Obama and Mr. Wright

I've been listening to several conservative talk radio shows the last couple days and I think they've all missed the core issue with Obama's late coming repudiation of his spiritual mentor. Scott at Power Line had a post today that finally hit on what I see as the most interesting part of his statement Tuesday.

If we take Obama at his word he isn't denouncing Wright because he stated that blacks and whites can't learn in the same school because they're practically different species (the original meaning of "race" and the slave holders' intention for using that term) . He didn't denounce him because of his insults to Jews, or Italians, or whites, or America. The straw that broke the camel's back was Wright insinuating that Obama was duplicitous and said the things he did because he was a politician. Laura Ingraham this morning derisively quoted a New York Times article essentially prepared by Obama aides because it shows Obama as suddenly realizing that Wright was offensive after his Press Club interview, glossing over the fact that even that puff piece article again cites that Obama "felt dumbfounded, even betrayed, particularly by Mr. Wright’s implication that Mr. Obama was being hypocritical. He could not tolerate that."

Far from insulating Obama from future questions about his erstwhile mentor, Obama's posturing on Tuesday leaves me with the idea that it's okay to attack Israel, to claim the US government created AIDS, to claim that blacks and whites can't learn in the same school because they're so different, just don't attack Obama.