Posted by
beltway girl on Friday, March 21, 2008 2:09:45 AM
So the speech was brilliant. Brilliant writing and content, brilliant delivery.
It rang true. And incidentally, race and politics in Chicago arguably transcend religion.
But at the end of the day, all the inconsistencies-- taken as a whole-- were simply being further compartmentalized. And one has to wonder whether many viewers weren't still sitting there, scratching their heads, and wondering...
Why did you keep coming back for more of this?
What exactly did you hear and not hear?
What do you consider "controversial"?
What do you consider "anti-American"?
What do you think "racism" is?
Obama is a sweeping candidate. He talks often in generalities about universal truths. He is poetic and moving.
But the Wright mess requires more nuts and bolts, more particulars. Obama had to get down into the boiler room to make this problem go away, and he refused.
And it won't go away. The Wright controversy is not dangerous solely because of Wright; it is potentially fatal because Wright carries with him-- in his colorful rhetorical baggage-- an unacceptably close association to Louis Farrakhan. This "lifetime achievement award," the pseudo-endorsement by Farrakhan of Obama, this is not the stuff to be remedied with the most erudite and groundbreakingly honest discussion of race in the US today.
Inflammatory racist rhetoric was only a part of Wright's problem. The more insidious problem is Farrakhan and a presidential contender's friendship with a pastor who travelled to Libya with him.
If Obama's political resume were-- in significant ways-- to diverge from the Farrakhan and Wright menu, people might breathe easier. But everything Obama says is in perfect harmony with it.
Of course, the actual menu is the same menu of the DNC. So the menu itself is not the bombshell. No, it is the menu and the Farrakhan association. Democrats cannot have this; it becomes too alarmingly clear just how far left their party has gone when Farrakhan arrives on the scene.
Obama's chances of shaking the Wright factor will be reduced with each passing day. And then, one day, after many of these days, the chance will be completely gone.
Mort Kondracke discussed Obama's speech in a recent column, and his assessment on this is more brilliant than Obama's speech. Yes, Obama's speech was brilliant. But talking about a little old white lady afraid of black men was not exactly a head-on broaching of the Farrakhan issue. Nor did this speech address exactly how Obama's hunger for change squares with his pastor's hunger for change.
The outcome will be that many will fear it's the same hunger. And that the politician cannot state it so forthrightly and hope to win the election.
In the meantime, we have Hillary's nasty NAFTA snafu posed to take center stage when the Uncle Jeremiah story becomes tired.
The Democrats are in trouble. And the problem is not one cadidate with too close an association with Wright and Farrakhan. It's having an agenda that that both of them can way too easily embrace.
Tolerance.
Let's all remember our gramdmothers while we contemplate the idea that you really can have too much of a good thing.