James Lileks on Obama's minister

And the meaning of unity and how to get there...

Mark Steyn on same:

...If you understand that AIDs is spread by sexual promiscuity and drug use, you’ll know that it’s within your power to protect yourself from the disease. If you’re told that it’s just whitey’s latest cunning plot to stick it to you, well, hey, it’s out of your hands, nothing to do with you or your behavior.

... But Obama did something far more audacious: Instead of distancing himself from his pastor, he attempted to close the gap between Wright and the rest of the country, arguing, in effect, that the guy is not just his crazy uncle but America’s, too.

To do this, he promoted a false equivalence. “I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother,”

... You can understand why Obama is so anxious to meet with President Ahmadinejad, a man who denies the last Holocaust even as he plans the next one. Such a summit would be easy listening after the more robust sermons of Jeremiah Wright.

Update: Oliver Kamm on Obama and his pastor points to a neglected worry point:

"...While I know that Obama doesn't think the government
created AIDS, I'm less assured that he shares a vision of American power that
understands our singular role in the world. In sum: does Obama believe Harry
Truman was right to end the war with Japan the way that he did? Why is no one in
the media asking him this question? That seems to me an entirely fair query of
man who wants to become Commander-in-Chief."

It seems to me also a fair question, which relates directly to the Democrats' historic record on national security, and it's not clear how Obama would answer it. I hope it will be taken up. If Obama believes Truman was wrong, then that isn't an illegitimate position; but it is one that would cost him the presidency, and with justification.