[Don Plumley]

Obama's published response:

The pastor of my church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently preached his last sermon and is in the process of retiring, has touched off a firestorm over the last few days. He's drawn attention as the result of some inflammatory and appalling remarks he made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents.

Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.

Because these particular statements by Rev. Wright are so contrary to my own life and beliefs, a number of people have legitimately raised questions about the nature of my relationship with Rev. Wright and my membership in the church. Let me therefore provide some context.

As I have written about in my books, I first joined Trinity United Church of Christ nearly twenty years ago. I knew Rev. Wright as someone who served this nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country, from Union Theological Seminary to the University of Chicago. He also led a diverse congregation that was and still is a pillar of the South Side and the entire city of Chicago. It's a congregation that does not merely preach social justice but acts it out each day, through ministries ranging from housing the homeless to reaching out to those with HIV/AIDS.

Most importantly, Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. In other words, he has never been my political advisor; he's been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn.

The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.

Let me repeat what I've said earlier. All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn. They in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country.

With Rev. Wright's retirement and the ascension of my new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss, III, Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good. And while Rev. Wright's statements have pained and angered me, I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said, but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in; on my values, judgment and experience to be President of the United States.

This says it all: "And while Rev. Wright's statements have pained and angered me, I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said, but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in."

I've had it with this political muckraking. I think James Carville's article on FT.com is a pretty good read:

It is time to halt America's political hara-kiri
By James Carville

In this, the most fascinating and longest-running Democratic primary process of our time, we were presented with a silly moment that unfortunately is all too reflective of modern American culture. Consider the case of one Samantha Power.

Ms Power, a senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama, was forced to resign after she referred to Hillary Clinton (whom I admire and am supporting) as a "monster". She tried to retract her statement but, being unable to declare something off the record ex post facto (do the Scots even have journalism rules?), her words were printed.

What is now a shamefully predictable brouhaha ensued. Ms Power performed the ritual act of American political hara-kiri and resigned. Now, every time one campaign's surrogate says something mildly offensive about their rival, resignation calls are swift. This sort of hyper-sensitivity diminishes everyone who engages in it. Politics is a rough business and yet there seems to be an effort by the commentariat to sanitise US politics to some type of high-level Victorian debating society.

The number one advocate and proponent of this idiocy is the editorial page of The New York Times, which accused Mrs Clinton of racism when she pointed out (correctly, I might add) that President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1965. Have we really reached the point where you cannot call your opponent a monster (even if you think her one) and are no longer allowed to cite facts of US history?

It is not the attacks that are unprecedented; it is the shocked reaction to them. I think back to the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign, in which I played a role. The morning after the New Hampshire primary, Paul Begala, my colleague, belittled the victory of Senator Paul Tsongas by arguing Mr Clinton's comeback was a much bigger story. In doing so, Mr Begala called Mr Tsongas a "son of a *****". Mr Clinton asked him to write an apology note but also requested that it not affect his aggressiveness. The story lasted one day.

Later in the campaign, my then girlfriend and now wife, Mary Matalin, called my client "a philandering, pot-smoking draft dodger". Naturally, someone made a perfunctory call for her to resign, which got nowhere, and we all got a good laugh and moved on.

Near the end of that campaign, George H.W. Bush, the president, boldly asserted of Mr Clinton and Al Gore that "my dog Millie knows more about foreign affairs than these two bozos". Thank God nobody asked Mr Bush to resign. Life as we knew it went along quite nicely because it was all part of that entertaining, rough and tumble endeavour we know as politics.

It has always been that way. In the late 1950s, Earl Long, then governor of my home state of Louisiana, referred to one of his political enemies as "nothing but a little pissant". Or consider the election of 1828, in which surrogates for John Quincy Adams called Andrew Jackson's wife a bigamist and his mother a prostitute. And that was before television.

Maybe somebody should have resigned for that. But that is where we have lost perspective. Some comments are within bounds, while some are not. But by whining about every little barb, candidates are trying to win the election through a war of staff resignation attrition and Americans are losing the ability to distinguish between what is fair game and what is not.

Consider that this year Bill Shaheen was forced to resign as co-chair of Mrs Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire after his comments regarding the Republican party's use of Mr Obama's admission of teenage drug use, noting: "One of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use."

Was that a suggestive statement? Sure. Was it out of bounds? Not egregiously. Are Republicans going to raise this issue should Mr Obama become the Democratic nominee? You bet.

Or this week, we had Geraldine Ferraro, another Clinton volunteer, popping off with some late-night bar room logic. Rather than having to resign, as she has just done, she should have been dispatched to a cruise ship for a few weeks of sightseeing and spa treatments. I hear Antarctica is a popular destination this time of year.

Politics is a messy business, but campaigning prepares you for governing. It prepares you to get hit, stand strong and, if necessary, hit back. So Ms Power, come back to work. New York Times, get out of these candidates' way. Everybody take a deep breath. And if somebody refers to their rival as a little pissant, do not sweat it. Nobody seems to even know what that is.