Obama is being Clintonian:

What I think he’s saying here is that he didn’t hear these particular statements because he didn’t happen to be in attendance. He’s not saying that he never heard Wright say these kind of things, although he wants to leave that impression.

Well, it’s not like that’s the only thing they have in common.

[Update at 6:40 PM EDT]

Here’s a lot more from “Allahpundit”:

Now that we’re into “what did the Messiah know and when did he know it” territory, watch for the left to move the goalposts by wondering what it is, precisely, that’s so terrible about what the old man said. So he thinks America’s responsible for HIV. A lot of people think a lot of things, y’know? Can’t “an old black man have his anger in the privacy of his church”?

Looks like Obama’s in full damage-control mode.

[Late evening update]

Another Clinton parallel:

I sat in his church, but I didn’t inhale.

Heh.

[Saturday morning update]

A few weeks ago, I said that when it came to Obama’s speeches, there’s no “there there.” Now Instapunk says that’s true of Obama himself:

Regardless of how the campaign war turns out, both sides have been crippled. Obama cannot win because there is no one inside the gauzy, unreal image to battle through the contradictions to a mandate based on character rather than a mosaic of sliver identities. His white vote will shrivel as ordinary Americans discover they can’t determine where his allegiance lies, unless it’s to himself only. Women will sit on their hands because they’ve seen enough of the slick young operator who waltzes in at the last moment and swipes the opportunity from the deserving veteran female (and being half-white doesn’t help him in this respect). But Hillary can’t win, either, because of the one-drop rule. Even though Obama is not and never was an African-American, he has always been black enough to benefit from the superannuated slave culture that forgives every corruption and hypocrisy in those who have any claim on being black. If Hillary is the nominee, African-Americans will stay home in significant numbers. Unlike Jeremiah Wright, John McCain is the irascible uncle we’d go to for help in a pinch, not hide from because of the revolver he keeps in a cigar box.

At the end of the day, Reverend Wright is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the poison in the well. Like Moses, he can never accompany his chosen ones to the promised land When his people finally learn to stop following his like, they will find what they seek, as if by magic. But for now, the horse he groomed for them is scratched at the gate.

The Democrats have set themselves up for a well-deserved electoral catastrophe this fall. And it didn’t just happen this year. It’s been building for almost half a century.