Trinity United Church of Christ, “days after the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic priest, mocked Obama’s Democratic rival during a sermon at Trinity United,” reports CNN. Bloggers have many questions for Obama. At Contentions, John Podhoretz says, “There’s something about this decision that raises more questions than it answers. Is Obama doing this now because he is on the verge of securing the nomination and no longer needs to worry so much about disappointing his base? Or is he worried there is more to come on YouTube from the Trinity United stage and he wants to have dissociated himself from it all beforehand?” At The Corner, Byron York asks, “Has the church somehow changed in the past few weeks from the Trinity he attended, apparently happily, for 20 years? Are ministers somehow making unacceptable statements from the pulpit that they did not make when Obama was going there earlier?” And Power Line’s John Hinderaker adds, “The question that is still left hanging, of course, is why [the sermons] didn’t offend Obama until they appeared on YouTube.” Also at The Corner, Pete Wehner says that this “is yet one more blow to Obama’s image as a different kind of politician.” Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey explains further: “If the Obamas quit TUCC, they will confirm it as a political problem, and the act won’t convince anyone that they disagree with its rhetoric. They may convince people that he only joined TUCC for its political connections in Chicago–but that doesn’t exactly reflect well on Obama, either.” Obama’s getting a reputation for throwing his friends under the bus. Jules Crittenden exclaims, “First grandma, then his preacher, how the whole darn church. All under the bus. With abandon!” And how will Obama’s latest denunciation affect his campaign? As blogger see-dubya writes at Michelle Malkin, “Whew! It’s a good thing Obama got out in front of this controversy before it started to hurt him.”
