Most of us can remember when Sean Hannity and his FOX friends made Rev. Wright a household word. When they sowed a confusion and distraction of mammoth proportions. When they fought tooth and nail to stop the Obama march to victory. We thought the Hannity storm would prevail.
Well, we are at the same "Wright" moment now. Confusion is being sown. This time it is not FOX alone. It is all the folk who are paid to sow lies. They are connecting with deluded wingnuts who want to vent on camera. As with Wright, the MSM are in lockstep. It's a a gullibility parade.
The result is confusion and a sense of discouragement for the Obama forces. Why? Because it it appears all the distraction may just work.
But just as the "Wright" moment did not result in Obama's meltdown and defeat, this is not going to have that result either.
Here is why.
Recall that the Wright debacle necessitated a solution that only Obama could create. It is the same thing now. Those of us who understood what was happening, knew that Obama would come through.
These days even Obama's closest allies are having their doubts and still seem to believe this can be won with salient arguments, with reason, with information.
Sorry David and company. This will be won when the President is ready to administer the same death blow to silliness and drama that he delivered to the Wright drama in Philadelphia.
The President had not framed his speech when the Wright brouhaha was in full flower. When Hannity was doing his non-stop sound bites, with CNN not far behind. But the very events that seemed so against us were preparing the ground for him.
History and Obama have one thing in common. They happen to be on the same page. And what the American people will hear, at a time and place of his own choosing, is Obama's rationale for his agenda, at the center of which is health care reform.
This has not yet been stated. But just as during the Wright dust up, the ground is being prepared.
We will witness the drama for a while more. We will hear and see and even make ineffective surrogate efforts to win arguments about this point or that, to swat down the lies that circle like flies.
But it will all be building up to a single moment.
When Obama speaks, it will be the game changer Philadelphia was. That is how it works. He will, I believe, make his best speech yet. Words can and do change history.
Should we relax? No. We were right to fear then and we are right to fear now. But we should have more confidence in the process. It is the way democracy works. It ferrets out the absurd and, when there is enough comprehension at the top, it results in the right moves. A Wilson will make mistakes and lose to a Lodge. An Obama will not make mistakes and he will not lose to a Coburn, a Kyl, a McCain, whoever.