How Obama can play the Wright crisis right

This business with Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a disaster for Obama, right?

Not according to Bill Clinton's former strategist Dick Morris. Here's his view:

At the start of his campaign, Obama ran in counterpoint to the previous candidacies of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Here was a black man running for president on issues that had nothing to do with race as he rose above the victimization rhetoric that characterizes so many speeches of African-American political figures.

Now, in attacking the Rev. Wright as he did Tuesday, Obama can further define himself in contrast to Wright, just as he did earlier vis-à-vis Jackson and Sharpton.

So if, as the Chinese ideogram suggests, crisis is a synthesis of danger and opportunity, the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright presents plenty of both for Obama.

I think he is correct.

That Wright poses a great danger to Obama is obvious. How the Senator deals with his identity as an African-American is central to his candidacy. Wright threatens his control of this issue. He might also make Obama look weak (he can't shut his old friend down), less than honest (did he really not know what this man was about) and threatening (maybe Wright's views are secretly Obama's).

But as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton demonstrated again and again, every crisis is really an opportunity.

Obama can exploit the attention now being paid to Wright to show that he is strong (he slaps down those who cross him, even old friends), on the level (he speaks out clearly) and on your side (he defines himself against Wright).

This is a difficult trick because the story has started badly and it is always quite a challenge to turn such things round.

But one reason I believe he can pull it off is this - he is going to win the Democratic nomination anyway. he is too far ahead to be stopped. If he plays it right he can have his victory (actually won for other reasons) portrayed as partly the outcome of resilience and courage in the face of the Wright issue.

He can make it look like a triumph. And if he does, then pretty soon it will be a triumph.

Comments

[Alex R]

Think this feeds into your previous column. Obama, a successful black man who chooses not to define himself along racial lines, is a threat to Wright and his like.

[Kelly Pierce]

I think the general analysis is spot on. If you notice, Obama is pretty good with counter punches. Most people have formed a opinion of the candidates now. Generally people like Obama. How could one not to! But even I do.

Andrew Sullivan said the same thing on his blog, yesterday. He is always spot on.

[Mark T]

I hope so; we guineuinely need an inspirational person to run the US. And perhaps, Obama should use this as a platform to address the hypocrisy of Democrat boomer establishment (represented so well by Hillary and her ilk; the same people that pride themselves on civil rights and how they 'liberated' the African American from segregation and educated them....though not so much that they might become independently minded. And people like the Clinton's think they aren't racist; what a joke that is.

[Candadai Tirumalai]

Barack Obama began his vigorous counter-punching yesterday, putting huge distance betwen himself and Rev. Wright.
An important constituency will be the white working-class, which Obama has so far mostly lost to Hillary Clinton in big states. In the race against John McCain, Obama--if he indeed emerges as the nominee--will have to fight harder for the votes of white blue-collar workers, which Republicans, beginning with Nixon and extending to Reagan and beyond, have been able to wean away in significant numbers. The disagreement with Rev. Wright will be a part of the unfolding electoral drama.

[JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO]

I don't know what "playing Wright right" means here.

I expect Obama to do as he generally has done, and that is, to speak honestly in his authentic, intelligent, and entirely decent voice.

He simply stands head and shoulders above not just Wright but all of his critics. Hillary's shrill threats and mud-throwing have reduced her to an ethical pygmy. Anyone who truly listens understands that.

I truly am tired of the press giving such huge publicity to Wright, and it is this selective publicity that keeps this tempest in a teapot looking like a terrible storm.

Why is it that Wright's words so bother some Americans?

America has so many, many other examples of "ministers" who've done nothing but spew hate and ignorance.

Consider the fried-brain Pat Robertson, who, apart from a host of idiotic remarks, a few years ago called for the assassination of a foreign leader (Chavez).

Why wasn't he branded a terrorist?

Why wasn't he arrested under America's dark anti-terror laws?

