I didn't care for the sneering smirk, myself.

Reminds me of a woman scorned, "I'll show him!"

Petty stuff. Wright lost my ear, for now anyway.

I agree with you, destor. Obama needs to ignore Mrs. Clinton on the Wright "issue" (first, because he CAN, and second, because the Clintons have their own association with the Reverend, which nobody seems to ever talk about). And I think Obama (or his surrogates) can fairly well counter attacks from the Republican right by playing up the Hagee issue with McCain.

Wright is a little out there. And he is obviously enjoying his moment in the sun. But Hagee is really much worse. And the difference is that McCain sought Hagee's endorsement, and by doing so, McCain is endorsing Hagee's political positions. Obama's association with Wright is not political.

-- ARG

I'm sick to death of all the shark-jumping narcissistic 60s ex-radicals who never accomplished a damn thing of lasting value (very much unlike, say, TUCC and its massive good works) and who now try to decree that nobody should be a radical after them. Quite frankly I like Wright better than I like Obama, and a whole hell of a lot better than I like Gitlin.

As to the Wright "issue", by the fall it will be so overexposed that it'll be completely useless to McCain. Gee, how sad.

Clinton supporters might want to be very, very careful about guilt by association. Glass houses, stones and all that.

"Obama is blameless in this, totally."

Although I think it is fair to point to the "political" aspects with respect to the manner in which Obama tried to balance his relationship with Wright and his church with his candidate responsibilities, I agree with you 100 percent that Senator Obama is now getting the shaft, and unfairly so. He's not my first choice, but I'll be damned if I am going to base my vote on the Senator's choice of church and/or pastor. I don't buy the nonsense Wright peddles that he is a reflection of black churches in the aggregate, I believe that Obama exploited the church for his own political aspirations, but I know of very few politicians who have not done t he same thing (including Bill and my candidate Hillary Clinton).

I will say that, although Obama fans might not want to hear my take on things, I genuinely believe that the Wright story will have minimal impact in the upcoming primaries and is unlikely to sway too many supers. I think it may, I repeat may, hold down Obama's victory margin in NC a bit and it is likely to help Clinton in Indiana a bit, but I have always believed that Indiana will go to Clinton.

In the general election, Wright is probably going to make things more difficult for Obama, but as an observer of presidential elections over the past 30 years, I submit that if Wright wasn't around there would be something else. It's the way the game is played. If I'm Obama I forge ahead, I talk about jobs and gasoline, and I look like I feel your pain.

America is in deep doo-doo because of its long-running immoral policies. Along comes a pastor who calls the government out on it, and a presidential contender says he's wrong. I don't buy it.

For too long the US has been crippled by political pastors, the Billy Grahams who pandered to Tricky Dick and the like. Now we have a pastor, one with military experience no less, who calls it the way it is.

The First Amendment in the USA separates church and state, but people still want to combine them. A huge banner on a church near me states: "One Nation Under God, Indivisible" The clear implication is that the US and God are indivisible. Baloney. We have watched presidential candidates being grilled on their religious beliefs, in clear denial of the Constitution which states that there should be no religious test for office in the US. It's wrong to expect God and his followers to pledge allegiance to the USA in a church.

Reverend Wright is not a politician, that's clear. His calling is not to make politicians look good, but to deliver the word of his God. For heaven's sakes, let him do it. Don't put a leash on Reverend Wright; he is a patriot and we need him in Gitlin's "Big Tent."

As for what Obama should do, here's another test of his self-promoted judgment. If he does the (w)right thing he will separate politics and religion. If he does the wrong thing he will make nation and church indivisible.

My sense is that a lot of people are beginning to feel sorry for Obama in this mess. At some point the Wright affair becomes a sort of Roger Clinton or Billy Carter problem. Wright is clearly an embarrassment on several levels, but there are limits to how far Obama can go in the denunciations of old friends and former mentors without becoming a total scumbag. And I think most observers are mature enough to recognize this, and empathize with Obama's bind.

Obama has already said in about as many ways as he can how many of Wright's statements he opposes. He has tried to be polite and graceful about this, and avoid unduly embarrassing Wright. But Wright is miffed by the rejection, which is somewhat understandable, and he wants some attention. He also appears to be a bit of a ham. Can't the American public just sort of move on and stop obsessing about this man? And why Wright? Must Obama also reject and denounce every Harvard law professor in whose classes he sat, and who holds politically objectionable views, but to whom Obama might owe his knowledge of torts or criminal procedure?

I saw the generally civil, but impossibly white, David Gergen opining about this last night. My sense is that until Obama scrubs his skin, scrapes off all the pigment, and denounces and divests himself of every conceivable embarrassing tie with the black Chicago community from which he comes, and where he began his career of public service, some people won't be satisfied. But obviously he can't do that.

