My sense of it is that the Wright flap gave Obama a chance to demonstrate that he can handle a crisis and do it decisively without being nasty. He can deal with a situation that had to have been painful to him and he can move on. He doesn't put loyalty to someone over the interests of the country the way Bush does, he doesn't cling to a deranged minister, even one he has viewed as someone meaningful to him, the way McCain clings to "Catholics are whores and Jesus will slaughter the Jews" Hagee.

Obama has done the right thing about Wright and we need to move on. We have got to dump Bush in Lake Pontchartrain as a symbolic answer to Bush's destruction of New Orleans. We have to repudiate a war we entered to convince Barbara that Sonny has a bigger organ than Daddy. We have to get Bush away from the Constitution, a garment he is determined to use as toilet paper. I think Obama can do it. I don't think Hillary, who has done more damage to her party than Michael Dukakis, can do it.

I think this has been good for Obama. He has been challenged. He is no longer Jesus Christ, Superstar. He has had to take a very painful personal step and declare himself. He has had to stand up to someone he valued and who meant a lot to him. He has had to separate himself from poisonous rhetoric. He has done it. He has shown that he is not a mere handsome and respectable spokesman for the America we all want and that he can take a punch and return it.

He has also been the victim of one of Hillary's people who arranged the speaking engagement where Wright made some of his more objectionable remarks. He has had to stand up to McCain and Super-virago. He has, I think, proven that he has the mettle to be President.

Wright came across as refreshingly sane. I didn't agree with some of what he said -- especially praising Farrakhan -- but he isn't the rabid dog that the right makes him out to be. He is articulating the outrage of his constituency.

Hagee, OTOH, is indeed a rabid dog and McCain had better turn him and Parseley loose fast. The idea that a Chrsitian Zionist is a close ally of a potential POTUS is scary. Hagee wants to destroy the Palestianians, make Israel the location of the ingathering of the Jewish people and then to have them all slaughtered Hitler style by the resurrected Jesus. Do we need someone like that near the Oval Office. The fact that he and his fellow travelers have already encouraged the most anti-Arab parts of the Israeli right is bad enough -- the Israelis will purge him out of their system when a Democrat takes office and makes it clear that it won't work -- is bad enough. Lieberman is licking his ankles and hugging McCain. Shudder.

You have to pin McCain to Hagee and Lieberman to Hagee so that the country doesn't concentrate on Jeremiah Wright.

Already suggested, of course, is to run Hagee and McCain together and play Hagee's statements about Catholics in heavily industrial states. Play Hagee's connection to the Christian Zionist desire to see Jesus slaughter the Jews when he returns. Play Hagee morning to night until Hagee scares the living s**t out of any potential McCain voter. Ask, "Do you want this man to send your children to war?" when showing Hagee's rants.

Deny access loudly and clearly and reject all who are behind Brown publicly.

Tell Hillary to stop sending him money under the table.

Karen

Hagee speaks and McCain is his dummy. Hagee wants to be a player in the Middle East so he can pave the way to Jesus's return. He wants to wipe out the Arabs and hope that the Jews will return to Israel. At that point, the risen Jesus can slaughter all the Jews who have not apostasized their faith and converted to evangelical right wing Protestant Christianity.

McCain is sucking up to the Christian right. This is not the Israel lobby speaking. Indeed, many of us, American Jews, are on the side of a two-state solution living side by side in peace. Those of us who don't want to move to Israel so that Jesus can cut our throats prefer to establish good lives in American and wherever else we have settled.

When McCain decides to grow balls and kick Hagee out of bed, maybe he will be qualified to speak about the Middle East. Right now, he ought to just shut the heck up.

I would not believe a Bush statement on the weather unless I actually saw the tornado.