"Don't worry about your enemies. Worry about your friends. It is relatively easy to predict your enemies, but your friends.....ah, your friends."
That is the first axiom of American politics.
Yes.....your friends. Rev. Wright has tried to explain, define, lecture, and preach away concerns about his controversial comments delivered from his former pulpit. His appearances around the country and at the National Press Club have, in the whole, not helped.
Look, the preacher whose message converted Obama from skeptic to Christian has views that are not shared by all. That's fact, and that's fine with me. I don't agree with my pastor on everything either...or my representative, my senators, or my governor. That should never be the question. The question is: "What kind of person has Obama become? What kind of person is he today?"
The American people have begun to discern in Obama those rare qualities they hope for in their leaders but seldom find: sound judgment based on a grounded personal sense of integrity and innate instinct to do the right thing. Those two qualities will trump "experience" every time. Judgment and instinct also suggest vision, and when exercised with integrity, they are all that is required to earn the public trust.
Today, Obama should use those qualities which he has in abundance to talk with voters about what he wants to do to strengthen the economy and restore fiscal integrity to our federal budget, to put the nation on a path to energy independence, and to restore civility and mutual respect in all conversations about what must be done to preserve and protect our nation.
Obama is the only hope for American citizens who want to take back their government from the extreme partisans in both parties. Even reasonable Republicans agree he is an excellent choice. He is the nightmare of every person and every special interest group in Washington satisfied with the status quo. Nothing Rev. Wright might say on his current media journey will change that -- unless we let it.
Every Presidential race involves at least three distinct stages for the media: (1) create or build up a candidate, (2) tear the candidate down, and (3) finally, express pessimism about the winner's ability to affect worthwhile change. The temperature of political discourse goes up and down several times during each stage. Isn't our system...special!
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