Well, we don’t know yet, but I just wanted to be the first to ask the question. You can bet it will be the hot topic amongst the talking heads tomorrow morning, though.

Obama is being Clintonian:

What I think he’s saying here is that he didn’t hear these particular statements because he didn’t happen to be in attendance. He’s not saying that he never heard Wright say these kind of things, although he wants to leave that impression.

Well, it’s not like that’s the only thing they have in common.

[Update at 6:40 PM EDT]

Here’s a lot more from “Allahpundit”:

Now that we’re into “what did the Messiah know and when did he know it” territory, watch for the left to move the goalposts by wondering what it is, precisely, that’s so terrible about what the old man said. So he thinks America’s responsible for HIV. A lot of people think a lot of things, y’know? Can’t “an old black man have his anger in the privacy of his church”?

Looks like Obama’s in full damage-control mode.

[Late evening update]

Another Clinton parallel:

I sat in his church, but I didn’t inhale.

Heh.

[Saturday morning update]

A few weeks ago, I said that when it came to Obama’s speeches, there’s no “there there.” Now Instapunk says that’s true of Obama himself:

Regardless of how the campaign war turns out, both sides have been crippled. Obama cannot win because there is no one inside the gauzy, unreal image to battle through the contradictions to a mandate based on character rather than a mosaic of sliver identities. His white vote will shrivel as ordinary Americans discover they can’t determine where his allegiance lies, unless it’s to himself only. Women will sit on their hands because they’ve seen enough of the slick young operator who waltzes in at the last moment and swipes the opportunity from the deserving veteran female (and being half-white doesn’t help him in this respect). But Hillary can’t win, either, because of the one-drop rule. Even though Obama is not and never was an African-American, he has always been black enough to benefit from the superannuated slave culture that forgives every corruption and hypocrisy in those who have any claim on being black. If Hillary is the nominee, African-Americans will stay home in significant numbers. Unlike Jeremiah Wright, John McCain is the irascible uncle we’d go to for help in a pinch, not hide from because of the revolver he keeps in a cigar box.

At the end of the day, Reverend Wright is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the poison in the well. Like Moses, he can never accompany his chosen ones to the promised land When his people finally learn to stop following his like, they will find what they seek, as if by magic. But for now, the horse he groomed for them is scratched at the gate.

The Democrats have set themselves up for a well-deserved electoral catastrophe this fall. And it didn’t just happen this year. It’s been building for almost half a century.

Obama is being Clintonian:

What I think he’s saying here is that he didn’t hear these particular statements because he didn’t happen to be in attendance. He’s not saying that he never heard Wright say these kind of things, although he wants to leave that impression.

Well, it’s not like that’s the only thing they have in common.

[Update at 6:40 PM EDT]

Here’s a lot more from “Allahpundit”:

Now that we’re into “what did the Messiah know and when did he know it” territory, watch for the left to move the goalposts by wondering what it is, precisely, that’s so terrible about what the old man said. So he thinks America’s responsible for HIV. A lot of people think a lot of things, y’know? Can’t “an old black man have his anger in the privacy of his church”?

Looks like Obama’s in full damage-control mode.

[Late evening update]

Another Clinton parallel:

I sat in his church, but I didn’t inhale.

Heh.

[Saturday morning update]

A few weeks ago, I said that when it came to Obama’s speeches, there’s no “there there.” Now Instapunk says that’s true of Obama himself:

Regardless of how the campaign war turns out, both sides have been crippled. Obama cannot win because there is no one inside the gauzy, unreal image to battle through the contradictions to a mandate based on character rather than a mosaic of sliver identities. His white vote will shrivel as ordinary Americans discover they can’t determine where his allegiance lies, unless it’s to himself only. Women will sit on their hands because they’ve seen enough of the slick young operator who waltzes in at the last moment and swipes the opportunity from the deserving veteran female (and being half-white doesn’t help him in this respect). But Hillary can’t win, either, because of the one-drop rule. Even though Obama is not and never was an African-American, he has always been black enough to benefit from the superannuated slave culture that forgives every corruption and hypocrisy in those who have any claim on being black. If Hillary is the nominee, African-Americans will stay home in significant numbers. Unlike Jeremiah Wright, John McCain is the irascible uncle we’d go to for help in a pinch, not hide from because of the revolver he keeps in a cigar box.

At the end of the day, Reverend Wright is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the poison in the well. Like Moses, he can never accompany his chosen ones to the promised land When his people finally learn to stop following his like, they will find what they seek, as if by magic. But for now, the horse he groomed for them is scratched at the gate.

The Democrats have set themselves up for a well-deserved electoral catastrophe this fall. And it didn’t just happen this year. It’s been building for almost half a century.

Obama is being Clintonian:

What I think he’s saying here is that he didn’t hear these particular statements because he didn’t happen to be in attendance. He’s not saying that he never heard Wright say these kind of things, although he wants to leave that impression.

Well, it’s not like that’s the only thing they have in common.

[Update at 6:40 PM EDT]

Here’s a lot more from “Allahpundit”:

Now that we’re into “what did the Messiah know and when did he know it” territory, watch for the left to move the goalposts by wondering what it is, precisely, that’s so terrible about what the old man said. So he thinks America’s responsible for HIV. A lot of people think a lot of things, y’know? Can’t “an old black man have his anger in the privacy of his church”?

