The Maverick Tribe

I'm dying to write more extensively about the campaign, but I'm taking two interior design classes and I'm under a heap of project work at the moment.  Here are some random thoughts in brief (a "brain dump" as it's called in the information technology world):

• Clinton and McCain are advocating a gas tax holiday this summer.  Economists of every stripe think this is a stupid idea.  In fact, I imagine this proposal will appear in future political science textbooks as a case study in clever politics but abysmal policy.  Props to Obama for resisting this empty populist pander.

• Hillary Clinton is looking very strong.  I think once she got her slobby strategist Mark Penn out of the picture, her campaign has found its footing.  She made the right move by appearing on Bill O'Reilly's show.  Her appearance will bring some Obama independents over to her side.  I think Obama should go on his show as well.  I know, I know, O'Reilly is a posturing, right-wing blowhard, and Lord knows I have my issues with Fox News.  But I've never been one of these liberals who wants to marginalize Fox News by boycotting and eschewing them.  It doesn't work - they have the largest audience in cable news.  Both candidates need to speak directly to that audience.

• Obama is, obviously, looking weak.  I've always thought the Wright matter was a legitimate issue for the media to explore, but enough already.

• That said, I think there is an opportunity here, albeit a risky one.  As much as he wants to get the Wright embarrassment behind him, Obama should consider engaging his former pastor in a public debate.  Recall that his remarkable speech in Philadelphia included this passage:

I suppose the politically safe thing to do would be to move on from [the Rev. Wright] episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America — to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through — a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Ok, then.  Sen. Obama often advertises himself as a unifying figure, a leader who compels others to put aside their partisan differences and come together toward a common purpose.  And what we have in Rev. Wright is the embodiment of the most extreme, victim-wallowing, divisive elements of the black social justice movement.  Obama, by trying to change the subject, is doing the politically safe thing by his own definition.  Wouldn't it be a powerful demonstration of his supposedly reconcilating politics if he were to forge some common ground on race, between Wright and his defenders and the Geraldine Ferraro Democratic mainstream?

A tall order, I know.  And we can't blame Obama for refusing to have a private matter - the dissolution of what was a spiritually transformative relationship - detailed in the national media.  But this is America - we love a good, tawdry, political psychodrama.  And Obama himself has stressed the urgency of addressing the recalcitrant racial misunderstanding in this country.

You might say he needs to face up to "the fierce urgency of now".