Feedback From the Obama/Wright & Divorce - Opinions From the Web

April 30, 2008

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Today will be membered as one of the major landmarks in Obama’s candidacy. Regardless whether or not he end up winning the general election, the Wright issue Obama was forced to finally confront this afternoon, will be taught to our children’s, children in history class many years from now. That said, I think it is important to point out that Barack Obama just may have saved his candidacy in giving that speech the way he did this afternoon, at least when comparing what road it was on this time last night. Here are a few of the political media’s biggest players and Networks in general, and their handling of Sen. Barack Obama’s “divorce” from longtime Pastor, Jeremiah Wright:

Andrew Sullivan- “today, we found that he can fight back, and take a stand, without calculation and in what is clearly a great amount of personal difficulty and political pain. It’s what anyone should want in a president. It makes me want to see him succeed more than ever. It’s why this country needs to see him succeed more than ever.”

Marc Ambinder- “OBAMA HAS used the power of his rhetoric to end controversies before, and the campaign hopes now that Obama’s angry sound bites will now replace some of Wright’s more radical utterances on the cable news. The campaign won’t say whether, in their North Carolina tracking polls, they discovered any fall-off among white voters. The bet they’re making is that by extending the active phase of a story for at least one more day, they can prevent its long tail from influencing too many votes next Tuesday.”

ABC News- Led with Obama’s point-by-point” denunciation of Rev. Wright’s comments. Stephanopoulos said Wright had been a mortal threat” to Obama, and his comments worried super delegates and really teed off” the Senator. Noted that Clinton, meanwhile, is continuing strongly in Indiana and North Carolina.

CBS News- Called Obama’s press conference major damage control” after Wright’s remarks Monday struck a nerve” with the Senator. Jeff Greenfield said Obama’s firm distancing was necessary, given the harm Wright was causing. Package on Bush’s press conference noted that Obama disagrees with McCain and Clinton on the gas tax suspension. Report quoted a senior administration official” predicting that Congress will do little to advance the idea.

NBC News- Led with economic woes, Bush’s presser. Showed NBC/WSJ poll numbers on presidential approval rate, economy. Noted Clinton, McCain, Obama quarrel over gas tax. Then moved to Obama making it clear Rev. Wright was out the door.” Showed several sound bites, contrasted it with when he casually dismissed” the remarks Monday. Russert weighed in, said issues raise big question mark” about his relationship with Wright. Said he’s trying to prove himself to undecided voters in Indiana, North Carolina and undecided supers.

Jonathon Singer- Currently, there are a lot of folks saying that they think Obama needs to change his message, or that he needs to develop a new stump speech, or that he needs to tinker with his campaign in some other fashion. The thought behind this is that although he is still on the inside track to securing the Democratic nomination — it is still difficult to conceive of a way of Hillary Clinton to put together the necessary number of delegates from those remaining to be taken — the fact that Obama has not been able to put Clinton away to this point suggests that he needs to create a new narrative, to change the storyline.

Michael Silence (Advice For Obama Supporters)- “Quit splitting hairs. You’re only making the story drag on. Most of us will not be basing our votes on who the candidate’s preacher is/was. We will, however, be basing our votes on a candidate’s forthrightness and candor. And the latter has taken a beating lately.”

There you have it, I would have to say from everything I have parsed through since the speech earlier today I would have to say the coverage, and overall feelings are good — or at least better then they were, a lot better actually.

Now Barack has to roll those sleeves up, and hit the ground in North Carolina and Indiana because he has a set of primaries to win in exactly one week to the day. This is going to happen my friends, stay the course, keep the faith, and never get discouraged to the point you find yourself saying; “whatever, I don’t even care.”