The Anchoress
AJ Strata has an interesting link up over at his site – one that, if the thing pans out – suggests that it was a Clinton operative who invited Jeremiah Wright to (disastrously) address the National Press Club.
AJ wonders if Wright has been bought off by the “old school” black democrats – paid to essentially destroy Obama’s campaign – and what the price was.
I initially did not believe that. I thought of Wright as a simple exhibitionist unable to resist the lure of bright lights and headlines – a guy wanting to breath the rarefied air of “power and influence” currently enjoyed by those stale-but-still-strutting barnyard cocks, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton .
But now, it seems like perhaps Wright really has been bought and paid for; Obama’s team says they had no warning about this media-blitz, and that Wright has actually rebuffed them. It seems the coup is in fact, Clintonian.
The question is – does Obama have the guts and the cujones to make that charge against the Clinton campaign – that they’re exploiting the vast weaknesses of his father-figure for their own gain, and have apparently promised him the barnyard?
Upon the palpable implosion of his campaign, it may well be the only hand he has to play right now, and I’m not even sure how strong a hand it is. As I’ve written before, Obama has clearly established that he loves Wright, that there is a whole replacement-father thing going on there; “they dared to show you my daddy-figure full on and unedited” is not really a winner if he whines it. And since Obama does love the man, he’s bound to be feeling a bit raw and shell-shocked about it all.
So, what happens now? Does Obama lie down? Does he expose the cynical-but-brilliant scheme of the Clintons, and if he does, will America be revolted by the Clinton’s move or will they sit back rather admiring it and declaring “all’s fair in love and war?”
Do the Clintons continue the media blitz? Something to think about is whether the Clintons have factored in what this exposure will do to the Democrat party itself – moderate Democrats can’t rest easy with what Wright is spouting, which is why the Clintons have operatives do their work for them and keep their distance – but if the Democrats try to denounce this sort of mindset, they expose themselves as the purveyors of it for the last 50 years (both in terms of race and gender) and demonstrate the party’s own end-of-the-line emptiness
Of course, Hillary could use Wright to sabotage Obama, and then – with the party roiling – set herself up as the candidate of “unity” by offering the badly injured Obama the veep spot. Which would be profoundly ironic – she’d have taken the party to the brink of destruction in order to steal the “unifier” tag from Obama. This is almost a thing of beauty in its perverse way – if it can be pulled off.
If it can’t, well…we always knew that if the Clintons couldn’t control the party any longer, they would destroy it.
UPDATE: AJ suspects that the Wright media blitz is doing double duty; it both takes out Obama and focuses the press’ gaze on the “Fall of the Messiah” story, while diverting attention from the fact that Hillary is being forced to testify in a fraud suit involving her husband, the presumed “First Gentleman” but…she won’t have to do it until AFTER the election.
To do it before the election would surely sink her chances – it would remind America that we were fully sick of the scandals and the reek of corruption from that team by 2000. And we’re not going to be allowed to remember that, if it’s at all possible.
Can you imagine the president-elect testifying in a fraud case concerning her husband? It would never happen. This ball just got kicked down the road to an eventual oblivion, by a judge who told Clinton lawyer David Kendell to “say hello to my friend, Bill”.
Meanwhile, in a testament to the upside-down nature of this campaign, some are begging Obama to take Karl Rove’s advise! And I don’t know how either candidate is going to handle the SCOTUS saying dead people can’t vote!
Hugh Hewitt, of course, has all the audio you want.
More coverage:
Baldilocks gives us the view from under the bus
Tom Maguire feels bad for Obama’s Grandmother
Bulldogpundit is too.
Jonah Goldberg: Wright’s gonna need a bigger bus!
Ed Morrissey covers most of the major columnists on Wright
Classical Values finds an interesting old picture.
Dana Milbank with Wright video
Gerard Vanderluen covers the astonishing Wright-declared “information” on the difference between white and black brains
Michael Goodwin says Hillary is a Bully
Kim Priestap at Wizbang
Bookworm at The Bookwormroom
Allahpundit on Gingrich on Wright
Patterico on Andrew Sullivan on Wright
WELCOME: Hugh Hewitt readers. While here please take a look around. Today I’m also wondering, where the hell this version of President Bush has been hiding. If you’re interested in Catholic stuff, we’re tossing around the withholding communion issue.
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