A Pilgrim’s Digression

It’s a grim time to be an Obama supporter. It seems as if we have had weeks and weeks of bad news, despite his recent win in Mississippi and his win in the Texas caucus.

If you really want to punish yourself, tune in to Fox News some evening around six o’clock and listen to the pundits inveigh on Obama’s troubles. From six to ten, from Brit Hume to Bill O’Reilly to Sean Hannity, all you will hear, hour after hour, are repeated playings of the “greatest hits” of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

I listened to Fox News on XM last night for about three hours, as I drove to Washington to start my work week. It was incredibly disheartening. Despite Dick Morris’s assertion on Hannity and Colmes that Obama will be the Democratic nominee, baggage and all, the continous bloviating about what he “needs” to do to address the Wright controversy is like listening to fingernails on a chalk board.

On O’Reilly’s program, the host talked about almost nothing else but Wright. About twenty minutes into the program, he did a brief story about an “out of control” judge who released several sex offenders, but overall it was “All Wright, All the Time.” And what really irritated me is that of all the pundits O’Reilly brought on to talk about the issue, including Karl Rove, none of them said anything new or different. The only ones who offered any kind of contrasting point of view to O’Reilly were two African-American pastors whom he kept interrupting.

As both pastors pointed out, what is happening here with the Wright “scandal” is a classic Republican tactic called guilt by association. It’s an easy way to trip up a candidate for political office: examine the candidate’s friends and business contacts and then demand explanations for why he or she associates with such scurrilous characters. For that matter, Republicans have had the same tactic used against them.

One of the criticisms of Rev. Wright is that he claimed that 9/11 was a punishment for America’s sins, specifically the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Remember Pat Robertson? How many times have Republicans been made to disavow and apologize for his idiotic statements, such as 9/11 was a punishment for America’s sins, specifically homosexuality.

Because both sides have suffered from this political tactic does not make it right, however. Like everyone, I am anxious to hear Obama’s remarks today on the Wright controversy and on race generally. I don’t believe he has a lot to answer for, though. As he said last week, as humans we often have contacts, friendships, even relatives whose views can be embarrassing or controversial. Politically, he should have distanced himself from Wright a long time ago, but we have to remember that candidates are people, too, and sometimes just because it is expedient to jettison a friend for sake of propriety, for sentimental reasons we don’t always do it.

How much is the Wright controversy going to hurt Obama in the long run? I don’t know. There is a part of me glad this is coming out now rather than in October. Obama is reacting to it sharply and in good time. But no doubt it is damaging for Americans to hear those audio clips of Wright played over and over and over, and no doubt Republicans will continue to play them over and over and over for as long as they can get traction on the issue.

The question is how much traction does it give them? I see a lot of white pundits, like O’Reilly and Karl Rove, expressing outrage over Wright’s views. I don’t hear a lot of black people expressing that same level of indignation. The black pundits I’ve heard have deplored Wright’s remarks, but they have also sought to place them in the context of the African-American church and Liberation theology. The white pundits will have nothing of context.

Potentially, this is more damaging for Republicans than for Obama. I think it could easily be seen as an attack on the African-American church, and an attempt to divide whites and blacks, simply for the purposes of segregating the vote–the unstated prejudice being that white people (specifically white men) determine the outcome of any election. Viewed in the latter manner, this controversy is a dream come true for the Clintons, who have tried again and again during this campaign to stir up white fears of a black candidate.

Furthermore, the endless replaying of the Wright sound bites accompanied by indignant condemnation by white pundits, as well as the video of white Fox News reporters harassing parishioners of Trinity United, makes the whole controversy look like the proverbial “high tech lynching.”

And of course, it can’t hurt that the media is highlighting Obama’s Christianity throughout the controversy. The underground campaign through Clinton surrogates to suggest that Obama is a Muslim took a real hit this weekend, with the outbreak of this scandal.

Even as I write, I am listening to Obama’s speech in response to the Wright matter. He sounds pretty good to me, and I feel more confident that he can put this matter behind him. Will Republicans let it go? Doubtful.

One thing is for sure, though. If Obama comes through this to become the Democratic nominee, no one is going to be able to say he is not “battle tested” or unprepared for the Republican onslaught that awaits. He has taken lots of punches over the last few weeks, and he keeps on going.