The Wright Stuff

I am living in a world with two realities. On the one hand, there is the pile of polls that indicate that Barack Obama has a lead of a few points that, barring some game changing event of some significance, the current trend will solidify into an unavoidable outcome on November 4.

On the other hand comes the certainty that Barack Obama is unelectable.

I've not heard others say this, until today, when I was happy to read Dallas talk host Mark Davis write the same thing in an open letter to John McCain.

But it is my faith in something else that leaves me still thinking you can win: My belief that Barack Obama is unelectable.

I have faith that America will not turn in these serious times to a candidate so wholly unfit to lead the free world. Your campaign's flaws are playing out in an arena that will be more forgiving as Nov. 4 approaches.

I know that all of the fundamentals of this election scream out for a Democrat, it doesn't matter who, just a Democrat to win. But I don't see how someone so young, inexperienced and radical can get the nod of the American people.

The Obama ride has been historic and scintillating. His political gifts are vast and his campaign skillfully run. But when it comes time for voters to determine who will take the oath Jan. 20, an appreciable number will realize that showering him with adulation on the campaign trail is one thing; handing him the keys to the Oval Office is quite another.

This opinion is not unique to Barack Obama. I don't think anyone can win the presidency carrying around the burden of Barack's resume and Barack's friends - what I affectionately refer to as the Obamafia.

You will win not because your voters are actively thrilled with your agenda, but because they are sufficiently repelled by his.

Bring back Abe Lincoln for another run at the White House, but have the co-founders of his career be Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger, and I'd put my money on his opponent.

This is every bit as valid a basis for victory, and you will then have a clean slate on which to write a legacy that I hope is more coherent and compelling than your campaign has been.

Then I ask myself - what if they don't know? What if voters just aren't conscious of who Barack is, and who is friends are, and how seedy his past associations are? If the desire for change is so great that they never bother to look? Sure, Reverend Wright had his time in the news cycle, but that was months ago. And the mainstream media is doing it's best to keep the truth about Bill Ayers from being explored.

I have no idea whether you should try to rhetorically wrap unreformed terrorist Bill Ayers around Mr. Obama's neck tonight. Frankly, I don't know if you can do it skillfully enough to defuse criticisms that you are bringing this sudden concern to the campaign too late.

On the one hand, it is impossible for Barack to win the presidency. On the other, it seems that events have conspired to make him unstoppable. I'm living in both worlds at the same time, trying to figure out which one is real.