Consider the late Jerry Falwell, the Jabba the Hutt of the Religious Right.

Falwell claimed homosexuals caused 9/11.

Falwell said once that the Anti-Christ (reference the Book of Revelations) was alive today, and he took the form of a male Jew.

Falwell sold tapes from the pulpit that suggested the Clintons murdered Vince Foster.

The man was a raving lunatic, but I guess so long as he did not touch the sacred name of America and things that it may have done wrong, he was okay. More than okay, he thrived and got lots of publicity.

Consider the "Rev" Jimmy Swaggert who said from the pulpit that he would kill a homosexual who made a pass at him.

The list is very long, and today includes a "minister" associated with John McCain, who made idiotic remarks getting little publicity.

Then there's a former minister of the Clintons who is on trial for child molestation.

Good God, what a lunatic asylum.

[JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO]

The Wright business is being blown entirely out of proportion, and I believe the reasons for this are neither honest nor wholesome.

In focusing so much attention on this, America, which weeks ago was congratulating itself with the idea that a black man could run and win, now begins to show old, true underlying attitudes.

In this the country resembles someone whose hair dye-job was being praised weeks ago for its freshness but is now the source of ugly gossip as the genuine hair color creeps back in at the roots.

God, if Obama made a mistake here it was a small one.

Just look at the mistakes in Washington. Often it seems nothing else goes on there but mistakes.

Bush and the strategic blunder of the century, wasting lives and resources on a colossal scale?

A Supreme Court which effectively appointed Bush in the first place?

Hillary Clinton living with Bill Clinton for three decades of ethical degradation and embarrassment and shame?

Bill Clinton, a man of considerable talents who to a large extent squandered them and demonstrated countless times a highly doubtful character?

John McCain mocking and attacking the Religious Right and then shortly after crawling for their support?

One could write a book called Washington Mistakes. If the author only briefly cited each error and kept the time-frame to say the last fifty years, the book would be encyclopedic in length.

[Victoria, New York City]

I've been knocking on doors for Obama in five states, and it is an homor to volunteer for this candidate.

[april]

jeremiah wright offered obama the gift of manure. barack obama will grow a spectacular garden.

[FOARP]

"So if, as the Chinese ideogram suggests, crisis is a synthesis of danger and opportunity, the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright presents plenty of both for Obama."

Once again this trope, like the one about frogs in boiling water it's one of those phrases which is so useful that its utility totally outweighs the fact that it is not actually true.

'Crisis' in Chinese consists of two characters (危机), the first is the word for danger and the second carries different meanings depending on context - it certainly doesn't mean 'opportunity' by itself, and in this context simply means 'danger'.

If you want some real Chinese words, try the word for 'question' (问题) being the same as the word for 'problem', the way that in ancient times the word for 'world' (天下) also meant 'China', or hell, the fact that 'Daniel' in Chinese means 'big cow' (大牛). These are far more reflective of Chinese philosophy than this stuff about crisis and opportunity.

[Arnold]

Wright had said "Obama is a politician," true enough he is and so what. It tells me one thing and that is Religion and Politics do not belong together. Wright's said he's only answerable to God and Obama when elected will be answerable to the American people. So Wright's comments weather factual or blasphemous are centered on the ideas of certain denominational and racial believes. Now how does believing in God have to do with a Preacher's personal opinion. As offending as his opinions are they don't speak for all blacks in America.

[gb]

The pundits seem to be suggesting that Obama can talk his way out of this IF he spends much of the rest of the campaign refuting Wright point for point, explaining why he disagrees with almost every outlandish utterance in detail and on a regular basis. Obama won't do that. He dislikes even bringing the subject up, for obvious reasons, and he's certainly not going to make it the centerpiece of his campaign. The other thing is, Obama's in a Catch-22. If he doesn't come down hard on Wright, whites are turned off. If he comes down too hard and too often, blacks like those who cheered Wright the other day will be offended. It doesn't look good for Obama right now.

