It's called wagging the dog, Vic.
The issue, as you rightly point out, isn't what Wright's views are but what Obama's views are. In practical terms, in real terms, the entire region should be written off as a liability with no possible gain on our investment. Even if there is a peaceful settlement, we don't gain a single thing. And we spend BILLIONS of dollars on that cesspool every year while our own people literally die in the street and our infrastructure crumbles around us. Excuse me if I think Americans and their well being is slightly more relevant than who should get to control a few miles of useless dirt.
The fact that a powerful lobby has a single issue litmus test, one that has no meaning in the context of our own society, and uses that single issue as a bludgeon to kill or promote a candidate is ugly and should be stopped.
It only works because the mass of the public doesn't take the time to actually dig into these things for the real facts and depend on "news" and pundits to make up their minds for them. So, yes, in practical, real political terms, Obama's opinion matters in the context of him getting elected but, also in those practical terms, there's no point in asking the question because we know, in advance, what he and every other candidate is going to say. So why ask? Why make an issue of it?
Fear and racism.
Fear beuase those who actually make a living on this stuff know that popular support is only as good as people's ability to choose between support and eating. Eating will always win unless you can make people angry or scared enough not to care about food. Opening a debate bout Israel and Palestine is a great way to stir things up
Racism because there's a basic distrust of black people in this country that runs deep enough to be exploited by any white candidate who wants to. It may prove to be Obama's Achillies' heel. We'll see.
Wright isn't running for anything and, if we're bouncing candidates by the things their preachers and supporters say, then NOBODY would get in. The entire discussion is a pile of sh*t meant to distract from the actual things that matter in this nation. The fate of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict just isn't on the list.
Obama makes people nervous in certain quarters because he keeps talking about excising the special interests from the political process but he doesn't say yet what he deems a special interest group to be. Those groups with lots of cash but little in the way of popular support stand to lose big if he wins and follows through on his promise so there's been a concerted effort to paint him into traditionally racist corners. Honestly, he won't do much excising in any case as no politician will.
So far he hasn't fallen in or allowed himself to be trapped and his polls show him to be, at this stage anyway, teflon covered. As we get closer and closer to the actual election the shots will get more and more nasty and less and less relevant to the actual problems facing the nation. The idea will be to scare Americans into backing away from their black candidate because he is black. They won't say it that way but that is the underlying message.
If the Demos do an end run around the electoral process in order to put Hillary in the chair, I will join the thousands of other blacks who will surely leave the party a a result.
