zeta,
I don’t think that Rev. Wright was on anyone’s radar screen during the 2004 election. Even if his comments had surfaced, they would not have generated much excitement in Chicago, particularly on the South Side, though the downstate and suburban voters might have gotten a bit agitated.
Jesse Jackson made his bones in Chicago by making outlandish comments from the pulpit and Chicago’s first black mayor, the late Harold Washington, used to occasionally command the pulpits of inner city black churches to castigate his white enemies during the infamous Council Wars. The city’s black aldermen and women occasionally conduct serious debates on the issue of reparations and I think that there is actually a law on the books that requires all city contractors to research their corporate histories to determine if they profited from the slave trade. Bobby Rush, the Congressman that Obama challenged in 2002, is a former Black Panther, and we know what the Black Panthers had to say about the U.S. Louis Farrakhan makes his home in Chicago. Hyde Park, home of the University of Chicago and Obama, and one of the neighborhoods represented by Obama, is the most left-leaning enclave in the state. It is no coincidence that Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, both former Weathermen, make their home in Hyde Park. They are surrounded by kindred souls. So there is nothing that Rev. Wright said that has not been said by other citizens, politicians and ministers on the South Side of Chicago.
Which is a problem. Obama’s initial tepid reaction to the airing of Wright’s sermons suggests to me that he either accepts Rev. Wright’s commentaries (and the comments by others on the South Side) as the basis for legitimate political debate, or that has he dismissed them as mere background noise. Enquiring minds want to know, and perhaps he will address that in his speech today. I would not be particularly surprised if Obama bought into certain aspects of Rev. Wright’s mindset earlier in his career, particularly when he was a community organizer, but I don’t think that Rev. Wright’s comments are currently a part of his current political philosophy. If his thinking has evolved in such a manner, he should say so.
The Rev. Wright certainly has the right to air his opinions, just as everyone else has the right to either agree or disagree with him. I do recognize that black and white communities often view the U.S. through different political prisms (the OJ trial proved that), and I do acknowledge that Rev. Wright’s church has done a lot benefit its community. However, Obama should have recognized that rhetoric that is often acceptable to voters at a local level is not always acceptable at a national level. His decision to not put greater distance between himself and Rev. Wright at the beginning of his campaign was a serious error in judgment.
I do not buy into Obama’s “crazy uncle” riff, and in my opinion he was being disingenuous at best when he claimed that he was not familiar with the specifics of Rev. Wright’s most controversial musings. The comment "None of these statements were ones that I had heard myself personally in the pews” is worthy of Bill Clinton.
Some of the statements made by Obama last year suggested that he was concerned that his relationship with Rev. Wright might generate some negative attention, though I suspect that he was not prepared for the intensity of last week’s firestorm. As a practical matter, Obama, or his advisors, should have been more proactive in dealing with this potential “problem.” The Rev. Wright should not have been officially brought into the campaign. That may sound like an act of cowardice, but why take the risk that his presence might hurt the campaign.
One of Obama’s weaknesses has been the fact that he has been too deferential to individuals who have either assisted him (Rezko) or mentored him. He needs to toughen up.
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Over the past 35 years I have attended services at about half a dozen black churches in the Chicago area. While the services have always been a bit more vibrant than their white counterparts, I have never encountered any rhetoric comparable to the comments made by Rev. Wright. |
