Move over, Bill Clinton, there’s a new sheriff in town. His name is Reverend Jeremiah Wright and you’ve got absolutely nothin’ on his ego.
For reasons that escape logical thinking, especially that of the Obama campaign, the good reverend couldn’t see fit to leave well enough alone. Rather than show an ounce of humility or respect for his congregant (and a generous contributor to his church) and wait until…I don’t know…November 5th to defend himself, he agreed to be interviewed by Bill Moyer. OK, fine, he wanted to set the record straight. How much harm could come of that? You’d think that would have been enough to massage his bruised ego, but no. No. He had to follow that interview up with a speech to the NAACP in Detroit, where he mocked the accents of JFK and Lyndon Johnson in some kind of a lame comparison to Ebonics, and another one this morning to the National Press Club during which he waxed poetic about reconciliation while he attacked whites for being racist. Pretty ironic from where I’m sitting.
Those two speeches, during which he made absolutely no attempt to tone down his rhetoric, evidently weren’t enough to make him feel vindicated. With a team of black church leaders in the audience applauding and cheering his every crazy word, he participated in an awkward Q&A session where he strutted about like a peacock and gave perhaps the most divisive answers he could have given. With each crazy sentiment he expressed, the church leaders would burst into boisterous applause and/or laughter, causing the host of the session to ask several times for quiet. He wasted no time throwing Obama under the bus, first by accusing him of doing what he had to do “as a politician” then of accusing him of not attending church on a regular basis. It was, without a doubt, the last thing the Obama campaign wanted or needed at this point in the game.
Like it or not, the Reverend Wright’s attitude and conduct will be considered very off-putting to many voters. As a Hillary supporter, I can’t say I was entirely disappointed; however, as a citizen who is looking at the very real possibility that Barack Obama will be my next president, I am very concerned that the senator seems to lack the sense and the courage to completely separate himself from this lunatic who clearly has no interest in helping him get elected.
Posted by Dominique in General
