Wright's Gift Is To McCain, Not Clinton

I have waited a few days to comment on the reemergence of Jeremiah Wright into the Democratic campaign schematic. When I first watched Wright's comments on Monday, April 28th at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., something strange happened to me. I first discovered there was a new Wright splash by reading a news article from a Google search for "Barack Obama," something I do daily. Reading the headlines, it started to dawn on me, This is serious. As I read further, I realized I needed to go find the video and watch it, hear the tone of voice, see the body language, make a judgment on my own before I read much more opinion. I am skeptical of all news, I needed to see it for myself.

As I watched the video, I realized I had that sinking feeling you get when something terrible has happened. My hands were shaking. I thought to myself, Why am I reacting like this? Answers started to race through my head, but ultimately I realized I was reacting to Wright's hostility, and to the naked hatred toward America, toward white people, even toward Barack Obama. Wright was speaking with the ire of the betrayed, but the person he was betraying was himself. Any damage control his week long speaking tour had done was annihilated.

I immediately thought to myself, Why would he do it?

This was an unequivocal condemnation of Barack Obama, and an absolutely no doubt reaffirmation of the worst case reality of who Wright is, and what his beliefs are. Simultaneously I realized, no matter how Obama handles it, there can be no good result for him. Rev. Wright drew a line in the sand. Was this the "sea changer" everyone has been waiting for, that everyone said could never happen? There are very good reasons to be confident in Obama's ability to overcome adversity on the campaign trail. However, the Wright blow may have been the knockout Clinton can't seem to score. Immediately, headlines started calling it a "gift to Clinton" and asking, Is Wright Working For Clinton? I say, if it was a gift to anyone, it was to McCain and to the GOP, who had already dealt a low blow with race baiting ads. Clinton was already pulling ahead of both McCain and Obama in national and state level head to heads before the Wright explosion. Poll results that include April 28th are when Obama started to slip behind McCain, which tells me the GOP made the real gain from it.

The conclusion I came to was this: maybe Wright thinks it would be better for his cause if Obama lost, even if that means McCain would win. Race baiting works both ways. Maybe inflaming the race controversy is what Wright wants. I believe we can agree that race inequality is still a major problem in America. It is wrong to assume Obama and Wright have the same mission. Obama is running for President. Wright is a black advocate who has dedicated his life to the African American community. Yes, he's angry, inflammatory and divisive, and you can't really blame him. But this means he has different priorities, and maybe the crash and burn of Obama's presidential hopes offers more pique to racial issues than electing a black man would. Obama has said, "He does not speak for me," and soundly denounced him. This gives Wright fuel in two new ways. First, he can still damn America for rejecting a black man. And, he can damn Obama for abandoning his church and say, "If he had stuck with us..." I have not been able to find any new polls, but I guarantee this is going to cost Obama some of the black vote on Tuesday. Electing a black man could easily be seen as a "good enough" gesture on the part of white America, and derail real progress. I have no doubt that Wright wishes to see greater division, greater conflict, and greater urgency added to race issues. The greater the conflict, the greater the solutions, the more serious and real it seems. Most things get worse before they get better, and I believe Wright wants it to get worse. I don't agree with him, but I think it's a valid point of view. In spite of the pretty face we put on race relations in America, there are deep racist sentiments and huge cultural divisions in our country, that are easily ignited. Revolutionaries and agitators use these tactics all the time.

Obama now faces a personal conflict that I have seen all along. He has framed himself as the post-racial candidate, the unifier, the person who can bring real change to America. I believe up to this point, he has been able to take the black vote for granted, has not had to address why, the obvious, because he is black. Now, we see him vehemently denounce the beliefs of his pastor of twenty years, but because of that long relationship, and his previous creative dodging of the issue, we have to wonder what's true. Is Wright wrong now when he was expressing valid anger before? I believe the issue for Obama is not if he agrees with Wright or not, it is that his trustworthiness has been challenged.

Up to now, Obama's honesty armor had very few dings in it, but the Wright scandal overall has cast doubt and suspicion over him. Wright completely dismissed the claim that Obama has never heard his anti-American rantings. Now, it is up to voters to decide how they feel about it, and it is hurting him. It is also hurting him at a time when Clinton is gaining, riding momentum from a six-week winning streak. This creates a perception that it's Clinton's fault, but Wright was the author of this, both times. Obama made his bed the first time around by dancing around Wright and redirecting the debate to the broader issue of race. It all seemed like a good idea at the time, it seemed Obama has shaken off the Wright problem. No such luck, as the Reverend would not be denied, and blew up the controversy exponentially, resulting in a political nuclear bomb for Obama. Wright has given validity to all other challenges to Obama's integrity, chiefly the Ayers problem. I personally find Obama's association with Ayers quite a bit more disturbing than Wright. And, the extremity of Obama's perceived "religion" is drawn into question. Ask Mitt Romney what being in an extreme religion does to a political campaign. Obama just got blacker to white people and whiter to black people. It's a very serious problem, and one that I am not sure his campaign knows how to handle. It also represents the first serious stumbling point for his campaign strategists and PR team, who have been genius up to this point.

Is it over for Barack? I don't know, but I do know it is very bad news, and another bad week for the Illinois senator. He may still win the Democratic nomination, but the presidency? That picture is getting very bleak. On Tuesday when North Carolina and Indiana go to the polls, we'll see for sure. The results and the exit polls will tell the tale, as pollsters and pundits have been unable to do. I am withholding any predictions for the time being.