Give him a break

I like Charles Murray's comments about Barack Obama. It seems as if some critics are going out of their way to take offense at his comments, particularly those involving his grandmother. It's always possible to seek racial offense at comments made regarding this touchy subject. I don't like it when those on the left are hyper sensitive and it's just as bad when the right does it. Chris Wallace also shows good sense when he criticizes his own network News for overdoing it on Obama criticism. The reverend Wright deserves some attention but it's worth wall to wall coverage. Neither is an off-hand comment in a radio interview.

Obama and Wright

I hope that Dick Morris is right that the controversy over Pastor Wright does not derail Barack Obama's candidacy (at least in the Democratic primaries). I like Mike Huckabee's attitude toward the situation as expressed here. While I certainly don't care of Reverend Wright's point of view, the media is overblowing this whole thing. For the past week, Wright is all that the cable news stations and radio talk show hosts are talking about. It smacks of guilt by association. It's not Obama making these statements. Although his membership in the church for twenty years is a legitimate issue, it hardly merits and endless repetition of the same incendiary sermons. Now that Hillary has released some documents from her First Lady days how about some examination of her -- for example her lies about her attitude toward NAFTA. At least that's about her actions and statements, not about her pastor or some other associate.

Obama's campaign

Barack Obama's victory in Mississippi really didn't get much attention. Yesterday morning I went to the New York Times webpage and had to search for the article on the election. The main story on the page was about photos of John Lennon from his "lost weekend" in the mid 1970s, which I found interesting but not really a burning hot news story. Of course, stories about the Spitzer scandal is dominating everything else. Barack can still lock things up with a victory in Pennsylvania. It will be extremely tough but with six weeks to go it's not impossible. He needs to get tough on Clinton. I think pushing for her to release her tax returns is a good way to go. After all he's released his so it seems perfectly reasonable to me. At least, he's never stooped to the sleazy depths of the Clinton campaign. The flap over Geraldine Ferraro is a good contrast between the two campaigns. Her comment that he wouldn't be where he is if he were white is debatable. Given his talent as a politician I think it is conceivable that he would have become a presidential contender regardless of his race. What is clear however is that an even stronger argument could be made that Hillary Clinton is where she is solely due to her gender and to her husbands success. She became partner in a law firm based in a state where her husband was governor. She was first lady due to her husband. Clearly her role as first lady led to her senate senate. The one thing she was put in charge of, healthcare reform, was a total fiasco. It is a testament to the classiness of the Obama campaign that no one closely associated with it has made these obvious points. The two candidates may be relatively close in delegates but one is way ahead in common decency.