Obama has finally had enough of Rev. Wright
On Tuesday, Barack Obama went far further than he had previously in distancing himself from Jeremiah Wright, presenting his former pastor’s recent behaviour as the antithesis of his campaign. But it is hard to imagine that this is the end of the issue.
On Tuesday, Barack Obama went far further than he had previously in distancing himself from Jeremiah Wright, presenting his former pastor’s recent behaviour as the antithesis of his campaign. But it is hard to imagine that this is the end of the issue.
At a press conference in North Carolina, Obama’ denounced’ Wright’s recent statements and admitted that he did not know him as well as he thought he did. He did not, though, denounce Wright the man.
Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club which sparked Obama’s anger was notable for Wright repeating his most incendiary comments in short order and arguing that Obama’s earlier denouncing of these statements was a product of politics. Wright must have known the damage he was doing to Obama but went ahead anyway. Obama feels understandably felt let down by Wright’s behaviour.
The problem for Obama is magnified by the fact that Wright is someone who Obama introduced to the American people. The role he plays in Obama’s book, the fact he married him and his wife and baptised their children and that Wright and Obama prayed together the morning he announced his candidacy for president means that Obama cannot simply denounce the comments and move on.
It is inconceivable that Obama did not know of Wright’s views before they started receiving all this attention. Obama’s response that he did not ‘vet’ his pastor doesn’t answer this question. I’ve always thought that Obama accepted Wright because he did not feel that as the son of a white mother and the product of elite education he had the credibility to challenge Wright, who lived through the civil rights movement, on these racially charged issues. But at the moment we simply don’t know why Obama was happy to have as his pastor someone whose views he now feels ‘rightly offend all Americans, and should be denounced’. Until Obama explains this paradox, the issue won’t go away. Indeed, in this case’s Obama’s newness to the political scene is actually a disadvantage. The public’s view of him is not well enough established for him to be confident that he can just ride out this storm.
The tragedy of this episode is that Obama has such potential to be a racially unifying force. His speeches show that he is not interested in perpetuating old divisions but now thanks to his acceptance of a man who appears to relish these divisions, his message is being compromised.
Spare a thought in all this for Otis Moses, the new preacher at Obama’s local church. One imagines that the press will be crawling over his sermons between now and November.