Has Obama taken a torpedo below his water line? His numbers have dropped significantly through the weekend, relative to Hillary!, no doubt due to the (not so) Wright Stuff.

So what do those who wish no good for the Democrat Party, at least in its current form, do now? Many thought that the reason that Rush Limbaugh was urging people to vote for Hillary in crossover primaries was because he really wanted to see her in office in preference to McCain, which (despite all of his fulminating against him over the past months, and years) is of course silly. Others thought that if was because he thought that she would be a weaker candidate against McCain in the general election. There may have been something to that, but it’s not at all obvious who will do better in an election that is still eight months out.

No, the primary reason that he wanted to do so was the same reason that the Reagan administration provided some support to Saddam Hussein during the Iran/Iraq war. They wanted to bleed both sides, and hope that they both lost. Iraq seemed like the underdog, so they propped it up to keep it going and prevent Iran from winning, and capturing the Iraqi oil fields. As in that case, the goal is not to choose one side or the other, because Republicans (and other non-Democrats, such as myself) have no dog in the fight. The goal is to ensure that the race remains in chaos, and to keep the Dems divided right up to the election.

Unfortunately, the timing on the Wright revelations wasn’t optimal. It would have been better if it came out after the last of the voting, or (if Obama left the convention as the nominee) in the fall.

Someone over at Free Republic used an apt (albeit disgusting) metaphor. When you’re roasting a rat, you have to turn it over occasionally. Now that Obama is slipping, and potentially losing his grip on the nomination, for those who want to cause maximum mischief, it’s time to throw support to him, to prevent Hillary from somehow wrapping it up before August, as both voters in the upcoming primaries, and the super delegates panic over the Wright imbroglio and start taking a second look at electability. Thus, don’t be surprised if Rush switches to Obama this week.

[Update in the evening]

Here are some thoughts from Amy Holmes that might be of interest to my clueless commenter.

…the first black president will more likely be a conservative — someone who has already grappled with, and rejected, victim based politics. Can you picture Michael Steele, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter, Condoleezza Rice or any number of thoughtful black conservatives listening to Pastor Wright’s sermoninzing for one afternoon let alone years on end? Maybe for research purposes.

Barack Obama is not being tied in knots by black middle-class alienation. He’s being tied in knots by left-wing grievance politics with which he chose to align himself. Moreover, plenty of black voters have been willing to vote for Obama in primary after primary on the message of unity and racial reconciliation without any particular knowledge of Obama’s association with Pastor Wright and his extreme views.

While it may be true that Obama will be more likely to heal the divide than any of the other candidates, he’s not more likely to heal the divide than a true post-racial black candidate, such as Rice, or Jindal, or Steele. That’s where my clueless commenter goes off the rails. And of course, as I point out, the country has much bigger problems right now than healing the “racial divide.” The only people being damaged by the “racial divide” are the people who continue to indulge themselves in the politics of victimhood and grievance, such as Senator Obama’s pastor.

Just as an aside, one of the reasons that I’m so hard on him (or her) is that I find the use of oh-so “clever” screen names annoying in the extreme. If you’re too cowardly to use your real name here, then just be anonymous. If you want to get any respect from me, or my other readers, don’t try to make some kind of point with a fake (and usually stupid) “handle.”

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.