Political analysis
Wright Wing Conspiracy
- By James Fish
- May 01, 2008
Senator Barack Obama had been riding the crest of a wave of enthusiasm for his ‘inclusive’ campaign, vowing to work for reconciliation between the races, when he was torpedoed by his own pastor. From his remarks, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, could be taken as one of the Clinton campaign’s attack dogs. Wright’s appearance at The National Press Club, packed with black supporters, seemed to be designed to frighten white voters from the beginning.
“From the moment he entered the room, Wright seemed to be looking to stir controversy; he was escorted by Jamil Muhammad, a leader of the Nation of Islam, which contributed to the minister’s prominent security detail. Speaking before an audience that included Marion Barry, Cornel West, the New Black Panther Party’s Malik Zulu Shabazz and Nation of Islam protocol director Claudette Muhammad” Dana Milbank Washington Post
The appearance was the third stop on his ‘Hey look at me. I’m Black and I’m Bad’ tour. Previously he had been lionized at the Detroit NAACP convention and interviewed by PBS’s Bill Moyers, in a love fest which made CNN’s Larry Kings softball questioning look like The Spanish Inquisition.
His Pastor twisted the knife in Obama’s back “we both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected…Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls.”
That did not sit well with the candidates senior political adviser David Axelrod “I think it’s pretty clear that Reverend Wright is not out there with the intent of helping Senator Obama. He’s out there with his own program.”
Wright was clearly in his speech Monday advocating racial conflict and division. He is also clearly obsessed with the politics of the boomer era, its racial and cultural divides, and seeks to increase those divides, not overcome them. Andrew Sullivan, author of the Daily Dish blog
Not everyone sees Wright’s comments as divisive “I have, for the most part, been enormously impressed with Jeremiah Wright’s recent appearances, his passion for the gospels and defense of black liberation theology and the black church. He has spoken hard truth to power as well as uttered some nonsense. He would be remiss if he did not use the media opportunity presented to him to push his biblical and political commitments.” Frances Kissling, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the former president of Catholics for a Free Choice.
The day after the press club speech, Obama finally denounced his preacher, saying Wright was presuming his own agenda and the pastor’s views don’t represent his. “The man I saw yesterday was not the man I met twenty years ago”he went on to say “I did not vet my pastor” before starting his campaign. “I don’t think he showed any concern for me” and tried to distance himself from his former “Spiritual mentor”.
The question now is how this brouhaha affects the Democratic Party’s race for the nomination. Obviously the Clinton camp will use the Wright comments against Obama, and if he wins the nomination the Republican Party and its candidate John McCain will pound Obama with Wright’s remarks.
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McCain says that he will not use Wright against Obama because he does not think Obama agrees with Wright. That’s a sign of class on McCain’s part. Obama is, however, lucky this played out as it did, as early in the overall race as it did. Still, he has to worry about a backlash in the black community for rejecting someone who speaks for a part of the black experience, the anger and energy of trying to counter a history of discrimination. Obama needs to cast himself as having the capacity to overcome the frustration and show that anger about the past ultimately has to give way to achievements in the present.
64 days ago by Scott Erb
I love this wacky election where Dems feed on eachother!
64 days ago by chris