Rev. Wright Falls On His Sword for Obama. The Brilliant Media Plan Works

I opened my morning New York Times and Obama's picture dominated the front page. The headline read, "An Angry Obama Renounces Ties To His Ex-Pastor"

Then it hit me.

This was the brilliant plan.

An angry, forceful Obama was on the front page of every newspaper in the world, every evening newscast, all over the Internet.

The savvy Wright was giving a gift to his close friend. The "Race" speech hadn't worked. The Wright connection was a festering sore that Clinton and the Republicans were going to pick at, --- and it would bury him in the fall elections.

Something had to be done. Obama wasn't going to denounce Wright further, without something drastic happening.

So Rev. Wright decided to fall on his sword for his close friend.

He went before the National Press Club and said even more outrageous things than ever. He repeated his worst statements. And encouraged Obama to denounce him.

Obama shed his meek mild mannered demeanor. He got angry and decisive. He was "shocked", "Outraged", and "Appalled".

Wright's behavior and Obama's reaction finally allowed the campaign to bury the issue forever. Clinton can't bring it up anymore. The Republicans can't bring it up anymore.

Thanks, Rev.

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Comments

[laylahb]

..and they will continue to bring it up until the first Tuesday in November, and well beyond that, too. The damage was done six weeks ago, and the image of a very scary Wright in those YouTube clips will stick in the minds of a large number of non-Huffpost voters.

[fnygy]

This is an interesting perspective that I've heard a number of times. It confirms what I've come to believe about human nature - we choose the perception that makes us most comfortable. All we have to look at are the actions of the men involved - we cannot know their motives. Yet, we're driven to ascribe motives and meaning and the ones that are most attractive to us are the ones that reinforce what we already believe.

[Charles TW]

HuffPost's Pick

What an excellent observation you have made. Obviously, two different Jeremy Wrights revealed themselves over the past few days. Credence for it can readily be found by visiting Rev. Wright's speech delivered a few days before to NAACP convention in Detrioit. This was hardly the comedic, buffonish rants of a sociopath. Nor was his interview with Bill Moyers framed in hate, anger, and vengence. Those who bothered to read the texts from which the posted clips and sound bytes were lifted realized that his every accusation and indictment against America was drawn from Biblical and scriptural texst. His sermon, "The Audacity of Hope" is a marvel of Christian lucidity and Jesus' depthless hope for humanity.
Rev. Wright's gift leans far more toward Christian prophecy with a dash of burleque than American politics. Those who had done their homework were well aware that they were not watching the real Jeremy Wright, but the one that they very much deserved. Now that the media has dismissed him as a caricature and a cartoon, it will re-focus its attention on a presidential campaign in which the fate of the world and humanity may be very much at stake.

[FarOutFish]

Reverend Wright"s comments before the National Press Club were no different that those he gave to the NAACP earlier in this brouhaha. The idea that Wright tried to look scary so Obama could denounce him is absurd. Wright is on a huge ego trip and is reveling in his fifteen minutes of fame.. For the Reverend it"s all about him and his standing in the Black political structure. If anything, Wright probably wants the first viable black candidate to fail, reinforcing his contention that a racist America will never allow minorities, especially blacks, to succeed.

[Sanity01]

The gift that keeps on giving.

[knerd]

Your piece makes me wonder what was the brilliant plan behind the endless broadcasting of the angry black guy in the dashiki....

[posthumous]

Sorry, I checked. Republicans are still bringing it up.

[mmmullen]

I emailed a friend yesterday that I believed Rev. Wright took a bullet for Obama. Wright being out of control is mere negative speculation by the media (and the GOPs). If you listen to him, you will see he is smart, funny and learned--and a bit over the top. Obama said from the git go that he never heard the more out there rhetoric. Don't buy the media BS. Wright is a very serious and successful leader in the black community. That a man of his accomplishment is lunatic is racist and degrading right wing smear. He is a real hero. God bless him.

