Managed to miss Jeremiah Wright’s press conference yesterday, but have been reading about it ever since. Pretty bad - before, you could say, well, things were said in the heat of a sermon, but look at the totality of Wright’s effect on his parishioners, his neighborhood, consider the fact that if you were black, etc. etc.

But yesterday, it really does seem as it was intended as a big, extended middle finger to mainstream America - maybe even Obama himself. But Wright insisted Obama doesn’t really disagree with his incindiary views, just has to say so for the benefit of the cameras, and those horrified white people sitting at home in places like Des Moines, or Lancaster.

And I agree then with Sullivan:

Obama needs not just to distance himself from Wright’s views; he needs to disown him at this point. Wright himself, it seems to me, has become part of what Obama is fighting against: the boomer, Vietnam era’s obsession with its red-blue, white-black, pro and anti-America fixations. That is not what this election needs to be about; and Wright’s massive, racially divisive and, yes, bitter provocation requires a proportionate response.

We need a speech or statement from Obama in which he utterly repudiates this poison, however personally difficult that may be, however damaging the impact will be.

But I think the damage is done, even if Obama does do this. I mean, Hillary or McCain couldn’t have dialed this up any better. And at this stage, it is legitimate, absolutely.

At this point I think I’m in the process of taking a step back from Obama. The bloom being off the rose; but then, for me anyway, this was never about Obama the candidate or Obama the individual, rather than what Obama represented, or I thought he might represent - change. A Democratic Party that had evolved beyond merely wishing for the past, thinking the old New Deal coalition could be resurrected and made to walk. Something other than nostalgia - because I do think that’s been Hillary’s primary appeal. The ’90s weren’t half bad, compared to now. Let’s go back.

The Pennsylvania results had a lot to do with the evolution in my own thinking, actually. I mean, it’s pretty clear that in old industrial states like this one, at least, a lot of people aren’t ready for change; a lot of people aren’t ready to move forward. What I’ve seen as the new coalition on the left side of the fence, which is really more toward the center, consists of the old working-class contituency, in that free trade has not really delivered on its promises, and has harmed both individuals and, in some respects, the country; but it also consists of the people in the suburbs who until so recently have trended Republican. I think that’s changing and changing fast, and while the economy is definitely a factor in that, I think our 100-year war in the Mideast is still the biggest factor. Frankly, I think you’ve got moms and dads with small kids who at one time might have voted Republican because they think Republicans are going to keep them safe, but now understand that even if their kids are just toddlers they, too, may wind up being affected by this Republican crusade in the Mideast, avowed to last for generations. They don’t want that for their kids; they will vote accordingly.

Anyway, Obama represents this, or I thought he might. And maybe he still does. But maybe the likes of Wright simply weigh him down too much. If that’s the case, I don’t think the loose movement of those who think change necessary dissipates; and I’m not sure whom they vote for, though it would probably be Hillary. It’s a victory for the old, but maybe the new just isn’t ready for prime time. And if it’s not, no sense in pretending it is.