Questions about Obama's judgement will not go away.

I commend Obama for his speech today. He tried, at least, to get out in front of the conversation and I like that in a politician. He tried to put the Wrong Reverend Wright in some context. Though he was moving (of course, we expect no less at this point) and personal there is only one context for Rev Wright that matters politically - He said "We should not be singing God Bless America we should be singing God Damn America." from the pulpit...

From the pulpit of a church he refuses to leave. That is the context.

I admit this: I am sick of Black Anger. My liberal guilt has morphed into liberal exhaustion. I know many who feel the same way. Many are fed up with making excuses and hearing excuses for bad behavior. For what? To hear a man spew bile from a pulpit? And to then hear a major party candidate make excuses for his membership in this man's church?

An African American commentator said on Fox - "you just don't understand the black church."

No. I don't. If Wright is any indication I no longer care to.

What Rev Wright exposes from that pulpit is not "black anger" so much as it is creepy paranoia. The sermons we have all seen are lists of every screwy idea that too many white voters have long suspected had currency in the black community:

A contempt for the country.

A belief that AIDS came from the government.

Willy nilly, shockingly mean spirited, sexual jibs at President Clinton (for the purpose of rewriting history and Bill Clinton's entire life.) The casual, joking dismissal of Bill Clinton's record on race is disgusting.

An attack on Hillary Clinton's ability to empathize because "she has never been called a niger". Meaning, one assumes, that she just doesn't get it. But lets call this what it is: an attack on her WHITENESS.

A grotesque reference to 9/11.

There is nothing unifying about any of this.

And Obama did not leave this church. By playing fast and lose with race during the past 3 months Obama has become THE divisive candidate. It may not be fair. But there it is. When a Clinton campaign aid said something remotely off base about race she put an end to them. And apologized. Obama made eloquent excuses today.

The BHO campaign used race all along. When it worked in South Carolina they used it and tried to tamp all questions about it down when the political winds blew the other way. His race did not matter - unless it did. Axelrod dictated the when and the where - and the Olbermanns played along. Wright ruined that. The talking points about race have been ripped from Obama's hands. It turns out, Mr. Axlerod, the world is not a Benetton ad campaign.

Tonight I was seeing a truly ridiculous rendering of the otherwise sublime Sweeney Todd in downtown Los Angeles so I have not seen any media. I am sure they are dutifully awestruck. I am not at all sure it matters. Time Magazine has a bunch of responses to the speech. Some are glowing, some not. Michael Munger a professor at Duke said this: A black candidate named Barrack Hussein Obama can't have questions about his patriotism, and commitment to America, not if he is going to beat a genuine war hero. I think Obama is unelectable.

That sums it up neatly. Democrats face and awful choice. A choice created when Obama's handlers decided to make South Carolina a referendum for black voters by race baiting Clinton's LBJ comment.

Questions about Obama's judgement will not go away. It is possible Obama might become a first class Senator given time. I wish he had not gotten this far before Wright's views were aired. He could then slide easily back to the Senate. Now his nomination will ensure an ugly, hateful fall campaign. Clinton's merely ensures a nasty one. After his speech today it is hard to fathom a scenario now in which he beats McCain. The GOP convention will be 4 days of singing God Bless America. There is no state Bush won in 2004 that he can turn blue. None. There are at least 4 Blue states that will go Red. Probably more. He condemned part of what Wright said but not the man. He needed to use his enormous gifts as an orator to obliterate any connection to Wright. He did not. Again, it may not be fair. But the majority will not tolerate a President who tolerates Rev. Wright's idea of America. I acknowledge that this fact has elements of racism.
A white candidate with an awful white preacher in tow might get by. A black one cannot.