Maybe this was unavoidable, but the outcome is bleak. Regardless, it leaves no question as to why Clinton chose to dissociate herself from advocating in anyway, the acceptability of Wright. From Missouri via Rasmussen:
Twenty-two percent (22%) believe that society in the U.S. is generally unfair and discriminatory. Among these voters, both Democrats lead McCain by roughly a four-to-one margin.
I've recall seeing some pro-Obama supporters lament that Obama wasn't declared as the nominee already, when the Wright story hit, as then Dean/Pelosi/Reid would have all been able to 'go to bat' for Obama on the news networks. I count our lucky stars that was not the case. It was bad enough that not enough high profile Democrats would go out and throw Wright under the bus.
The politics of acquiescence by liberals to Wright's words continue to amaze me. Today we have some esteemed Theologian Martin Marty Defending Rev. Wright. The lack of distancing from Wright, in general, has already cost our '08 chances deeply in Missouri:
Now Feb
McCain 50 43
Clinton 41 42
McCain 53 42
Obama 38 40
In a month, a 1 point McCain lead over Clinton is now 9, and a lead of 2 by McCain over Obama has become 15 percent. It gets worse in MO. McCain's favorable/unfavorable rating is at 59/40. If McCain already has MO locked up by April, we are in deep trouble.
Nevertheless, I don't think that Obama has been hurt much by Wright in the nomination contest, for a number of reasons. He's already branded himself strongly with most Democrats paying attention, and there's seems too much emotional investment on both sides, for even something as radical as this revelation, to shake up that dynamic much, but the GE match-up is another matter.
Rasmussen's tracking numbers have allowed McCain to reach a double-digit over Obama, 51-41 nationally, for the first time; and over Clinton, 50-43-- which was at a double-digit lead a few days ago. If you just go and look over the numbers of the match-ups, its very easy to see the correlation between the Wright story breaking on the 13th, when both Clinton and Obama were tied with McCain at 44-44, and the widening of the lead by McCain over the past two weeks.
I don't think Clinton bringing up the issue of Wright was a matter of keeping the story alive. The polls show that nearly 90% of Americans already know and have an opinion about it, that's a done deal. Rather, Clinton was belatedly putting some needed distance between herself and Wright.
And spare me the whines about how I'm keeping the story alive. This story had legs the day it appeared, while all the partisans said it was dead by that Friday night. That not enough distance was made from Wright by Obama is what kept the story moving. All I'm trying to do is pull some heads of of the sand to show them the reality they thought existed for the '08 GE landscape has dramatically shifted as a result of Wright. This is March, long ways to go still, but the conservatives have done planted their seeds of smear.
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