Last week, I figured Last week, I figured Sam was being too optimistic when he wrote that Barack Obama's HuffPo statement repudiating Jeremiah Wright would draw the His-Pastor-Hates-America controversy to a close. Indeed, over dinner last night with a Democratic Hill communications staffer, my friend mentioned that there's great fear that this is one anti-Obama attack that will really, really stick. It confirms, after all, voters' worst stereotypes about Obama, as parroted by the lies that are shuttling around the Interwebs: that he's unpatriotic and, in some way or other, weird and un-American in his religious practices. Indeed, in this morning's New York Times we get a primer on exactly how the sticky glue will be applied: Not by John McCain or his campaign, but by conservative movement spokespeople like Bill Kristol who, as Marc Aminder reports, relied upon a discredited story from the conservative site Newsmax to claim that Obama was in the pews when Wright delivered a fiery speech against American oppression of people of color. In fact, Obama was en route that day to a campaign event in Miami. And here, of course is the shame of Kristol's place on the op-ed page of the newspaper of record. Those who persist in tarring Obama with racially-tinged attacks can now point to the Kristol piece and shout that "even the liberal New York Times" confirmed Obama's at least passive support for Wright's rhetoric. Here's hoping the Times gives the Obama campaign space to respond in print. --Dana Goldstein
