The Wright Stuff

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright has been on a media offensive this past week. He's made three major appearances since Friday, winding up on Monday with a speech at Washington's National Press Club. The reviews are, to put it mildly, mixed.

The Reverend Wright was the pastor for 20 years for Senator Barack Obama and his family in Chicago. When portions (referred to now in the media lexicon as "snippets") of Rev. Wright's sermons hit YouTube and the rest of the Internet, the nation was astounded. The most common adjective used to describe them was "incendiary." His most famous quote was that African-Americans shouldn't sing "God Bless America," but rather because of the nation's tortured racial past, sing, "God Damn America." There was plenty more that would anger a lot of voters.

In a speech soon after these remarks broke, Sen. Obama tried to distance himself from Rev. Wright's remarks without distancing himself from Rev. Wright or his church. It was a very fine line and for a while, the speech served to quell criticism. But now, after Sen. Obama lost a critical primary in Pennsylvania to his rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, this recent media blitz by Rev. Wright is threatening to make life a whole lot worse for Sen. Obama's campaign.

In his remarks in Washington, the Rev. Wright refused to back off or apologize for any of his previous remarks although he did try to put them in some kind of context. But the appearance came off more like a circus with a crowd cheering his every statement and any nuances lost in the rush to play back the sound bites. He said that any criticism of his remarks is not aimed at him but at the black church in general.

The consensus online and in the nation's press was that this was not helping Senator Obama and it certainly did not appear as if the Rev. Wright is in a mood to help him at all. The view from many analysts is that just as the Rev. Wright controversy was beginning to die down, these appearances will only inflame it even more, and threatens to engulf Sen. Obama within it.

Senator Clinton has been very circumspect in her remarks on the Rev. Wright, saying that if she were a member of Rev. Wright's church, she would have left, but she then criticized Republicans for "politicizing" the matter. Not exactly hard hitting stuff. For his part, the likely Republican Party nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, said, it was "beyond belief" that Rev. Wright, in a speech on Sunday, offered that the United States was acting like "Al Qaeda under a different color flag."

Republicans in North Carolina (a state where a critical primary will be held next week) are running an ad criticizing Rev. Wright, and by extension, Senator Obama. The ad has been denounced by Senator McCain but will run anyway.

These developments are going to put an extreme amount of pressure on Sen. Obama to disown Rev. Wright in more forceful terms than he has in the past, and possibly, even leave the church. This is what some analysts are suggesting when they say that Senator Obama has to pull a "Sister Souljah moment." A "Sister Souljah moment " is political shorthand for a politician issuing a strong public condemnation of a group preferably in front of the group itself.

It refers specifically to the 1992 scolding by then Governor Bill Clinton during his campaign for president when he told an African-American organization (Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition) that remarks made by hip hop artist "Sister Souljah" (Lisa Williamson) about "black people killing white people" could have been made in reverse by white racist David Duke.

Gov. Clinton was criticized severely by Jesse Jackson, Sister Souljah, and others, but gained media support as someone who would "stand up" to such behavior. It tended to help Gov. Clinton among moderate and centrist Democrats during the campaign. While there was some initial fallout in the black community, eventually he ended up with the vast majority of black votes.

If Sen. Obama did denounce and disown the Rev. Wright, he would probably end the controversy and maybe even make gains among the white working class and senior age voters he is currently losing to Sen. Clinton. But he also risks losing (I think to a greater degree then Gov. Clinton did in 1992) the nearly monolithic support he is getting in the African-American community for his presidential run.

He hasn't always received that support. In fact, when the campaign started, most African-Americans were backing Senator Hillary Clinton out of respect to President Bill Clinton (who became a favorite of African-American voters) and because they thought that Sen. Obama stood no chance of getting the nomination.

But after the Iowa caucus and the subsequent victories of Senator Obama, black support flocked to him and has helped propel him into the lead for the Democratic nomination. A public rebuke of Rev. Wright, a lá Bill Clinton's put-down of Sister Souljah," could threaten that support. It's unclear yet what the political calculations would be in terms of gaining support from white moderate voters to offset an expected loss among African-Americans.

If it did happen, it would be ugly and bitter. Sources indicate that privately, the Obama campaign is furious with the Rev. Wright for launching this media blitz now as the controversy was beginning to dim (not fade away). This will put Senator Obama on the defensive yet again and he will attempt to thread the needle between walking away and maintaining his relationship with the Rev. Wright.

The Rev. Wright isn't making it easy on the candidate. Let's see what the polls in Indiana, and more importantly, North Carolina, say in a couple of days.