Which of these outrageous positions of his pastor and longtime spiritual advisor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, does Barack Obama endorse?
That African-Americans should not say “God Bless America,” but rather “God damn America” for “killing innocent people”?
That 9/11 was a case of “America’s chickens coming home to roost”?
That Zionism has an element of “white racism”?
The one implied by his decision to make a pilgrimage to Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy with Louis Farrakhan – a man Wright’s church has hailed for having “truly epitomized greatness”?
These are not idle questions. And certainly not unfair ones.
Just two weeks ago, the Democratic National Committee put out a press release asking the same kind of questions of John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
The attack concerned Rev. John Hagee, a leading televangelist who endorsed McCain’s candidacy; the DNC demanded that McCain renounce Hagee’s support because of the minister’s past anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim remarks.
Noting McCain’s statement that he was “not endorsing some of [Hagee’s] positions, the DNC asked: “Which Hagee positions does McCain endorse?”
Well, right back at ’em.
Hagee, it should be noted, has merely announced his support for McCain, with whom he’s had no longstanding relationship.
Obama and Wright, by contrast, have been intensely close for two decades: The Chicago minister married the Obamas, baptized their children and dedicated their house. He even provided the title of the senator’s book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Now ABC News says it has reviewed dozens of Wright’s sermons – and found repeated public denunciations of America.
In response to media inquiries about the relationship, Obama has condemned some of Wright’s more incendiary remarks and sidestepped others by saying he wasn’t in church that day.
As recently as this week, his campaign has insisted, “There are things [Wright] says with which Sen. Obama deeply disagrees.”
Of course, when John McCain said pretty much the same thing about Hagee, the DNC went up the wall.
Obama clearly realizes that his spiritual mentor could be a major political liability – which explains why, at the last minute, he canceled plans to have Wright deliver an invocation at his presidential-campaign kickoff.
He’s going to have to do better than that. For surely the Democratic Party can’t hold its own candidate to a different standard than it does Republicans.