Here's the big problem with Jimmy Carter's having conferred with that
terrorist chieftain in Damascus: Just where will the Democrats fit in him at
their national convention?
To have him speak would be to risk associating the party with him in the
public mind - and wherever Jimmy Carter goes, as with Al Capp's legendary
comic-strip jinx, Joe Btfsplk, malaise is sure to follow.
But you can't very well leave a former president out of his party's national
convention as if he were Richard Nixon after Watergate.
Yes, it's a problem.
Maybe the Democrats could schedule him for 4 a.m. one day, and make sure no
television cameras were present at the time.
Or forget a personal appearance entirely and go video: Just play highlights
from the famously successful Carter administration, which shouldn't take
very long.
Someone could suggest that late August, which is when the Democrats are to
assemble in Denver, would be the perfect time for Mr. Carter to be out of
the country. Maybe he could visit his Carter Center's major benefactors in
Saudi Arabia. He's said to be very popular there.
Other problems await the Democrats at Denver. With the roaring, whistling,
smoking Clinton and Obama specials right on schedule for their high-speed
train wreck at the convention - Denver and Bust! - you'd think the party
would have enough to worry about. Now it's got to figure out what to do with
an ex-president the whole country might love to forget.
The big problem for Barack Obama, the suddenly all too evitable Inevitable
Nominee, has become how to get another public figure out of television
range. Namely, his former pastor, mentor, spiritual adviser and current
Jimmy Carter-sized headache, the contentious Rev. Jeremiah Wright of
God-damn-America fame. Or rather notoriety.
Maybe the junior senator from Illinois, formerly the post-racial candidate,
could deliver another speech explaining away his connections with this
political albatross who's been tied around his neck.
But how many times can Barack Obama give that speech, fine as it was,
without becoming a bore - and just calling more attention to his problem du
jour?
Sen. Obama could just ignore the feisty preacher, but his old friend isn't
easy to ignore. Jeremiah Wright is well on his way to becoming the next Al
Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. He was all over television last weekend, and
surely a book deal is in the works by now. Ignore him? It'd be like trying
to ignore a steam whistle that goes off every hour on the hour.
As for that other formerly Inevitable Nominee, Hillary Clinton's immediate
challenge is quite the opposite: How keep the Rev. Mr. Wright (BEGIN
ITALICS)in (END ITALICS)the public eye, especially in Indiana? An epicenter
of the old KKK back in the '20s, Indiana now has become the latest crux of
this never-ending fight for the Democratic nomination.
It feels as if this title bout has already gone 15 rounds, but both
contenders keep coming out at the bell.
Continued... |