[Oxy Moran]

I disagree that Obama has renounced his pastor.

Sure, it was very clear from his words that Obama was extremely angry with his longstanding pastor, Jeremiah Wright, when he gave an emotional press conference this afternoon in North Carolina.

Who wouldn't be? After all, for reasons as yet unknown, Jeremiah Wright chose this weekend to reopen every one of the deep wounds Obama's campaign received when ABC News played Pastor Wright's contemptible clips on network TV. Worse still, after all Obama's attempts to be loyal to his Pastor, Wright threw him under the bus condemning him as "just another politician" with every negative nuance of lying through one's teeth that has become associated with the phrase, "just a politician."

But, even in this time of great crisis in Obama's fast imploding campaign for the White House, Obama managed to demonstrate his unquestionable ability to parse words at a level not seen in the United States since the last Democrat President disgraced the dignity of Oval Office and then parsed his way to a not guilty verdict in an impeachment trial by questioning the meaning of the word "it"

Although at first it seemed that the vehemence of Obama's rejection of his pastor's words at today's press conference meant to all intent and purposes he was through with his pastor...close scrutiny of the transcript reveals brilliant wordsmithing which allowed him to avoid saying the four magic words...I renounce Reverend Wright.

And this makes a huge difference. Even Obama's biggest fan in the media...even bigger than Chris "he sends shivers up my leg" Matthews...Keith Olbermann "gets" that, as we see in this "leading the witness" exchange.

OLBERMANN:How do you characterize given your long association with him, given the fact that he officiated at the marriage of you and your wife, how do balance this line of what you have to do at this point from a political point of view and from what you have to do from personal point of view relative to these comments and your long history with him? Do you repudiate the man, do you repudiate the comments, do you repudiate both?

OBAMA: No, I would do not repudiate the man.As I said, this is somebody who I have known for 17 years.He helped bring me to Jesus and helped bring me to church.And, you know, he and I have a relationship, he's like an uncle who has talked to me, not about political things and not about social views, as much as about faith and God and family.

And he's somebody who is widely respected throughout Chicago and around the country for many of the things that he's done not only as a pastor but also as a preacher.But I have to say that the comments that have been played are ones that are contrary to what I believe, what I think of this country, the love that I have for this country and, you know, are ones that anger and distress me.So, you know, I would describe it as a member of your family who does, says something that you really disagree with.

They don't stop being a member of your family, but you have to speak out forcefully on the issue.
(Olbermann March 14, 08)

Olbermann has been around the political block once or twice. He knew what his man needed to say...but even given the "leading" questions by Olbermann, Obama refused to repudiate his Pastor.

Again on March 18 in his so-called Perfect Union speech in Philadelphia, Obama goes out of his way to condemn the clips which contained remarks about "G-Damn Amerikkka", "Government Plots to kill African Americans spreading AIDS," but when it came to the Pastor , he says:

"As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."

As recently as this last weekend, the morning before Pastor Wright's racist speech at the NAACP, Obama appeared on Fox News with Chris Wallace and was again quick to reject his pastor's comments, while defending the man.
.

Wallace: The other night he (Wright) said to Bill Moyers that he has been the target of a smear campaign.

Question: Do you think that Reverend Wright is just the victim here?

OBAMA: No. I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past.

The fact that he is my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue. So I understand that.

I think that it is also true that to run a snippet of 30-second sound bites, selecting out of a 30-year career, simplified and caricatured him, and caricatured the church. And I think that was done in a fairly deliberate way.

And that is unfortunate, because as I’ve said before, I have strongly denounced those comments that were the subject of so much attention. I wasn’t in church when he made them. But I also know that I go to church not to worship the pastor, to worship God. And that ministry, the church family that’s been built there, does outstanding work, has been I think applauded for its outreach to the poor.

He built that ministry. And I think that, you know, people need to take a look at the whole church and the whole man in making these assessments.

