Buffet of human fool

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 by Dave Winer.

Yesterday I had an epiphany that Rev Wright might not be any more of a problem for President Obama than Billy Carter was for President Carter. To which there was an repeated chorus of "You can't choose your relatives but you can choose your pastor." I know I know. I meant that Wright is as irrevocably linked to Obama as Billy was to Jimmy. But maybe not. Maybe Wright was so outrageous that the idea of him being a persistent noose around Obama's neck is so distasteful to the pundit class, that they're going to sweep him out on their own? Oh that would be so sweet. They created the monster, he turns out to be even worse in reality, so bad even they can't stand him, so out he goes. 

I've read piece after piece about how it's time for Obama to throw him under the bus. But the irony is that he probably doesn't have to do it now. The press created Wright, and they are uncreating him. It's "undo," at a human level.  

I liken his appearance yesterday at the National Press club to shark-infested water. Wright was joking in a way that one jokes with friends. But he wasn't with friends (though he brought some with him, they were the ones cheering him on). He was in the water with sharks and feeding them high quality chum and putting blood in the water and screaming look I can swim with the sharks, this is fun, it isn't bad, I'm the boss, the new Martin Luther King, but I own the president. I'm the power behind the man, and you're all going to be taking orders from me, starting now. The sharks said "Oh boy a full course all you can eat buffet of human fool!" 

If the Clintons set this up, as some think they did, they overplayed their hand, they were too good.  

Eugene Robinson wrote today in the Washington Post: "Politically, by surfacing now, [Wright] was throwing Barack Obama under the bus. Sadly, it's time for Obama to return the favor. " 

This suggests a one-day conference after the primaries are over with religious leaders of all faiths and races to discuss religion in a world where the President may be of mixed race. Focus on the positive, we're going through all our race issues this political season. It's messy, but we're learning a lot. Be sure to invite many many formerly Republican religious leaders. Some serious lemonade can be made out of the Wright lemon. 

PS: There's an piece coming soon -- Barack Obama as a coral reef. See this piece on Twitter as a coral reef for a preview.