Stephen K.'s point of view is typical of many hypersensitive, politically tone-deaf liberals who believe in supporting anyone on their side of the aisle regardless of how paranoid and unhinged they may be. Then when they lose election after election, they blame the "corrupt, malfeasant media." Incidentally, all the supposedly corrupt media had to do was replay Wright's own words and his defense of those words - how is that a mischaracterization?

For almost 40 years, conservatives did the same thing - that is, they blamed the "liberal media" for their losses. They, too, stayed out of power for those 40 years. It was not until Clinton flubbed his first two years as President and Newt developed 10 items that had overwhelming public support as part of his "Contract with America" that conservatives regained power. The way to win is to quit whining about the media and take real issues to the people.

Obama is not responsible for paranoid conspiracy theories his minister believes and, unfortunately for his own credibility, repeats. Obama has finally done the right thing by cutting the "crazy uncle" loose. Equating Hiroshima with terrorism (Truman made the right decision and it saved lives), blaming the federal government for committing genocide with AIDS, praising a bigot like Farrakhan - how can any rational person defend this nut? If Obama stuck with him, it'd be Mondale all over again - he'd be lucky to carry his home state. Conason is simply pointing out the intuitively obvious - at least to everyone except a few posters.