What Hath Wright Wrought
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:28 am
One of the biggest problems that Democrats face every single election is the charge that they are not sufficiently "American" that they are not patriotic enough, that by their words and actions they give active or passive support to "the enemy," whoever the enemy of the moment may be. Fair or not, it's something our party has to deal with and we often deal with it very poorly.
One of the biggest messes that has come out of this entire Wright debacle is that it has rekindled this image of Democrats among the type of middle-class Americans that they need to win over in order to win states like PA, OH, MI, and MO in the fall. So this result from a Rasmussen poll in MO is especially disconcerting:
Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Missouri voters believe that American society is generally fair and decent. Among these voters, McCain leads Clinton by thirty percentage points and Obama by thirty-four.
Twenty-two percent (22%) believe that society in the U.S. is generally unfair and discriminatory. Among these voters, both Democrats lead McCain by roughly a four-to-one margin.
This problem has arisen in large account due to the Wright mess and Obama's other acts, such as Michelle Obama's "first time I'm proud to be an American" comments and the pledge of allegiance hassle. Those earlier events wouldn't have cost Obama in and of themselves, but add them to the Wright controversy and the Republicans can paint a "sinister" portrait of Obama and the Democratic party.
The latest comments that have been unearthed about Rev. Wright, from the most recent issue of the church's magazine don't help either. In them he says:
The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans."
Wright continued, "From the circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth (in a barn in a township that was under the Apartheid Roman government that said his daddy had to be in), up to and including the circumstances surrounding Jesus' death on a cross, a Roman cross, public lynching Italian style. ...
This is not what most Americans want to hear, and all the sugar coating from media elites about how we need to move on to a more enlightened discussion of racial issues won't change that. And it is hurting the party as a whole, not just Obama (although his fall in the polls has been the greatest since his support levels were artificially high). And the Democrats "closing ranks" and pressuring Hillary to bow out of the race won't stop this impression; it will reinforce it with a lot of voters. Even if they didn't like Hillary, the spin will be that she was forced out by Obama and the Democratic liberal elite as a form of their typical political correctness, and a lot of people will buy this.
If voters concentrate on the issues like the economy and health care, Democrats win big. But Obama is making sure that he, Rev. Wright, race and anti-Americanism are the issues, and that is a battlefield that the Democrats will get slaughtered on come this fall.
One of the biggest messes that has come out of this entire Wright debacle is that it has rekindled this image of Democrats among the type of middle-class Americans that they need to win over in order to win states like PA, OH, MI, and MO in the fall. So this result from a Rasmussen poll in MO is especially disconcerting:
Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Missouri voters believe that American society is generally fair and decent. Among these voters, McCain leads Clinton by thirty percentage points and Obama by thirty-four.
Twenty-two percent (22%) believe that society in the U.S. is generally unfair and discriminatory. Among these voters, both Democrats lead McCain by roughly a four-to-one margin.
This problem has arisen in large account due to the Wright mess and Obama's other acts, such as Michelle Obama's "first time I'm proud to be an American" comments and the pledge of allegiance hassle. Those earlier events wouldn't have cost Obama in and of themselves, but add them to the Wright controversy and the Republicans can paint a "sinister" portrait of Obama and the Democratic party.
The latest comments that have been unearthed about Rev. Wright, from the most recent issue of the church's magazine don't help either. In them he says:
The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans."
Wright continued, "From the circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth (in a barn in a township that was under the Apartheid Roman government that said his daddy had to be in), up to and including the circumstances surrounding Jesus' death on a cross, a Roman cross, public lynching Italian style. ...
This is not what most Americans want to hear, and all the sugar coating from media elites about how we need to move on to a more enlightened discussion of racial issues won't change that. And it is hurting the party as a whole, not just Obama (although his fall in the polls has been the greatest since his support levels were artificially high). And the Democrats "closing ranks" and pressuring Hillary to bow out of the race won't stop this impression; it will reinforce it with a lot of voters. Even if they didn't like Hillary, the spin will be that she was forced out by Obama and the Democratic liberal elite as a form of their typical political correctness, and a lot of people will buy this.
If voters concentrate on the issues like the economy and health care, Democrats win big. But Obama is making sure that he, Rev. Wright, race and anti-Americanism are the issues, and that is a battlefield that the Democrats will get slaughtered on come this fall.
