Obama's Pastor

I've always thought Obama is essentially a secularist, joining a black power church in his district for its political message rather than its religious significance. (You know, kind of like belonging to the Episcopal Church. And actually I think his philosophical allies are even more unsavory.) The church's pastor is a relic of the 60's and 70's which squares with Obama's liberal voting record in Illinois and DC. So far Obama has been able to smother any hard-edged questions about his pastor by pushing him in the background on his announcement day, and smoothing it all over with his happy talk centrist campaign.

Obama has yet to really repudiate his pastor's cozying up to the terror-master Gaddafi in the past, his view that America deserved 9/11 and his essentially equating Zionism with racism, profiled in this NY Times story:

Mr. Wright, who has long prided himself on criticizing the establishment, said he knew that he may not play well in Mr. Obama’s audition for the ultimate establishment job. “If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me,” Mr. Wright said with a shrug. “I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen.

But now, it's not only some bloggers on the right who are raising the issue, it's moderate Democrats. Mickey Kaus, Slate, via RCP:

Old CW: Not Black Enough; New CW: What's All This Black Business? Tom Maguire wonders why Jodi Kantor's front-page NYT piece on Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, hasn't generated more controversy. Having now read it, I tend to agree. I'd certainly be more comfortable with a presidential nominee whose main spiritual man 1) hadn't visited Col. Qaddafi (even back in '84); 2) talked less about "oppression" and "this racist United States of America;" 3) when discussing the solution to poverty, talked more about individual achievement and less about the role of "community"--including maybe even celebrating "middleclassness" instead of using it as shorthand for selfishness; 4) in general wasn't so obsessed with race.

There's more discussion and it will probably continue as the race with Hillary heats up, if not by her then by her surrogates.