Opinion: Meyers talking about Obama gets people talking about Meyers

Hello, Talk about missing the point, i think your comments are way off base and insulting to many folks who ‘herd’ a different postive message. Thank youEd FaubertMeyers is right. Obama blew it. As a presidential candidate, his speech did miss the mark and by that measure proves he is a man whose depth is too shallow to be president. He is obviously captured in the socio/political black bigotry exemplied by Wright that seeks crutches and excuses while condeming America. As a ‘genetic Republican’ I believe it will be a great crime if Obama and not Clinton is the Democrats standard barrier. That action places the country at risk considering the possibility that he could be elected. Otis Page Arroyo Grande Dear Editor: Mr. Meyer’s opinion that Obama Blew It with his speech on race is correct. Mr Meyers should be a speech writer for Obama. But, then Obama doesn’t believe in his own message because he never walked the talk. Our culture is so enamored by speeches and words, and sermons. But after all the talk and great phrases, I ask, what has this person done to give credence to his/her words. St. Francis never gave sermons, he just gave living examples of what he believed. He put flesh to the word. This is my main gripe with Obama and his fine sounding words. In scripture there’s a phrase by Jesus, ‘ Not all those who say Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom, but those who do the will of My Father’. In Obama’s speech he attempts to give moral equivalence to his White Grandmother’s fear of blacks and of her saying some inflammatory remarks about Blacks, He goes on to say, should I then renounce my Grandmother. To try and make his Grandmother’s remarks the moral equivalent with Pastor’s Wright is false. The Pastor was speaking in church publicly to many people. His Grandmother was speaking to him privately. This is typical of a man with no experience to back up his fine words, and then resorts to weak arguments to make his point. So, Mr Meyer, you wished he could have said the things you offered in your column. But Obama could never do that because he doesn’t believe it. Does it strike anyone that the two themes of Obama’s message -- 1. Time for a Change, and 2. Coming together as One -- have been used time and time again as political rhetoric. Every new administration runs on Change. The coming together as One is nothing but a slogan. All that is needed is bipartisanship and/or a veto congress to get things done. Obama’s one claim of experience is as a Community Organizer. You have to hand it to him, he’s taken this one experience and his oratory and will almost become President of the U.S. One last thing Senator Kerry made a brilliant statement today. He said, I’m paraphrasing now, Obama can unite the country because he is Black and will encourage the moderate muslims because he is black. Talk about playing the Race Card and why Senator Kerry has endorsed Obama. This alone should make the uncommitted Super Delegates think twice before endorsing Obama. Yes, Mr Meyers, Obama Blew it. John L CerratoRockville Centre, NY Not since Niall Ferguson’s response to Harold Pinter’s Nobel Acceptance Speech, that you published in December 2005 (you published the response, not the speech), have I read a more gross misrepresentation and misinterpretaion of a person’s words. Meyers cherry-picks the speech Obama delivered, and seems to intentionally miscontrue Obama’s words in an apparent attempt to mislead and misinform the newspaper-reading public. As I did in 2005 in regard to the Ferguson article, I plead with your readers to go straight to the source - read or view the speech before judging it, do not rely on a misleading criticism. And I request that the latimes editorial staff make some effort to hold their guest writers to at least a minimal degree of accountability. Even op-ed pieces need to be held accountable or else they become mere propaganda.joe stanfordvenice Letter to the editor; Michael Meyers writes (“Obama blew it,” Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2008), “We and our leaders -- especially our candidates for the highest office in the land -- must repudiate all forms of racial idiocy and sexism, and be judged by whether we still belong to exclusionary or hateful groups.” Barack Obama did, but apparently it was not forecuflle enough to suit Meyers---Obama neither being black enough, nor forceful enough, not Uncle Tom enough? On NPR “Talk of the Nation” Meyers criticized Obama, suggesting that he nuanced the displays of bigotry made by his minister. I did not think that Obama did---at least not as much as Myers has nuanced his brave new attacks of racial bigotry---Meyers ignores the blatantly bigoted comments on right-wing talk radio and Fox, and finds fault with a guy the is struggling to make a difference. “In my considered judgment,” when all is said in done, Barack Obama will have made more of a difference in advancing better race relations by simply running for the presidency than Michael Meyers will do by shooting off his “considerate” mouth for the rest of his life. Who the hell needs nuance when bigots have someone like Meyers giving them cover from which to spread their attacks on Obama or “racial idiocy?” Although Meyers divulged that he is black and that he had heroically canceled his membership in 100 Black Men of America Inc., I have no reason to nuance my own position by divulging the color of my skin. Does Meyers know when he will appear on Bill O’Reilly’s no spin zone? Sam OsborneWest Branch Regarding your ‘Obama blew It’ article. I believe that Obama was saying what you profess, but he understands that unless we acknowledge the history first we cannot understand the present, and then move on to the future. I have heard so many say he should have just disowned his pastor. Had he always just run away, or if he had disassociated himself with everyone who carries the baggage his pastor does, he could never have been in the position of understanding he is now to be able to lead us forward. His speech was just the first step...together we will get where you are. It is a journey worth the pain...and as I have emailed to Bill Press, Peter King, Pat Buchanan, Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson, I would like you to read it too. Thank you. Regarding your call for Barack Obama to disown his pastor. I refer you to Luke 6:37 ‘Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not and ye shall not be condemned: forgive and ye shall be forgiven:’ Perhaps Obama is following those words from Jesus! John 8:7 He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. Perhaps you missed the sermons where these words were spoken? Jim and Ginny