IN THIS YouTube era, videos of the worst of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's retired pastor, instantly went national. Obama's campaign knew he was trouble more than a year ago, when the flammable preacher was disinvited to the campaign kickoff.
Obama's remarkable speech on black anger and white resentment was daring, honest, and moving. But his nutty preacher's racial rants have probably already cost him Pennsylvania. Hillary Clinton will use Wright's wrongs to try to persuade superdelegates that Obama can't win the general election. Clinton has her own trouble: a 43 percent unfavorable rating nationally.
Nuts come in many colors
Why isn't the anti-Catholic, misogynistic, gay-bashing preacher John Hagee hurting John McCain, who sought Hagee's support, got it, and appeared on stage with him? Answer: Hagee is white. When whites see a white nut, we dismiss him as fringe. But a black nut? Hold on, pal.White preachers say the darndest things. Pat Robertson: "Just like what the German Nazis did to the Jews, so liberal Democrats are doing to evangelical Christians."
According to his son, when evangelical pioneer Francis Schaeffer "called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with Presidents Ford, Reagan, and Bush Sr."
The late Jerry Falwell blamed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on American pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, and lesbians.
Race and the campaign
The Clintons - who believe their hearts are pure - have been playing the race card for months.It started in Iowa. A Clinton staffer fired off a statewide e-mail saying that Obama was Muslim (false) and had attended a radical Islam school, a madrassa (false). The aide was fired, an apology was issued, but the damage had been done.
Kerrey on
Former senator Bob Kerrey, a Clinton ally, recycled the madrassa myth on CNN and said Obama's middle name (Hussein) gave him entree to a billion Muslims. Apology issued, damage done.Selling drugs?
Bill Shaheen, Clinton's New Hampshire cochairman, said that Obama's admittance of teenage drug use would damage him in the general election. Granted. But Shaheen also predicted what the press would ask Obama: "Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?" Sell them? Would these questions be asked of a white candidate? Apology issued, damage done.A black primary
After South Carolina, Bill Clinton compared Obama to Jesse Jackson in a lame attempt to make it a black thing. Hillary Clinton recently said she was sorry if anyone was offended. Apology issued, damage done.That first black president thing
President Clinton was called "the first black president" by Toni Morrison, the black Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. But the context of her sobriquet wasn't affectionate."In the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black president. . . . Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing,
Driving Miss Hillary?
Obama leads in pledged delegates and popular vote, and has won twice as many states as Clinton. He beats McCain, my friends, in nearly all national polls. But Clinton has suggested that Obama would be a good number two on her ticket, an offer Obama promptly refused.A 1,000-word picture
The Drudge Report, the right-wing news and gossip website, was sent that photo of Obama in Somali garb. It exploded across the nation's media just days before the Ohio primary. Drudge said the picture came from aides to Clinton, which her campaign denied. No apology, damage done.Double dealing
First, Governor Ed Rendell, leading Clinton's campaign in Pennsylvania, said there are white people in his state who won't vote for Obama because he's black. Then, Geraldine Ferraro, a Clinton fund-raiser, said if Obama were white, he wouldn't be leading. Apology issued, damage done. Again.Dan Payne is a Boston area media consultant who has worked for Democratic candidates around the country.
