Is the Worm Turning?
By SusanUnPC on April 25, 2008 at 9:16 AM in Barack Obama, David Axelrod, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
My stars. Watch this panel discussion on last evening’s MSNBC Hardball:
Many people were shocked, I tell you — shocked! — that Matthews et al. were so hard on Obama and Wright. But, call me cynical, I’ve seen Matthews pull this stunt too many times before (seemingly holding a fresh, sane view, only to return within days to his real self) to have any faith this means his leg has stopped tingling.
Clearly, indicators are that the Obama campaign has made major efforts to shine up Rev. Wright’s image. Or, as my pal Uppity Woman writes, “Clean-up on Aisle 6!”
Was the intended purpose of the upcoming appearances on a “kinder, gentler” Bill Moyers Journal on PBS tonight — and the rarefied, collegial, clubby atmosphere of the National Press Club on Monday morning — to soften and to reform the reverand’s image?
Who was behind setting up these appearances? And has the effort prematurely back-fired with the brouhaha over those leaked snippets?
Lynn Sweet wrote something interesting for the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday that has DAVID AXELROD’s handiwork all over it:
When the uproar over Wright started, Obama chief strategist David Axelrod asked his friends at Jasculca Terman — a public affairs firm — to advise Trinity on how to handle the crush of media coverage, and they did, pro bono. Jim Terman, the president of the firm, said, “We were not asked to provide our advice about the reported speech of Rev. Wright in Washington” and did not know about it until it was scheduled.
So, Axelrod moves to sanitize Wright.
A major public affairs firm takes it on “pro bono”? (That was so kind of them, wasn’t it – considering the good reverand is building a multi-million dollar home in a gated community, and has access to a ten million dollar line of credit, according to Fox News.)
But Wright goes off the reservation? Forgets who’s set this up for him?
And, hands in the air, the PR people exclaim, “Oh my gosh, we didn’t know” ???
I believe that Axelrod directly intervened to clean up Wright’s image. But I don’t believe all of rest of what Sweet was told. Who knows.
A COUPLE THINGS: PBS released those snippets to attract attention, and ratings, to Bill Moyers Journal tonight. Those clips are meant to “titillate.”
They’ll get a big audience, compared to their usual small numbers.
But are those snippets the best they’ve got? Will we hear Wright say more?
Or is that the worst they got from him? And now that the “worst” is out of the way, will we all tune in tonight and be impressed by the man in the entirety of his interview?
Are we being tantalized by his released remarks, only to find out the wolf is really a sheep, courtesy of Mr. Moyers’ kindly, Southern way of asking questions and seeking a common understanding?
And, on Monday’s Hardball, will Chris Matthews et al. — after viewing tonight’s full interview and hearing Monday morning’s concert with the media — be praising Rev. Wright and his life’s good works?
And will Matthews and panel be declaring Barack Obama now safe from his 20-year association with Wright? (That’s what I cynically predict. But, my prediction isn’t borne so much from my cynicism as my history of viewing these pundits.)
Sometimes the game plan that Axelrod has set in play will work. Let’s see how this plays out.
by Ronald Scott
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