Obama thinking he could weather the Wright controversy said this last Saturday:
“But the sermons I’ve always hear were no different than the sermons
you hear in many African-American churches. I had not heard him make
such, what I consider to be objectionable remarks from the pulpit. Had I heard
them while I was in church, I would have objected. Had that been the tenor
of the church generally, I probably wouldn’t be a member of the church.”
– Senator Barack Obama, 3/15/08
Obama after he got hold of reality on Wright’s effect on his candidacy:
“Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American
domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that
could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes.”
– Senator Barack Obama, 3/18/08
What a difference a few days can make.
The reality is that Senator Obama and his campaign didn’t want to deal with Rev. Wright’s hate speech until they had to. Doing so at the height of Obama’s strength kept them from enduring the backlash during early primaries and caucuses, which would have left him weaker than he is today. Obviously the campaign knew his Democratic rivals would never raise the Wright issue. Obama deserves abounding credit for the candid speech he gave today, which also revealed the reality of a man in deep turmoil, talking about issues he didn’t want to address in a delivery that was tight and even a bit resentful, if for no other reason than his candidacy has been based on something other. The conflict between the speech he had to give and the message of his campaign showed throughout Obama’s presentation, revealing a man in deep conflict with being forced to confront issues publicly that he wanted to rise above, or maybe just wish would go away. No doubt Barack Obama wants us all to move on now. However, that’s not quite how presidential politics works.
“I can no more disown (Rev. Wright) than I can my white grandmother–a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.” – Senator Barack Obama
The inevitable surfacing of Reverend Wright’s vitriolic sermons and the fact that Barack Obama was present to hear them opens up questions about the candidate he hasn’t begun to answer. And what kind of man throws his “white grandmother” at us in such a way?
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