Stanley Kurtz is out with a devastating piece in the May 19 issue of The Weekly Standard in which he proves it is impossible that Barack Obama is telling the truth about what he knew of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's radical anti-American philosophy. Obama has acted as if he is shocked by what Jeremiah Wright said about the United States, and how he acted at The National Press Club last month. Yet, Kurtz proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Obama had to know for years and years of Wright's radical views and felt comfortable enough with those views to remain in the church - even to this day. Here is the first part of Kurtz's article:

To the question of the moment--What did Barack Obama know and when did he know it?--I answer, Obama knew everything, and he's known it for ages. Far from succumbing to surprise and shock after Jeremiah Wright's disastrous performance at the National Press Club, Barack Obama must have long been aware of his pastor's political radicalism. A careful reading of nearly a year's worth of Trumpet Newsmagazine, Wright's glossy national "lifestyle magazine for the socially conscious," makes it next to impossible to conclude otherwise.

Wright founded Trumpet Newsmagazine in 1982 as a "church newspaper"--primarily for his own congregation, one gathers--to "preach a message of social justice to those who might not hear it in worship service." So Obama's presence at sermons is not the only measure of his knowledge of Wright's views. Glance through even a single issue of Trumpet, and Wright's radical politics are everywhere--in the pictures, the headlines, the highlighted quotations, and above all in the articles themselves. It seems inconceivable that, in 20 years, Obama would never have picked up a copy of Trumpet. In fact, Obama himself graced the cover at least once (although efforts to obtain that issue from the publisher or Obama's interview with the magazine from his campaign were unsuccessful).  read more »