During John Kerry’s rise from has-been to Democratic nominee, I and my friend Aaron developed the “in the Trunk” measure of political invincibility. “Kerry will win the nomination, unless they find a boyscout in his trunk.” Then “Kerry will win the nomination, unless they find a dead boyscout in his trunk.” The last stage, that he will win the nomination unless the media finds a dead hooker in his trunk, occurred on Super Tuesday.
Obama’s wins in the Potomac Primary made him just as inevitable as Kerry was on his Super Tuesday. But then the media opened Obama’s trunk.
The reason I bring this up is that tonight I unsubscribed from a friend (and regular tdaxp commentator’s) Google Reader “shared items” feed. My friend had a penchant for sharing snarky if empty posts, but a particularly absurd one on Rev. Wright made me conclude that reading the feed was too wasteful from a time perspective. The particular shared item argument characterized criticism of Rev Wright as criticism of the idea that America can make mistakes, and that these mistakes can have negative consequences. That Rev Wright is racist (Jesus was killed by the whites!) and anti-American (God damn America!) is either ignored, or else believing that bad actions can have negative consequences is labeled as “anti-American,” and being white is used as a synonym of being racist.
It is interesting to see a campaign in meltdown. It’s interesting to a circle-the-wagons routine in action, especially at a time as interesting for this. I wonder if Woodward felt this horrified wonder when he wrote State of Denial.
It’s not over for Obama by any means. Rev. Wright to Obama may well be what the Potamic Primary is for Clinton — merely a grave wound that will haunt him through the summer.
I wonder if he will be that lucky.
