Hell hath no fury like a pastor scorned, as Barack Obama learned the hard way.
A month ago, when video snippets of Jeremiah Wright's more controversial sermons first popped up on cable television, Obama tried to take the high road. He gently distanced himself from Wright and compared his former black pastor to his white grandmother, while insisting he could never repudiate either one of them. Then, instead of responding to each of Wright's inflammatory remarks, Obama seized the occasion to call for a new national dialogue on race.
That may have placated most of Obama supporters, but it didn't sit well with Rev. Wright. He obviously felt betrayed by his adopted spiritual son. After all, he introduced Obama to Christianity, officiated at his marriage, baptized his daughters, blessed his house, prayed privately with him the morning Obama launched his campaign for president, and served as his spiritual adviser for the last 20 years. How could Obama suddenly treat him like a total stranger? Or, worse yet, like a beloved but crazy uncle – tolerated at the Thanksgiving dinner table, but never taken seriously?
In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah laments: "Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is grievous" (Jeremiah 10:18). After lying low for a couple of weeks, just long enough for Obama to believe he'd put the whole controversy behind him, the preacher Jeremiah popped up at the National Press Club this week and lamented: "Woe is me for my hurt reputation! My wound is grievous and I'm determined to speak out, even if it harms, or maybe destroys, the chances of the first African-American to be elected president." 
Pastor Wright certainly didn't do his friend Barack Obama any favors by speaking out again. He not only dissed Obama as just another politician, but he also repeated all the outrageous claims that got both of them in hot water in the first place.
Forget the notion Wright's original statements had simply been taken out of context. In his Press Club appearance, Wright leveled every one of his explosive charges yet again. Had we heard wrong? No, Wright really does believe that because America has practiced so much terrorism itself, Sept. 11 was merely a case of the "chickens coming home to roost." Was he misquoted? No, Wright still asserts that the government deliberately spread the AIDS virus in our inner cities to kill young blacks. Did Rev. Wright just get carried away in the emotion of the moment? No, even after careful consideration, he still praises Louis Farrakhan as a great leader who is simply misunderstood by white Americans. And those who don't accept his views, insists Wright, just don't understand what black churches are all about.
From his appearance at the Press Club, we know four things about Jeremiah Wright: He loves the sound of his own voice. He's enjoying his 15 minutes of fame. He cares more about saving his own reputation than he does about destroying Barack Obama's. And he's dead wrong in labeling this nation as the moral equivalent of al-Qaida and suggesting that all black preachers hate America as much he does.
Ironically, in his prepared remarks, Jeremiah Wright joked about advice once given by Abraham Lincoln: "It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." Too bad he didn't follow that advice. He would have spared himself, Barack Obama, and the whole country, a lot of grief.
After that train wreck, what else could Obama do? He had to throw his pastor under the bus, and he did so forcefully and angrily: "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church. They certainly don't portray accurately my values and beliefs."
Even though Obama has clearly distanced himself from his former pastor, of course, questions remain. In 20 years, how could he not have been aware of some of Pastor Wright's more incendiary statements? Why didn't he change pastors a long time ago? And why'd he wait so long to repudiate Wright's comments, this time around?
Did he act soon enough and strong enough to convince voters they should not hold Jeremiah Wright against him? As Barack Obama told reporters: "We'll find out." Yes, we'll find out, on May 6, in Indiana and North Carolina.
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