I'm not a big diarist here and have been very content to lurk, read, and be edified by the wisdom of others in the Kos community. But recently I've detected a meme drifting into the tone of some of the musings here that is troubling to me. Not troubling in the sense that they frame support for a candidacy or policy that I disagree with, but troubling because, to me, they dramatically underestimate the impact of the recent Pastor Wright revelations.
Contrary to some of what I've read here, I continue to believe that Pastor Wright has dealt a devastating blow to the Obama campaign. Let me be fully understood - I voted for Obama in the California primary and I'll vote for him over McCain or any other Republican. But to consider, even for a moment, that the right has failed to fully demonize Wright or failed to exploit the potential political windfall of turning him into a latter day Willie Horton seems to me to miss the point.
Of course they've failed to fully demonize Wright. From where I sit, they haven't even gotten warmed up. Can anyone who saw what happened to Al Gore and John Kerry doubt that there will be a relentless pounding of Pastor Wright ads - each grimly punctuated with an out of context Obama quote designed to align Obama with Wright's most distorted rantings? Does anyone doubt that a monumental effort is currently being undertaken to find just one person to say they saw Obama in church on the day Wright gave one of his more inflammatory speeches?
Obama's speech on the subject was phenomenal. It was moving, eloquent, and real. But to do an endzone dance now and slap each other on the back congratulating ourselves that they weren't able to Swiftboat us this time seems aggressively naive. "This time" hasn't started yet. Wait until September when the full tsunami of swill comes pouring out of Fox News and their acolyte 527s
Maybe it will take more speeches, or rapid response ads, or something sharper political minds than mine can concoct. My only thought was to point out what seems obvious - this has only begun, and I'd prefer to see a focus on what's surely headed our way this fall, rather the celebrating the triumph of a few news cycles in the spring.