Last week, America’s Election HQ blog reported on whining Democrats who think that John McCain “got a pass” over his so-called association with Pastor John Hagee. In the weeks that followed the widespread release of Obama’s pastors anti-American/racist/anti-Semitic sermons, liberal pundits and bloggers kept referring to Hagee as “McCain’s pastor” — an obvious “misery loves company” strategy that was as ridiculous as Wright’s rhetoric.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand the differences between Hagee’s endorsement of John McCain (as well as McCain’s subsequent repudiation of Hagee’s anti-Catholic views) and Barack Obama’s 20-year relationship with Jeremiah Wright, who not only officiated Obama’s marraige, but baptized his kids. And of course, Obama’s book title, The Audacity of Hope, comes from one of Wright’s sermons.
There have been a number of polls done assessing the impact of the Jeremiah Wright story on Obama’s presidential bid. While some suggest most voters say he handled it well, others showed Obama significantly damaged by it. All the while Obama supporters have been trying to argue that Wright isn’t a legitimate issue.
The thing is, Wright is a legitimate issue. Even if you choose to believe Obama’s claim that in the 20 years he was attending Wright’s church services that he never once heard anything like what we saw clips of on television or heard on the radio, no reasonable person could believe that Obama wasn’t aware of Wright’s anti-American, racist, and anti-Semitic views. Yet, he still went to the church and gave it thousands of dollars in contributions. That tells you a lot of about Barack’s character and true values… and none of what it says is good.
Still, Democrats know this is an issue that won’t go away. If Wright wasn’t a liability for Obama’s candidacy, you wouldn’t be hearing John Hagee’s name being brought up as a common rebuttal. If Obamaniacs think that Hagee is a liability for McCain, then they know with absolute certainty that Wright is a huge liability for Obama. And if Democrats think bringing up Hagee will neutralize the Wright impact on Obama’s candidacy then they are wrong. The Hagee story came and went because there was “no there there” as far McCain’s candidacy is concerned. As long as Democrats try to regurgitate that non-story then it only reminds people of Obama’s longtime connection to and acceptance of Jeremiah Wright.
Some may argue that last night’s primary results show that Barack Obama has effectively moved beyond Jeremiah Wright. Perhaps as far as the Democratic Primary is concerned, maybe he has. Afterall, Democrats probably agree with Jeremiah Wright on many levels… But in the general election? No question… big negative for Obama… no matter how much our friends on the left want to pretend it’s not.
But hey, let them pretend.
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