Obama's speech yesterday

The mainstream media is falling all over themselves to praise Barack Obama's speech yesterday on race in America (or so the media says it was about). And that's sort of true, in that Obama talked mostly about that.

However, everyone seems to be trying to forget that his recent problems stem from the racist and anti-American pastor at his church, Jeremiah Wright. Saying that he made a few goofy statements that he doesn't agree with, then seguing into blaming white people for making blacks think like that, doesn't cut it. Obama knowingly joined that church and has been a member for over 20 years. Obama calls Wright his "spiritual mentor". Wright married the Obamas and baptized their children. There's no doubt that Obama knew about Wright's insane views and did nothing about it.

In the speech he could have denounced Wright, but he clearly did not, regardless of the sugar-coating being done by the mainstream media. Michelle Malkin has lots of actual speech excerpts you can read on your own and decide. In addition, Investors Business Daily has a good editorial on the speech:

But Obama's recent troubles, which this much-hyped speech was supposed to put past him, are not about race relations. They're about one churchman who happens to be black, whose views from the pulpit are repugnant and from whom Obama doesn't seem to have the guts to distance himself.

Reacting to being linked with a bigoted conspiracy theorist by lecturing the nation on race is like disgraced ex-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer responding to his getting caught patronizing an international prostitution ring by giving a speech on the female physique.

The supposed divide between black and white is not the issue here; Obama's longtime association with Jeremiah Wright is.

This is a man who believes the U.S. government formulated the HIV virus to commit genocide against blacks and that it is also responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

Yes, Obama claimed in his speech to have "condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy." But he quickly proceeded to equivocate regarding them.

Do you think I am making too much of this? Here's a thought exercise: what if a white Republican attended for 20 years a church where the preacher, during service, regularly said that black people caused all kinds of problems in the world. Don't you think the media would do everything in their power to destroy him? Does Obama get a break because not only he's a Democrat, not only because he's black, but maybe also because the media is so condescending of blacks that they think it's OK for them have these insane ideas (rather than rational ones)?

I'm not bringing up a hypothetical. Let Peter Wehner take you back to the 2000 presidential race:

We actually have an example of how the MSM plays the “guilt by association” card when it comes to certain political and religious figures. In the 2000 campaign George W. Bush spoke once at Bob Jones University; it was an event used to bludgeon Bush with for the rest of the campaign and into his presidency. And, of course, Bush did not attend Bob Jones University, financially support it, or consider Bob Jones to be his spiritual mentor or close friend for 25 years. Yet these things mattered not at all. Bush spoke at Bob Jones University — and so to many in the press, he was joined at the hip with it. The association between Reverend Wright and Senator Obama is far deeper in every respect.

If Obama were truly the post-racial presidential candidate, shouldn't we hold him to the same standards as any other candidate?

UPDATE: I had written earlier about Obama that while I agreed with him on very little, he'd be preferable to Hillary because at least he's a good person. After the last week or so, I no longer think that. I'm not the only one.