Fast forward 48 hours. Wright's goes off the deep end. I had suspected there might some delusional self-aggrandizement at work when he claimed to Bill Moyer's that he had personally witnessed seeing the plane hitting the World Trade Center out of his New Jersey hotel window. It had previously been reported that like 99.999% of us, he saw the plane hit on TV .

But despite thinking he knew him well through his 20 years of friendship, Obama never saw the delusional explosion coming. And as soon as Wright got the over-stimulation of having too much attention showered on him it came in a very big way.

Loving the limelight, Wright repeated the same claims that we had heard on those ABC clips which had previously been dismissed by Obama, and his army of media apologists, as being "taken out context."

After failing to react with outrage when questioned by the first team of reporters within several hours of Wright finishing his early morning remarks at the Press Club...Team Obama did a major rethink over night.

Today in his press conference, in no uncertain terms, Obama condemned his Pastor's outrageous remarks. This time he went further and explicitly spelled out which remarks he was talking about so there could be no misunderstanding.

Now, I've already denounced the comments that had appeared in these previous sermons. As I said, I had not heard them before. And I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church. He's built a wonderful congregation. The people of Trinity are wonderful people. And what attracted me has always been their ministry's reach beyond the church walls.

But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS, when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century, when he equates the United States wartime efforts with terrorism, then there are no excuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced. And that's what I'm doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.

Message received loud and clear, Senator. And now for the obvious follow up question

Do you repudiate the man, do you repudiate the comments, do you repudiate both?

Without Olbermann to prompt him, Obama managed to avoid talking to this issue:

The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I had come to know over 20 years. I understand that -- I think he was pained and angered from what had happened previously, during the first stage of this controversy. I think he felt vilified and attacked, and I understand that he wanted to defend himself.

I understand that, you know, he's gone through difficult times of late, and that he's leaving his ministry after many years. And so, you know, that may account for the change.

But the insensitivity and the outrageousness, of his statements and his performance in the question-and-answer period yesterday, I think, shocked me. It surprised me. As I said before, this is an individual who has built a very fine church and a church that is well- respected throughout Chicago.

During the course of me attending that church, I had not heard those kinds of statements being made or those kinds of views being promoted. And I did not vet my pastor before I decided to run for the presidency. I was a member of the church.

So you know, I think what it says is that, you know, I have not, you know, I did not run through -- run my pastor through the paces or review every one of the sermons that he had made over the last 30 years. But I don't think that anybody could attribute those ideas to me.

Still no repudiation. Maybe this next journalist's question would remind him to say the magic four words.

Q: You talked about giving the benefit of the doubt before -- mostly, I guess, in the Philadelphia speech, trying to create something positive about that. Did you consult with him before the speech or talk to him after the speech in Philadelphia to get his reaction:

SEN. OBAMA: You know, I tried to talk to him before the speech in Philadelphia. Wasn't able to reach him because he was on a -- he was on a cruise. He had just stepped down from the pulpit. When he got back, I did speak to him. And I -- you know, I prefer not to share sort of private conversations between me and him. I will talk to him perhaps some day in the future. But what I can say is that I was very clear that what he had said in those particular snippets, I found objectionable and offensive and that the intention of the speech was to provide context for them but not excuse them, because I found them inexcusable.

Q: Is this relationship with you and Wright irreparably damaged, do you think?

SEN. OBAMA: There's been great damage. You know, I -- it may have been unintentional on his part, but, you know, I do not see that relationship being the same after this. Now, to some degree, you know -- I know that one thing that he said was true, was that he wasn't -- you know, he was never my, quote-unquote, "spiritual adviser."

He was never my "spiritual mentor." He was -- he was my pastor. And so to some extent, how, you know, the -- the press characterized in the past that relationship, I think, wasn't accurate.

