Her Only Chance

And this is the only way to the nomination for Hillary Clinton. Scandal, either by way of Trinity United Church of Christ (which, Obama announced on 6/1/08, he now has left)- or not.

When we last heard of Jeremiah Wright, following Senator Obama's denunciation of the minister's remarks made at the National Press Club, the punditocracy, not averse to picturing Obama as the victim, argued that Wright was out to harm the Illinois senator's candidacy. The Wright uproar thus far has come in two parts: following release of his two incendiary sermons and upon his appearance at the National Press Club. Support for the leading Democratic candidate, given his unique ability to appeal to our need as Americans for change, declined in the wake of the first event insufficiently to threaten seriously his candidacy. Following the second event, support declined further. I was never convinced that Wright was committed to harming Obama (as against merely wanting to further his own interests) but, if most of the media and other analysts were right, the former pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ is coming back. Maybe soon, maybe between the convention and the election, but sometime before November. And the third event likely would be fatal to Obama's chances.

There is another possibility, however remote, of a scandal related to Mr. Obama's famous church. Larry Johnson, the former CIA agent and Clinton partisan with a website whose vituperative postings make for entertaining, if less than edifying, reading, claims the existence of what he characteristically refers to as a "whitey" tape. This alleged tape pictures Michelle Obama making incendiary, race-based comments while on a panel with Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan at Trinity United Church of Christ. I suspect the tape either a)has been doctored by Roger Stone or some other slimey Repub operative; b)is not as explosive as claimed by Johnson; c)will not seem the light of day; or d)will for some other reason not prove very significant. If, however, it is as Johnson is arguing, and hoping, it is, Barack Obama will not become the 44th president of the United States of America. We need to hope that such an event never occurred- or that if it did,any tape depicting it is released soon, giving Hillary Clinton a serious chance to be nominated. If such a tape is released after the nomination is formally granted Barack Obama, it would be devastating- not only to us as Democrats and progressives, but especially to America.