Barack Obama had his chance to distance himself from Jeremiah Wright back in March. After spinning through three different and contradictory reactions to his pastor's outrageous and anti-American sermons in the space of about five days, he settled on embracing the man even while disagreeing with him. Many of us rightly saw the whole process as indicative of a lack of integrity on his part.

But what it also did was inescapably bind Obama to Wright -- but as long as Wright remained in the background, there was hope that the controversy might go away.

After this past weekend, it won't. Between his Bill Moyers interview, Dalas Sermon, Detroit NAACP address, and National Press Club session, Jeremiah Wright is going to be a serious issue at least through the Democrat Convention -- and up to November, if Obama still wins the nomination.

Some, like Andrew Sullivan, are advising Obama to dump Wright completely.

But Wright's cooptation of
Obama for his own agenda - his assertion that Obama's distancing from
him is insincere - requires, in fact demands a response from Obama.

Obama needs not just to distance himself from Wright's views; he needs to
disown him at this point. Wright himself, it seems to
me, has become part of what Obama is fighting against: the boomer,
Vietnam era's obsession with its red-blue, white-black, pro and
anti-America fixations. That is not what this election needs to be
about; and Wright's massive, racially divisive and, yes, bitter provocation
requires a proportionate response.

We need a speech or statement from Obama in which he utterly repudiates this
poison, however personally difficult that may be, however damaging the
impact will be. The statement today will not do it. This is no longer about cynics trying to associate one
man's politics with another. It is  now about Wright attempting to
associate himself and some of his noxious, stupid, rancid views with the likely
Democratic nominee. Wright has given Obama no choice - and he has also
given him another opportunity. He needs to
seize it.

I respectfully disagree.

Barack Obama had his chance to denounce, renounce, and repudiate Jeremiah Wright. Unfortunately for him, that opportunity was some six or seven weeks ago, when he made his overly-hyped speech on race. And I stated at the time, his failure to quit Trinity UCC and sever his relationship with Jeremiah Wright was a profound error. To do so now would be to prove Wright's words in the Moyers interview, that Obama is nothing but a politician doing what politicians do to get elected. As such, Barack Obama is permanetly -- and perhaps fatally -- damaged as a presidential candidate.

Posted by: Greg at 10:40 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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