Obaman issued a more or less full refutation of Rev. Wright's comments in written form on Friday. But, and somewhat crucially, he stated that he and his wife would remain with the church of which Wright was formerly pastor. Frankly, I don't find Wright any more or less scary than are Pat Robertson or John Hagee. He's just the other side of the same coin. However, Obama (as a church member) is a helluva lot closer to Wright than is McCain to any of the right wing theo-crazies. At a minimum, his ongoing relationship shows poor judgement for one holding significant politcal ambitions on a national level.

But . . . as with McCain's flirtations with the right in the primary, most of the rest of Obama's history, votes, and rhetoric indicates that he was more likely in this church for the not-insignificant charitable work it has done on the south side of Chicago.

I expect this issue to get a lot of play in a national election with Obama being forced to take moderate positions that would then limit his ability to be a Rev. Wright-style leader while President, if that should come to pass.

I would agree with Pat that McCain has at least a fighting chance in the national election because despite his own primary rhetoric, people know that he's been more of a political realist than an idealogue. Hence, he's a Republican who is everything Bush is not. Also, don't underestimate the power of having a Republican with veto power at a time when Congress is on record as wanting to raise taxes. We all know that it would be prudent to get back to a budget surplus, but there has to be a middle ground between full repeal of the Bush tax cuts and 100% extension of the Bush tax cuts. I would expect some sort of agreement in that vein during a McCain presidency.