Jeremiah Wright

I'm just going to be honest and say I didn't expect this:

Asked if he had spoken to the president, Wright said: "Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office..."

Feel free to pillory me, but I just didn't see that sort of crude conspiratorial antisemitism coming. I guess it's of a piece with his press club performance, last year. I'm amazed that he's still talking to reporters.

Not to excuse anything, but I wonder if the blitz, from last year, hardened him. I say that because the worse stuff I've heard from Wright, actually aren't in his initial sermons. With the exception of the government creating AIDS bit, I never found his sermons to be particularly egregious.

But in between this and the press club, it's like he's doubling down on the caricature--like he's becoming exactly what they said he was. Maybe "they" were right. I also wonder whether you're just seeing ego--a guy who had the megaphone for much of his life, eclipsed, and doing whatever he can to get it back.