Barack Obama’s speech on Tuesday, March 18, on the subject of race relations in America is seriously off topic for a man who had been heretofore doing a jim dandy job transcending racial politics. It speaks volumes about the dark underworld ruled by Mrs. Clinton that Obama has been manipulated into becoming a black candidate for president rather than simply a candidate. But regardless of the triumph of traditional Democratic racial politics over Obama’s message of change and unity, a disturbing question has been raised.
In furtherance of a lifelong aspiration to political office, the young Mr. Obama joined with the powerful 10,000 member Trinity United Church of Christ back in the 1980s while still an organizer in the local Democratic ward. After a time, he sees that there is no no real future in community organizing and goes off to earn the most prestigious law degree in America – doing so with distinction. Returning to Chicago, Obama,a self-described agnostic, reconnects with Jeremiah Wright’s ministry. The youthful politician seeks office, and affiliation with a powerful black church in these wards is essential to that goal - Politics 101. He wins a seat in the Illinois legislature and from that position is chosen to give a keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. Without his affiliation with the Trinity Church of Christ, none of this would have ever happened. He owes his very candidacy today to that early bit of shrewdness. He is able to parlay his stunning reception at the convention into a successful run for the United States Senate in 2004. (Yes, he is still that young and inexperienced, folks.) This would have been the perfect moment to jettison Jeremiah Wright - the moment any seasoned politician suddenly gaining national recognition and seeking higher office would have chosen. Such a politician would have broken with the dangerous and demagogic reverend quietly, surreptitiously, with warm handshakes all around and sincere promises of continued discrete support for the reverend’s church. Obama, for some reason, did not.