Wright Controversy Still a Problem
Frankly, I don’t quite see how the Wright controversy can not hurt Barack Obama in a general election. His explanation wasn’t much of an explanation, his speech on race may have sounded nice to many, but he basically didn’t answer the main question (why in the world did you go to a Church with a pastor like that?), and so on and so on. Now, the Wall Street Journal says that although Obama may still be popular among Democrats he could still suffer the consequences from his association with Wright:
Sen. Barack Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race relations last month seemed to put the controversial remarks of his former pastor behind him. But three weeks later, there is evidence of lingering damage.
“It has not been defused,” says David Parker, a North Carolina Democratic Party official and unpledged superdelegate. He says his worries about Republicans questioning Sen. Obama’s patriotism prompted him to raise the issue of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.’s remarks in conversations with both the Obama and Clinton campaigns.
“I’m concerned about seeing Willie Horton ads during the general election,” Mr. Parker says, referring to campaign ads that Republicans widely credited for helping defeat Michael Dukakis in 1988. Mr. Parker said the Wright controversy didn’t hurt his opinion of Mr. Obama.
National polls show the Illinois senator hasn’t suffered among Democratic primary voters. Contests in Pennsylvania on April 22, Indiana on May 6 and West Virginia on May 13 could serve as an important test. His performance among largely white, less-urban voters could show how well he can secure critical swing states in November…
Recent polls suggest that, in key swing states, the New York senator fares better in head-to-head matchups with Republican nominee Sen. John McCain than does Sen. Obama. In Ohio, Sen. Clinton led Sen. McCain 48% to 39%, while Sen. Obama led Sen. McCain 43% to 42% in Quinnipiac University polls conducted in the last week of March.
In Pennsylvania, Sen. Clinton had a 48% to 40% lead against Sen. McCain while Sen. Obama was ahead 43% to 39%. The polls credit Sen. Clinton’s advantage to her strength among white voters. No Democrat has won the presidency with a majority of white voters since 1964, and no president from either party has been elected without winning two of the three swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida since 1960. In those three states, some 23% of white Democrats would defect to Sen. McCain in a matchup with Sen. Obama, compared with 11% who would abandon Sen. Clinton, according to the Quinnipiac polls.
“It’s a reasonable assumption that … part of that drop-off among white voters would result from his pastor’s notoriety,” says Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown.
Ed Morrissey explains quite well:
The Wright Stuff continues to resonate for three reasons. First, it’s not a complicated issue to understand. Jeremiah Wright didn’t speak in subtle tones. He said that his congregation should pray for God to damn America, a place that most Americans love. Wright called the nation the US of KKK A, and openly accused the nation of creating HIV AIDS as an agent of genocide. Anyone supporting Wright, and the Obamas sent tens of thousands of dollars to Trinity United, has to answer for their support of this rhetoric.
Second, the sermons got videotaped and distributed by Wright himself and his church. Obviously, he felt sanguine enough about his message that he wanted it disseminated widely. That belies the notion that these were momentary and passion-induced transgressions that Wright later regretted. It indicates a pride in these statements that again calls into question the support Wright got for making them — and the “I didn’t inhale” rationalization coming from Wright’s most famous parishioner.
Most importantly, no one really knows Barack Obama.
Since no one knows Obama, we’ve got to learn about him by looking at the people he chooses to associate with. He chose to associate with a radical pastor. That says, I’m afraid, a lot about Barack Obama.
My guess is that many voters in the United States will think like that as well. It may not hurt Obama’s chances in the Democratic primary, but in a national election? Well, in a national election, many former Clinton supporters may very well decide that it’s better to have McCain as president than Obama.
Fairly or not, Obama made a trade-off when he came to Chicago & associated with Wright’s church to gain "street cred" with the local black community. He would gain a group which might help his political career in running for the Illinois senate. But when he went national, he should have realized that Wright & tapes of his inflammatory, incendiary hate-speech—because that is what it is—would eventually surface and harm his "street cred" as a true American patriot.
Hanging out with a criminal leftist like Ayers was a short-term dalliance. Wright married & baptized Obama & was his "spiritual mentor" for twenty years.
For the Republicans dumpster-diving for insane flights of rhetorical silliness in Wright’s sermons will be digging for political treasure!
Politics ain’t pretty. And timing will be as acute as anything else. Obama can’t inoculate himself like Billy Jeff did with a pliant media.
Wright will be old news. And McCain will be just plain old.
"Just plain old" is going to start looking better and better, as long as the Dem candidates keep acting like kids fighting in the schoolyard. It’s always good to turn one’s natural weaknesses into strengths, and fortunately for McCain his opponents are doing it for him by enabling him to be the only grownup in the race. It also plays perfectly to his strength as a public servant who was willing to sacrifice for the country rather than looking like an opportunist who puts his own ambitions above country.