Yep, that’ll work

So, the new tactic among Obama supporters is outright support for Wright, rather than helping their candidate disassociate with him. The “flip your opponents the bird” approach, more or less:

Josh Marshall, linked approvingly by Sullivan:

But in the debate about Wright, which Sen. Clinton has just reignited, it seems to be spoken of now as an unquestioned assumption that Wright traffics in racist rhetoric or hate speech. But is that really true? I’ve seen some stuff that strikes me as whacky. I’ve heard soundbites that critics would not have much trouble spinning as anti-American. But are there really quotes that justify the charge of racism? I’m not saying that purely as a rhetorical question. I have not made myself a full Wrightologist. But I do get the sense that a lot of people believe he’s so radioactive that it makes no sense to point out when others are treating as granted claims that appear demonstrably false,

Well, although “Hillary ain’t never been called a ‘nigger!’” might be in fact a true statement, it’s a little hard to argue in good faith that what Wright was really saying here is that Obama, by virtue of having been called a ‘nigger’ (one assumes — I have no evidence of such an incident) is more worthy of his congregation’s vote. That’s racist.

Democratic Underground:

Let’s help to restore the honorable Reverend Wright’s name. Pass this picture and letter around to a friend or post it on you blog. The MSM has destroyed him, so let’s lift him back up.

Ah. Wright was in the Navy, and on duty when LBJ came to Bethesda. Why, clearly that absolves him of any offense I might have taken at his sermons!

Wait. I thought Wright was a Marine? (Yes, before the comments go ballistic, I understand that Navy corpsmen are assigned to Marine Corps units. That doesn’t make them Marines, though, and now I’ve got to wonder whether Wright told Obama he was a Marine, or Obama made him a Marine in his Huffpo piece). Correction: Wright served three years in the Marine Corps, then three in the Navy. He’s a Marine.

Hm. Yeah, that’s not going to work, Josh. I heard Wright say what I heard him say, and you’re not going to convince me that I didn’t — that, in effect, someone is “spinning” his sermon “as anti-American”, or that there’s an “assumption that Wright traffics in racist rhetoric or hate speech”. It’s not an assumption, it’s a fact.

Similarly, DU, Wright’s presence on duty when LBJ was brought to Bethesda doesn’t absolve him of what he said in those sermons, any more than Lee Harvey Oswald should be absolved of JFK’s assassination simply by virtue of his having served in the actual Marine Corps.

Telling me to perform anatomically impossible acts upon myself while asserting that my lying ears are betraying me once again isn’t going to be a successful tactic at all. I doubt it will work on other voters who are doubting Obama over his association with Wright either. Do continue, though, to twist yourselves into pretzels to excuse Obama for anything at all that might hurt his campaign with voters who aren’t under his spell — Complacency will serve you well.

Update: “Garlic noses“? Nah, Josh, Wright doesn’t engage in hate speech:

Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago where Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been a member for two decades, slurred Italians in a piece published in the most recent issue of Trumpet Newsmagazine.

“(Jesus’) enemies had their opinion about Him,” Wright wrote in a eulogy of the late scholar Asa Hilliard in the November/December 2007 issue. “The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans.”

Wright continued, “From the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth (in a barn in a township that was under the Apartheid Roman government that said his daddy had to be in), up to and including the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ death on a cross, a Roman cross, public lynching Italian style. …

“He refused to be defined by others and Dr. Asa Hilliard also refused to be defined by others. The government runs everything from the White House to the schoolhouse, from the Capitol to the Klan, white supremacy is clearly in charge, but Asa, like Jesus, refused to be defined by an oppressive government because Asa got his identity from an Omnipotent God.”

Update II: Rick Moran has some related thoughts:

Note two things: First, Clinton has obviously written off the Black vote and feels free to pile on with regard to Wright. Second, also note how the left feels perfectly at ease defending Wright now that the controversy has faded into the background. The revulsion to his racist, anti-American comments is now consigned to being nothing more than “white backlash” – code words for white racism. In other words, criticizing racist talk from a Black preacher is in and of itself racist.

Update III: Glenn points to more efforts by Gleen to dig his way out of the hole Wright hath wrought.