Looks like Obama’s in full damage-control mode.

[Late evening update]

Another Clinton parallel:

I sat in his church, but I didn’t inhale.

Heh.

[Saturday morning update]

A few weeks ago, I said that when it came to Obama’s speeches, there’s no “there there.” Now Instapunk says that’s true of Obama himself:

Regardless of how the campaign war turns out, both sides have been crippled. Obama cannot win because there is no one inside the gauzy, unreal image to battle through the contradictions to a mandate based on character rather than a mosaic of sliver identities. His white vote will shrivel as ordinary Americans discover they can’t determine where his allegiance lies, unless it’s to himself only. Women will sit on their hands because they’ve seen enough of the slick young operator who waltzes in at the last moment and swipes the opportunity from the deserving veteran female (and being half-white doesn’t help him in this respect). But Hillary can’t win, either, because of the one-drop rule. Even though Obama is not and never was an African-American, he has always been black enough to benefit from the superannuated slave culture that forgives every corruption and hypocrisy in those who have any claim on being black. If Hillary is the nominee, African-Americans will stay home in significant numbers. Unlike Jeremiah Wright, John McCain is the irascible uncle we’d go to for help in a pinch, not hide from because of the revolver he keeps in a cigar box.

At the end of the day, Reverend Wright is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the poison in the well. Like Moses, he can never accompany his chosen ones to the promised land When his people finally learn to stop following his like, they will find what they seek, as if by magic. But for now, the horse he groomed for them is scratched at the gate.

The Democrats have set themselves up for a well-deserved electoral catastrophe this fall. And it didn’t just happen this year. It’s been building for almost half a century.

There’s an old fable about a condemned prisoner, who makes a deal with the King. He promises that, if his life is spared for a year, he will teach the King’s favorite horse to sing. The King, amused, decides to give him a shot.

As he’s being led back to his cell in the stable, the guard asks him, “What are you doing? Are you crazy? You’ll never teach that horse to sing.”

The prisoner replies, “I have a year. Much can happen in a year. The King could die. I could die. The horse could die. Or, the horse might learn to sing.”

After Super Tuesday, many viewed Hillary’s campaign as condemned, and many urged her to pull out for the good of the party. But the good of the party will always come second (or third, or fourth, or…) to what’s good for Hillary, and her ambition, and sense of entitlement to both the nomination and the presidency. And anyone who doesn’t think that she has such a sense only has to go rewatch that interview with Katie Couric, in which she confidently asserted that she has not considered what she will do if she is not the nominee, because she is going to be the nominee (note: this is why her campaign didn’t have a plan for after Super Tuesday–they didn’t think that they needed one). She is not going to give up, any more than when Bill was under fire, and impeached. As John Podhoretz notes:

Hillary Clinton is not stupid. She knows perfectly well that she’s not going to catch up with Barack Obama when it comes to delegates or the overall popular vote in the primaries, and that her lead with superdelegates is not at all secure. She’s staying in the race to see what happens — to lengthen it so that there is a chance Obama will implode for some reason or combination of reasons, leaving her to pick up the pieces.

Exactly. She has nothing to lose by staying in, except for the potential wrath of some in her party, to which she is indifferent. And now that Obama’s media bubble is finally popping, it doesn’t look like that bad a bet. She may not be able to tutor singing horses, but it looks like she’s finally taught the press to cover Obama more objectively, which may be all that she needs.

But even if it doesn’t pan out, I’ve predicted before that if she doesn’t get the nomination, she’ll figure out how to sabotage Obama’s candidacy, because she’ll figure that her only hope is to run against McCain in 2012. I still think that’s true, and I’d say that the fact that she’s willing to tear the party apart by fighting so hard for a poisoned chalice is pretty strong evidence of it.

Well, he may not be able to do it much longer:

…there’s no cherry-picking occurring here. Furthermore, the cherry-picking defense, even when plausible, has never been accepted when it comes to racism. Don Imus, for example, has received widespread condemnation for very occasional statements that showed racial insensitivity. Trent Lott was condemned for one statement praising Strom Thurmond’s 1948 presidential campaign.

Obama appears to be playing a double game here, distancing himself from Wright without really denouncing him. It’s essentially the same game Obama (we now see) has been playing for years — cater to racist black nationalists at home while presenting himself as “post-racial” nationally.

Ah, but you see, according to the narrative, Reverend Wright can’t be a racist, because it’s not possible for blacks to be racist. Only the Man, with the power, can be a racist.

You know, this double game kind of reminds me of when Yasser Arafat would give one speech in English, talking about peace and negotiations with Israel, and then the very same day, give another one in Arabic, calling for the destruction of that nation and the death of the Jews. But in this case, the media doesn’t even have the excuse of not understanding the language.

[Update a few minutes later]

Another good point, from Mark Hemingway:

How many times has Obama used “judgment” as a cudgel against his opponents this campaign? Well, choosing someone to offer your family spiritual guidance that isn’t an anti-semite coddling, America-hating, race-baiting crazypants would appear to be a far easier decision than deciding whether to go to war. I anxiously await to see how Obama explains this aspect of his celebrated decision-making ability.

Don’t we all.

[Update a while later]

New readers who came via Instapundit might want to see my follow-on thoughts on Hillary teaching a horse to sing. Or just click on the main page in the link above, and check out the place in general. Anyway, welcome to all.