It's hard to overstate how depressing it has been covering the reemergence today of Rev. Jeremiah Wright at the National Press Club.
It has been depressing to see the Obama campaign go through more "Wrightgate" in the wake of "Bittergate", and the loss of Pennsylvania. Obviously, this is the last thing in the world they needed.
It has been enraging to watch the news media obsess so deeply over the words of a man who is not even running for office, and then associate those words and positions with Sen. Obama—a man who has never uttered publicly any of those words or ideas, nor taken publicly any of those positions. It has been even more infuriating to hear a blowhard like Chris Matthews ask aloud "why won't the reverend just go away", then devote the entire hour of Hardball to picking over his every word. This, naturally, has been the reflex position of the entire political elite the last 24 hours.
It must be downright surreal for the Obama campaign to watch someone utterly out of their control pop off to the news media whatever he feels like saying, whenever he gets the urge, and then have the same media gallop over to Barack and demand an explanation.
More than anything, though, to have watched Barack Obama go to great pains several weeks ago to defend the character of the man he once called pastor, only to have Jeremiah Wright stab him in the back today with the following comments, was the most galling moment of all.
When Wright was asked today about his original remark that 9/11 was "America's chickens coming home to roost", rather than offer the sound foreign policy theory of blowback to explain, he used the Bible: "You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic divisive principles."
On his feelings toward Farrakhan: "He is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century; that's what I think about him. I said, as I said on Bill Moyers, when Louis Farrakhan speaks it's like E.F. Hutton speaks."
Not to stop there, he dragged all African-Americans down that road with him. "All black America listens." Really? So now Jeremiah Wright speaks for all black America?
On his theory that the U.S. Government gave AIDS to black people: "Have you read Horowitz's book 'Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola'? Whoever wrote that question, have you read 'Medical Apartheid'? You've read it?" No, we haven't.
On the sincerity of Barack Obama's disowning of Wright's controversial remarks: "He didn't distance himself. He had to distance himself, because he's a politician..."
On his personal loyalty to Barack Obama: "If you get elected, November the 5th I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people."
I don't agree with the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, or the National Review, that this event may have doomed Obama's candidacy. I do believe, however, that it may have doomed his chances to win the Indiana primary—one that until today was essentially a dead heat. It also threatens to seriously tighten his popular vote margin in North Carolina.
I confess I don't know exactly where I stand on the near-unanimous media opinion that Obama's only escape from the newest controversy is to completely disavow Wright, once and for all.
I think there is a good point to be made that Wright's narcissistic rant today was a public betrayal of Obama, thereby providing a fair pretext for a disavowal. I believe there is an even stronger argument that since Wright has insinuated Obama is faking his distance from the controversial statements, this requires the senator to directly refute Wright, publicly and immediately. Obama certainly can't have anyone close to him—especially his former pastor—continue to give interviews telling everyone not to really believe Obama means what he says.
On the other hand, I get pretty nauseous when the media starts dictating to public figures whom they are and aren't allowed to associate with. Let's call it what it is: blackmail. The MSM is saying to Obama, "you can make this easier on yourself if you play by our rules, and cut Wright loose. Otherwise, we will hound you day in and day out with this until you drop out of the race." Not included in the threat is the obvious fact, of course, that nothing Obama says or does will ever shut the media up about Rev. Wright anyway. So, what's the point?
Also, wouldn't it look deeply political for Obama to kick Wright to the curb at the very moment the minister is causing him the most damage? And didn't Obama himself say "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother"? You can just see the tabloid headline: "Obama Disses Wright; Granny Takes The Hint, Packs Her Bags".
I don't really know what Obama should do, though the thought of Barack having to cough up yet another mesmerizing "race" speech to get himself out of yet another jam certainly isn't appealing. I do however, have a question for Rev. Wright.
You're obviously an intelligent man, Reverend, who I surprisingly find a lot in common with ideologically, although I believe your leftist politics are of a more conspiratorial strain than my own. This blog has defended you more than once in the past. It is also obvious that you care passionately and profoundly about the African-American community you have dedicated your life to serving. With these two truths in mind, the obvious question surfaces:
Why are you knee-capping the first viable African-American presidential candidate in our nation's history?
"It is an injustice, a legacy of the racist threads of this nation’s history, but prominent African-Americans are regularly called upon to explain or repudiate what other black Americans have to say, while white public figures are rarely, if ever, handed that burden.
Senator John McCain has continued to embrace a prominent white supporter, Pastor John Hagee, whose bigotry matches that of Mr. Wright. Mr. McCain has not tried hard enough to stop a race-baiting commercial — complete with video of Mr. Wright — that is being run against Mr. Obama in North Carolina." Reply to this
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