Blue on Blue

Barack Obama's association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in and of itself, probably won't sink his campaign. His hypocrisy just might:

...nothing of what [Geraldine] Ferraro said came close to the volcanic demagoguery of Jeremiah Wright. Yet Obama chose to have his campaign go into hyperventilating outrage over Ferraro while excusing the racist and anti-American rhetoric of his pastor, spiritual mentor, and political adviser.

Obama may wish that he hadn’t chased Ferraro out of the Hillary Clinton campaign for another reason other than the obvious hypocrisy. She no longer has to worry about how her speech reflects on Hillary, and so Ferraro is much freer to speak her mind on this issue. Calling Wright a racist bigot may just be the opening stanza for Ferraro, who clearly is not in the mood for reconciliation. Ferraro will keep this story alive in the headlines until Obama backs off of the comparisons and apologizes, or until he winds up losing the nomination for this and other missteps in the controversy.

This isn’t going away. If Ferraro doesn’t get appeased, it may have only just started.

Meanwhile, John McCain seems to have been pretty quiet about this controversy - a wise move, considering his own ties to some dubious religious leaders. (Not nearly as close as Obama's ties to Wright, of course, but enough to raise charges of hypocrisy.) Better to sit back and let the Democratic Party tear itself apart.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at March 20, 2008 05:34 PM