I have read the early reaction to Rev. Wright’s speech at the NAACP gala earlier tonight. Most people seem to be saying that this speech was a catastrophe for Obama, that it was the height of foolishness not to muzzle Wright and that he is going to pay dearly. I think that Barack Obama’s campaign and Rev. Wright have pulled the wool over the eyes of the people (the Clinton and McCain campaigns) that were pushing the media to continue to give legs to the Rev. Wright story.

I’m sure you’re asking “Scott, how could you say this could be good for the Obama campaign?” Well, here’s how. While the media has been covering Rev. Wright and his association with Barack Obama over twenty years, their infamous “file footage” of the man has come from the most inflammatory sermons available from their sources. This means that for a number of news cycles that Wright has continued to pop up and, when reported on, the “God damn America” clip as well as other incendiary things he has said in sermons were played while the pundits discussed him. This, obviously, damaged Barack Obama indirectly and continued the bloodletting a little bit at a time after the initial shock. After tonight, however, that is likely to change.

Rev. Wright’s comments tonight were not punctuated with any profanity nor were they put in a way that offended some white people nearly as much as his more publicized comments have inflamed their sensibilities. I’m sure that his comments still rankled some whites, but given the disposition of the average voter in America, when these comments are replayed as the most recent stock footage they are more likely to tune out because they weren’t delivered with language like “God damn America” but, rather, with a professorial bent. He used words like “Eurocentric” which most white voters don’t understand nor care to understand. How many people are offended by things that they don’t even have the interest to investigate to see what they mean? By talking like a professor, Jeremiah Wright has made himself far less interesting in a political sense by turning himself into a black academic rather than a black radical.

The question has also been posed about whether Obama’s campaign knew of this speech, knew of the content, etc. and opined about how this could be further destructive to his candidacy. In my mind, of course Obama’s campaign knew about it. In fact, I suspect that they had a hand in changing Wright’s tone. The simple fact is that the Obama camp has seen that this Rev. Wright issue will be sticking to them like glue all the way through November. Wright’s speech tonight was a method to ensure that Wright’s more radical quotes will cease to be the most recent and that the media will have an orgy about not only this speech that he gave tonight but also the speech Wright will be giving tomorrow in Washington. For the Obama campaign, these new speeches are a way of limiting further damage while also allowing Wright the chance at defending himself against what has been said about him. When it comes down to it, Obama knows that his opponents will continue to wail on him with the Rev. Wright stick trying to beat him into a political disadvantage. With all these new soundbites out there from Wright that are much less radical than the previous ones, the media will be forced to show the newer ones because they are news. Obama has essentially managed to assure that, though this issue will continue to dog him, that they will be beating him with a pipe that is only a foot long and not one that is a yard long. Wright’s sudden media blitz has become a way for Obama to compartmentalize the damage from Wright that had been infecting his entire campaign, limiting it from wide-ranging effects to rather more localized. Expect the Rev. Wright issue to be less effective against Obama now because of diminishing returns and the fact that the mainstream media has been given new material that is far less inflammatory to run insistently over and over again. This is damage control at its best: Obama has reduced the effectiveness of their chief weapon and all but prevented Wright from capsizing his campaign while leaving his enemies thinking they have the upper hand. They can spend earnestly to spread Wright’s seed far and wide, but its potency has been greatly reduced much to Obama’s advantage.

I'm a freelance writer from Hamilton, Ohio whose interests lie in history, military science, investing, and politics among other things.