Beacon Street Journal

In an earlier post, I had argued that, media adulation notwithstanding, Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race was insufficient in a number of respects to put the matter of Jeremiah Wright behind him. The only ones buying Obama’s specious explanation for his long-term voluntary association with his incendiary, racist preacher were his adoring and compliant fans in the press. Obama’s speech on race afforded him an auspicious opportunity for a Sister Souljah moment with regards to the divisive, anti-American ramblings of Reverend Wright. He did not rise to the occasion. He may now regret it.

Obama pleaded with us that he could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than he could his own white grandmother. In short, Obama refused to throw Wright under the bus. As he strutted about the stage afforded him by the NAACP and the National Press Club, it is clear that Jeremiah Wright is not similarly disposed towards his former parishioner. Taunting, and at times, mocking Obama, an ego maniacal Reverend Wright made it clear that he has no compunction about throwing Obama under the bus. Loyalty to his former pastor was not repaid in kind. 

Based on his fulminations from the dais, we now have a better insight into the theology which Reverend Wright proselytizes from the pulpit. It seems to be a strange amalgam of neo-Marxism, so fashionable in the universities in the late 60’s, the teachings of Malcolm X, and a little racialism — used to explain the learning differences between blacks and whites (Eubonics, anyone?) — thrown in for good measure. When you mix the pot up the resulting stew is called “black liberation theology.” Thus, although Obama challenged us to move on from the cultural divisiveness of the 60’s, based on his twenty years as a parishioner in Wright’s church, it is clear that, ideologically, he is very much a child of that decade.

At the National Press Club speech, it was clear that Wright was enjoying himself and is reveling in his new-found status as a celebrity. His clownish gesticulations from the podium do not bode well for Obama’s candidacy because they embody a clear message: Jeremiah Wright is taking his black separationist carnival on the road and no amount of earnest pleading from Obama is going to stop the show from going on. 

Obama’s tepid and self-serving justification for his association with a toxic preacher was an attempt to straddle a bridge too far. Now, there can be no turning back. Jeremiah Wright will continue to plague the Obama campaign. Thus, the historical irony: the candidate who promised to transcend race is largely responsible for the most racially polarizing Democratic Primary in recent memory.