Barack Obama's Jeremiah Wright problem

"Hillary ain't never been called a n---er!" So says the buffoonish Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's spiritual father, in this pretty startling video clip of a sermon. You really have to see this to believe it:

I said that Jeremiah Wright was going to become a big issue for Barack Obama, but I didn't think it would happen so soon. With the release of this video, that time has probably arrived.

Politico describes Wright in this video as "deeply racially confrontational." Which might be an understatement. He rants and rails against "rich white people who run this country," demonizes white people, calls Jesus a "poor black man" oppressed by "Italians," says that Barack Obama "ain't privileged" -- this, even though Barack and Michelle Obama are Ivy-league grads in the top two percent of Americans in income. And so forth. This Wright is a clown.

This is a moment of testing for Barack Obama. He has either got to repudiate this Rev. Wright clearly and unambiguously, or he's going to suffer for it at the polls. His previous stance, in which he said that he doesn't agree with everything Wright stands for, won't cut it this time.

To be clear, I don't believe it's fair to hold presidential candidates responsible for everything their supporters say. This is a big country, and we have a lot of religious leaders that say bizarre and objectionable things. I don't like a lot of what the fundamentalist John Hagee stands for and preaches, but I don't believe John McCain, who gratefully accepted Hagee's endorsement, is responsible for Hagee's sermons. Nor do I believe that Obama should be held responsible for what any far-out left-wing minister who supports him preaches.

But Jeremiah Wright is not just any far-out left-wing minister. He is Obama's spiritual mentor, and has been for a long time. As we've learned from Obama's biographical details, young Obama was lost and searching for an identity. His father had abandoned him, and he wasn't sure where and how he fit in to the black community. He found a father figure in Wright and a connection to the black community in Wright's church. The degree of separation between Obama and Wright, versus McCain and Hagee, is far less.

Given what Wright stands for, I believe voters are entitled to wonder what Obama sees in him that he would have a) gone to his church, and b) made him into a surrogate father. Obama no doubt has an explanation for this, and he's going to have to give it, simply as a matter of political reality.

Here's the drama, though: if Obama pulls a "Sister Souljah moment" on Wright, it's going to come across as some sort of symbolic patricide. It will be deeply painful to Obama, and uncomfortable to watch. If he attacks Wright directly, some Wright supporters are going to call him Judas. But if Obama wants to be president, what choice does he have? Obama supporters who think he can finesse this or avoid a direct confrontation with the Wright problem are deluding themselves if they think this isn't going to come back to haunt him in the fall, should he get the nomination.

True, Hillary ain't never been called a n---er, but she also ain't got a racialist, Farrakhan-loving, crypto-Marxist goof as her closest spiritual advisor. That's some baggage to carry into the fall election. Obama has this reputation of being a conciliator, an irenic figure who can move us past the divisive politics of the past. The rap on him is that beneath that 1000-megawatt smile and his massive charisma is a politician who holds views on the hard left of the mainstream US political spectrum. Fair or not, Rev. Wright's big mouth, and the paramount importance he plays in Obama's spiritual life, serve to validate that criticism.

This is a test for Obama. Let's see how he does with it.

UPDATE: A cleric has just e-mailed to agree, but adds, "Of course, if Obama really is the Messiah, we'll all look dumb."