But I also think the speech came up short in one crucial area, and this will come as a surprise to some and be downright insulting to others when the full implications of what I'm about to say are considered.  

Barack Obama did not do enough to hold Rev. Wright responsible for the damage Rev. Wright causes when he says what he says.

Here are the two paragraphs where Obama's disagreement with Wright is expressed in the harshest of terms.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/18 /obama-race-speech-read-t_n_92077.html

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

And then this:

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

And then Obama goes on to outline a set of choices that Americans face as this election continues to play out.  Focus on the Youtube, focus on a few statements spoken by his Pastor, or focus on the issues that confront us all.  The war.  Health Care.  The economy.  Etc.  It is not Wright's words that have been a distraction, but our fascination with them.  Wright is to blame for speaking them, yes, Obama admits that, but we are also to blame for focussing on them and thinking about them before we choose a candidate.

Which is fine.  That is one set of choices, and I would like to think, in the end, this election will be determined by people focussing on the right things.  Not the Wright things.

But I also know some of that is naive.  

Obama supporters implore people to consider the Clinton history (Lewinsky) before making their decisions.  Anything to to take the focus off the good things that happened during the 90s.  And now Clinton supporters will implore people to consider Obama's history (Wright, his church) before making their decisions.

You simply can NOT have one without the other, no matter how badly Obama supporters wish it could be so.  No matter how much Michelle Obama wishes it were so.

So that's that, as far as that's concerned.

But there is another set of choices.  And that set of choices concerns the Black Community and their relationship with  Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  I do not believe this set of choice is addressed sufficiently in Obama's speech.

But it is addressed, in a way, by Bill Clinton 13 years ago, in 1995, in a speech he gave to commemmorate the Million Man March.

http://www.afn.org/~dks/race/clinton-e6. html

Of course, some of those in the march do have a history that is far from its message of atonement and reconciliation. One million men are right to be standing up for personal responsibility. But one million men do not make right one man's message of malice and division. (Applause.) No good house was ever built on a bad foundation. Nothing good ever came of hate. So let us pray today that all who march and all who speak will stand for atonement, for reconciliation, for responsibility.

Let us pray that those who have spoken for hatred and division in the past will turn away from that past and give voice to the true message of those ordinary Americans who march. If that happens -- (applause) -- if that happens, the men and the women who are there with them will be marching into better lives for themselves and their families. And they could be marching into a better future for America. (Applause.)

Today we face a choice -- one way leads to further separation and bitterness and more lost futures. The other way, the path of courage and wisdom, leads to unity, to reconciliation, to a rich opportunity for all Americans to make the most of the lives God gave them. This moment in which the racial divide is so clearly out in the open need not be a setback for us. It presents us with a great opportunity, and we dare not let it pass us by. (Applause.)

At the time, this was most likely in reference to Louis Farrakhan, the man who helped organize the Million Man March.

This could clearly be applied to Rev. Wright.

Obama seems to fully understand how Rev. Wright fits into the American Psyche, for better or worse, and how it damages his chances to become president.

But I do wonder if Obama himself would ever stand up and implore the Trinity Congregation to pray for Rev. Wright so that Rev. Wright might change one day.

I can't imagine that.  I can't imagine that because I believe Obama, underneath everything else, while he believes Rev. Wright's words do not have a place in the electoral process, they do have a place in the reconciliation process.