Awww ..... Obama is upset, angry, and "bitter"

I couldn't resist commenting on the Telegraph piece about Obama's frustration after I spotted the link on Glenn Reynolds' site today. According to his wife, he is angry and frustrated, which she seems to have quite the experience with that emotion as she has unloaded many times on people across the spectrum:

Barack Obama is struggling to contain his anger and frustration over the constant barrage of questions about his character and judgment, his wife has revealed.

Michelle Obama lifted the lid on the irritation felt by the leading Democrat candidate for the White House at the way anti-American outbursts by his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, have dogged his campaign.

He is said to be itching to turn all his fire on John McCain, the Republican candidate, who is benefiting most from Mr Obama's protracted tussle with Hillary Clinton.

Mrs Obama told a rally in Durham, North Carolina, on Friday that only her husband's desire to change US politics had helped him to control his feelings: "Barack is always thinking three steps ahead – what do we need to do to make change." ...

[A general aside here ... If he's "thinking three steps ahead" then how come he couldn't see that Wright and Ayers were going to prompt many pundits to raise questions about his relationship with either man, hmm? Doesn't sound like he's thinking all that clearly at all.}

A poll on Saturday found 58 per cent of voters believe his de-nunciation of the Rev Wright was merely an act of political expediency.

The Rasmussen survey found 56 per cent of voters thought it likely that Obama shares some of his pastor's anti-American views.

A senior Democrat strategist privy to Obama's campaign said: "He's sick of the battle against Clinton. He wants to get stuck into McCain. His people have had to remind him that this thing isn't over yet and he needs to focus and put her away."

In a press conference on Friday, Mr Obama conceded: "We've had a rough couple of weeks, I won't deny that. I don't think what happened with Rev Wright was helpful." ...

Mr Axelrod said Mr Obama had been using games of basketball to let off steam. He said the Wright affair had undoubtedly had some impact on voters, but claimed his candidate was ready for the fight ahead.

"He has enjoyed the chance to shoot a little ball. I think we're in a good groove," he said. And in a dig at Mrs Clinton and her husband Bill, he said: "We knew from the start of this race that we were taking on the most formidable machine in Democratic politics.

"It's in full display right now. She's tenacious and she can multiply her reach because her husband is working just as hard as either of the candidates."

In contrast with the Clintons, Mrs Obama said: "We were taught that you don't rip your opponents to pieces, you don't leave them on the roadside."

Mrs. Obama, this is how the game is played. It's zero-sum, and it's a bare-knuckle brawl. Quit your whining, picked up the shattered pieces of your life, and move on, already.

The Wright affair did do significant damage to him, and caused many of those polled to question his character. After all, if he had seriously had a problem with Wright, why did he wait twenty years before severing ties to him? For the vast majority of people who are paying attention to this issue, his disassociation with him screams political expediency. It doesn't seem genuine. It looks more like he was forced to make this move because of the damage Wright was doing to him, and could do to his campaign.

Getting him off the bandwagon will help Obama in one respect only: He can now turn aside any and all questions regarding his former pastor. "I've addressed this issue; can we move on, please?" is the answer we can expect to hear out of him over Wright. I'm not saying the issue is off the table completely, as we can still address his judgment in staying with the church. Of course, the other question that should be asked and isn't being asked is why did he choose to attend Trinity in the first place? I ask only because of this Newsweek piece on why Oprah left Trinity United, also care of the Instapundit:

For any spiritually minded, up-wardly mobile African-American living in Chicago in the mid-1980s, the Trinity United Church of Christ was—and still is—the place to be. That's what drew Oprah Winfrey, a recent Chicago transplant, to the church in 1984. She was eager to bond with the movers and shakers in her new hometown's black community. But she also admired Trinity United's ambitious outreach work with the poor, and she took pride in upholding her Southern grandmother's legacy of involvement with traditional African-American houses of worship. Winfrey was a member of Trinity United from 1984 to 1986, and she continued to attend off and on into the early to the mid-1990s. But then she stopped. A major reason—but by no means the only reason—was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Was that the primary reason why Obama joined Trinity United? To bond with the movers and shakers of his community? He was, after all, a community organizer. It would make sense for him to run elbows with the influential people in his neighborhood. So, was his choice to join Trinity United as much out of political expediency as his disassociation of Jeremiah Wright? From our perspective, that surely seems to be the case. It would explain a great deal. But what it doesn't explain is why did he wait twenty years? The only answer we can come up with is it was all about politics.

And if that what the answer ultimately is, then I question his faith. Marcie and I don't attend the Catholic Church we do out of any other reason than we like the head priest, and we like the community we worship with weekly. There are no politics when faith is involved. The two, literally, aren't mutually exclusive unless the faith in question is as phony as the politics espoused.

Publius II