Wright Back Atcha!

I spent a significant portion of the weekend, and the first few days of this week engaged in a spirited discussion with several friends. No, on second thought, it has been more than a discussion, it has been a debate. The conversations have been thoughtful, passionate, and conviction-filled. The subject has been, generally, a targeted exploration of the potential of either Senator Obama, or Senator Clinton to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for President, and then an evaluation of the winner’s ability to successfully vie for President of the United States this fall.

Friday evening’s PBS interview of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright saw the first significant twist in the conversational stream…at least we thought so at the time. Bill Moyers did a fine job, and the Reverend Wright was a model of decorum, displaying all the charm and grace so many black ministers have raised to an art form. Moyers was a consummate professional, and the Reverend Wright was reflective, yet affable, and complete in his responses. It was hard to see the man, who had been vilified just weeks earlier, in the refined countenance of this gentleman, minister-scholar, patriot.

He was simultaneously everything you would have imagined-nothing you could have expected. Everything you would imagine from the retiring pastor of a mega-church, bright, quick-witted, almost glib; yet nothing you could have expected from someone who engendered scorn and rebuke from men and women across America.

The Moyers interview was followed Sunday by the Reverend Wright’s visit to speak to the Detroit Branch of the NAACP. More of the same ensued. In fact, the media silence, lack of e-chat, and wide-spread post-events conversation was stunning by its absence. This seeming lack of engagement was something that I mentioned as our group continued to discuss Obama-Clinton, Obama-McCain, and Clinton-McCain. While we all found it hard to explain, I opined there was still time, with one more media event Monday.

The Reverend Wright visited and spoke to The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, word had filtered throughout our group that a tsunami-like force had been unleashed by the Reverend Wright’s appearance. He had not only emphatically repeated and defended virtually every tenet of his earlier sermons, but he took Senator Obama to task in the process. As one of my friends, who is not an Obama supporter put it, the Reverent Wright called him out for being just another politician.

In our debate, the anti-Obama sentimentalists argued that it is imperative for the Senator to be challenged, vetted, and otherwise toughened up now. This leavening, they say is essential if he is to have any hope of surviving the sure-to-come onslaught by republicans who are salivating to face the young, relatively untested, too liberal, Elitist Obama.

My dear friends also posit that Senator Obama threw the Reverend Wright under the bus during his Speech on Race at Constitution Hall in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008, and further contend that Obama denounced his “mentor of 20 years.” To say I see the issues differently is to put it mildly. In my opinion, Obama’s March 18th speech was ground-breaking in its scope and tenor. It is unheard of for a major party’s front-running candidate to make such a speech dealing comprehensively with the many facets and factors of race in America. And assuredly, the Senator made every effort to target Reverend Wright’s words, and not the man.

Still, as a preacher’s kid, commonly PK, I respect the necessary independence of men and women of the cloth, and note there is a clear distinction between spiritual and political realms. As such, candidate Obama cannot be expected to seek or exercise review and approval of the Reverend Wright’s opinions and commentary.

This week the Reverend Wright raised the temperature of this debate, significantly. In turn, Senator Obama was compelled to revisit, and reframe his earlier statements in a more forceful fashion. What he could do, what he did, and what he had to do, was express and restate his own views, and note those areas with which he disagrees with the Reverend Wright.

This is another of those areas that sparks my curiosity. I know what a number of my close friends and associates think and feel, on both sides of this issue. Some said today that Senator Obama has been rendered unelectable by the events of the past two days. Others reply that Obama will still win, Obama and Wright will reconcile, and furthermore, it is naive to think otherwise.

That is quite a wide-ranging spectrum. What about you? Do you believe Senator Obama responses have been called for, appropriate, needed, simply politically expedient, or something altogether different? Do the Reverend Wright's defiant/speak truth to power remarks wound Senator Obama? Did the Senator throw the Reverend under the bus? Did the Reverend throw the Senator under the bus? How will this affect the Democratic Party's nomination process? How will it affect the General Election?

I’m done; holla back! Tell me what you think.

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday. Additional posts may appear periodically during the week.


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http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/28/transcript-rev-wright-at-the-national-press-club/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lV8x_-Uk2c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am50KvOWaaw&feature=related

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http://patterico.com/2008/04/28/jeremiah-wright-speaks-at-the-national-press-club/

http://emergingminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6022:Jeremiah-Wright&catid=53:Black%20Activism,%20Education,%20and%20Society%20News&Itemid=145

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4749383

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/29/will-offensive-against-wright-pay-off-in-the-primaries/

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/29/obama.wright/index.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24371827/

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/29/politics/main4055467.shtml