Reporters Get a Closer Look at the Wright Stuff

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has been steadily increasing his public profile of late, and it’s not hard to understand why. The pastor has become Public Enemy #1 in some circles, and some of his more notorious sermons from his Trinity United Church of Christ pulpit in Chicago have become such a fixture of the media’s coverage of the campaign, Wright was bound to want to mount some kind of public defense.

So, when Wright stopped by the NAACP and National Press Club this morning, the interest was so high, you’d think Wright was himself a presidential hopeful, instead of the former pastor of a leading candidate.

Did he help his case? It’s hard to say for sure, but he probably didn’t do the Obama campaign any favors.

Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor today defended the fiery sermons that have become a political liability for the Democratic presidential contender, charging that a furor over his remarks represents an “attack on the black church.” […]

Asked whether he believes that “America is still damned in the eyes of God,” Wright was unapologetic about his sermon. He recalled that he told Obama last year, “If you get elected, November the 5th I’m coming after you, because you’ll be representing a government whose policies grind under people.”

Wright continued: “It’s about policy, not the American people. . . . God doesn’t bless everything. God condemns something. . . . God damns some practices. And there is no excuse for the things that the government, not the American people, have done. That doesn’t make me not like America, or unpatriotic.”

Noting Wright’s comments this morning, Joe Klein noted, “Wright’s purpose now seems quite clear: to aggrandize himself — the guy is going to be a go-to mainstream media source for racial extremist spew, the next iteration of Al Sharpton — and destroy Barack Obama.”

Maybe, but that may not be the whole story, either.