Obama nation: Better late than never?

Barack Obama’s winning praise from a number of media outlets and liberal blogs for his denunciation Tuesday of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but it may be too late to save his campaign.

In case you missed it, Wright embarked on what was supposed to be his rehabilitation tour this past weekend, with several media appearances in a few days. But what started out with a soft-peddled interview on PBS rapidly began to devolve a little more at each stop, until Wright’s rehabilitation tour turned into a full-fledged crazy tour. By the end, Wright’s derangement was obvious even to many of Obama’s willfully blind supporters.

On Tuesday, Obama finally admitted what most of the world has known for months, that Wright’s hateful, anti-American, prejudicial views are way outside of the mainstream. “His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church,” Obama said at one point.

Since before the start of his campaign, Obama had sensed that Wright could be trouble, yet he clung to the man who was his pastor for 20 years, who married him and his wife, who baptized his children and who inspired an entire book. That long relationship had raised serious questions about the judgment of a man who wants to be president, but supporters tried their best to downplay the importance of the issue.

But Obama was finally forced to implicitly admit his critics have been right: “Obviously, whatever relationship I had with Reverend Wright has changed. I don’t think he showed much concern for me; more importantly, I don’t think he showed much concern for what we’re trying to do in this campaign.”

Except for willing followers who might be persuaded by Obama’s 11th-hour realization, those who have left the Obama camp don’t seem likely to come back. The real issue has been too clearly defined now: Obama’s lingering refusal to part with Wright indicates the candidate is either too spineless to stand up to a hatemonger, or he agrees with the pastor. At this late date, how can Tuesday’s remarks be seen as anything but a desperate political maneuver?

And there may be worse up ahead. Rev. Wright wasn’t the only live grenade in the Obama bunker. Still waiting to explode is the senator’s relationship with Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers and indicted real estate developer Tony Rezko. Plus who knows what other time bombs may be found in Obama’s past?