(04-02-2012 10:02 AM)BlazerFan11 Wrote:  

(04-01-2012 02:57 PM)Max Power Wrote:  Honestly I think Obama's choice of church is a political calculation as well, because it was a very large church in his senate district. This is all stuff smart people do when they intend to run for office. Join the Rotary Club, NRA (if you're on the right), Knight of Columbus (if it's a big Catholic district).... all sh!t smart aspiring pols do. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just how it is.

Except that the two had a relationship well before he ever ran for Senate.

Quote:The sign stayed until the end of apartheid, --long enough to catch the eye of a young Barack Obama, who visited the church in 1985 as a community activist. Obama, was not a churchgoer at the time, but he found himself returning to the sanctuary of Trinity United. In Wright he had found both a spiritual mentor and a role model.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/polit...4186.story

Does that mean you're wrong, or that you believe Obama was simply planning to run for office during his time as a community organizer, instead of actually helping people like he was supposed to?

And do you think Obama's decision to have Wright perform his wedding ceremony, baptize his daughters, and name his book after one of Wright's sermons were purely due to political aspirations?

Who said he wasn't helping people? I think he may have actually believed in the community organizing, and worked with churches and established relationships that helped him reach the state senate and ultimately the presidency.

I'm not saying he's taking advantage of these organizations he joined. Hell, if you join an organization and use their resources to help you get elected to office or what have you, the organization can be grateful because of the publicity it generates. ("Yes, President George W Bush himself vomited and passed out in this pew thirty years ago!"). And I'm not saying it's purely political. Aspiring pols are a personable lot, open to meeting new acquaintances (more acquaintances, fewer friends) and averse to making enemies. It doesn't mean they see everyone as a means to an end. It just means they don't have the same motivations in making these decisions than those of us who have no interest in running for office. Again, I don't think it's right or wrong.