But he was somebody who was my pastor, and married Michelle and I, and baptized my children, and prayed with us at -- when we announced this race. And so, you know -- so I'm disappointed.

There we have Obama's final paragraph on this topic...for today. And true to form, Obama used it to parse words blaming the media for characterizing Reverend Wright as his "spiritual mentor" or "spiritual adviser"...when in reality says Obama, "he's my pastor." Give the media a break!

Maybe, this latest example of Clintonian parsing will finally make the media realize that the man who they've lauded, to the point that 63% of American's trust him, is "nothing more than a politician"...not my words...but those of the man who helped him find Jesus, married him, baptized his kids and whose company he enjoyed for over 20 years.

Yes, he denounced his pastor's irrational racist comments. But he'd already done that the last time we heard them on ABC News. Yes, Obama's angry at Pastor Wright... for screwing up his campaign. But seemingly not angry enough to denounce the man himself. Why? Maybe he thinks it would cause even more damage to his rapidly imploding run for the White House. Remember Wright's words...Obama's first and foremost a politician which is probably why he held back from renouncing the man.Source: http://obamawtf.blogspot.com

[charles]

Here's how it went
Obama's team brainstorm the problem - with or without Carl Rove.
'Wright will come up again and again - he will be the swiftboat of the November election
We can't disown now after Obama big race speech
But hang on what if he speaks out again even more outrageously - if he questions Obama's integrity
Yes - then we can go big on denouncing him
The worst they can hit us with then is we should have done it earlier - but against that people like a bit of loyalty
Can we get Wright to do this, to set himself up
I'll talk to Obama

[Shawmut]

Well done, Oxy Moran. Clearly, you know when a Muslim is talking "taqiyya." So do I. What's more, I don't like racist and religious bigots: over a year ago, anyone who can use a computer, could have read the Mission Statement on that false church's website, that:

"The Vision Statement of Trinity United Church of Christ is based upon the systematized Liberation Theology that started in 1969 with the publication of Dr James Cone's book BLACK POWER AND BLACK THEOLOGY."

The core declaration of Black Liberation Theology in Dr James Cone's quoted book is:

"What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of Black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love. Black Theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy."

This is racism and bigotry. Barack Hussein Obama has had at least 20 years of hearing this venom spoken, preached, disseminated and adhered to in the words of both his "pastor" and the "congregation" of this totally unChristian body.

[Consty Hussein]

Charles - you are a humongous pathetic LOSER that has no quatum of solace left but some spurious and extremely RIDICULOUS sense of superiority over people of other colours and religions.

Oxy Moran - While the Bush and acolytes regale in the windfall of oil money (together with their beloved Oiligarchs from jordan and saudi etc)they happily employ people like Rove and co to make people like you keep principled politicians at bay with passionate and bigoted focus on issues such as the words of the politicians' ex-pastor and the actions of the people that have sat in the same room with the politician etc.
Some people truly came to this world to accompany others and to see how proud they are in being lackeys is so weird it's not true.

[Kevin]

