A Sad Old Man

Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post tries to keep the racial politics of the last generation going and ignores the content of the speech to keep highlighting the 'outrages' of Wright's speeches.

But that is not the question. The question is why didn't he leave that church? Why didn't he leave -- why doesn't he leave even today -- a pastor who thundered not once but three times from the pulpit (on a DVD the church proudly sells) "God damn America"? Obama's 5,000-word speech, fawned over as a great meditation on race, is little more than an elegantly crafted, brilliantly sophistic justification of that scandalous dereliction.

Obama is never going to sway the closed minds of the far right who seem unable to grasp the ideas of the reality based community. Even when their goals of empire and deregulation bring disaster they are unable, or more likely, unwilling to recognise the damage, but continue to try to strike fear into their audience.

Obama can make a difference. This is their biggest fear.