It turns out that bringing the divided demographic fragments of this country together into a progressive coalition is not an easy thing. Amazingly enough, a lot of black Americans have views and theories that a lot of white Americans strenuously reject and deplore. It is also the case that a lot of white Americans have views and theories that a lot of black Americans similarly reject and deplore. If the view is now that a progressive black politician, even one of Obama's balanced judgment and poise, cannot get anywhere in this country without cutting all of his ties to the broad black community and its many controversial figures and ideas, then the progressive aim of overcoming racial divisions is really quite hopeless.

Now is the time for all good progressives to come to the aid of the guy who is trying to do this, and vigorously resist the piling on, the hysterical fears and calls for endless denunciations.

Panic mode: Engage. This is exactly what I feared would happen.

Wright certainly could have been more diplomatic to the press, but he had no requirement to. The fact of the matter is, the man hasn't done anything wrong, and yet he has been vilified by a press that, based on these questions, hasn't done the least bit of research into the theological and cultural history of his statements or, in some cases, even listened to the full statements themselves. This is inexcusable, especially since one can listen to the bulk of the "controversial" sermons in about half an hour. This is just more evidence of two major problems in American society: our disengagement from our own history and our continued dismissal of "angry" minority dissent (i.e. black power, black nationalism, etc.) as a valid social discourse.

Check....checkmate.

Obama is boxed in. If he speaks forcefully against Wright ha will only alienate a portion of the churchgoing AAs and persuade no one who already believes that his Wright connection is toxic.

If he says nothing he is seen as weak, pandering and accepting of Wright's views as his own.

Obama is not the shrewd strategic maaster perople believe him to be. And he has shown he is not a fighter with fire in the belly. He really is unfit for the candidacy and the job.

Check...checkmate.

And the heart of the matter is lost in all the BS. I mean if there is really a heart to the matter, it would be: is Obama going to destroy America and enslave white people? Of course not. Even the Rev Wright wouldn't do that. So really, what is the big deal?

I believe Dr Zaius has nailed it.

ARG-

how aptly named you are! when I read your comment that "part of the reason I have so much hope is that Obama has been around "radicals" like Wright" I just say AAARRGGGHHHH, because it shows me why my party is going to lose--AGAIN--in November.

I think it's time for Gitlin and everyone else to take a deep breath and calm the F down.

Don't get in a tizzy over Wright appearing on the corporate news 24/7 now. It'll burn itself out over time, and in the mean time maybe people will get past the G-D-America thing and start to think about the actual racial angst that Wright expresses (that would be a benefit of a President Obama -- that is long-hidden African American voices finally able to express themselves before a national audience). Either way, even if people refuse to step forward racially, in this short-attention-span media world we live in, the corporate media will beat this story to death eventually.

Obama is on his way, regardless. Clinton has zero chance to stop him. And I don't think McCain can stop him either.

Ignoring the 30% of the country who currently support Bush, and would if it were known that he ate babies for breakfast, there is no way in hell that the American public would put up with all-Wright-all-the-time from now until November in this most important election. There's simply too many other things going on.

Fear not. This hullaballoo, this too shall pass.

This is good: Obama's going to hold a "big press conference." He does best when he speaks to the voters himself. Once you listen to him, you realize that projecting Wright's views onto him is a ridiculous excercise. He needs to remind voters who he is. He's sunken into the background over the last couple of weeks. I also think the Fox News interview was a good idea.

http://thepage.time.com/2008/04/29/obama-plans-to-address-wright-issue-at-press-conference/

Obama needs to do two things ...
1. Explain that the church he has belonged to is about more than just the pastor. It is about his community and his neighbors and that while sometimes he has disagreed with his pastor even vehemently, he was more interested in being a part of the larger community that was the church.

2. He needs to leave the church and explain that while it saddens him to leave, he cannot stand by a pastor who has mis-interpreted his message to mean that he is willing to say what it takes to be elected. He is not, and if that is what the pastor believes and is willing to tell others about both Obama and himself, then the pastor can no longer be a part of Obama's life.

It's just that simple.

I had the opposite reaction. I watched Wright's speech to the Press club and thought "this man is telling the truth". I find it highly refreshing to hear Obama and Wright speaking out to issues that politicians typically dance around or refer to in euphemistic tones. When Rev. Wright said that Obama was speaking as a politician and he as a pastor, and they are for different purposes, that Obama didn't run as a "full of the Holy Ghost" christian, but as a politician and that a pastor has a different function and obligation - this is truth. Not only truth, but a clear eyed and responsible view of the role of clergy as a completely different function than politics. Obama should not denounce Rev. Wright, nor should he embrace him. To deny that the black church's teachings taken from the bible's mandates for social justice have effected him seems to be the goal of the Clinton campaign. He should just let it pass.

Do you know why this matters so much? Because democrats can't think of a reason why it doesn't matter and shouldn't matter. Time and time again, instead of fighting back against the press and the dumbocracy of the media we not only join them we surpass them in dumbness.

Here's the thing - those vote