Collateral Damage

"The Rev. Jeremiah Wright would be happy to see Barack Obama's presidential campaign derailed because the pastor is fuming that his former congregant has 'betrayed' their 20-year relationship, The Post has learned. 'After 20 years of loving Barack like he was a member of his own family, for Jeremiah to see Barack saying over and over that he didn't know about Jeremiah's views during those years, that he wasn't familiar with what Jeremiah had said, that he may have missed church on this day or that and didn't hear what Jeremiah said, this is seen by Jeremiah as nonsense and betrayal,' said the source, who has deep roots in Wright's Chicago community and is familiar with his thinking on the matter."

Maureen Dowd plumbs the depths of the senator's thinking:

"Barack Obama has spent his life, and campaign, trying not to be the Angry Black Man . . .

"On Tuesday, the Sort Of Angry Black Man appeared, reluctantly spurred into action by The Really Angry Black Man."

Before the news conference, Andrew Sullivan, a big Obama booster, said of his man:

"I have long given a pass to Obama on Wright, because I don't believe in the politics of guilt by association and I understand the difficulty of repudiating a pastor of long standing . . .But the Press Club display on Monday changes things. It was an attack on Obama; it was divisive and bitter and racist. Embracing Farrakhan at this point was a provocation . . .

"Wright has given Obama no choice. I believe he has to publicly and clearly and irrevocably disown him and say in words that are clear and bright that Wright is now anathema to the campaign."

Afterward, Andrew was back on the bandwagon:

"That was a very impressive, clear and constructive re-framing of the core message of his candidacy . . . We found that he can fight back, and take a stand, without calculation and in what is clearly a great amount of personal difficulty and political pain. It's what anyone should want in a president."

The New Republic's Michael Crowley has a reservation:

"The one thing I wonder about is whether Obama showed enough passion. With the caveat that I did not see his initial opening statement, there was a certain coolness to his remarks. I know it's not so hip to cite David Gergen, but I thought the man had it right on CNN last night when he said Obama needed to show real, visceral anger at Wright--and I didn't see much evidence of that."

By Obama's standard, though, he was pretty PO'd.