I find it amazing, that it takes HRC, her mother, daughter, Bill the Rep. Party, their candidate and the media to try to stop this man…. The only problem I see here is that all these groups see that those non-groups of color are all wrong? But he is still standing isn’t he? In PA he closed a 33-point lead down to 9, and he did this without paying the $550,000 they were trying to distort from Obama to get out the vote… You can spin it anyway you want, but that a win! He’s not a prefect man, and never will be! But he is a child of God! And I believe it’s his time and all those young people who support him… They are living the 21st century and not the 19th or 20th like most of the people who want to maintain the status quo! Being a great nation is much more then having the biggest bombs, guns and being the biggest bully on the block! But that sounds too much like right! I want the nation to be one; I want the war to end and the boyz to come home now (and yes, I was a big supporter of the war) I want too proud of my country and all it’s people! I want my country to be proud of me as a black man and not fear me just based on the color of my skin? And the only way this will happen is when we as a nation turn away from race bate politics HRC is running. A nation that judges a person for who they are not who they know or have known! Anyone who will say do or sale his or her soul to win, like this is a blood sport. Don’t really understand the price we are all going to have to pay… Do you really want to revert back to 50 60 years ago? Are we really willing to sacrifice our children’s future to refight old battles? Because they make good sound bits that sales and puts more money in that 1% who run the country while we fight over thing that not going to pay our bills? Put food on the table, or roof over our heads? Paying the college bills? Keep our jobs from being shipped over seas, keeping out streets safe? Have you seen the news: NYPD shots a man 50 times with no gun! Nearly 40 people gun down is the street of Chicago in 10 days! 21 people on death row in IL that should have not been there. And this is the one that get’s me, Bill and wife been on the hill for 16 years! And you still don’t have a health care bill??? What make’s you think by putting them back in the White House, that we are going to get one? NATFA, that put millions of workers out of work as well as busted the union and Bill and HRC were the biggest supporter! It was his Bill; CAFTA, that will put what’s left of the American workers, out of work! Columbia, did not give Mark Penn $300,000 and Bill $800,000 just because they like them? And now the bus in CA. with the FBI about Faud that is being keep out the paper until after the primary? This is one of the few time we can have a say as a nation, not corporate American or that 1%! We can change it and look towards the 21st century? or keep looking back at the past for answer, which has not and will not come in our life time or a our kids! We as a nation need to brake with the past so that our kid can have a future!!! Just my option, like anyone else…

[gtx13]

Who said "Obama wins" is just a novice ! Ask Rev. Wright who is the winner ! He does know much better as you, naive people !!

[RD]

I have read a fair amount of posts on this blog and I am amazed on how many people are completely blinded by the fact Obama is a non electable candidate. Media coverage across the networks has given Obama a free pass and will probably continue. ABC's debate called out Obama on issues that are important to this country if you’re going to be President of The United States…The Rev. Wright, Ayers, and a number of other associations that Obama has surrounded himself by is very important and the American People have the right to know about these relations. McCain, Clinton or any past candidate that would have had any associations with these people or made any of the comments that Obama has made over the past weeks would have been forced to step down as a candidate. The Democratic Party is divided in this primary and each candidate has their base of supporters. Knowing what we know now, if a re-vote was done I believe the American People would have voted differently.
Grasping at straws comes to mine here; Obama is a very arrogant Politician. Until recently, change has turned in Words, just Words…. We in small town America have figured this out more than a month ago! His rock star status and fame just went to his head and let him show us the truth of who he really is! The whole Rev Wright issue only confirmed it. What the Obama supporters and the media don’t get or the DNC for that matter, it is about Rev. Wright and his views, as wrong as they may be. It is about how Obama handled that issue which was so reveling. It was the same with the Canadian issue. It wasn’t the issue as much as the lies and smooth smug answers and never taking responsibility that we find unfit in a Presidential candidate.
It is the same over and over again. Under the bus, Typical white, didn’t know about statements, not there, Ok knew about but was not in church, Only 5, Ok dozens, Ok general trend, I would have left but retiring, No meeting took place, ok a meeting took place but not about NAFTA, Ok NAFTA was mentioned but no talk of campaign rhetoric, on and on it goes! Farrakhan, Avery, William Ayers. This list is getting rather long isn’t it? NOW WE HAVE THE BITTER SMALL TOWN LAZY WHITE FOLK WHO ARE GUN TOTEN RELIGION LOVING RACIST……..
We the Democratic voters will make a statement if Obama becomes the nominee; this man is losing his electability as each day goes by. For a year that would seem virtually impossible for the Democrats to lose an election is becoming more evident each day that goes by. I would strongly hope the SUPER DELICATES makes the right choice. If not, we have 2012 to look forward to. By that time maybe Florida and Michigan will not be disenfranchised. It’s a sad time in Politics for a Democratic Voter………