[LibRS]

HuffPost's Pick

Oh no. He is no lunatic. He is making big money by stirring the pot just like Jesse and Al Sharpton. He is more concerned about putting money in his pocket than he is helping the black man. If he really wanted to help the black man he would stand beside Bill Cosby.

[grendl]

Wait, you're the same Blake Fleetwood that uncovered the Hillary.com conspiracy, wherein the diabolical acolytes of Barack Obama somehow found a way of diverting internet viewers to his site, right?

Someone call Oliver Stone. If we can link the mafia and Russia to this thing we may have a movie.

[SamThornton]

Trying to figure out how Blake Fleetwood divined his information. ESP? Ouija board? Paranoid epiphany? Tainted crack? Or maybe it's just tongue-in-cheek humor. Yes, that's what it was. Humor. That's the ticket.

[grendl]

This is one of those Andy Borowitz tongue in cheek type posts isn't it?

While I love that your fear of a black president paranoia has you jumping to such conclusions, it's preposterous. Such a gamble so close to crucial primaries would be absurd.

It was as we saw it, a guy drunk on the national spotlight kicking into colorful mode, complete with self satisfied smirk, and a little bounce in his step shooting his big fat mouth off. If Wright were seriously attempting to fall on his sword, he wouldn't have accused Barack of being disingenuous with the American people, acting as a politician, as the novelty of such a theory had yet to be postulated.

Why would someone actually add more fuel to the fire if they wanted it extinguished. No, he could've gone on to make wilder statements about aids, or 911, but obvious ones, not with the additional insinuation that Barack secretly shared his beliefs.

Thing is, it seems Barack is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. He did the right thing yesterday , and you can't even give credit where credit is due. I admire his break with the pastor, now if he could start calling the MSM on their railroading of his campaign he might get this thing back on track.

[halfdemhalfgop]

grendl "He did the right thing yesterday ,"

It is not the right thing if you do it weeks late and were forced to do it. It is like you forget your wife"s birthday and for 3 weeks she does not give you sex then you finally buy the gift. To little to late..

[HeevenSteven]

Hillary Clinton and John McCain approved this message.

[Dap]

Ya think? lol HS.

[SolomonsJim]

I think the explanation is far simpler than the somewhat contrived conspiracy you propose:

Ego.

Think about it. Before this flap started up a few months ago now, who had ever heard of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright? The answer is nobody, of course. Now, if you are a firebrand from the 1960s, a man who has not found some way to move his message out of the activist, confrontationalist delivery system of the mid 20th century to present day, then you probably would feel like you have been left behind, made invisible, and worst of all--become irrelevant. Wright probably thinks that black people today routinely walk through doors he helped kicked open. To be discarded by a movement, to be relegated to little more than a quaint historical memory would make a man like Rev. Wright positively fume.

Now suddenly he has been thrust into national prominence, and is buzzed on the exciting head rush that notoriety gives a person. Why would he give this up? Especially if he became known to history as the man who derailed the first African-American presidential candidate that actually had a chance to win? Ego explains it. There are people who enjoy the notoriety of relevance-by-spoiler status...aren't there, Mr. Nader?

[katefranklin]

Right, and Clinton fell on the "Bosnia sniper-fire sword" because it gave her an opportunity to show some humility. (Something she's not known to have in large quantities.) But seriously, I think it's pretty clear that on Monday Rev. Wright was either off his meds, or that he's got some serious inferiority complex that exploded in front of the cameras. Being a black man who is a sandbag on the first ever black Democratic front-runner must be a maddening experience.

[GOP4MoreTears]

Yep, kinda like when Monica Lewinsky swallowed the Clinton sword in the Oval Office, I see what your getting at, if not Billary then McCain. eh?

[SmackwaterJack]

I've heard Hillary may be into voyeurism and watched the whole Oval Office link up? Maybe it's just rumors that the Republicans have Monica Lewinsky admitting it, and that they are waiting to spring it later?

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