Wright Videos and Timing
Stacy McCain questions the timing: “Is it coincidental that Jeremiah Wright’s racially provocative rants made national news in the run-up to the key primary in Pennsylvania, a state with a population that’s 86% white?”
He doesn’t have any evidence but he sees the fingerprints of Hillary Clinton on both the turtle and the fencepost.
I’m not sure how the story was uncovered but, if it was indeed the Clinton campaign, I’d say the timing was rather inept. It’d been much smarter to wait a couple of weeks and have this controversy in full bloom when people are voting in the Keystone State. April 22 is a long time from now and people will be caught up in taxes, the NFL draft, and other diversions by then unless this thing has a whole lot more legs than I think it does.
Rolling Stone and Newsmax brought it up in 2007. The issue is not when the issue was known, but why now. Could Clinton be involved? possibly. While putting it right before voting might have helped her more with PA, this has been one of the first major dents in Obama’s teflon (as judged by the polling where even 44% of democrats felt that Wright’s statements made them less likely to vote for Obama). So to the extent that right now Hillary needs to stop the super delegate bleeding (it’s harder to declare for a candidate and then declare for the other candidate and in some cases come back after already flip flopping), this is opportune. Anything that makes the super delegates freeze in place now is to Hillary’s favor, potentially more than a couple extra points in PA.
Actually, James, it makes more sense if you consider that the timing of the “conspiracy” (which I do not believe exists) is not to persuade PA votes (who are presumed to be pro-Clinton anyway), but rather to prevent more superdelegates from endorsing Obama, since Clinton’s strategy relies on superdelegates overturning the pledged delegate result.
Alex,
I would take one exception to what you wrote. Both Obama and Clinton are likely to need super delegates (or delegates to switch) to win the nomination. Clinton needs more of them than Obama, but Obama isn’t going to have enough pledged delegates to win the nomination on those alone either.
The story and information about Wright has been out for months. I remember seeing comments made on blogs at least back when people were announcing.
I think the reason it became a big media story now is because it is six weeks until PA and the news cycle is a little slower, or all about Clinton and Obama. Also, back when the story was first broken, Hillary was the expected winner, and Obama’s candidacy hadn’t taken off, when it did the story was about Obama’s rise in the polls. I also think for a while the media was covering Obama as the underdog, now he is the top dog, and subject to a little extra scrutiny.
lol why would Hillary have waited? That’s the most ridiculous thing I have every heard.
As far as the timing, it is NEVER too late to expose such blatant racism as Omamessiah has exhibited.
Who cares who brought it up, the if the media was not in the tank for Obama then they would have raised it as responsible journalist with out any campaign assistance.
The issues needed to be raised as how much of Wright’s theology Obama has adopted is a valid concern of votes. We still don’t know the answer to that question.
Rev. Wright has helped America immensely. No one else could have eliminated so much superficially self-destructive white guilt as quickly and as permanently as he did. Thank you obama!
I have yet to see a single instance of Wright uttering a racist sentiment. Anyone care to provide?
I have wondered why this was brought up at this time since the story has been out there for some time. My personal conspiracy theory is that the Democratic establishment raised the issue and promoted its publication. As I see it this is a win — win for the party establishment. Knowing that this story was out there and it looking like Senator Obama is the front runner, by releasing it got the coverage now when they can gage the elect ability. If this story causes a falter and renders him less erectable they have avoided nominating a looser. If it does not they have inoculated him from the story breaking in October when it would have been devastating. .