Wright Speaks

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright made a few public appearances over the weekend that I am sure left some Barack Obama supporters out there asking “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”  Obama supporters need to understand, however, that Wright’s friendship with Obama doesn’t require the Reverend to crawl under a rock until after the election in the hopes that his presence won’t sink the SS Obama.  Wright has the right to speak.  And he should, given Big Media’s spasm of Wright coverage, launched by some inflammatory clips hurtling through cyberspace.

Wright has no choice but to defend himself against charges that he’s a racist, unpatriotic, conspiracy-theory spouting kook; in the court of public opinion, silence is akin to a guilty plea.  His recent visibility is clearly intended to counter the one-dimensional characterization of him that Big Media ran with.  I’m also willing to bet that there is a part of him that feels his most famous congregant, Obama, didn’t go far enough to defend him.  He may even be offended by the fact that, as the story began to fade, Obama went on the ABC television show “The View” and, as if to shovel dirt on his mentor, noted that he would have left the church if Wright had not retired.  This came after Obama went to great lengths to explain why he hadn’t left the church and had the faint whiff of someone scrambling to put the toothpaste back in the tube.  Wright's words strike me as those of a father who feels like his son didn't come to his defense.  It's akin to a scorned father who decides to take a pound of flesh from his son.

In a speech before the National Press Club, Wright broadened the discussion to contend that the attacks on him are really an attack on the larger Black church.  As The New York Times reported, Wright said that political opponents of Senator Obama were exploiting the fact that the style of prayer and preaching in black churches was different from European church traditions emphasizing that it was “different, but not deficient,” he said.  While I think it’s a bit of a stretch to conclude that it’s about the Black church, there is no doubt in my mind that we too often fear and demonize that which we do not fully understand.  So I won’t summarily dismiss Wright’s larger point.

Of course, this all boils down to one question: How will Wright’s words impact Obama’s quest for the presidency?  I think it will have a very limited impact in the nomination fight; it’s still his to lose.  It would certainly have been a different story had this erupted just before Super Tuesday.  This controversy may still prove to be political poison for Obama in the general election.  Many voters, including some who may have been inclined to support Obama, have seen the video, heard from Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, and people of their unfortunate ilk, and already decided that Obama is unsupportable.  For Obama’s sake, let’s hope that universe of people doesn’t grow as the story continues.  And it will.

Michael Fauntroy is an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University and author of the recently published book Republicans and the Black Vote.  An Independent, he blogs at www.MichaelFauntroy.com.