What a difference a week makes.

The Friday before Good Friday, I began my weekend with a sick feeling in my stomach that returned every time I switched on the news. Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, was everywhere. The pastor's incendiary remarks were being played and replayed, and I knew instantly that of all the threats to Barack Obama's candidacy thus far, none had been so potent--nor so utterly personal.

What was Obama...