Could Reverend Wright possibly do any more damage to the Obama campaign than he did Monday at the National Press Club?  I doubt it.  He seemed to verify most of the inflammatory statements in the snippets of sermons we've seen over and over again.  He also claimed Obama distanced himself from these statements only for political gain.   It won't be easy to dodge that contention, especially as Obama has sought to "contextualize" Wright's remarks with some blather about his white grandmother.  He should have made a clean break with this racist demagogue back in Philadelphia.  Now it's too late and his market share in the polls for the Indianna primary next week is dropping fast.  For Obama, Wright couldn't have picked a worse time to open his mouth.  The question is why?

I'm not buying the theory that Wright was merely sticking up for his church or that this was an act of self-promotion on his part.  Flanked by bodyguards from Minister Farrakhan's corps, he paid homage to their master on national TV in an act clearly designed to rankle many Democrats (and Americans in general).  Unbelievably, he joked about being on the ticket with Obama.  The only thing he forgot to mention was his deep and abiding appreciation for the Weather Underground.  He did this the week after Obama lost in PA because of his inability to sway more blue collar/white voters.  I'm sure he confirmed a lot of the reservations those voters had about Senator Obama.  IN has a demographic makeup similar to PA, and Obama will now likely write off that state.  Wright is actively and knowingly sabotaging the campaign of the first black American to get this close to the presidency.  Does he possibly fear a black president would undermine his life's work:  the promotion of bigotry via Black Liberation Theology, black grievance mongering and an us versus them view of all things American?  Is Obama's message of unity and a new style of politics perceived as a threat to the Old Guard of Wright's generation?  I honestly don't get it.  Must be like that T-shirt says:  It's a Black Thing.  You wouldn't understand.

But, perhaps, for Wright-minded people, it would be more useful to have a black candidate lose at this juncture than to actually win the presidency and work to overcome our racial differences.  They could blame Obama's loss on racist whites instead of their racist sermonizing.