My last word on this Rev. Wright media farce

Yet, within hours of publishing it, my candidate, Barack Obama, played into this obsession by holding an extraordinary press conference to “divorce” Rev. Wright, his former pastor. Never mind that the reverend retired from his ministry months ago….

I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday…. And what I think particularly angered me was [Rev. Wright’s] suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing.

[Sen. Barack Obama criticizing remarks Rev. Wright made at the National Press Club on Monday]

But when I finally saw clips of Obama’s press conference last night, I was almost as dismayed as I was when I saw clips of Wright’s “performance” at the National Press Club. Because this public spat they’re engaged in now reminds me of the racial spectacle Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill provided during hearings on his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court; i.e., two intelligent black people engaged in an idiotic bout of mutually assured destruction as political sport for political gain.

This is why I find the ongoing Wright and Obama show so regrettable. Nevertheless, I feel constrained to make a few points:

* This is a media-driven story. Because, like everything Britney Spears does, everything Wright says is good TV. And no one knows this better than the prima donna of ratings whores, Bill O’Reilly – who keeps wondering aloud why Wright won’t “just go away” while featuring the reverend every night on his show.

* In his historic speech on race almost six weeks ago, Obama addressed all of the relevant issues raised by the 24/7 streaming clips of Wright’s most controversial remarks. And nothing Wright has said since then warranted the press conference Obama gave yesterday except political damage control.

* The irony is not lost on me that the thing that “angered” Obama most happens to be the thing that is most true about this controversy, namely: Wright’s assertion that Obama’s denunciation of him is “political posturing.” After all, it is self-evident that the only reason Obama held this press conference was to appease white (blue-collar) voters who are buying into the media (bogeyman) caricature of Wright hook, line and sinker.

* But hanging Wright’s sermons like an albatross around Obama’s neck reeks of racism, religious bigotry and political double standards. Because no other presidential candidate (not even JFK) has ever had to disown, or answer for the lunatic rantings of, his (or her) pastor. (And, for the record, Wright’s sermons are tame compared to the racist, homophobic, misogynistic and xenophobic crap many white preachers spew from their pulpits every Sunday.)

* No doubt this is why the pastor of Hillary’s Methodist Church, Senior Minister Dean J. Snyder, voiced support for Wright as follows:

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader…. To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church.

* With the exception of his insinuation that HIV/AIDS is a biological agent produced by the U.S. government to exterminate black people, I defy anyone to point to a single thing Wright has said that is untrue. (However, the fact that the government deliberately infected black men with syphilis for its Tuskegee experiment provides sufficient precedent for his suspicions about the origins of HIV/AIDS.)

* Like most black preachers, Wright’s sermons are dynamic, passionate and provocative. But that’s only “different not deficient” juxtaposed to the boring, frigid and by-the-Book sermons (most) white preachers deliver.

* I do not believe that Wright has been co-opted by the Clintons to sabotage Obama’s campaign. But the fact that a die-hard Hillary supporter was instrumental in securing his appearance at the National Press Club suggests that the Clintons’ Machiavellian hands are deeply involved in stoking this controversy.

* I believe that Wright is a remarkably brilliant, unquestionably accomplished and justifiably proud black man who intends no harm to Obama’s campaign.

Unfortunately, he’s also a narcissistic egomaniac who is hell-bent on doing whatever he can to redeem his reputation (and reclaim his marketability as the Bill Clinton on the preachers’ circuit). And he’s just too conceited to consider the collateral damage this is inflicting on Obama’s campaign.

* Meanwhile, there’s no denying that Wright only reinforced the way the media has caricatured him by acting more like a gansta rapper than a respected preacher at the National Press Club.

* Moreover, the irony is not lost on me that nothing could be more antithetical to his black liberation theology than a black preacher being the one to undermine the historic opportunity for the first black man to become president of the United States.

* Obama is understandably “outraged and saddened” by Wright’s refusal to put his ego in check for this historic opportunity. Frankly, I am too. But he’s naïve if he thinks that heeding calls by (mostly white) political pundits to throw his (former) pastor under the bus will kill Wright as a campaign canard.

* And only God knows what they’ll be calling for Obama to do when Wright escalates their nasty public divorce by responding to this latest denunciation….

That said, I support Obama now more than ever. And I wish him luck in getting out his message of hope, common cause and racial reconciliation.

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