Jeremiah Wright's recent media blitz has complicated Barack Obama's efforts to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. To describe Jeremiah Wright as charismatic is to understate his extraordinary magnetism, which drew Barack Obama to Christianity twenty years ago. Sure, Wright is a divisive figure, but he's a uniter as well - embracing embracing gays and lesbians as well as militant Black Muslims, and building a kind of rainbow coalition of the excluded, which inspired Obama (and countless others) to go forth and perform good works. In turning on his pastor, Obama claims that Wright has changed. Could it be that Obama has changed? For a politician on Chicago's South Side who ran against former Black Panther Bobby Rush for Congress in 2000, a close association with Wright made a great deal of sense, fiery sermons and all. Obama continued to stand by Wright during his 2004 Senate campaign, depicting him as a powerful progressive voice - and indeed, it seems clear that Wright's message of self-help and self-rule shaped Obama's views concerning the essential importance of democracy and an engaged citizenry. Then this year, after conservatives made an issue of Wright's far-left sermonizing, Obama stood up for his pastor, offering a thoughtful defense of the folk traditions of the black church. It was only after Wright criticized Obama , suggesting that he was being hypocritical and insincere, that the candidate decided ...
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