The return of Rev. Wright

Rev. Jeremiah Wright's appearance today at the National Press Club has sparked more commentary than one person could ever read, but I was especially struck by the reaction of Andrew Sullivan, a noted Obama supporter who was willing to overlook the sound bites plucked from years of Wright's sermons:

But what he said today extemporaneously, the way in which he said it, the unrepentant manner in which he reiterated some of his most absurd and offensive views, his attempt to equate everything he believes with the black church as a whole, and his open public embrace of Farrakhan and hostility to . . . Zionism, make any further defense of him impossible. This was a calculated, ugly, repulsive, vile display of arrogance, egotism, and self-regard.

And while I often disagree with Bob Herbert's column in the New York Times, in this case he seems to be right on the mark:

For Senator Obama, the re-emergence of Rev. Wright has been devastating. The senator has been trying desperately to bolster his standing with skeptical and even hostile white working-class voters. When the story line of the campaign shifts almost entirely to the race-in-your-face antics of someone like Mr. Wright, Mr. Obama’s chances can only suffer. . . .

Mr. Obama seems more and more like someone buffeted by events, rather than in charge of them. Very little has changed in the superdelegate count, but a number of those delegates have expressed concern in private over Mr. Obama’s inability to do better among white working-class voters and Catholics.