Legal Commentary

Obama: Can He Move Past Wright and Reclaim the Conversation?

By Jeralyn

More than enough has been written, here and everywhere else, about Barack Obama and his relationship with Jeremiah Wright.

What I'm wondering now, is how does his campaign get past this in time for North Carolina and Indiana? How does it affect the superdelegates? From tomorrow's New York Times:

Bob Mulholland, a superdelegate from California, said that the difficulty Mr. Obama has experienced had put a premium on what happens in the remaining contests.

“We’ve got nine elections to go through June 9,” he said in an interview. “I’ve never been involved in a successful presidential race where the candidate had no trouble in the primary. It’s challenging to him. He is a young man and this is the first time he’s run for president. I see this as a learning experience.”

Asked how he though Mr. Obama was doing, Mr. Mulholland paused before responding. “Getting better,” he finally said.

Other questions: Did Obama alienate some of his African American base with his repudiation of Rev. Wright today? Will it cost him votes in North Carolina?

Assuming the public believes Obama was sincere in renouncing Wright and sorry about his misjudgment of him, will they conclude Obama just isn't ready to be entrusted with the serious judgment calls a President must make?

More....

If Obama loses Indiana, only scores a 5 to 10 point win in North Carolina, loses Kentucky and West Virginia, where are we then?

Feel free to add your own questions, or answer some of these.

On a lighter note, from the comments in a thread below discussing Obama today saying Wright was not his spriritual advisor or mentor: Shorter version: "I did not have pastoral relations with that man."

[Comments now closed.]

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 29, 2008 (boomark / email).