The Next Willie Horton

· And let's not forget the use in 1988 of political advertising featuring the black felon Willie Horton.

Comes now the latest presidential campaign development of possible historical significance: the arrival on the scene of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor.

The Chicago pastor's incendiary remarks about America, which have played endlessly in video loops, and then with his mocking, flippant, and frankly jaw-dropping performance at the National Press Club this week, have earned him a permanent place in presidential campaign folklore.

"Here stands Jeremiah Wright," reads the entry, "the preacher who single-handedly altered the course of Sen. Barack Obama's run for the White House."

That takes some doing.

Pat Buchanan, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Hillary Clinton's political machine have been hammering at Obama since he emerged as a serious contender in the presidential sweepstakes. Their best shots, however, landed only as glancing blows against Obama, who continued to dazzle friend and foe alike with fancy footwork on the campaign trail.

That is, until Wright came along.

With his combative, racially tinged and off-putting worldview -- and his established association with Obama -- Wright has managed to knock the Democratic front-runner off his stride, giving comfort to those who contend that there's more to Obama than the eyes have seen.

Obama and his pastor -- the opponents point out -- kept company for 20 years. Why not, they ask, judge Obama by the company he's been keeping?

Early indications suggest that that argument may be gaining some traction. In a Fox News poll released Wednesday, 48 percent of white Democrats surveyed said they are less likely to vote for Obama because of Wright. We'll know soon enough whether that's true.

If Hillary Clinton scores a victory Tuesday in Indiana, where polls have her ahead, and on the same day comes close to winning in North Carolina, where polls show her closing the gap, Wright will have the honor of being the Chicago preacher who burst onto the national political scene to help derail the campaign of the first African American with a serious chance of winning the presidency.

Not everyone sees it that way, of course. I've heard from readers who believe Wright did himself -- and, by extension, Obama -- a lot of good with his appearance on Bill Moyers's program last week and with his speech at a Detroit meeting of the NAACP. Whether you agree with that assessment, there's little question that Wright's National Press Club appearance helped to do the pastor in.

I won't argue with those who contend that Wright may have accomplished a good deal in his church leadership over a number of decades or that his ministry at the 8,000-member Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago may have served his community well.

I can also believe, as one reader, "P.J.," said, that Wright has been feeling tremendously hurt and rejected by Obama and that he feels he has been treated unfairly by the media and others.

P.J. assessed the pastor's public meltdown this way: "I suspect that [Wright] felt that he was walking into the lion's den Monday morning, behaving as if in combat with an aggressive and antagonistic enemy, which perhaps he was. It was obvious that he lacks the PR skills to do that job right, that he can't draw in journalists the way he can a rapt congregation. In short, he was out of his element."

Indeed.

But Wright's rise to national prominence is not his work alone; he's received plenty of help along the way.

Obama's opponents in the media have done their best to make Jeremiah Wright a household name. And before this contest is over, Wright is going to be Willie Hortonized -- that is, converted into an ever-present threat to white America.

When he was a media consultant to George H.W. Bush's presidential campaign in 1988, Fox News's founder and president, Roger Ailes, speaking in jest about the Republican use of Willie Horton against Democratic presidential nominee Mike Dukakis, said: "The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it."

By October, if Hillary Clinton's Democratic rival is still in the race, look for a campaign ad with a menacing mug shot of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright holding a bomb and standing next to a smiling Barack Obama.

It's come to this.

kingc@washpost.com