I believe Obama will eventually end up with the Democratic nomination, though his prospects in November are being damaged by the increasingly toxic primaries. The "Rev. Wright issue" has hurt Obama, though I think it's a lot of huff about nothing. All it's done is show that Obama belongs to a type of activist black church which is not that uncommon in the U.S. (See Brett Grainger's insightful article on "'Damning' America a U.S. Tradition.") In fact, churches like Obama's Trinity United are prevalent enough in the black community that the controversy has revealed something else in my opinion: Perhaps the United States isn't as ready for a black president as it claims to be. Still Obama has to step up and respond with something that compels us again. The New York Times Bob Herbert has it right in today's opinion piece:
Senator Obama, for his part, seems to have lost sight of the unifying message that proved so compelling early in his campaign and has stumbled into weird cultural predicaments that have caused some people to rethink his candidacy.
While some of those predicaments raise legitimate concerns (his former pastor, his comments in San Francisco) and some do not (stupid questions about wearing a flag pin), he has allowed them to fester unnecessarily. The way for a candidate to eventually change the subject is to offer policy prescriptions so creative and compelling that they generate excitement among the electorate and can’t be ignored by the press.
Voters want more from Senator Obama. He’s given a series of wonderful speeches, but he has to add more meat to those rhetorical bones. He needs to be clear about where he wants to lead this country and how he plans to do it. That’s how a candidate defines himself or herself.
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