Same cloth, different pattern

After a reasonable presentation before the Detroit NAACP annual program Sunday night, surprisingly televised by CNN, Rev. Jeremiah Wright turned the page on pragmatism and poise the next morning, when he wrote a new chapter in his national profile through a presentation that included dramatic posturing and cockiness on Monday morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Defending and defining himself in light of the media-crazed defamation he has endured?
Injured and insulted by Sen. Obama's earlier denouncement of 30-second sound bytes from his sermons?
A Hillary supporter in sheep's clothing?
An opportunist?

Whatever his motivations, Rev. Wright (on Monday, 4/28) may have done what Obama has not ably done, even in his second denouncement on Tuesday, and that is draw an obvious distinction between himself and Rev. Wright.

Whether one supports Obama or not, it is hard to swallow that the hopeful, high-minded and uplifting Obama is overly influenced intellectually or philosophically by Rev. Wright. Sen. Obama and Rev. Wright share a Christian heritage, cultural and gender profiles, geographic domicile. Obama may be inspired by Rev. Wright's sermons on Jesus, but give Jesus the praise for that. He may also be strengthened by the African cultural framework in which Rev. Wright expounds on the Judeo-Christian heritage.

However, for the purposes of the American electorate deciding how much of its votes for Obama are also votes for the Chicago minister, Rev. Wright has done the most effective job of demonstrating that, though threads of their lives run within the same cloth, he and Sen. Obama are not cut in the same pattern.