Wright and Obama
Reverend Jeremiah Wright may manage the impossible: sink Barack Obama
Article added on April 30, 2008 at 15:30 Naples (Italy) time
  
An African-American pastor out of control has become the Democrat's frontrunner's worst nightmare. Reverend Jeremiah Wright may manage the impossible: sink Barack Obama, if not in the Democratic nomination process, than in the November 2008 election.

Wright's sermons had become a liability some time ago. Initially, Barack Obama decided to defend his pastor of 20 years and at the same time distance himself from him. However, the key line was that Obama could not “disown” his pastor for 20 years more than his own grandmother. As for his pastor's rants, Obama was never there and never heard any of them.

That line of defense backfired. When Wright came under attack, the reverend decided to defend himself by counter attacking, without distancing himself from some of his most outrageous sermons. On the contrary, he repeated them directly and indirectly. Wright more or less openly decided to damage Obama, who had distanced himself from him, the pastor, without breaking with him.

After the new rants, the Democratic presidential candidate Obama had no other choice than to clearly break up with the reverend who brought him to the church, married him and baptized his children. Obama even titled his autobiography “audacity of hope” after one of Wright's sermons.

As it turns out, a lot of what Wright has been preaching for decades contradicts Obama's claim to be a uniter, not a divider; incidentally, George W. Bush won an election with that slogan; we know how that story ended.

Wright's attempt to sink the Obama campaign began with: “I do what pastors do. He does what politicians do”. It ended in several TV interviews and a disastrous press conference in which he repeated some of his outrageous attacks and claims, indirectly stating again that the CIA had created AIDS in order to wipe out the African American population. [Added on June 6, 2008: to be precise, Jeremiah Wright said that the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color].

John McCain has his own liabilities, among which a certain evangelical minister named John Hagee stands out. McCain can of course not be held responsible for all the endorsements he gets. However, there was no need to go and visit the nut.



Unfortunately, for Barack Obama, the Wright case is worse. Not only because of the 20 year association with Wright mentioned above - McCain has had no association with Hagee -, but also because of an article published in 2004.

On April 5, 2004 the Chicago Sun Times published an article in which Cathleen Falsani mentions three spiritual mentors of Obama: Jeremiah Wright, James Meeks and Michael Pfleger. Luckily for Obama, the senator not only said that he had “a deep faith”, but also that he is “a big believer in the separation of church and state”. Obama is never quoted as directly saying that Wright was one of his spiritual mentors. Still, his long association with a nut is a handicap.

In a press conference on April 29, 2008 Obama said about Wright: “The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago”. I am not so sure. Even if Wright was different 20 years ago, some of his rants date back several years, the one about the “chickens coming home to roost” dates back to early after 9/11.

Obama used strong language on April 29, denouncing Wright's statements as “ridiculous” and “outrageous”, although they are not new, he just repeated them. Both Wright and Obama show disrespect for each other, which may well mean that Wright will continue to seek the limelight, thus further sinking Obama's chances to become the first African-American president of the United States of America.

Luckily for Obama, the way until November is long and many things that have been said and written now will be much colder on election day.

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