Reply #18: The dangers of religion: among them is the impossibility of having it both ways [View All]

The fact is that he and Hillary Clinton both want to have it both ways on most issues of division. One can play the crowd long and well, but it catches up.

By being a member of a popular congregation, he garnered lots of off the shelf virtue with which he's made much hay over the years. For all the goodies he's gotten from association with this man, there is a price, and the piper's calling. It's now time for the Pied Piper to pay the other piper, and, much as many of the accusations are misplaced, it's a package deal. This particular package is past its expiration date.

Mr. Obama got a lot of street cred by being a member of that church, and he used it for wholesale approval, just as he did with the "40 Days of Faith" tour in South Carolina.

He lost an early election by not being "black enough", and he compensated. The past sins are haunting him now, and any move he makes is bad. This may not be fatal to the campaign, but it's quite a comeuppance, and it's largely due to his casual attitude and using of a shortcut to power.

Religion is dangerous. Ethics aside, religion just shouldn't be a part of the political forum simply for its unruly volatility alone.

He's associated. That's the bottom line here: he was perfectly happy riding in the wake of Wright's popularity on the local stage and he certainly knew much of the substance of Wright's more controversial views; to say that he didn't is to admit gross obliviousness while still making it sound like he didn't inhale. He wanted it both ways and it backfired. Perhaps Wright is having a "first spouse" syndrome, and now that he's not a useful stepping-stone, he's been discarded. There's certainly an element of that, and some of the stain will wear off on Mr. Obama.