I think colagirl has it exactly right.
This must be killing Obama, because his only, um, hope was to run as a post-racial, post-partisan, post-modern politician. It’s a simply brilliant strategy, especially for a relatively untested legislator. (No experience? You’re missing the point! No programs? You’re asking the wrong questions!) It’s also a narrative that the media was poised to support: it’s novel, it’s courageous, it’s interesting. Actually, I think Obama’s substantive politics were the least of it. Left-wing positions didn’t help John Edwards, after all.
But it’s a risky strategy, because it sets the bar very high. Any evidence of feet of clay is more devastating to an Obama than to a conventional politician. Take Rezko. I mean, Obama was a state legislator from Checago – how could he *not* know crooked developers? Clinton knows lots of crooks. So does McCain. It isn’t admirable, but it’s hard to avoid and can’t really be disqualifying by itself. But if you hold yourself out as somehow beyond that, as better than that, look out.
So Obama looks quite conventional in his tardy decision to throw Wright under the bus. And conventional is the one thing he can’t afford.
And here’s a contrarian take on Wright’s motives: perhaps he saw that Obama wasn’t fully over the blowback from the earlier statements and was trying to help Obama by forcing the issue and providing a Sista Souljah opportunity. I think that is more plausible than inferring that he was peeved by Obama’s lack of support, let alone that he was a Clinton mole.
