Somewhere Hillary Clinton is Smiling

Hillary Clinton has had a very good weekend...and she didn't have to do anything. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright took care of Hillary's campaign needs for her, with appearances on PBS Friday night, in Detroit on Sunday morning, and this morning at the National Press Club which gave as fawning a welcome as has ever been seen from those Washington journalists. The analysis is coming in on today's speech and it ain't pretty for Obama.

I've already posted one item on this here, and others seem to agree that this latest publicity push by Wright is a potential disaster for Obama. Here are some others (from Campaign Spot):

The Obama campaign is off the rails.

The entire tone of the race changed the moment we saw the first fiery Wright sermon. The sight of those sermons triggered a question in a lot of voters' minds: How do you get the moderate-sounding, pleasant, agreeable student Barack Obama from an angry, divisive, radical, way-out-of-the-mainstream teacher like Jeremiah Wright? The sermons weren't quite a deal-breaker, but many Obama supporters, leaners, and undecideds were asking... how did Obama choose this man as a mentor? How could he possibly not know that his mentor had these attitudes? And does Obama agree with any of Wright's inflammatory statements?

In response, Obama gave a very eloquent speech about race relations in America. But it never quite answered the question, and in fact tried to blur the distinction between family we are born into and those we choose to turn to for guidance. Hillary jabbed at this in the debate, and Obama never quite had an appropriate response. He even said he disowned Wright, then backtracked and said he disowned his controversial statements.

And since then, it's gotten worse, even with a Bill Moyers interview that wasn't softball so much as it was Nerf Tee-Ball. We've heard Wright compare the Roman Legions who punished Jesus to the U.S. Marines, we've heard him argue that the U.S. and al-Qaeda are doing the same acts under different flags, etc.

Now we hear Wright analyzing the differences between white and black brains (!) and that the criticism of him for his comments was "an attack on the black church." He didn't retract his assertion that the U.S. government created the AIDS virus. He didn't retract his accusation that the United States had committed terrorism. He raved about Louis Farrakhan.

And again, we're left with that question... presuming Obama strongly disagrees with all of Wright's statements in these areas... how did he end up selecting this pastor? This church? (I know we get the story in Obama's autobiography. But did Obama once agree with all of the crazy conspiracy theories? Does he still agree, late at night, when the microphones and television cameras are far away?)

Obama is saying he should be president, instead of two much more experienced rivals, because of his superior judgment. But what kind of judgment is needed to select Wright as a surrogate father figure?

More reaction:
Jake Tapper: "He clearly was not doing Obama any favors, not only by reappearing before a ravenous media thus distracting from Obama's attempt to relate better to white working class voters in Indiana and North Carolina, but by implying Obama's condemnation of some of his sermons was not sincere."

David Brody: "Jeremiah Wright did Barack Obama no favors. Pastor Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club today started out as a great opportunity to explain the importance of the black Church experience. Instead it turned into a circus atmosphere and ensured that the Wright controversy is not going away and has the potential to single-handily take down Obama’s campaign."

Bill Kristol, writing in the NY Times, suggested the press has long been in the tank for Obama, and today's response by the Washington media to Rev. Wright certainly sems to confirm the idea that the press will do whatever they can to sanitize Wright and protect Obama.

It's not working.

And, from Politico:

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that he will try to change national policy by “coming after” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) if he is elected president.

The pastor also insisted Obama “didn’t denounce” him and “didn’t distance himself” from Wright’s controversial remarks, but “did what politicians do.”

Wright implied Obama still agrees with him by saying: “He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was [portrayed as] anti-American.”

Wright, who was Obama’s pastor for 20 years and performed his wedding, made the explosive comment during a chaotic question-and-answer session at the National Press Club in Washington, following the pastor’s remarks about the black church in America.

“I said to Barack Obama last year, ‘If you get elected, November the 5th I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people,’ Wright said.

When John F. Kennedy ran for president, he had to give a speech reassuring people that the Pope wouldn't dictate American policy. When Mitt Romney was in the race, he had to give a similar speech to assure America that the old men in Salt Lake City wouldn't have Mitt dancing to their tune.

How comfortable should the American people be that if Obama gets elected he won't have the Rev. Wright making national policy?