Krauthammer missed Obama's point

Charles Krauthammer, perennially one of the most popular syndicated columnists the Enquirer runs on its Opinions page according to informal reader surveys, dismissed Barack Obama’s speech on racism as equivocating sophistry.

If Obama really disagreed with the hateful words of his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, he should have left Wright’s flock and publicly denounced the man as soon as the words were uttered, Krauthammer reasoned in Friday’s paper.

I usually respect the intellectual force Krauthammer brings to is commentary, but in this case it seems clear to me that he went looking for justification of his own bias in Obama’s speech, rather than an explanation of the senator’s position. I believe Obama’s speech was a remarkable description of the racial divides in this country. He was trying to get us to see the other sides of those divides in an attempt to understand our differences. But according to Krauthammer, if you don’t hate “them” you can’t be a friend to “us.” He ignored the fact that Obama condemned Wright’s offensive words as distortions that “denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.” Instead, Krauthammer condemned Obama for continuing to love the good things he knows about Wright – his support of the poor, his assistance to the sick and homeless, his preaching of self-reliance.

Timothy Leonard, a regular contributor to the Enquirer’s Letters to the Editor columns, posed a question to Krauthammer’s column with a submission Friday. This letter will appear in print Saturday:

“Charles Krauthammer says Barack Obama should have left his church when he knew the pastor made hateful and untruthful statements about the United States Government. Does that mean all Catholics must leave their church because their bishops covered up priests' crimes against children, or that all Jews must abandon their religion because Israel bulldozes the homes of Palestinians?

"Jewish and Christian prophets have always said harsh things against their own people. It is part of the religious experience: sometimes good, sometimes bad. Obama demonstrated his understanding of that in a speech that reminded me of Lincoln's Second Inaugural: ‘with malice toward none; with charity for all ...let us strive on to finish the work we are in.’ ”

Well said.