Traction
I'm certain, by this point, Barrack Obama was counting on his "Rev. Wright Problem" having gone away. As a candidate who had spent the better part of a year (or more) being given the benefit of the doubt by the media and other, Obama was probably counting on more of the same in this situation. In this he made a horrible miscalculation, or rather, a series of horrible miscalculations. He underestimated the potential damage that could be caused by Wright's incendiary and racist rhetoric; he underestimated the ease with which he could or could not extricate himself from under Wright's shadow; he underestimated the degree to which he needed to provide a mea culpa (and, yes, none is too little); he underestimated the offense people will would take when they became aware of the extent of Wright's hate; he underestimated the potential this issue had to live far beyond the usual campaign issue shelf life. In effect, Obama was willing to bet this issue would never find "traction" beyond a small group.
Only the most blinded of Obama partisans could but see that hope has failed utterly.
It has failed so badly that even his opponent feels safe taking it on directly:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a wide-ranging interview today with Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporters and editors, said she would have left her church if her pastor made the sort of inflammatory remarks Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor made.
"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."
Obama's lead in national polls has slipped since clips of the retired Rev. Jeremiah Wright began being played on national news programs. The uproar prompted Obama to give a wide-ranging speech on race in America a week ago. The Clinton campaign has refrained from getting involved in the controversy, but Clinton herself, responding to a question, denounced what she said was "hate speech."
"You know, I spoke out against Don Imus (who was fired from his radio and television shows after making racially insensitive remarks), saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that," Clinton said. "I just think you have to speak out against that. You certainly have to do that, if not explicitly, then implicitly by getting up and moving."
Other Democrats, like Ed Koch, are also feeling free to weigh in on this matter:
Rev. Wright's sermons charge that the U.S. government gives African-Americans drugs, created AIDS and is deliberately infecting blacks with that disease. His sermons claim that the U.S. unjustifiably nuclear bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, and that 9/11 and the deaths of 3,000 Americans were caused by U.S. foreign policy. He alleges Israeli state terrorism against the Palestinians; calling Israel a "dirty word" and "racist country." He blames Israel for 9/11 and supports the divestment campaign against it, denouncing "Zionism." His venomous thoughts are summed up in his most discussed sermon in which he says the U.S. government "wants us to sing God Bless America. No, no, not God Bless America. God damn America. God damn America for killing innocent people."
Senator Obama in his speech acknowledged that the rantings of his minister are "inexcusable," but stated, "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."
Before we discuss his grandmother, let's examine the impact of Rev. Wright's statements on the Senator's two daughters. Nothing says it better than a song from the musical "South Pacific," to wit, "You have to be taught to hate and fear…You've got to be carefully taught." Few dispute that Rev. Wright's sermons are filled with hate.
Why didn't Senator Obama stand up in the church and denounce his hateful statements or, at the very least, argue privately with his minister? It was horrifying to see on a video now viewed across America the congregation rise from the pews to applaud their minister's rants.
And, most damning, this episode has given the Right the foothold they needed to dismantle the Obama "feel good" storyline brick by brick, as Thomas Sowell does with relish:
In Shelby Steele's brilliantly insightful book about Barack Obama — "A Bound Man" — it is painfully clear that Obama was one of those people seeking a racial identity that he had never really experienced in growing up in a white world. He was trying to become a convert to blackness, as it were — and, like many converts, he went overboard.
Nor has Obama changed in recent years. His voting record in the U.S. Senate is the furthest left of any Senator. There is a remarkable consistency in what Barack Obama has done over the years, despite inconsistencies in what he says.
The irony is that Obama's sudden rise politically to the level of being the leading contender for his party's presidential nomination has required him to project an entirely different persona, that of a post-racial leader who can heal divisiveness and bring us all together.
The ease with which he has accomplished this chameleon-like change, and entranced both white and black Democrats, is a tribute to the man's talent and a warning about his reliability.
There is no evidence that Obama ever sought to educate himself on the views of people on the other end of the political spectrum, much less reach out to them. He reached out from the left to the far left. That's bringing us all together?
This has all the earmarks of an unmitigated disaster, and, even at this late hour, it is an open question wether Obama gets it.
Politics | Rich Horton Tuesday, 25 March , 2008
By Gaius, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 8:02 pm
Good points, Rich. I suspect that Hillary is toast at this point, however, unless she manages a real bombshell on Obama. But there is still a lot of time to damage the Obamessiah, and I think she will do her level best to do so.
But Wright will be the gift that keeps on giving in the general election.
By Rich Horton, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 11:16 pm
I’m still expecting carnage at the convention first. It will be a veritable political junkie-gasm.
By martian, Wednesday, 26 March , 2008 @ 12:15 pm
"You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."
I never thought I would agree on much of anything with the Hildebeast, but I have to say I agree fervently with that statement. I would take it a step further, however, and say that it is shameful to equate the remarks made in private to a family member you trust (boy was Grandma’s trust misplaced!) with a public rant that is designed to incite hatred and divisiveness. The two are in no way equal!
The MSM is already starting their rehabilitation of Obama from this problem. On the news last night I believe it was Charlie Gibson giving a report on the Wright situation and at the end he casually mentioned that Obama had attended Wright’s church for "a few years". Get that? A few years? Two decades, twenty years, has now been reduced to "a few". At this rate, before the end of April the MSM will be stating authoritatively that Obama attended "a few services" at Wright’s church and barely knew the man!