When I entered the auditorium at the National Constitution Center, I was thinking like Howard Baker in the Watergate era: What did Obama hear and when did he hear it? I thought he answered that inquiry during the course of his 37-minute address. And he was able to do so by distancing himself from Rev. Wright's most "hatriolic" comments without throwing the man under the presidential campaign bus:
"I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed."
I thought the most significant part of his speech was when he explained how Rev. Wright was wrong.
"The profound mistake of Rev. Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black, Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old - is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past."
So when it came my turn to question Sen. Obama, for an interview that aired yesterday morning on my radio program on The Big Talker 1210, I wanted to know whether he'd ever told Rev. Wright that same thing behind closed doors?
