Barack Obama's worst nightmare has returned, and there doesn't seem to be much he can do about it.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who's been shooting off his big mouth about how America brought the 9/11 attacks on itself among other bombastic nonsense, has clearly fallen in love the attention its brought himself, and is now milking for every cent it can bring him. Last week he kicked it off by sitting down to a softball interview with PBS' Bill Moyers, and yesterday he gave another one of those "America is the world's worst terrorist nation" speeches while hailing fellow racial inflamer Louis Farrakhan in Washington, DC. (Wright's racist spewing is well-known, so I won't recap the "highlights" here.)
It appeared that Wright crawled back into the woodwork after Obama gave his speech a few months back when he distanced himself from all of Wright's nonsensical rantings. But now, Wright's on "tour" and you know that Obama just wishes this guy would go back under the rock he crawled out from and stay there (or at least until after the general election is over). Obama is going to regret that he didn't go far enough in that speech, and didn't completely throw Wright under the bus.
Wright is serious trouble for Obama. The senator knows that the real battleground to win the presidency will be which candidate does best among Conservative Democrats and Independents, the two groups who ultimately decide who gets the office. Obama's numbers are declining among them in states like North Carolina and Indiana, which are having primaries soon. He and his advisors are in a real quandry over this.
I can't help but think of that scene in "Casino" when I think of this situation, when Robert DeNiro complains about Joe Pesci's character, that every time the press mention the gangster, they bring his name up. Obama and Wright seem to be tied together, and Obama just can't seem to shake him. (I also can't help but think that somewhere Hillary Clinton is chuckling over all of this, and that it seems like Wright is secretly on her payroll. Always remember, you count out the Clintons at your own peril.)
Wright is a racist hustler who has a book coming out just before the general election (what a surprise). If Obama is on the ticket, he will continue to be an albatross around the senator's neck, especially when his book comes out. The irony of it is that if Obama is not on the Democratic ticket in November, nobody's going to give a damn about this asshole Wright anymore. So the more he hurts Obama, and if he ultimately keeps him out of the race in November, it will end up costing him as well.
It's only fitting, so Wright can crawl back into the hole he slithered out of, and stay there.
2 comments:
I disagree (shocker). Mostly because no one should ever throw someone "under a bus" they've known for years publicly unless they've DONE something so reprehensible that it causes a vitriolic physical reaction.
Also, you'll note that you tossed Obama in there with Reverend Wright, just like you say the press does. A more apropos tie-together would be Reverend Hagee, whose support John McCain said he was "glad" to have and said about Katrina, "I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are -- were recipients of the judgment of God for that." And has called the Catholic Church "the great whore". I have a feeling independents and conservative Dems (a lot of whom are Catholic) will not much like that.
Guess this is probably why no politics at the bar is such a good idea.
McCain has his "reverend" problem, too, but Wright has been more outspoken than Hagee. I find Hagee just as offensive as Wright.
But Obama has to find a way to distance himself completely from Wright, and that won't be an easy thing to do. Fairly or unfairly, they seem to be tied together.
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