Victor Davis Hanson: "Obama is on his way to a McGovern candidacy"

Yes, that what's author and columnist Victor Davis Hanson says, "Barack Obama is on his way to a McGovern candidacy."

Watching the parade of apologists for Rev. Wright’s hatred—"garlic noses"; "KKK of A"; "God Damn America"; "Condamnesia"; the U.S. deserved 9/11; America is no different from al-Qaeda; we caused the AIDs virus; Israel is a "dirty word" and sought an Arab and black ethnic bomb, etc—is, well, depressing. Instead of offering distance from Wright, far too many African-American professors and pastors interviewed on the cable stations the last few nights instead praised his brilliance and inspiration.

At best, there was a feeble 'you just don’t get it' about the venting and wink-and-nod culture of the black church. But the net message from the African-American liberal establishment, at least I fear, seems to be something like the following: 'Wright is not going to offer an apology and we aren't embarrassed about his ranting, which is not ranting at all, but rather historical and biblical exegesis which we endorse. And the problem is yours, not ours, since we expect exemption—given the history of race in this country—from your so-called norms of public discourse.'

This is what the triangulation of Obama has helped to unleash: most Americans will now doubt the moral authority of the African-American intellectual and religious community not just to question the questionable racial remarks of a Bill Clinton, Ed Rendell, or Geraldine Ferraro, but also the Wright-like crudity of a Don Imus or a Michael Richards. Context is now king.

This disastrous regression in race relations is the natural dividend of liberal identity politics, most recently brought to the fore by the wife of the first "black President," the first "transracial" black Presidential candidate, and the "prophet" and "healer" Reverend Wright.

Hey...Maybe McCain can win Illinois.

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Election Democrats McCain John McCain Republican GOP Illinois history Jeremiah Wright