Obama - more reactions

Thursday, 20th March 2008

Michael Gerson thinks the Senator hasn't dispelled all the doubts about Jeremiah Wright's views - on Aids as a government plot, for instance. But Dick Morris - who knows a thing or two about hardball - believes the contender will come through, if he keeps his head:

Obama... has already won the Democratic nomination. It's over... Even if Clinton beats him by 10 points in each of these primaries, he will still lead among elected delegates by over 100. The superdelegates will not override the will of the voters unless Obama is in jail...
Wright's rantings are not reflective of Obama's views on anything. Why did he stay in the church? Because he's a black Chicago politician who comes from a mixed marriage and went to Columbia and Harvard. Suspected of not being black enough or sufficiently tied to the minority community, he needed the networking opportunities Wright afforded him in his church to get elected. If he had not risen to the top of Chicago black politics, we would never have heard of him. But obviously, he can't say that. So what should he say?
He needs to get out of this mess with subtlety, the kind Bill Clinton should have used to escape the Monica Lewinsky scandal -- but didn't. As the controversy continues, Americans will gradually realize that Obama stuck by Wright as part of a need to get ahead... As they come to realize that Obama doesn't agree with Wright but used him to get started, they will be more forgiving.
...What Obama needs not to do is to resort to the kind of Clintonian fudging that animated his interview with Keith Olbermann. By saying "I wasn't there" and "I didn't know" and "I didn't hear him say it," he will invite contempt and derision.

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