jackconaty's Blog

Did he look angry or sad?  Was he disgusted or hurt?  Should all of this have happened much sooner?

Senator Barack Obama does not speak as fast as some in the media would like.  In TV soundbite form he runs long, complete with pauses and what sometimes appears to be a superior intellect in search of the perfect word.  For far too long, glib has passed for intelligent and there's always that ever shortening attention span that sometimes appears to contracting faster in America than the GNP.  But this time it worked for Obama and it may well become the defining moment of his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright said Monday that "politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls."  I think he meant that to be construed as a criticism.  But Wright has the cadences and the myopia of the 1960's.  His anger and his demeanor have been forged in the crucible of the african-american experience of that period.  When he references "liberation theology" he often cites 60's era thinkers and writers.  But for a man so filled with antipathy to the soundbite culture of the 21st century, he clings to that annoying habit that some men of the cloth wear so easily.  He will use one-liners from Jesus lifted from scripture without concern for context or extrapolation.

The Obama campaign knew this confrontation was coming.  They made the decision that Wright would have to explain Wright and not Obama.  While Wright gave every impression of ego-centric narcissim at the podium in the National Press Club in Washington Monday, his appearance there was no accident any more than were his stops before the NAACP in Detroit or with Bill Moyers on PBS.  The results of the exit polls in Pennsylvania were indisputable.  Wright and those oft-played snippets of his fiery sermons were hurting the Obama campaign.  It had to end and it wasn't going to be pretty.  But please don't think that Jeremiah Wright got out of bed on Monday morning determined to end Obama's candidacy.  He had cancelled all of his public appearances when his "sermonettes" became a national controversy late last month.  He could have cancelled all the latest ones too and probably would have if asked.  The Obama campaign disputes this and says Obama really didn't know what Wright said until his aides showed him a video of Wright's seemingly arrogant and ignorant performance on Tuesday morning.  I don't buy that.  Obama goes out and plays basketball,  watches the Wright video and seemingly without breaking stride goes out and holds the most important press conference of his career.  Watch it again carefully.  He knows exactly what he's saying and knows exactly what he wants you to know about why he's saying it.

This isn't about the upcoming votes in North Carolina and Indiana. Not really.  Obama's statements yesterday will probably not change the outcome in either state.  North Carolina will be closer than it should have been though he will most likely win.  I think he will lose in Indiana.  But when it's all said and done he will net a few more delegates than Hillary Clinton.  So yesterday's press conference and comments were aimed at the superdelegates. Most of those who haven't yet commited publicly yet are reportedly leaning towards Obama.  But they were getting nervous about his erosion of support from "angry white males." and worried about what six months of Jeremiah Wright "swift boat" TV ads would look like and the damage it would do to his campaign in the general election.

Remember the first of those ads was set to air in North Carolina on Monday.  Instead Wright took center stage in Washington...Obama took center stage on Tuesday in North Carolina and by Wednesday the "Wright in the pulpit" ad is dated and somewhat anachronistic.  The Obama versus Wright confrontation may have looked like a car wreck but it was as carefully orchestrated as a crash scene in a Hollywood film.  And just like in Hollywood, in the end, no one really gets hurt.