The Jeremiah Wright Story That Won’t Die

America's most famous pastor (this election cycle at least) spent the weekend in Washington, DC attacking his critics and even his pseudo-defender Barack Obama. Read about it here and here. Wright claims he is misunderstood because he served six years in the Army and few of his critics actually watch his entire sermons. Wright is well within his rights to say what he wants, but Obama is using common sense to distance himself from his former pastor. The sad part is that the longer this continues, the more people forget Obama's Philadelphia speech on race and religion. What should go down as one of the best speeches - ever - on the subject will be lost because the Wright controversy cost Obama political momentum and he failed to carry Pennsylvania.

Relatedly, Barack Obama says race matters, but it won't be decisive in whether or not he becomes president. I'm not so sure. I'd like to see how he'd respond to my map.