The damage done by his racist preacher has gone way beyond what his campaign ever imagined. Now Obama plans on a major speech addressing Reverend Wright and the “larger issue of race in this campaign.” My question is why he is addressing race when this controversy has nothing to do with that.

He added that he would “talk about how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church issue for example,” he said.

He also briefly defended Wright from the image that has come through in a handful of repeatedly televised clips from recent Wright sermons.

“The caricature that’s being painted of him is not accurate,” he said.

The speech could offer Obama an opportunity to move past the controversy over his pastor, and to turn the conversation to a topic he’d rather focus on: his Christian faith. But the speech also guarantees that the Wright story will continue to dominate political headlines.

Mitt Romney’s attempt directly to address his Mormonism last year never decisively put the issue to rest for some voters.

I think it is interesting how this is being compared to Mitt Romney’s speech addressing his religion, because that is one of the first thougths that crossed my mind. However, Mitt’s speech was focused on misconceptions and bias against his beliefs. Obama will have to address misconceptions and racism that his church holds. Hopefully his speech will hold in common with Romney’s the promise that it will not guide policy decisions.

His speech could go a few ways. He is known for his talented oratory skills and excellent speeches. If it is strong in denouncing his pastor’s hate and racism and inspiring in explaining his own beliefs about the issue of race, he could save the campaign. If he makes excuses or follows the example of his church by playing the victim card he will be finished. I have a feeling he will be defending his pastor and digging his political grave a little bit deeper…but I could be wrong.

At Riehl World View, Dan Riehl has a different take:

Were Obama truly courageous, as well as audacious, he would acknowledge Jeremiah Wright as a significant and accepted representative religious voice within large portions of mostly urban black America. By denying, or re-inventing what Wright represents, he is selling out portions of his black constituency. And he’s also abdicating any chance of being the very thing he’s professed to want to be – a bridge of sorts.

I don’t know, he may be right. Watch this — the legend for the video clip is:

Purple: African Americans
Green: Independents
Blue: Democrats
Red: Republicans

So why is he addressing the issue of race? This controversy has nothing to do with race.

Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit says:

The Audacity to Blame Others…

Because you are all bigots and just don’t understand the blessed symbolisms and hallowed underpinnings of the Chicago Trinity United Church of Christ sermons by Rev. Wright, Barack Obama will give a major speech on race to God D*mned America tomorrow.

Gee, here we thought it was his crazy uncle’s religious sermons and not his race that caused the uproar. How could we be so blind?

…Of course it was race!

Allahpundit considers how Obama will address issues we all have apparantely misunderstood within the black church:

Maybe “the government lied about Pearl Harbor” is all a big cultural misunderstanding? Expect lots of redemption rhetoric about the Messiah rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the black nationalist movement he patronized for 20 years and how it’s objectively anti-progress to hold that inconvenient fact against him. Exit question: It’s good news, at least, that the congregation apparently no longer regards “Middleclassness” as some sort of vestige of slavery, isn’t it?

And from Ankle Biting Pundits, we have Bulldog Pundit who nails it:

Obama’s already making a mistake saying that the media has created a “caricterature” of Rev. Wright. Um, Senator, it’s his own words that do that. All the media is doing is showing them.

Apparently Obama is also going to speak about “how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church.” Big mistake there, especially if he’s going to try and say something along the lines of “The views expressed by Rev. Wright are wrong, etc., but let me help you understand the reason they resonate …” Sorry, but any attempt to explain such insanity will fall flat, because the only possible way to explain why some people agree with Rev. Wright is because they are just as crazy as he is.

Further, if Obama at all tries to claim this is being taken out of context or is only being brought up because either he or the Rev. is black, then it’s going to backfire big time. If anything, his race has been helpful to him in the campaign, and not a problem.

The issue here isn’t race, it’s about the views of this nut Reverend Wright who happens to be black, and why Barack Obama didn’t see those views as problematic until he ran for President.

The QandO Blog
observes:

If Obama intends to pursue the argument that what Americans have seen and heard from Wright aren’t relevant in the big picture of Rev. Wright’s accomplishments as he sees them, he’s going to bomb big time.

It sounds like Obama is planning on digging his hole deeper. If Obama plays the race and victim card together tomorrow he will seal his political tomb. However, I’ll let Eric over at Classical Values conclude this with a little hopeful quote:

I have no idea what he plans to say, but I think he still has a chance — a slim one, but a chance — to turn what seems like a mortal blow to his advantage. He needs to repudiate his own past, though, and he must use the Wright controversy as an argument and an opportunity to call for real change in race relations. If he admits the mistakes — and the racism — of Wright and himself for buying into it, it might work. But he’ll have to do so convincingly. Reassuring platitudes won’t cut it.