The New Republic

They tried for weeks to make Wright stick - and he didn't.  Everyone from the left and right was all over it, and it did nothing, in the end, to check Mr. Obama.  

Here's the question: what, other than utter ignominy for Mrs. Clinton's camp, do continued attacks on this matter bring anyone?  Does Lanny Davis really think that the US electorate and the superdelegates who have already mulled over, ruminated and disgorged this non-scandal, will, upon reading a WSJ editorial by a former Clinton hack, suddenly smack their foreheads and say, "oh, yeah; been wondering that about misself!" and change their views?  Does he think that the WSJ and the NYT and the WP will now pick up the dead issue and revive it for another non-go around?

- icarusr

April 9, 2008 at 3:43pm

Now Lanny Davis on Wright! Will someone please tell these moronic Obama haters that we get it: Obama is black, ergo he's unfit to be president. Why the dance of the seven veils? Serve it up straight like Buchanan and Ferraro, who come right out and say that he's lucky he was born black. Buchanan and Ferraro don't need Wright to say what they mean to say - Obama's just a token.

Lanny Davis is a part of that creepy club who has members like Donna Shalala, Madeline A., and James Johnson - members of the Clinton machine first, Democrats second.

- fougasseu

April 9, 2008 at 3:44pm

Barack Obama, in Philadelphia, did more than anyone in the last forty years to douse the smoldering, still dangerous embers of racism.

If instead Obama had found a way to successfully cure 85% of people with diabetes, Lanny Davis would be bleating, "But what about the other 15%???"

- williamyard

April 9, 2008 at 3:56pm

Stay classy, Lanny!!!

- miceelf

April 9, 2008 at 4:11pm

The Davis column was clear and low-key -- certainly didn't deserve that attack, Jonathan Chait...

Obama fan clubitis strikes again. Wright is a continuing question, if only because the Republicans and the McCain campaign will use it in the general election. Like it or not, folks, the good rev Wright is a bigot -- and I say that  as someone who agrees with at least some of his general  political views -- and who doesn't like Clinton any better than Obama. I don't give a damn which one of them gets the nomination.

But the anti-white stuff, the anti-Israel stuff, etc., are just plain ugly, and typical bigoted, ignorant rantings.

Reverse bigotry is bigotry.

- LISAH

April 9, 2008 at 4:25pm

Here is the impact of Wright:

1.  Some people who would never have voted for Obama will become apoplectic if Obama is elected.  The same people who will be apoplectic if Clinton or McCain is elected.  

2.  People have given a lot more thought to all of the thingsthat their religious leaders say that they disagree with.  For example, the millions of pro-choice Catholics.

3.  A larger number of people are now convinced that Obama goes to church instead of a mosque.

Here is the number of people who believed that black people were as sanguine as whites about slavery, Jim Crow, black incarceration rates, inner city poverty and the Nation's power structure until he or she listened to the Wright sermon:  0.  

Here is the number of people surprised to learn that Barack Obama knows some black people who are upset about the status of some black people in the Untied States: 0.

- Sirhc

April 9, 2008 at 4:31pm

It's columns like this that make me sad to be a Democrat. Politically, there's very little difference between Lanny Davis and Karl Rove. We need to push people like Davis out of the power center. Ugh, the man is pathetic.

- maldini

April 9, 2008 at 4:38pm

Yes, some in the club (as fougasseu  said) are creepy. But Lanny, Carville and Maggie Williams know they have a less good future unless they remain on the leash until the end. If not in the States, Bill may find them work advising a slimy friend...somewhere.

But it is more pathetic to see Bayh still shilling (he "is" her ad in Indiana). I'm a Hoosier and I know people who aren't crazy about Barack and still think Evan Bayh could have remained committed for the month...but he needed to establish some distance.

A few have decided it is better to go down with the Clintons because no one else wants them. For those who may have a future and are deaf to the death rattle? It is always pathetic when people extend loyalty to a losing effort beyond reason.

The creepy few may have a motive as the Clinton connection is their only option.

For too many it is not too late to run like hell and not look back. They must keep quiet and at least head for the EXIT, now.

- michael

April 9, 2008 at 4:56pm

I think it is only fair that cameras now be allowed in every church service of every politician, with facial reaction shots taken whenever the minister, or rabbi, or priest says anything that doesn't agree 100% with the candidates positions, and I think we now have the right to expect that the politician make his displeasure known then and there and publicly. And if some churches won't allow said cameras in, then it is up to the candidate to repudiate the church and find ones that do.

