There are two things that really bothered me about Obama's speech yesterday. First, to equate what Jerimiah Wright said to what Obama's grandmother "may have said," was just low and disgusting. The things Wright said were not only bigoted and racist, they were anti-American as well. So, unless Obama's grandmother went on some public tirades in a church against the United States and tried, on a regular basis, to convince its attendees that the United States was a bad and evil place, I don't think you can really compare the two.

Second, I'm really disturbed by the double standard that is now obvious in our press today. Trent Lott was almost driven from office by the press for one statement he made about Strom Thermond, yet Obama listens to bigoted rhetoric for almost 20 years and gets a pass by that same press? I don't think so, and any fair-minded American would see the bias in that. Would the press in this country ignore a white Republican politician who belonged to a church for over 20 years that spewed out racist and anti-American hate speech? Do you really think ABC, NBC, and CBS would ignore that information? Of course not. Either Obama knew exactly what his church was all about and stayed because he thought it would be useful to his political career, or he didn't know what was going on in his own church for over 20 years, which any regular church attendee would tell you is impossible. Either way, it shows very poor judgment on Obama's part that he didn't confront this problem much earlier in the campaign. And, for a guy who is always promoting his "judgment" over Clinton's "experience," I don't think this helps him one bit.

Finally, before all you people out there start writing in saying that "Republicans do the same thing," or that "Republicans are just as bad because they're supported by the Christian Right," blah blah blah blah, let me just state for the record that I don't think ANY candidate from ANY party should be in the business of getting support or endorsements from ANY churches. If ANY one of you out there really and truly believe in the separation between church and state, you would condemn any candidate from any party groveling to any church (black or white) for their votes. To me, seeing Hillary Clinton put on a fake southern accent to pander in front of a black church is just as disgusting as seeing John McCain go speak at Falwell's church, trying to convince them that he's just as conservative as they are (but just can't say so in public). After all, churches are supposed to be places of worship, not meeting halls for political candidates. Churches should be in the business of praying, not trying to influence elections.