From John Cole (h/t Kevin) - reminders that Jeremiah Wright was not involved in any of the offenses of national import that the Bush Administration was - and really, that John McCain wants largely to perpetuate:
“Is it an offensive notion that the government created aids? Absolutely, but I refuse to get all bent out of shape about it, because the government that tortures people and ran the Tuskegee experiment and wiretapped MLK for years opens itself up to crazy accusations like that.
So Jeremiah Wright has acted like a jackass the past few days, and he may have acted supremely selfishly by hurting Obama’s electoral chances. Regardless, he may be a flawed man, but that does not undo all the good he has done over the years…. Get back to me when Chris Matthews feeds hungry people for three decades….
[M]aybe I just refuse to spend any more time and energy getting worked up over and denouncing, distancing, and rejecting the wrong people - people who really don’t matter in the big scheme of things. If you have a memo from Jeremiah Wright to John You [sic] showing how we should become a rogue nation, let me know. If you have pictures of Jeremiah Wright voting against the GI Bill, send it to me. If you have evidence of Jeremiah Wright training junior soldiers on the finer aspects of stacking and torturing naked Iraqi captives, pass them on.
Until then, I just can’t seem to get all worked up about the crazy scary black preacher that Obama has to ‘throw under the bus.’”
E.J. Dionne on the difference between big picture and small picture elections:
“This is supposed to be a big election, but it has given every sign in recent weeks of becoming a small one. As a result, the public and the media are showing signs of exhaustion with what had once been an exhilarating contest.
In big elections, voters know how much is at stake. They focus on central problems, not manufactured issues or the personal foibles of candidates. In big elections, such as those of 1968, 1980 and 1992, voters realize they are deciding whether to move the country in a new direction.
In small elections, by contrast, voters sense that the outcome is unlikely to make much difference, though they (and the media) can be wrong about this.
….
Before the battle for Pennsylvania, the 2008 presidential contest looked as big as elections get. The country’s deep disillusionment with Bush, akin to the disillusionment with Jimmy Carter in 1980, portends a wish by voters to move in a different direction, albeit one quite unlike the path chosen 28 years ago. The issues discussed in debates and on the stump were the important ones: an Iraq War in which victory is elusive, an economy falling into disarray, a health care system failing employees and employers alike.
….
Then something happened. Specifically, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright….
All this has helped Hillary Clinton in the short run, and she has used her opening well…. And she is, suddenly, a right-wing hero, not the victim of a vast right-wing conspiracy.
Yes, the conservative commentariat has turned her way, or at least against Obama. Of course, these are temporary conversions of convenience. But there is a lesson in the eagerness to spur on the Democratic fight in its current form, and it’s about more than just enjoying watching Clinton and Obama eviscerate each other.
The smaller this election looks, the easier it will be for the Republicans to run campaigns such as those they orchestrated in 2000 and 1988 in which the particular flaws of candidates take on an exaggerated importance…. Were Hillary Clinton to win the nomination, she, no less than Obama, would need this to be a big election. This is something Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all understood about the contests in which they prevailed.
Contrary to those who are cynical about democracy, voters themselves are rarely manipulated into thinking that big elections are actually small ones. But the candidates and the media, with some help from Jeremiah Wright, are doing all they can to run this election through an Incredible Shrinking Machine. Obama and Clinton should not make it harder for Americans to have the election they want.”
