Obama's Pastor Creates Tough Spot for Frontrunner

Barack Obama's longtime Chicago pastor, the "Rev." Jeremiah Wright, has come under intense media scrutiny for comments about whites in America and claiming that his primarily black congregation should support Obama over Hillary Clinton because Hillary has never been called the n-word. Right.

Obama has attempted to distance himself considerably from Wright and he posted a halfhearted defense of Wright while condemning specific comments that have been posted across the Internet.

Then in an interview with Fox News, Obama again tried to distance himself from Wright yet again but that supposed distance does not jive well with Obama's history of supporting Wright's church and having Wright serve on a spiritual advisory board for Obama's Presidential campaign. This 2007 New York Times piece details how close Obama and Wright really are--including the nice little tidbit that Obama had tape recordings of Wright's sermons on cassette tape and brought them to Harvard Law School with him.

Given Obama's political past, it's not surprising Obama would be closely aligned with someone as radical as Jeremiah Wright. When it suited his political fancy, Obama also rallied against white Americans for the sake of rallying black voters in his State Senate district.

And even media outlets that are generally friendly toward Obama's candidacy, such as The Atlantic, are worried about how Obama and his campaign team have handled this issue. In his Fox News interview and in his written response, Obama claims that Wright's bigotry and radical views are news to him. Really? As he readily admits, Obama has been a regular member of the Trinity Church since 1991 or 92. And at no time in all those years attending Trinity Church, this bigoted pastor never once railed against whites, conservatives, Republicans, Israel, Jews, or any other group in his line of fire? The Atlantic points out the obvious answer, that just isn't credible at all.

It's not credible because certain evidence points to the idea that Obama did in fact know of Jeremiah Wright's racist views and bigoted past. Wright was, after all, de-invited from Obama's official 2007 Presidential campaign kickoff event. Now the question is why. There is a sense that Obama is not being completely honest as he tries to spin his way out of the thicket but Obama's less than candid response could become a story in itself.