for television and newspaper interviews, and even posts on a well known and influential website, you can bet your campaign dollar that candidate is running scared. Really scared.

Such is the case for Sen. Barack Obama, whose past story of involvement with his church pastor, and a now indicted Chicago real estate developer ,is unraveling faster that anyone could have imagined.

Money: The Root of All Political?

Either Obama has been staying up late at night with a calculator and finally pushed the equal button for a total, or he has been not telling the truth about his cozier than previously known relationship with Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the indicted and now on trial Chicago businessman, real estate magnet and apparent local political king maker.

Previously, and for a very long time now–long enough for him to have figured out the actually amount, it would seem–Obama claimed that over the ocurse of several years and a number of campaigns, Rezko had contributed about $50 or maybe $60 thousand dollars. A substantial sum to be sure, but not really over the top by contemporary fund raising standards.

Oops! Sorry. Off By Only About A Quarter Of A Million

But, yesterday, Obama, in clear damage control mode, talked with the Chicago Tribune and another hometown daily and revealed that his pal had raised more money than he had been reporting. A lot more. Like almost a quarter of a million dollars more!!!

He now says Ratzo Rezko actually raised something like $250,000 for “the first three offices he sought.”

I don’t know about you, but if I made a $200,000 accounting error on my checking account, I’d , at least, lose my “Platinum Customer” status with the bank.

In addition, the more Obama talks about his associating with Rezko, the more his story changes; the deeper their relationship now appears to be.

A question of judgment

Obama has repeatedly slammed Hillary Clinton for lacking judgment by voting in the Senate for a measure that indirectly helped George W. Bush invade Iraq some five years ago.

But, what about Obama’s own judgment?

He tells the Tribune that voters should look at his dealing with Rizko as ” a mistake in not seeing the potential conflicts of interests.” Rezko is in legal hot water, by the way, for some questionable political dealings in Chicago, the city that all but invented the concept of “questionable political dealings”–In 1960, for example, many dead people in Chicago managed to pull the lever for John F. Kennedy, the choice of the city’s political machine, thus giving J.F.K a margin needed to defeat Richard M. Nixon. See how it works?

Obama & The Wrong Rev. Wright–Something Stinks To High Heaven

On now to what is certainly the more troubling relationship Obama has- that with the long time pastor of his church, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

For years, certainly more than a decade, the Rev. Wright has preached a gospel of pure hate–in one now infamous sermon, going so far as to say that “God bless America” ought to be replaced with “God damn America!”

I don’t know, what would Jesus say about that?

Wright also claimed the AIDS virus was designed by the U.S. as a way to keep the black community in the U.S., indeed, the world, suppressed. That the U.S. was a mass killer.

I don’t know, what would Jesus say about that?

The most wrong Rev. Wright, whose oratory skills are exceeded by few, except, perhaps, Adolf Hitler, who also had a lot of nutty things to preach about, for years ranted about how the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were some sort of Divine retribution for America’s involvement in the Middle East, strongly suggesting that this country deserved such a warped punishment.

I don’t know, what would Jesus say about that?

Well, I can’t tell you what Jesus would have said about all of this. But, I can tell you what Barack Obama has said about all that–until pretty much yesterday!

Nothing!

Should Obama Get His Hearing Checked?Obama, who considers Wright a mentor, whose book title comes from one of Wright’s sermons, and whose children were baptized by this hate-filled, fear mongering apostle of evil, claims he was totally unaware of these and other comments until recently.

So, Obama decided yesterday to explain himself to the Huffington Post.

He said he disagrees and strongly condemns Wright’s “statements” but doesn’t say exactly which ones in specific terms.

He says Wright’s statements are “so contrary to my own life and beliefs,” yet has attended a church, Trinity United Church of Christ, for some 20 years now.

Obama says, in careful lawyer-like fashion, that “the statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation.”

Even if you believe that Obama, over a 20 year span, never heard Wright give the kinds of sermons he has now become infamous for, can one really believe that over a 20 year span, Obama never even once heard about what Wright had been preaching in the church he was attending?

Obama clearly thinks people are stupid; perhaps they are. But, can they be THAT stupid to swallow this nonsense?

Washing His Hands Clean

Obama says that because Wright is now retiring, he will continue to attend the Chicago church. I would think he’d want to distance himself from it as far as possible now that Wright’s venom has spewed out like a Dragon’s flamed breath, covering the church’s walls and pews with a foul stink that reaches to heaven–or in Wright’s case, perhaps, the other place?– itself.

Will Wright Be Obama’s White House Pastor?

Fair question here. Should Obama get nominated as the Democratic Party nominee and then get elected President of the United States of America, will he invite Rev. Wright to his swearing in ceremony? Will he invite Rev. Wright to the White House reception? Will he invite Rev. Wright to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom? Will he invite Rev. Wright to be his personal pastor in times of national, personal and spiritual trouble? Will he invite Rev. Wright to the very heart of the nation that the Rev. Wright says ought to be damned?

Obama has a problem; two problems. And, if he becomes President, so do we!