At first blush, it seems like a good move for Sen. Barack Obama to have officially thrown his spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright, under the proverbial bus with his speech in North Carolina yesterday. I, for one, appreciated the move and believed it long overdue.
Strategically, the denunciation of Wright made political sense. After all, Obama’s facing a couple of big primaries next Tuesday in Indiana and North Carolina, and not only was the Wright controversy lingering but it was being given new life by Wright’s recent publicity tour. Severing ties with his former pastor – finally and unambiguously – seemed like the only way to put this controversy to rest.
However…
Has anyone else noticed that Jeremiah Wright is not a quiet man? That he does not shy away from controversy? That he is, shall we say, confrontational?
I would suggest that Obama’s very public, very emphatic denunciation of Jeremiah Wright yesterday may only have made matters worse for the candidate. Obviously, Obama and Wright have had an extremely close, seemingly father-son, relationship over the years. Now, in Wright’s darkest hour, as he is being villified and condemned as one of the most objectionable figures in American life (rightfully so, I would argue), the one man who could still provide a visible public defense of Wright’s reputation has abandoned him. In Wright’s view, Obama has probably betrayed him. Of course, Obama seems to feel that Wright betrayed him first, by launching his recent PR blitz during a crucial hour in Obama’s presidential campaign.
No matter who’s right and who’s wrong in this controversy, one thing is clear: Wright is in a unique position to do damage to Barack Obama’s candidacy. And now he has a strong motive to do that damage. For example, you know those comments Wright has made recently about how Obama is a politician and he has to do what politicians do? Or that he had told Wright prior to the campaign that he’d probably have to distance himself from Wright? Well, those were the damaging comments Wright was making while still fully on Obama’s side.
If, as I strongly suspect, Wright now feels betrayed by Obama, he may very well set out to do much greater damage to Obama’s campaign. Perhaps he’ll elaborate on those cynical conversations the two allegedly had, concerning the need to distance Obama from Wright for the sake of political advantage. Perhaps Wright will bring up other conversations the two have had over the years, alleging that Obama agreed with him about, say, the government spreading AIDS or U.S. terrorism or any number of extreme positions. Perhaps Wright will allege that Obama was, in fact, in the pews of his congregation for one of Wright’s notorious sermons, contradicting Obama’s statements.
In my opinion, the question is not ‘If?’ but ‘When?’ When will Jeremiah Wright do his big interview? Hold a press conference? Write his tell-all book? When will he take revenge for what he sees as the heinous betrayal of the one man who could publicly defend his integrity when that help was most needed?
How soon until Barack Obama feels the wrath of Jeremiah Wright – and regrets the day he wrongly, naively, assumed that he could make this nightmare go away with one bold speech?
I don’t think Obama naively believes that this will just go away.
Jeremiah Wright himself made it a political necessity for Obama to cut him out altogether.
What I do think is that it gives him a fresh opportunity to lambast the media by saying, “You know what, continuing to bring this up when we have so many serious problems on our hands is a distraction, and it is a manufactured distraction, considering that I’ve gone to many lengths to repudiate said distraction. How many more times do I have to say I do not agree with him, I strongly denounce and reject his beliefs before you stop playing this game with me?”
At the risk of being obnoxious, here’s evidence that I was right on target: http://www.nypost.com/seven/04302008/news/nationalnews/rev_enge_is_sweet_for_betrayed_pastor_108791.htm
I can’t get to that link – is there a typo in it somewhere?
Here is evidence from the same Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper that, at the very least, a lot of Democratic voters don’t seem to worry too much about the issue because of all of the other critical issues they are facing.
It seems like sooner or later the Jeremiah Wright story is going to acquire a sort of fatigue and backfire on the very individuals who are trying to get as much mileage as they can out of it. I certainly hope that you are not correct that Jeremiah Wright could , but I’m not sure whether what we’ve seen this week indicates the presence of malice in his character or just pure egoism. If he doesn’t have malice, and wakes up to realize how important this campaign is, I don’t think he will do anything to try to further damage the campaign. I sure hope this is the case. But again, I’d like to see that link to see what you were pointing to.
Oops, forgot to complete the sentence: ” I certainly hope that you are not correct that Jeremiah Wright could come out with remarks to deliberately damage Obama.”
I couldn’t figure out how to get the link to post correctly in the comments section, so I just made it into a separate post.
Also, Aqueous, I could be reading you wrong, but I get the impression you’re misunderstanding my point on this. I’m not rooting for Jeremiah Wright to sabotage Obama, or for there to be damaging information for him to give. I’d actually feel bad for Obama if this race came down to that, after all he’s given to get as far as he has. I’d rather see John McCain win, but I want it to be on more substantive grounds. And not just for altruistic reasons, but also so that Democrats can’t use the same old dodge that the only Republicans win is because Democrats run flawed candidates and/or ones that get ‘Swiftboated.’
The article I linked to is not an opinion piece subject to Rupert Murdoch’s evil influence – it’s a news story quoting from what seems to be a knowledgeable source.