In a strong political statement on April 28, Barack Obama denounced and separated himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright after his pastor’s appearance at the National Press Club in Washington. It wasn’t Rev. Wright’s speech—a short description of an upcoming conference focused on the history and role of the Black church in America—that caused Obama to sever the link. It was the Q&A that followed. Rev. Wright’s entire talk is here.
Obama’s speech was unequivocal. He said, “I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday.” Strangely, however, there was nothing new in Rev. Wright’s responses to the questions from the Press Club crowd. Nothing that would make Obama suddenly realize that this man is no ally. What then caused Obama to tip?
So long as Rev. Wright’s pronouncements were delivered from his pulpit and used out of 
context, Obama could brush them away as the irrelevancy of one loud voice. But when Rev. Wright stood on a national stage (the Moyers interview…followed by several talks in several days), Obama’s campaign could no longer tolerate the heat that his pastor’s comments generated.
I suggest that Obama was embarrassed not by content, but by Rev. Wright’s image and attitude. The man was sarcastic often, clownish frequently, even a bit goofy at times. He is a showman. His sermons are unabashedly theatrical. But this time he went too far for Obama.
Goofy loses elections.
