Another remarkable aspect of the Bill Moyers' interview with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is that it happened at all. The issue of Wright and his sermons did lasting, if not fatal damaged to Barack Obama, but as a talking point it had begun to fade. Well it's back now, just as Senator Clinton needs a good argument that Obama is unelectable. It is very hard to see how this is anything but bad for Obama. ABC's The Note has this on Wright's choice of this moment:
Maybe he'll convince the public that he was misunderstood, his fiery words taken out of context. Or maybe (stop us if you think we're off) he's supplying oxygen and dry brush to the flames that have threatened to engulf Obama.
"When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public," Wright says, "that's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do."
He may be correct -- but even trying to set the record straight ensures several more weeks of soundbites he and Obama don't get to choose.
So why did Reverend Wright decide to break his silence now? Here are some possibilities:
First, Wright may care more about his own reputation than he does about Obama's chances, and he may enjoy the national fame he has won and he realizes that this is his moment in the sun.
Second, Wright may want Obama to lose. After all, he said this:
No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body.
And he said it when Condi Rice was Secretary of State! But it will be harder to ignore a Black president than a Black Secretary of State. Maybe an Obama Presidency will puncture his precious view of racism in America.
Third, Wright and Moyers may want to go for broke. They are confident Obama will be elected, and they want that election to be a mandate for their view of America. An unqualified victory for the left is the prize they are after.
Only the last view if flattering. It will be interesting to see how it works out.
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