- blackton

April 9, 2008 at 5:16pm

I am a long-time Clinton supporter and donor. First Bill then Hillary. I admired the real-world toughness of Lanny during Monicagate, defending not only Bill but the Demoractic Party.

Until I heard Lanny Davis on NPR in late January defending Bill's remarks comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson and Bill's other quite clear race-baiting-for-political-gain comments.  I was shocked at the distortions and deceits coming out of Lanny's mouth. I really mean it: I was shocked. By the time the hour show was over, I realized that Lanny sounded just like the hacks and liars who surround George Bush. Lanny Davis changed my mind. I have been supporting Obama with words, actions, and my checkbook ever since.

I must admit, Lanny Davis, Mark Penn, and James Carville, all men I admired, I now consider slimers and garbage throwers. I would hate to see people like this given the reins of government and access to power, which they would surely recieve if Hillary were nominated and elected. They disgust me.

- sabatia

April 9, 2008 at 5:39pm

I posted this on another thread, but it actually fits in here nicely, so I"ll just repost it.

I have an interesting take on the Rev Wright "controversy".  I think that when people suggest that Rev Wright is an issue to white americans (and some black americans) that it primarily depends on geography.  Let me explain.

First of all, I was born and raised in the south (New Orleans prior to 2005, Dallas, Tx currently). My mother lives in Ohio, my father lived in Oklahoma.  I see all the outrage about Rev Wright as a basically a difference between Northern and Southern view of race relations.

Let's face it, many of the Civil Rights struggle and movement occurred in the South,  yes it occured in the North as well, but primarily in the South did it really bubble up from the surface.  Therefore there has been a long history of "mistrust", between White and Blacks (originally, but now this includes Latinos, but not as much in many Southern states except maybe Texas).  Unlike in the South where there was racism was on display for all to see,  in the North, is seemed to be more hidden, bubbling below the surface.  

It seems to me that because of this legacy of  "mistrust" and segregation (mistrust on both sides, segregation primarily from one side) many Southerners were not as shocked by what Rev Wright had to say as some might believe.  It just fed into what some Southerners (NOT ALL, but a good number) believe to be true about the Black church experience in the South.  So it did not "color" there ideas about Obama  It doesn't matter if they planned to vote for Obama before Rev Wright, but it just helped to re-enforce whatever stereotypes may have worked for them.

On the other hand, it seems that in the North, race and racism is spoken in hushed tones.  As I said, it's hidden beneath the surface, so many Northern whites (and others, NOT ALL)  were extremely outraged by what Rev Wright said.  "Oh my God, have you ever head such a thing?" "Do all Black churches do this".  "How can he sit and listen to this..."  They basically can't believe this is going on at all.  Let's face it, they can't even own up to using race as a strategy up north, they like to call it the "Southern Race strategy".  Northerners are just not used to it, unless it's in states or areas where there is more diversity amongst neighbors, and race relations come into play (such as in politics)

Anyway, that's my take.

DISCLAIMER: This take is based on the premise that people are outraged about the Wright issue, and therefore won't vote for Obama because of it.  Also, I'm not saying all Black pastors speak in such frank terms as Rev Wright did, but I can tell you as a person who went to Catholic school for years, but was raised Baptist/Spritual, that it doesn't happen every Sunday, but it does happen more often than some realize that preachers say things that may make certain sections of the population upset

- lamh31

April 9, 2008 at 8:36pm

Colin Powell defends Rev. Wright in exactly the same way as Obama has in a new interview w/ Diane Sawyer, and he praises Obama's speech on race. It airs today.

So, Davis/Ferraro/Buchanan et al, is Powell also just another guy who got his job because he was lucky to be born black?

There have been literally dozens of bigger stories that have come and gone in a news cycle, but the one story that has had real traction among the Obama haters has been this Wright garbage.

Please, you sensitive souls so troubled by Obama's relationship with his pastor, you don't need to give us racism lite - stop with your "outrage" over Wright's rants.

Have the guts of a Richard Cohen or Pat Buchanan and just attack the black guy because he's a black guy. As Buchanan so concisely put it for you, Obama's not qualified to be a greeter at Wal-Mart.

- fougasseu

April 10, 2008 at 2:16am

Lanny Davis didn't write anything new.  But, he didn't write anything that wasn't valid.

And, sorry for you sophisticates and all, but in the privacy of the ballot box, many people will vote against Obama because of Wright.  

Not just the Rednecks of your imagination, but well-educated urban Jews.

- ChanRobt

April 10, 2008 at 9:25am

Obama is, too, qualified to be a greeter at Wal Mart

- ChanRobt

April 10, 2008 at 9:26am