OBAMA CHOOSES OPTION (A)

Over at Too Sense this morning, One Drop looked at the recent history of 9/11 pronouncements by preachers and wrote:

Senator Obama, you really only have two options: either completely denounce Rev. Wright, and state that you want nothing more to do with him...or get him to deliver a sermon blaiming 9/11 on the gays. Everyone will be fine with that.

Obama has now issued a statement (published by the Huffington Post and Pat Robertson's chief political reporter) that essentially follows option (A):

...I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.

...Let me repeat what I've said earlier. All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn. They in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country.

I don't know why he didn't distance himself from Wright a long time ago. But whatever you think about this, in order to believe that Obama embraces divisiveness, you have to believe that he's a Manchurian candidate who's espoused the exact opposite at every possible opportunity. We've heard and read so many of his words and we know so much about his deeds that in order to believe he's like Wright at Wright's worst we have to believe Obama is engaged in a sinister B-movie plot, presenting himself in a manner that's almost 180 degrees different and wickedly concealing his true nature. We have to believe that every word about bringing America together across racial and regional and cultural lines is a lie.

But a hell of a lot of Americans probably are willing to believe that, right? Just as a lot of Americans are willing to believe that, after fifteen years of highly public centrism, Bill and Hillary Clinton are really radical commies hell-bent on imposing the tyrannical, totalitarian governing philosophy of Marx, Lenin, and Mao on a sleeping, deluded public.

Republicans, of course, always get the benefit of the doubt. Embrace Pat Robertson, John Hagee, and Rod Parsley -- or, for that matter, Norman Podhoretz, Laurie Mylroie, and Rush Limbaugh -- and you'll still be seen as a safe centrist, someone whose beliefs are right down the middle.

That's because Democrats are always scary and weird and beyond the pale.

I hope Obama's current media offensive turns the tide. But he's a Democrat, so that just might not be possible.