Is Jeremiah Wright planning an October Obama surprise?

It had all the elements of a perfect political mystery during the heat of a surprisingly close presidential election campaign -- there at the end of a recent New York magazine story headlined "The Color-Coded Campaign," was an unattributed paragraph reporting that:

The highly controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, he of the anti-American and black nationalist rantings within and without the pulpit of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ where Democratic nominee Barack Obama attended for 20 years apparently oblivious to such statements, was planning an October book publication.

And a national book promotion tour.

What would Obama's onetime spiritual mentor and family minister be saying just days before the Nov. 4 presidential election involving the parishioner who was forced to denounce him last spring shortly after saying in a major speech on race that he could never denounce him?

Was the book this election cycle's October surprise?

What a story! And it was quickly picked up in recent days by several blogs, no doubt drooling at the thought of some more religious controversy mixed with politics.

According to Wright's daughter, Jeri, however, she reached her father in Ghana, which is about as far from Chicago's South Side and U.S. TV cameras as anyone can get. There, she said, he has poor e-mail access but denied nonetheless the existence of such a book.

Jeri Wright told Essence.com, "I asked him if he was writing and he said, 'Nope. I'm not publishing anything. I'm not going on any book tours.'" New York magazine even published an online correction.

She said she and her father are doing a book on the history of his former Trinity church, from where he just retired. Which should be really exciting.

Good thing we all found out now, 'cause once both candidates pick their VP's here in the next 10 days or so, we'll still have two whole months to speculate about some other October surprise.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Photo credit: Trinity United Church of Christ

Comments

[AncientAssyrian]

Have you seen what idiots they are at Salon.com? Their ace political blogger Thomas Schaller linked to your
story on the rumors about Rev. Wright's October surprise book.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/08/19/14th_minute/index.html

He clearly didn't even read Macolm's whole article, because, as Schaller writes: "The Los Angeles Times' Andrew Malcolm reports that Wright has a book and book tour slated for late October."

And there you have it, folks. Salon.com's political coverage. At best, stupidity. At worst, partisan hackery or liberal self-destructiveness masquerading as "news."

[GEAH]

From the looks of that photo, I expect we'll be seeing an Obama/Wright 2008 ticket.

[pedestrian]

"Good thing we all found out now..."

Yeah, about two weeks after everyone else carried the story AND the denial. Way to keep up!

[Gerald-D]

CNN, CBS, MSNBC, ABC, Newsweek, The New York Times and many other members of the Main Stream Media have for months helped to foster a deception upon the American people, that being Obama's true position on many major issues. They have achieved this deception by not reporting on the facts, and not asking the tough questions that need to be asked of a Presidential Candidate. The US Constitution guarantees Freedom of The Press in order to assure that the main stream press is free to ask just such probing questions. The profit motive has now injected itself into political reporting and many major news outlets are skewing their reporting in order to garner favor among certain portions of the population. This Prostitution of the Freedom of the Press was never envisioned by our founding fathers. Isn't it IRONIC that a PASTOR and NOT a REPORTER was the main instrument in getting Obama to finally answer some tough, difficult, yet truly relevant questions? Pundints from every major news organization have admitted ON AIR that the venue that Pastor Rick Warren organized was a "Brilliant" one. Rest assured that since the Obama campaign has seen how poorly Obama performed under such a format, that they will do everything in their power to block any further "Debates" from adopting the same format.

The Saddleback experience has firmly cemented the Church's legitimate role in the future of Presidential Debates. Thanks are due to CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, Newsweek, and The New York Times for moving aside in your reporting coverage these past months, and allowing Rick Warren to have a place in history. Thank God for people with courage and moral fortitude like Pastor Rick Warren who are willing to examine the issues facing our country without regard to the profit motive or party loyalty. Freedom of The Press Should not be for sale! Take heed CNN. Pay attention MSNBC. Learn something CBS. We've just made news here ABC. Are you reading between the lines here Mr. Editor of The New York Times? Can you figure out the implication of this story Newsweek? I hope all of you are listening. The silence is truly deafening!

[Alessandro Machi]

Has Michelle Obama been asked whether she has used the term "whitey" in public? Asking Michelle Obama the question doesn't imply she ever said it, it just takes the mystery out of it so it doesn't become an October surprise as well.

MIchelle Obama can respond in one of the following ways, A. she says she never said it in public B. she denies it, and a tape is never found. C. She denies it, then a tape is produced, D. She is not asked the question at all and then if the tape is produced makes up some daft explanation. E. She admits to saying it whether or not a tape exists. F. None of your business.

In my opinion, choices A, B, and E are the superior positions to take, and they all involve going on camera and just answering the question.

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[Andrew Austin]

Wright would do the black community a great favor if he did appear in October and scare enough white people to sink Obama's campaign.

[FoxFan]

You have to look at the history of this relationship. There were many stories that said that Rev. Wright would disappear until after the election. The campaign may not want to talk about it but this church is fully behind his campaign and this "October" surprise doesn't quite make sense when you read about this. Check out Obamatracker.com for all sorts of stories about Obama and Trinity from press around the world.

[paulejb]

Obama must be the most incurious man in the world if he can have sat in a pew for 20 years without noticing that his pastor was an anti-American, racist, conspiracy theory believing, raving loon. But then again it seems to have escaped him that his friend Tony Rezko was a felon. Now we hear that the F.B.I. has raided the home of another Obama buddy. Obama has to get elected just so he can pardon all his cohorts.