The Maverick Tribe

Obama has just held a press conference essentially divorcing himself from his mocking, narcissistic, self-parody of a pastor.  This event is layered with relief and sadness for me.  Relief obviously, as there is no love lost between the vast majority of Obama supporters - including me - and Rev. Wright.  But sadness because, in terms of the personal relationship between Obama and Wright, there is obviously a lot of love lost.  The guy inspired the title of The Audacity of Hope, for crying out loud.

We now know that Wright does not take attacks on him lying down.  As such, Barack Obama is now running a presidential campaign against three direct opponents:  McCain, Hillary Clinton, and now Jeremiah Wright.

There, back on the saddle.  Boy, that felt good.

I've been away for the last week on the Yucatan Peninsula.  A much needed break from this increasingly depressing campaign.  I'll get back on the saddle soon.

I missed the ABC broadcast debate tonight, but judging from the few crumbs I saw later, I think I'm glad I spared myself.  The news ticker on CNN read something like, 'CLINTON AND OBAMA DEBATE "BITTER" COMMENT, JEREMIAH WRIGHT, BOSNIA STORY, AND LAPEL PIN'.  Honestly, that's what it said.

Then I moseyed on over to the ABC News website, which, as of this writing, boasts nearly 10,000 comments on the debate.  Here's a sampling:

What a disgraceful mockery of journalistic professionalism.

That was the worst act of journalism I have witnessed in a long time. People like you are an insult to the word journalism and moderators. You people disgust me with your biased debates. Go flip burgers you jerks.

This was not a debate, this was a public lynching. I have never seen a worse political debate in my life - at a time when America needs real answers the most.

What a waste of time this debate was. I never watch ABC and couldn't even find which channel it was but wow, I wasn't missing ANYTHING. "Do you think your pastor loves America as much as you?" "Why don't you wear a flag pin?" Do you even pretend to be journalists anymore? Time to order up a some blond highlights and low cut sweater sets for Gibson and George.

And that's just the first page.

A gaffe - to paraphase Michael Kinsley - is when a politician tells the truth.  (See:  Howard Dean, 2003)  And so Barack Obama once again makes the mistake of saying something perceptive and accurate:

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

The Clinton campaign pounces.  How condescending!  The McCain campaign pounces.  How elitist!  The Republican National Congressional Committee pounces.  How out of touch!  No word yet on whether Obama might actually have a point.

Cue Hillary Clinton's empty response:

Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families.

No doubt her consultants are proud to have fed her a line that manages to cram the words "stand up", "fight","work hard", "future", "jobs", and "family" all into one sentence. 

This is the kind of thing that makes election rhetoric insincere, anodyne, vacuous and sound-bitey.  If we continue to punish politicians for their candor, then we deserve what we get.

When asked recently which president he most wanted to be like, the senator answered, predictably, that he wanted to emulate Abraham Lincoln.  But why?  Not because Lincoln saved the Union, freed slaves, or gave a historic speech at Gettysburg, but because "he never lost sight of the humanity of even those who opposed him".

Asked about the best thing his mom ever taught him, Obama replied, "Empathy".