Obama's Predicament

Barack Obama, the darling of the press, is seemingly under siege. Consequently, there is no shortage of suggestions from the pundits about how he should handle the Reverend Wright nightmare, including coming out forcefully and condemning the good reverend, make a series of speeches, or portray Wright as crazy and delusional. I suspect that Obama will do none of the above. He will probably continue to give the same tepid response because if he did address Wright's comments again, he would have to come clean about what he knew, when he knew it, what he agreed or disagreed with Wright about, and then Wright would probably respond by stating exactly what beliefs they both share. I don't think Obama wants to take that chance. I also think will only make delicate admonishments because if he pushes hard, Wright will be even more aggressive in his responses. At that point, he might spill the secrets and we will finally find out exactly who Barack Obama is.

Obama missed a golden opportunity when he gave his speech on race. He should have distanced himself completely from Wright, instead for reason only he and Wright knows, he chose not to. Now, the controversy has come back to bite him in the butt. What Obama should have done is acknowledge what he knew, state categorically that those were not his views, and proclaim that he was a proud American. However, he handled Reverend Wright with kid gloves and threw his own grandmother under the bus. The curious question is: Why can't he walk away completely from the Reverend. What secrets does Reverend Wright know about Obama's beliefs? The problem for Obama is he is virtually a "blank slate" as he puts it and unfortunately for him, everyone is now filling in the blanks that they sense was untold. While one can't convict a person based solely on one's associations, it does provide a window into a person view of the world. Wright is not Obama's only questionable association, there is also William Ayers and Tony Rezko who is still on trial. Add in the "bitter" comments, Michele Obama's comments and one starts to see a pattern emerging.