Monday, March 17, 2008

Some Scholar   [Victor Davis Hanson]

One of the strangest defenses of Rev. Wright by Sen. Obama was his repeated assurance that Wright is a biblical "scholar."

But Wright's own sermons surely belie that characterization: he uses the "n-word," resorts to profanity, and when screaming that Clinton was "ridin' dirty" with Monica, he seems from the tape at least, to be shaking and trying to simulate sexual intercourse from the pulpit.

Justice Thomas seems to be referred to as "Clarence Colon" and Sec. Rice is "Condamnesia." All this is crude and uncouth, and not even the eloquent Obama could finesse it into anything scholarly. This entire defense is simply Orwellian—especially since Obama's past references to and praise of Wright in interviews and memoirs, as well as 20-years of church attendance and intimacy,suggest admiration and clear knowledge of the character of Wright.

If anything, Wright seems to have trumped even the hatred of Farrakhan.

The raw venom expressed by Wright, and Obama's ambiguity about him, may well be the most bizarre development in recent American political history. It is as if he and his entire campaign staff have collectively lost their minds with these serial contortions and half-truths, and are trying to lose Pennsylvania by 30 points—when all Obama would have to do is apologize, quit the church, and begin talking about the issues (albeit holding off for a while from the old sermons about transcending race, and practicing a new candor and political honesty.)

Any middle-of-the-road Democratic voter who sampled five or six of Wright's sermons, juxtaposed them with Obama's references to him as not particularly controversial, an uncle, a scholar, etc., wouldn't vote for Obama in a million years.

03/17 11:50 AMShare