Tuesday March 25, 2008 at 16:49
“Obama urges us not to reject [Jeremiah Wright’s] anger without “understanding its roots.” Sorry, no sale. Hate is not to be endlessly analyzed, it is to be rejected without reservation, whether from an Islamic mullah wishing death to America or a black preacher stuck in decades past.”
— Mark Davis, “Obama speech not enough,” Dallas Morning News, March 19, 2008
Two thoughts:
1. There’s no magic word or phrase that Obama could say that would make people who are suspicious of his connection to Wright—or just suspicious of liberals in general—happy. It reminds me of the moment during one of the Obama-Clinton debates when Obama noted that he was happy to concede the difference between “reject” and “denounce” and do both—neither of which would truly satisfy critics.
2. One of the reasons Obama is exciting when it comes to race and foreign policy (see Spencer Ackerman, “The Obama Doctrine,” The American Prospect, March 24, 2008) is precisely because he is willing to investigate the sources of hatred so that we can stop them—and not just play out their consequences to the best of our abilities. If we don’t take the time to analyze hate, our chances of reducing it decrease signficantly.
