Reverend Jeremiah Wright might well have scuttled Barak Obama's presidential hopes. No, I take that back. Senator Obama's refusal to out and out denounce his minister's racism and overt message of hate may sink his campaign. The normally well-spoken young senator from Illinois is facing an important challenge -- one that will define him for all time.
Obama's response has been to denounce the specific statements at issue, but not the man who made them. He avers that he never heard such sentiments at any time from Rev. Wright, that Wright does a lot of good, and that because Rev. Wright was approaching retirement he saw no need to leave the congregation. [Read his statement here.] Will this be enough? Many in the MSM seem to think so, but I'm not so sure. Obama is trying desperately to preserve as many ties as possible to the radical Black community that supported his rise to power.
Power Line explains the "double game" Obama is seeking to play here.
The fault is not just with Obama. Democrats as a whole have indulged such paranoid fantasies as Rev. Wright mouths for far too long. The irresponsible willingness of party leaders, the Clintons included, to stand up to this poisonous and corrosive insanity has allowed it to flower within the Black community and some of the sillier precincts of academia. This stuff should have been exposed and denounced decades ago. One salubrious consequence of the Dems internecine conflict is that deep corruption, long concealed and ignored, is being brought to light. I suspect and hope that the Democrat Party that emerges from the current controversies will be a far better, and more honest institution than it has been heretofore.
RELATED:
Bloomberg reports that the superdelegates are breaking for Obama [here]. He has pulled almost even with Hillary.
UPDATE:
Rasmussen's latest figures show a seven percent drop in Obama's national ratings, bringing him even with Hillary, but the biggest winner seems to be John McCain, who saw sizable upticks in his ratings. What this whole rhubarb has done is to remind the nation of the nastiness that accompanies identity politics whenever it rears its ugly head, and just how very committed Democrats of all stripes seem to be to that seamy stew of bigotry and self-pity.
Read Rasmussen here.
