I'm so glad that the Wright issue is being dealt with right now

[George_Bonanza]

Obama's greatest liability was being branded as some kind of closet Black supremacist in order to scare the cowardly racists of America. Of course, he was much too nice and reasonable to be personally tagged by this poisonous label, but there was the next best thing: his pastor.

If it were up to the Republicans, they would've sprung this story before Super Tuesday (in order to give the nomination to Hillary) or in August, in the same way that Kerry got swiftboated. But never in their stupidest schemes would they have unleashed it during a 7-week halftime when Obama has at least a 65% chance of winning the nomination. It's too late to put Hillary over the top, but it's way too early to damage Obama before he can defend himself properly.

Obama has survived the worst of the faux media outrage (I'm sure they knew about Wright way back in 2007 ). Now, there is more than enough time for people to realize that Obama is no more a violent Black supremecist than the average Catholic is an enabler of pedophilia, or the average Southern Baptist is a hatemonger. Clinton's campaign could not have created a better smear against Obama, but all it has done is temporarily brought him down a little; Clinton still has not shown any kind of significant growth or improvement (her negatives remain high, and she's losing delegates every week). Nancy Pelosi's remarks show that the establishment aren't going to back Hillary just because she's Bill's wife, and the Iowa situation shows how devastating those caucuses are going to be for Hillary once they fine-tune their delegate allocation.

[polichick]

1. I agree - best to deal with it now.

[DangerDave921]

2. Repubs didn't do this

You're right. If the RW'ers released this info, it would have been in late October. The timing of this would suggest that it's Hillary's people who got this story going. She needs to knock Obama down a few pegs to give her some hope of converting superDelegates to her side.

[democrattotheend]

6. I honestly think the Obama camp might have leaked this

They knew it was going to come up and this was as good a time as any to deal with it. 5 weeks to go until the next primary, and it denies the Republicans the issue in the fall. If Clinton's team were behind it, wouldn't it make more sense for them to do it a month from now, closer to the PA primary?

[demosincebirth]

7. You don't think, if Obama is the nominee, that the RW won't bring it out again?

[Kahuna]

12. They have their own wacko ministers to deal with. nt

[loveangelc]

8. I do not think Hillary did this.

[styersc]

3. Do you really think that the minority of racists in the nation needed

an excuse to vote against Obama? Or HIllary for that matter?

[Blue-Jay]

4. First he wasn't "black enough", now he's "too black".

I'm starting to get confused.

[angie_love]

5. I agree. Good thing its out now. Although I wish it never was out at all

but thats not realistic.

[Johnny__Motown]

9. If this kills the Muslim lie it could end up being a plus, in the long run

and still 6 weeks till PA votes

[GoldieAZ49]

10. Actually the timing of this is just perfect for the GOP

Obama has the majority of votes and most likely Hillary cannot over take that lead.

The party is divided along race and gender lines, the DNC cannot 'give' the nomination to Hillary on electability with destroying the party.


With Obama as the nominee they can use this and whatever else they come up with before November, this all goes to TRUST, all they have to create is doubt and they win a landslide.


They NEED a landslide (and so do we) so the next POTUS doesn't have it hanging over their head that the race was close.

[Kahuna]

11. It's definately better to get it out now. I've been thinking about then

ugly things Rev Wright has said and it leaves me utterly disgusted. I've belonged to black churches and have never ever heard a pastor speak that way. I guess Chicago is different.

[nsd]

13. I agree completely.

This has been a tough week, but I think this story is just about played out (in the real world -- in the blogosphere it'll probably keep going for some time to come). Obama has a chance tomorrow to use his speech to pivot off this controversy in a good direction, by reminding people of his (and their) desire to move America away from identity politics and racial division.

The general election is still nearly 7 months away. That's plenty of time for Americans to get to know the real Obama: even-tempered, tolerant, open-minded.

[grantcart]

14. I have been saying so since last week. let it go 24 hours a day

At the dog park people know that I am the Obama guy and somebody brought it up. They all thought he handled it well and every single one of them said they had sat through sermons where their pastor said some crazy thing.

People like their ministers but there is a naturual American mistrust of anyone who wants to spend all of their time being a preacher and thinking and talking about God all of the time..

His greatest liability was being misunderstood as a Muslim. Now he gets a chance to talk about Jesus and calm everyone down.

He is going to have more airtime talking about his religion than Clinton and McCain combined. People are going to see a family man that goes to church. That's really enough for 95% of the electorate.

[KoKo]

15. Just wait until every one of Rev. Wright's "Sound Bytes" are in Repug Commercials and

the "sub-groups" who fund the SwiftBoat type stuff. All those Think Tanks, 527-C's, and "Special Interest Groups" will have Obama as an Afrro-Centrist in his viewpoint in an eyeblink.

If they did what they did to a War Hero like John Kerry as opposed to a "Chicken Hawk" like Chimp who was MIA for part of his National Guard Service ...and who got training to fly planes...but almost crashed the only one he took flight in...then YOU KNOW...what they will do to Obama.

[DangerDave921]

16. Thank McCain Feingold

Remember how that law was supposed to get the money out of politics? Oops. Now all the money goes to these organizations that do all the dirty work, no limit. I'd rather the money go directly to the candidate.