Is Wright wrongfully wounding Obama? And does America appreciate context?

I actually watched Dr. Jeremiah Wright jr.’s speech at the National Press Club live on C-SPAN last Monday. I had been up all night and I guess that maybe I missed its significance.

Parts of the speech seemed like something you might expect a black leader and/or United Church of Christ persoin to say. I did figure that the more Dr. Wright stayed in the background, that the better the chances for the Junior Senator from Illinois becoming president.

As I noted before, crazy ideas come from the denomination with which I am connected. There is a firm belief that everybody needs to learn divine truth[s] for him/herself and feel free to express what they have discerned to be such truth[s].

I have been hearing ever since Monday that Dr. Wright seems to be bringing Senator Obama down, almost as if that is what he wants to do. The Senator has had to pretty much renounce the man. Some speculate that the Junior Senator from New York or people close to her have been keeping Dr. Wright in the spotlight to damage the Obama campaign.

So now I reluctantly suspect that Dr. Wright’s comments may now have that affect. What bothers me is that I am not sure that it is because of what he is saying or because the American public just cannot put the comments into perspective.

There are always conspiracy ideas going around, from the Illuminati of a previous era and the Trilateral Commission and the Federal Reserve of a later era to the Reichstag-September 11^th or the Government invented HIV theories of the present age. I haven’t signed on to a lot of them, but they stay in vogue because there seems to be just enough fact around to make them credible to many.

I doubt if the government invented HIV. However, I am not sure that they haven’t made good use of it since by being overly passive.

I have not signed onto the Obama wagon, but it is no secret that I have little admiration for Senator Clinton. [Senator Rodham would have had more, substantially more.] But regardless of who you and I like, the public is entitled to have its choices better framed with irrelevancies like a nattering clergyperson kept out of things.

Leonard Pitts, jr. is harder on Dr. Wright than I am. But perhaps the summary of a recent column he wrote summarizes the situation well. Noting that a cousin of his held Dr. Wright in awe and lamenting his disappointment and disagreement, he noted

He had his chance to walk on water but - sorry, cousin - he fell in instead. The only remaining question is whether he will pull Barack Obama down with him.

Earlier post: Observations on Obama, his mosque, and his imam [3/23/08]