Obama's Checker's Speach

It's happening today. If Dick could do it, so can Barack. Maybe.

If Obama's message is that we are at a moment where we can get past the divisions of the past, then being forced to confront the incendiary rhetoric of his pastor in and of itself catapults down to the level he has so successfully risen above to date.

And this is the problem when you run a campaign as elevated as Obama's has been. When you're as inspirational and "different" as Obama claims to be, any taint or controversey that makes you like other polticians stains and stings all the more.

If Obama gets through this one, hurray. But it will happen again. He has to find away to go through the wringer of presidential politics, ready for the scandals, shock and mud, in a way that doesn't in and of itself invalidate the rationale of his candidacy. The mere fact of having to explain Wright's comments does threatens that rationale, perhaps fatally.