Obama’s take on that was that Wright doesn’t really mean all that stuff but just uses it to stir up righteous indignation to get people motivated to act to improve their community. This is a misunderstanding though, because lo and behold…Wright actually does believe everything he says and he’s not willing to back down.

My freaking God. Of course he does. If you don’t understand that, as Obama, you’re complete moron. This man has studied black liberation theology, constantly touts its ‘inventors,’ and talks about nothing else.

So your kind explanation basically means that Obama is an idiot.

O, and someone who has no problem with a preacher who lies to his flock.

The anger that Obama expresses now seems genuine, because he truly seems to feel betrayed.

I disagree. I think he’s angry, not because he feels betrayed, but because he thought that he could keep up the act. He didn’t think Wright would go after him this aggressively (he’s black and all). But Wright now probably considers Obama a traitor.

The real anger here is coming from Wright. Obama’s not angry; he’s just fighting for his political life, especially his standing in the African-American community.

What seems odd is that a man as intelligent as Obama didn’t seem to understand the currents in racial politics; I would think he would have realized that he couldn’t straddle the line between militant black leaders and those who want to move toward a postracial society. That divide predates MLK and Malcolm X, and it seems obvious to me that we still need to come to terms with it. Obama seems to have thought we could skip over that and everyone would eventually just make nice.

Isn’t that the problem with his government vision as well? He thinks all problems and differences will be solved magically.

I actually disagree a bit though. I do think Obama is sincerely angry at this point, and I don’t agree that the only thing that has changed is time.

I think that Obama and Wright each thought that they understood each other- that one was speaking (in a very outspoken, inflammatory way) as a preacher, and one as a politician. Obama’s take on that was that Wright doesn’t really mean all that stuff but just uses it to stir up righteous indignation to get people motivated to act to improve their community. This is a misunderstanding though, because lo and behold…Wright actually does believe everything he says and he’s not willing to back down.

For his part, Wright apparently thought that Obama agreed with him but <wink, wink> as a politician he couldn’t speak the same way. Turns out, Wright was mistaken as well- Obama doesn’t view the world anywhere near as starkly "us against them" as Wright does.

The anger that Obama expresses now seems genuine, because he truly seems to feel betrayed. Same with Wright’s willingness to hurt Obama- because he feels that the ‘understanding’ they had has been breached and that Obama is going too far with the politician talk, that he’s selling out basically.
That’s my take on it, anyway.

What seems odd is that a man as intelligent as Obama didn’t seem to understand the currents in racial politics; I would think he would have realized that he couldn’t straddle the line between militant black leaders and those who want to move toward a postracial society. That divide predates MLK and Malcolm X, and it seems obvious to me that we still need to come to terms with it. Obama seems to have thought we could skip over that and everyone would eventually just make nice.