Everyone in the mainstream media has had their turn smacking Pastor Jeremiah Wright since the story of his radical sermons ‘broke’ over the weekend. Never mind that the accounts of Wright’s radicalism have been floating around in the blogosphere for over thirteen months or that it should have been an issue at the beginning of the primary campaign- even if the only wafts of funkiness were Wright’s trip to Libya and that he awarded Farrakhan with the coveted “Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award” lifetime achievement award, praising Farrakhan as a man who “truly epitomized greatness.” The late exposure of Wright’s radical record may be the most obvious and tangible example yet to date of the Obama Messiah bias that it took Saturday Night Live of all places to puncture. It may also tell us some unfortunate truths about the American electorate.

I say Wright’s ‘radicalism’ because at this point there should be no debate over whether or not his views are radical. Based on his own teachings, his beliefs must be radical. He is characterized as the lone potent voice speaking truth to power. Without being outside the norm, Wright can’t perpetuate the conspiratorial beliefs that his ministry thrives on. He espouses a white power conspiracy meant to hold down the black minority; a conspiracy that’s depth is dizzyingly complex and as far reaching as it is erroneous. The pastor spins a yarn dating all the way back to a black Jesus being persecuted by white Romans, meanders through the founding of the United States by ‘terrorists’, takes a conspiracy pitstop at a Pearl Harbor attack that was allowed and/or encouraged by the United States Government before finally ending with rhetoric equating Al Qaeda with America. Wright preaches the minority against the majority: political racial warfare in its simplest terms. Wright’s brand of hate requires him to be a radical for his theories to be true.

I’ll go a step further than some other pundits who are still giving Obama the benefit of the doubt. Barack Obama knew what kind of man pastor Wright was before this scandal exploded. Obama has been attending Wright’s church for twenty years, and the fiery rhetoric we’ve heard from Wright spans a wide swath of time. What is at issue isn’t some single off-hand comment that was regretted later, it is a long map of deliberate statements that illustrates what message Wright is passing along to his practitioners. Obama has been listening to tapes of Wright’s sermons since his days at Harvard, and even Obama’s famous book title is taken from a Wright sermon. Barack Obama has described Wright as his sounding board, and there can be little doubt about what sort of tone was bounced back at the presidential candidate during those conversations. If proof beyond their long close relationship was really required, a conversation between the two in February 2007 confirms that Obama was acutely aware of Wright’s pattern of hate. Obama disinvited Wright from his presidential campaign announcement because, according to Wright himself, “you can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.”

There is no easy way for Obama to weasel his way out of this relationship in the eyes of prospective voters who aren’t wholly blinded by his vapid message or empty smile. This sobering political reality for the Obama camp is also coming home in the coverage of his dealings with Hillary’s debate trump card slumlord Rezko, though that story will never stick as well as Wright’s ravings because it lacks the quick soundbyte fit for consumption draw that Wright offers. Leftist blogs are fretting over Wright as the iceberg that could sink the good ship Obama. These bloggers have good reason to worry. Self-described liberals that I know, liberals who have been throwing around the most airy of Obama quotes like they were free candy for the last six months, have told me privately that they will no longer vote for him. The faith they had for him to rise above the divisive fray and lead them into the feel-good liberal promise land has been shattered. In short, Obama’s campaign is being killed by the same method that helped it rise to the top. The viral video echoes of Yes. We. Can. have been replaced with a nasty infection from the pulpit, a message of “God Damn America” that is traversing the globe and the hallowed halls of YouTube like wildfire.

In the age of political correctness that the Democrats have been fighting for, an age tailored to vague unrealistic solutions, the fiery racist rhetoric of Obama’s moral go-to guy might turn out to be the agent of Obama’s political destruction that many on the right have been praying for. But what is the most unfortunate result of all this if it does end up dooming Obama in the long term? It is that voter desertion from Obama didn’t come on the grounds of legitimate policy difference, it eroded in a way as shallow as his entire campaign. The masses he has been wooing still couldn’t care less about the real issues that will shape our country’s future. They took the whole thing as seriously as a few clips on YouTube.

FullosseousFlap delves into whether we can prove Obama was physically at these sermons. (Unfortunately necessary, but something that shouldn’t matter)

William Kristol: Generation Obama? Perhaps Not.

Ed at Hot Air has some polling that might indicate Obama trending down with independents.

Right Wing Nut House wonders if we should ignore Wright.

Allahpundit at Hot Air links to Obama campaign refutation of a story proclaiming to have Obama in a pew during one of these rants. Allah has it right here:

… just look at the game he’s got us playing here — trying to place him physically at the scene of any single sermon at a church he patronized for 20 years, as if absent that evidence we might have to believe his feigned ignorance. Newsmax’s info was bogus? Well, maybe he really didn’t know after all!

Gateway has a track listing for Wright’s greatest hits. (Wish I’d thought of doing a graphic for that first!)

Update 12:55PM CST:

The Weekly Standard chronicles the efforts of Obama supporters to move the goalposts!

Hot Air shows that Obama has taken a hit on his favorable figures, is this more evidence of a new trend?

Sister Toldjah details some complaints about this morning’s Kristol column. (hint: the update doesn’t change anything as far as I’m concerned)

FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog has polling data that shows over 50% are less inclined to vote for Obama now! Nice big graphics for us simple folk.

Update 3PM CST: The news is that Obama is going to try his hand at a Romney-esque Religion speech tomorrow.

Barack Obama will give a major speech on “the larger issue of race in this campaign,” he told reporters in Monaca, PA just now.

He was pressed there, as he has been at recent appearances, on statements by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

“I am going to be talking about not just Reverend Wright, but the larger issue of race in this campaign,” he said.

He added that he would “talk about how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church issue for example,” he said.

Personally I hope that he gets out there and manages to trip himself further up with Wright. I think that “God Damn America” still plays stronger than anything Obama can throw at it. The longer he keeps this in the news cycle, the more it hurts him. We’ll see.

Ankle Biting Pundits also sees some Obama campaign mistakes on the horizon.

Gateway Pundit wonders if the issues Obama will discuss include whether or not Bill really was ridin’ dirrrty.

QandO thinks the advance line Obama will be pushing tomorrow spells a big time failure.

Hot Air bets that the ‘Government lied about Pearl Harbor’ line is a cultural misunderstanding. Yeah, if he brings that one up, I’ll jump out of my window.

Michelle Malkin shows how Wright’s church has tried to hide its more radical beliefs, i.e., most of them.

Ace has video of Wright ripping on Israel. I hope the videos keep coming. I doubt we’ve seen all of the ‘best of’ hits yet.

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